Byrsa Hill

Roman builders later cut down the hilltop and covered it with fill to lay out the forum of the new Carthage here. A district of the old city survives lower down on the southeastern slope: the low remains of houses and the regular pattern of streets lay beneath Roman fill. Before this alteration, the Sanctuary of Eshmun, the god of healing, stood on the rocky height, reached by a staircase of sixty steps. The upper part of the city was enclosed by fortifications, and inhabitants streamed here when the lower districts were already burning.

In the spring of one hundred forty-six BCE, the Carthaginian commander-in-chief Hasdrubal came down from the summit of Byrsa Hill to the Roman commander Scipio Aemilianus. Scipio wanted to end the three-year siege; Hasdrubal was now seeking only one thing—to save his own life. He brought an olive branch, and the victor ordered him to sit at his feet. Hasdrubal’s wife, their two sons, and about nine hundred Roman deserters remained above in the Sanctuary of Eshmun. The commander saved himself alone: Scipio promised the deserters no mercy.

The war began after a decision made far from this hill. Under their treaty with Rome, the Carthaginians could not wage war without Roman permission. When they marched against the Numidian king Massinissa, who was seizing their lands, the Romans declared the treaty broken and landed an army in Africa. The Carthaginians handed over hostages, ships, and weapons, hoping to stop the invasion. Then the Roman consul demanded that the inhabitants leave Carthage, settle no closer than fifteen kilometers from the sea, and allow the city to be destroyed. For people sustained by maritime trade, this meant losing their ports, workshops, homes, temples, and family graves. They refused.

The final assault began from the military harbor. Three narrow streets, lined with houses up to six stories tall, climbed from the city forum to Byrsa Hill. Roman soldiers moved across the roofs, throwing planks between buildings, while below they forced their way through the rubble. The fighting continued for six days and nights. Byrsa Hill was the fortified upper part of Carthage: the inhabitants retreated here when the lower districts were already burning.

On the seventh day, supplicants carrying olive branches came down from the Sanctuary of Eshmun. Eshmun was the Carthaginian god of healing; the Greeks identified him with Asclepius. His sanctuary stood on the highest and rockiest part of the citadel, above a staircase of sixty steps. According to the ancient historian Appian, fifty thousand men and women came out through the open gates. Their lives were spared, and they were then sold into slavery.

Hasdrubal left the sanctuary secretly. When the deserters saw their commander at Scipio’s feet, they showered him with curses and set the sanctuary on fire. Hasdrubal’s wife remained above. Her name has not survived. Appian, writing nearly three centuries after the events, introduces this scene with the words “they say,” and the speech he places in her mouth is clearly crafted as a tragic monologue. According to his account, the woman accused her husband of betraying his family and city, killed her two sons, threw them into the fire, and entered the flames herself. The deserters died with her. Hasdrubal survived and became the prisoner of the man who destroyed Carthage.

Nothing remains of the Sanctuary of Eshmun—not the staircase, nor any walls that could confidently be attributed to it. When Roman builders under Emperor Augustus raised a new Carthage, they cut down and leveled the summit of Byrsa Hill, establishing a forum here. The Punic houses uncovered lower down on the southeastern slope date from the final decades of the destroyed city. Their low walls survived underground because Roman fill covered the district while the hill was being leveled.