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After Carthage was destroyed, the Roman Senate decreed that the city would remain destroyed for all eternity, and is was strictly forbidden to rebuild it. Despite this prohibition, the prestige of Carthage was so great that a new Roman city would be built after one century. The new Carthage became the capital of Roman Africa and one of the major cities of the Empire.
Context
After Carthage fell, the neighboring city of Utica became the capital of the Roman province of Africa. It was advantaged by its strategic location on the Medjerda River. However, erosion in the river, due to grain cultivation in the mountains, caused the silting of the port of Utica. The Romans thus needed a new port.
In 123 BCE, the Roman politician and social reformer Gaius Sempronius Gracchus tried to establish a Roman colony, named Colonia Junonia, on the site of the old city of Carthage. His project would be abandoned after around thirty years, as the site was unpopular.
The new city of Carthage was rebuilt by Julius Caesar, between 49 and 44. We don’t know if the construction was finished before Caesar died, but he ordered it. A century later, Carthage was the largest city in Roman Africa and one of the largest cities of the whole Empire, with 500.000 inhabitants.
Roman Carthage
Carthage became the capital of the Roman province of Africa, which covered the Northern part of modern-day Tunisia. The city was the political, economic and cultural center of all Roman Africa.
Carthage also became a major Christian center, from which Christianity spread all over North Africa. The Christian martyrs of Carthage, including Perpetua, a young, 22-year-old noblewoman and the mother of a newborn child, and her slave Felicity, who was pregnant, were put to death for their faith in Carthage in 203. Tertullian, the first Latin-language Christian writer, lived in Carthage.
During the 2nd Century, the city suffered a major fire outbreak. The affected areas were rebuilt in a large urban renewal plan.
Carthage remained under Roman sovereignty, until the city was conquered by the Vandals, in 435.
