Modern Carthage is a residential suburb (population 26,000) of Tunis, the capital of Tunisia. But in its heyday, the seaside town was the seat of the Carthaginians, whose North African empire gave ancient Greece and Rome a run for their money. Established in the ninth century B.C.E. on a promontory overlooking the Gulf of Tunis, Carthage was overtaken by its Roman rivals once and for all in 146 B.C.E., during the Third (and final) Punic War. From that point on, it became a Roman colony. Ancient Carthage’s ruins were added to UNESCO’s World Heritage List in 1979.Who founded Carthage?The city’s creation is shrouded in legend, with the most famous version recounted in Virgil’s Aeneid. An exiled princess named Dido fled with her allies from Tyre—today southern Lebanon—to escape her murderous, power-hungry brother Pygmalion. According to Carthaginian oral history, Dido became the first queen of the new city in 814 B.C.E. Indeed, Carthage’s name in Phoenician, Qart-ḥadašt, means “new city.” (The city of Cartagena, in Spain, shares the same etymology because it was founded by a Carthaginian general.)It is unclear whether this account is accurate, however. The earliest archaeological evidence can be traced to about a century after 814 B.C.E. We don’t know if remnants of an earlier settlement simply don’t survive, or if the Carthaginians exaggerated the age of their city.How did Carthage become so influential?Thanks to its location—at the center of the Mediterranean, at the point where Europe comes closest to Africa (other than the Strait of Gibraltar)—Carthage became a wealthy trade port specializing in rare purple dye and precious metals. By the third century B.C.E., Carthage was the second-largest metropolis in the Mediterranean after Alexandria, and the empire stretched throughout much of North Africa, Sardinia, Corsica, Sicily, and the Iberian Peninsula. At its peak, it had more than 200 docks. For all its wealth, however, historians have found less evidence of a vibrant cultural life in Carthage than in other wealthy Mediterranean imperial capitals, though this may be the result of Roman looting.House cistern from the time of Hannibal Barca (3rd-2nd century BC), Byrsa Hill, Archaeological site of Carthage (Unesco World Heritage List, 1979), TunisiaDeAgostini/Getty Images.Why was Carthage looted?For more than a century, the Roman and Carthaginian Empires grappled for dominion of the Mediterranean in a series of conflicts called the Punic Wars (264–146 B.C.E.). Initially the Carthaginians and Romans enjoyed an uneasy coexistence as both expanded their reach around the Mediterranean. However, as the Roman Empire took over the entire Italian peninsula, its leaders set their sights on Sicily, where the Carthaginians had a stronghold, thus triggering the First Punic War. Eventually Rome prevailed.The subsequent Punic Wars continued to chip away at the Carthaginian Empire’s territory. The Second was instigated by the bellicose yet brilliant Carthaginian general Hannibal; ultimately the Carthaginians were beaten by Roman forces led by the equally gifted Scipio Africanus. In the Third Punic War, the Roman Empire closed in on Carthage with a goal of defeating the Carthaginian Empire at its roots. The capital was under siege for three bloody years, culminating in a gruesome final assault in which most of its inhabitants were slaughtered. The city was looted, and those who weren’t killed—about 50,000 Carthaginians—were taken into slavery.What vestiges of the ancient city survive today?Not much, that’s for sure. The Romans’ destruction of the city was near total. They did initiate their own construction projects on the site a few decades after Carthage’s fall, such as the Baths of Antoninus and Circus of Carthage. But much of that Roman development was, in turn, overwritten by subsequent invaders of the area: Vandals, Byzantines, and Arabs. Some of the best-preserved ruins can be found on Byrsa Hill, the heart of the ancient city where Dido allegedly first settled. There one can find the shells of several residences and the Tophet of Salammbo, a cemetery. It may be the resting place of children used as ritual sacrifices—though that could be an especially persistent bit of Roman propaganda.