Carthage. North Africa from the Punic Wars to the Fall of the Vandal Kingdom

This book covers the chronological period from the Punic Wars to the fall of the Vandal Kingdom under the blow of Byzantium. As a result of three prolonged, bloodiest Punic Wars, Carthage was wiped off the face of the earth by the Romans, and the place where it stood was cursed and sowed with salt – as a sign that from now on this land will be barren, for there are no fruits from salt. Who could have known then that by the design of the great Julius Caesar, embodied by Octavian Augustus, the city would be revived and reach such a prosperity that it would be named the "African Rome"? The Punic culture that survived outside the destroyed Carthage survived and presented a most peculiar blend with Greco-Roman civilization. The Roman province of Africa actively participated in the political and cultural life of the ancient Roman state, presenting its imperial dynasty – the Severans, and later claiming world domination in the persons of two Gordians. The incomparable Apuleius forever enriched the universal culture of humanity with a lyrical-philosophical tale of Cupid and Psyche, and the Blessed Augustine Aurelius, who recognized himself as a Punic, truly became the foundation on which Catholic theology has stood unshakably for 1600 years. Those who are tired of the battles of peoples and ideas will read here how the inhabitants of Roman Africa arranged a "wine pipeline" to the afterlife and without fear or embarrassment deceived Charon himself – the ferryman of souls to the realm of the dead.