Astral Codex Ten

Carthage

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Carthage

Article

Carthage is a recurring place in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 4 times across 4 issues between May 06, 2021 and February 05, 2026. The archive places it in contexts such as “the great city of Carthage”; “northeastern Africa (including Carthage)”; “In the west, the most densely urbanized areas were … northeastern Africa (including Carthage)“. It most often appears alongside Rome, Britain, Bryan Caplan.

Metadata

  • Category: Places
  • Mention count: 4
  • Issue count: 4
  • First seen: May 06, 2021
  • Last seen: February 05, 2026

Appears In

Source Context

Recovered passages from the original issue text. When the raw archive preserved outbound links inside the source passage, they are listed directly under the quote.

Your Book Review: Through The Eye Of A Needle
May 06, 2021 · Original source
Within a generation, much of the wealth of great senators like Symmachus was lost or slipped into the Christian church. Goths sacked the city of Rome. Vandals conquered wealthy north Africa and the great city of Carthage. Over the next hundred years, western Europe and north Africa completed their transformation from a classical pagan society to a medieval Christian one. It was not only a political revolution. "It was in this world that the conglomerate of ideas that medieval persons took for granted was first formed." This period rivals the Enlightenment as the most dramatic transformation of the West.
City Based Empire. In the introductory chapters, it was sometimes difficult to know whether Brown was describing how society functioned in the 4th century alone or how it had functioned over the past 500 years. He describes a Mediterranean world built around cities. There were some 2,500 cities in the Roman empire. In the west, the most densely urbanized areas were central Italy (including Rome), Sicily, northeastern Africa (including Carthage), and southern Spain. In those regions, cities were no more than 10 miles apart. A larger, less dense area where cities were located around 25 miles apart includes northern and parts of southern Italy, the Dalmatian coast (modern Croatia), the Mediterranean regions of Gaul (modern France), most of modern Spain and Portugal, much of north Africa within 60 miles inland. Brown refers to each city as a little social pyramid. The most massive pyramids were Rome, Carthage, and the center of the imperial court at Milan (the capital of the western empire was relocated to be closer to the frontier during the 3rd century). Rome and Carthage especially were massive cities with between 500 thousand to 1 million residents at their peaks.
The gold solidus was in circulation among the wealthy in the urbanized areas around Rome and Carthage. It was also found along what Brown calls “corridors of empire.” For instance, the city of Trier (modern Germany, near Luxembourg) was an important imperial center near the Rhine frontier. A great deal of taxes and supplies flowed to Trier and to the armies of the Rhine. The wealthiest landowners and most splendid villas crowded along these corridors “tied to an imperial gravy train.”
Book Review: Cyropaedia
January 10, 2024 · Original source
Lots of ancient civilizations started as city-states, and - even after reaching imperial glory - were still in some sense city-empires. Rome, Carthage, and Babylon are all obvious. But even the less obvious ones still fit the pattern. Assyria was centered around the city of Assur. Egypt shifted imperial centers over the dynasties, but it was usually either Memphis or Thebes. So what city did Persia start out as? What was the urban seed of Cyrus’ conquests?
A Theoretical "Case Against Education"
May 23, 2024 · Original source
<1% know what city the general Hannibal was from (Carthage)
Links For February 2026
February 05, 2026 · Original source
45: Where is the original menorah from the Second Temple? We know the Romans took it when they sacked Jerusalem. We think the Vandals took it when they sacked Rome, and brought it to their capital of Carthage. The Byzantines might have taken it when they sacked Carthage, and maybe brought it back to Jerusalem? After the Persians sacked Jerusalem in 614, the trail goes completely dark, although there are the usual legends that it was hidden away, to be returned in the age of the Messiah (or something). Other people say it never left Rome, and is still hidden somewhere in the Vatican.
Inline links: Where is the original menorah from the Second Temple?