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Course Catalog > Courses: Winter

IN-PERSON: The Rape of Europa: Phoenician Civilization and Carthage   

**This class will be taught In-Person**

The most civilized people in the Land of Canaan, the Phoenicians taught boat-building to the  Egyptians, built Solomon’s Temple (even as the Hebrews worshipped Phoenician gods), and gave everyone  the alphabet. The Rape of Europa myth tells how Zeus abducted the Phoenician princess, Europa, across  the sea to Crete, giving us an allegory for the spread of civilization to Europe. Another Phoenician princess  also sailed westward, this time voluntarily, to found fabled Carthage, and the Carthaginians became  dominating merchants and sailors. However, aggressive Etruscans, Greeks, and Romans drove them to war,  and the end came in three titanic struggles the Romans called the Punic Wars, when, despite Hannibal’s  brilliance, Rome erased Carthage entirely, then promoted its legends.  

Week by Week Outline 

1. Rise of the Levant City-States (ca. 8800~1000 BCE). Byblos develops as a maritime city, trades cedar  with Egypt, invents seaworthy boats. Rise of Sidon and Tyre after collapse of Bronze Age.  Development of the famous purple dye and the alphabet.  

2. Phoenician Religion. Myths, Ba’al, Astarte, gilded calves, Eshmoun, the cult of Adonis, and evidence of  child sacrifice. 

3. Phoenician Expansion (ca. 1000~ca. 720 BCE). Sidon, then Tyre grow wealthy on Mediterranean trade,  as masters of seafaring. Phoenician colonies extend into the center of the Mediterranean.  Increasing pressure and ultimate domination by Assyria.  

4. Feeding the Assyrian Beast (ca.720 BCE ~Roman period). Phoenician cities (especially Tyre) expand  trade to ends of the Mediterranean and beyond mainly to satisfy Assyrian demands for metal ores.  Then Persian rule proves benign and Phoenicians become the Persian navy. Alexander the Great  conducts an epic siege of Tyre and, finally, the Phoenician cities become modestly prosperous  Roman ports. 

5. Carthage rises. (ca. 814~ca. 550 BCE). Founding of Carthage by Tyre and her early development of an  independent trading empire. Carthage comes to dominate western Mediterranean, increasingly in  entangled with Etruscans and Greeks. Carthaginian variant of Phoenician religion.

6. Sicilian Wars (ca. 550~304 BCE) & the Punic Wars (264~146 BCE). Growing and increasingly  aggressive Greek cities of Magna Graecia (the western Greek world) propel Carthage to war over  trade domination and ownership of Sicily. Two centuries of conflict between Carthage and the  Greek cities of Sicily, especially Syracuse.  

As Rome grows in territory and influence, its relations with Carthage and Syracuse worsen.  Finally fighting erupts and three wars (Punic Wars”) are fought between Carthage and Rome: one  in and around Sicily, one focused on Hannibal’s near invincibility in the Italian peninsula, and the  third a brief but final coda. Rome won each time and the end result was the total elimination of  

Carthage, with the legacy of Carthage being left to the pens of hostile Greek and Roman  historians, most famously the Æneid. 

 
  • IN-PERSON: The Rape of Europa: Phoenician Civilization and Carthage
  • Fee: $125.00
    Item Number: 25WIN25WINHH13791
    Dates: 1/27/2025 - 3/3/2025
    Times: 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
    Days: M
    Sessions: 6
    Building: Downtown Campus; 160 Spear St
    Room: 505
    Instructor: Douglas Kenning
    REGISTRATION FOR THIS CLASS IS CLOSED. This class is already in session.

    **This class will be taught In-Person**

    The most civilized people in the Land of Canaan, the Phoenicians taught boat-building to the  Egyptians, built Solomon’s Temple (even as the Hebrews worshipped Phoenician gods), and gave everyone  the alphabet. The Rape of Europa myth tells how Zeus abducted the Phoenician princess, Europa, across  the sea to Crete, giving us an allegory for the spread of civilization to Europe. Another Phoenician princess  also sailed westward, this time voluntarily, to found fabled Carthage, and the Carthaginians became  dominating merchants and sailors. However, aggressive Etruscans, Greeks, and Romans drove them to war,  and the end came in three titanic struggles the Romans called the Punic Wars, when, despite Hannibal’s  brilliance, Rome erased Carthage entirely, then promoted its legends.  

    Week by Week Outline 

    1. Rise of the Levant City-States (ca. 8800~1000 BCE). Byblos develops as a maritime city, trades cedar  with Egypt, invents seaworthy boats. Rise of Sidon and Tyre after collapse of Bronze Age.  Development of the famous purple dye and the alphabet.  

    2. Phoenician Religion. Myths, Ba’al, Astarte, gilded calves, Eshmoun, the cult of Adonis, and evidence of  child sacrifice. 

    3. Phoenician Expansion (ca. 1000~ca. 720 BCE). Sidon, then Tyre grow wealthy on Mediterranean trade,  as masters of seafaring. Phoenician colonies extend into the center of the Mediterranean.  Increasing pressure and ultimate domination by Assyria.  

    4. Feeding the Assyrian Beast (ca.720 BCE ~Roman period). Phoenician cities (especially Tyre) expand  trade to ends of the Mediterranean and beyond mainly to satisfy Assyrian demands for metal ores.  Then Persian rule proves benign and Phoenicians become the Persian navy. Alexander the Great  conducts an epic siege of Tyre and, finally, the Phoenician cities become modestly prosperous  Roman ports. 

    5. Carthage rises. (ca. 814~ca. 550 BCE). Founding of Carthage by Tyre and her early development of an  independent trading empire. Carthage comes to dominate western Mediterranean, increasingly in  entangled with Etruscans and Greeks. Carthaginian variant of Phoenician religion.

    6. Sicilian Wars (ca. 550~304 BCE) & the Punic Wars (264~146 BCE). Growing and increasingly  aggressive Greek cities of Magna Graecia (the western Greek world) propel Carthage to war over  trade domination and ownership of Sicily. Two centuries of conflict between Carthage and the  Greek cities of Sicily, especially Syracuse.  

    As Rome grows in territory and influence, its relations with Carthage and Syracuse worsen.  Finally fighting erupts and three wars (Punic Wars”) are fought between Carthage and Rome: one  in and around Sicily, one focused on Hannibal’s near invincibility in the Italian peninsula, and the  third a brief but final coda. Rome won each time and the end result was the total elimination of  

    Carthage, with the legacy of Carthage being left to the pens of hostile Greek and Roman  historians, most famously the Æneid. 


    **This class will be taught In-Person**

    The most civilized people in the Land of Canaan, the Phoenicians taught boat-building to the  Egyptians, built Solomon’s Temple (even as the Hebrews worshipped Phoenician gods), and gave everyone  the alphabet. The Rape of Europa myth tells how Zeus abducted the Phoenician princess, Europa, across  the sea to Crete, giving us an allegory for the spread of civilization to Europe. Another Phoenician princess  also sailed westward, this time voluntarily, to found fabled Carthage, and the Carthaginians became  dominating merchants and sailors. However, aggressive Etruscans, Greeks, and Romans drove them to war,  and the end came in three titanic struggles the Romans called the Punic Wars, when, despite Hannibal’s  brilliance, Rome erased Carthage entirely, then promoted its legends.  

 


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