Historiography on the Carthaginians (1730-1920)

From republican merchants to decadent orientals

Abstract

I analyse the methodological and ideological characteristics of the first histories of the Carthaginians published in Spain, France, the United Kingdom and Germany. The study period defined for this “Carthaginian” historiography spans the early 18th century to the interwar period in the 20th century and includes works by the following ten authors: Ch. Rollin, P. Rodríguez Campomanes, A. H. L. Heeren, A. Dureau de la Malle, R. Bosworth Smith, A. Church, E. Babelon, O. Meltzer, U. Kahrstedt and S. Gsell. The latter achieved a high methodological standard which, with some caution, can be considered current. At the same time, however, this methodological improvement masked a substantial ideological and political bias, which has profoundly affected research conducted in the following century.