Punic Carthage

This chapter examines the legal position and economic role of slaves in Punic Carthage. First, through an examination of the evidence of Graeco-Roman and Punic sources, it shows that Finley was mistaken to dismiss Carthage as relying on non-slave dependants and that slavery was an important institution at Carthage. Second, this chapter looks at the evidence for large-scale exploitation of slave labour in Carthage’s large agricultural hinterland and the scale of slave ownership among the Carthaginian aristocracy. It ends by showing how the Romans drew on the technical expertise of Carthaginian slaveholding agronomists in their own approach to slave-based agriculture in Italy.