Idea Ripper // ArchiveCards: 1555 [Live] | Updated: 2026-10-14
Card #c1198IR // #c1198Synthesis

"the Romans may come for trading purposes, and the Carthaginian state engages to secure payment of their just debts." "‘[the] Romans may not make either marauding expeditions, or trade, or found cities’"

— In our words · Source: Carthage: A New History (Eve MacDonald)

[Use when]

You want outside traders in your market and need them to trust it.

[Why it matters]

In Carthage's first treaty with Rome, as Polybius copied it, the Carthaginian state undertook that Roman traders would be paid what they were owed in its ports. The same text listed what Romans could not do in Carthaginian territory, and one headland, the Fair Promontory, marked where they could not sail.

More from Carthage: A New History

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