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would never have become the Mediterranean power capable of challenging Rome if it had not been able to count on the human, economic and territorial resources of North Africa.
The Carthaginian presence is documented through archaeology and sources, from the Are of the Fileni (Libya) on the borders of Cyrenaica to the city of Sala on the Atlantic Ocean (Morocco).
The geographical limits and chronological articulations of the border of the state territory of Carthage are not easy to define due to the progressive expansion westwards from the 6th century BC. The territory reached its maximum expansion between the 3rd century and 146 BC.
From the middle of the 4th century BC. Carthage exerted an increasingly important political, social and administrative pressure and influence on the territories to the east (Tripolitania) and west (the region of Cirta and the Metagonite cities on the Algerian coast).
As for the
numismatic documentation found in the tombs of Carthage, in the North African necropolis inside and outside the Phoenician pits (the border of the Carthaginian state) the coin finds are limited and poorly documented but consistent with the data on Punic coin circulation in North Africa.