<P> For much of its history, Carthage was on hostile terms with the Greeks in Sicily and with the Roman Republic; tensions led to a series of armed conflicts known as the Sicilian Wars (c. 600--265 BC) and the Punic Wars (264--146 BC) respectively . The city also had to deal with potentially hostile Berbers, the indigenous inhabitants of the area where Carthage was built . In 146 BC, after the third and final Punic War, Roman forces destroyed Carthage then redesigned and occupied the site of the city . Nearly all of the other Phoenician city - states and former Carthaginian dependencies subsequently fell into Roman hands . </P> <P> According to Roman sources, Phoenician colonists from modern - day Lebanon, led by Dido (also known as Queen Elissa), founded Carthage circa 814 BC . Queen Elissa (also known as "Alissar") was an exiled princess of the ancient Phoenician city of Tyre . At its peak, the metropolis she founded, Carthage, came to be called the "shining city", ruling 300 other cities around the western Mediterranean Sea and leading the Phoenician world . </P> <P> Elissa's brother, Pygmalion of Tyre, had murdered Elissa's husband, the high priest . Elissa escaped the tyranny of her own country, founding the "new city" of Carthage and subsequently its later dominions . Details of her life are sketchy and confusing, but the following can be deduced from various sources . According to Justin, Princess Elissa was the daughter of King Belus II of Tyre . When he died, the throne was jointly bequeathed to her brother, Pygmalion, and her . She married her uncle Acerbas, also known as Sychaeus, the High Priest of Melqart, a man with both authority and wealth comparable to the king . This led to increased rivalry between the religious elite and the monarchy . Pygmalion was a tyrant, lover of both gold and intrigue, who desired the authority and fortune enjoyed by Acerbas . Pygmalion assassinated Acerbas in the temple and kept the misdeed concealed from his sister for a long time, deceiving her with lies about her husband's death . At the same time, the people of Tyre called for a single sovereign . </P> <P> In the Roman epic of Virgil, the Aeneid, Queen Dido, the Greek name for Elissa, is first introduced as a highly esteemed character . In just seven years, since their exodus from Tyre, the Carthaginians have rebuilt a successful kingdom under her rule . Her subjects adore her and present her with a festival of praise . Her character is perceived by Virgil as even more noble when she offers asylum to Aeneas and his men, who have recently escaped from Troy . A spirit in the form of the messenger god, Mercury, sent by Jupiter, reminds Aeneas that his mission is not to stay in Carthage with his new - found love, Dido, but to sail to Italy to found Rome . Virgil ends his legend of Dido with the story that, when Aeneas tells Dido, her heart broken, she orders a pyre to be built where she falls upon Aeneas' sword . As she lay dying, she predicted eternal strife between Aeneas' people and her own: "rise up from my bones, avenging spirit" (4.625, trans . Fitzgerald) she says, an invocation of Hannibal . The details of Virgil's story do not, however, form part of the original legend and are significant mainly as an indication of Rome's attitude towards the city she had founded, exemplified by Cato the Elder's much - repeated utterance, "Carthago delenda est", "Carthage must be destroyed". </P>

Why did the phoenicians built the trading post of carthage in north africa
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