Ancient Carthage Carthage was a settlement in modern TUNISIA that later became a CITY-STATE and then an empire. Founded by the P HOENICIANS in the ninth century BC, it was destroyed by the ROMANS in 146 BC, who later rebuilt the city lavishly. At its height in the fourth century BC, Carthage was one of the largest metropolises in the world and the centre of the Carthaginian Empire , a major power in the ancient world that dominated the western M EDITERRANEAN