The city of Carthage was founded by Phoenician sailors and explorers around 800 B.C. The Carthagian empire eventually encompassed almost all the littoral regions of the western Mediterranean, including western north Africa, southern Spain, the Balearic Islands, Corsica, Sardinia and western Sicily.
A series of deadly conflicts between Rome and Carthage began in the third century B.C. with a struggle over the island of Sicily and ended in the second century B.C. with the complete destruction of Carthage. These were the first wars Rome ever fought outside of Italy. As a result of the Punic Wars, the Romans acquired territories that could not be incorporated into the Italian alliance system they had established during the early years of the Republic. The decision to administer these as "provinces" caused a political crisis, and marked a turning point in Roman history, when the Republic started down the road to Empire.
The First Punic War broke out when Rome intervened in a conflict in Sicily, where the Carthaginians claimed hegemony. The first war was fought mostly on the island of Sicily itself, and in a series of Mediterranean naval battles. The Romans eventually landed troops in Africa, and forced the Carthaginians to surrender after the destruction of their fleet off the western tip of Sicily.
The Second Punic War became a life and death struggle between Rome and Carthage, in which each side sought nothing less than the complete destruction of the other. The conflict broke out when Carthage attacked Greek colonies in Spain and marched troops north of the Ebro River in violation of previous agreements with Rome. The Carthaginian general Hannibal executed his now famous march through southern Gaul and across the Alps, and his army wrought havoc on the Roman defenses in Italy. Many of Rome's Italian allies defected to the side of Carthage. The Macedonians and Syracuse also joined Carthage, and Rome's cause for a time seemed desperate. Instead of accepting Carthage's terms of peace, however, Rome raised an army under M. Claudius Marcellus which succeeded in defeating Hannibal's army at Nola. The Romans were able to win allies of their own against Carthage and Macedonia, including the African kingdom of Numidia, the Greeks, the Thracians, the Illyrians and Pergamum.
The Romans accepted a less than advantageous peace with Macedonia in the treaty of Phoenice, which allowed them to focus on the war against Carthage. Gradually, the Roman legions drove the Carthaginian forces out of Italy, Spain, and Sicily, and then invaded Africa, where they utterly defeated the Carthaginians. Under the peace terms of the second war, Carthage surrendered Spain and all its Mediterranean islands, in addition to paying heavy indemnities to Rome and promising never to make war again without Roman permission.
Ever since the end of the Second Punic War, certain elements in Rome demanded the complete annihilation of Carthage. Cato the Elder became famous for ending every speech he made in the senate with the phrase "Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam" ("and I declare that Carthage must be destroyed"). The pro-war factions found their opportunity when a war broke between Carthage and Numidia. The Romans declared war, and quickly laid seige to the city of Carthage. When it surrendered in 146 B.C., the city was utterly destroyed and salt sown on the ground where it had once stood. The lands surrounding Carthage were annexed by Rome as the province of Africa, and Carthage's remaining African lands were annexed by Numidia.
The African kingdom of Numidia, ruled by King Massinissa, remained a client state of Rome for many years, until 111 B.C., when the throne was usurped from Massinissa's descendents by Jugurtha. The resulting war ended with the division of Numidia. The region surrounding Tripolitania was annexed by Rome, some western lands were ceded to Mauretania, and Massinissa's descendants were restored to the throne of the remaining lands. Sixty years later, during the Caesarian Civil War, Numidia took the side of Pompey. Its king, Juba, committed suicide when Caesar landed in Africa, and the Numidian Kingdom came to an end, as most of its lands were added to the Roman province of Africa and what was left granted to eastern Mauretania.
North Africa became an integral part of the Roman Empire, producing many of its great artists, philosophers, and leaders. The Roman settlement of Utica, close to where Carthage had stood, became one of the great cities of the empire. North Africa also became an early center of Christianity, and was the birthplace and home of one of the great church fathers, St. Augustine.
North Africa was invaded by the Vandals in the fifth century A.D., and parts of North Africa were occupied by the Byzantine Empire as the power of the Western Empire declined. In the seventh century, the vestiges of Roman power there were swept aside by the Arab invasions.