Byrsa was the walled citadel above the harbour in ancient Carthage. It was also the name of the hill it rested on. The name derives from the Phoenician word for citadel. This article is about a type of fortification. ... A map of the central Mediterranean Sea, showing the location of Carthage (near modern Tunis). ... Phoenician was a language originally spoken in the coastal region then called Phoenicia /Canaan (now Lebanon, coastal Syria and northern Israel ). Phoenician is a Semitic language of the Canaanite subgroup, closely related to Hebrew and Aramaic. ...

In Vergil's account of Dido's founding of Carthage, when Dido and her party were encamped at Byrsa, the local Berber chieftain offered them as much land as could be covered with a single oxhide. So, Dido cut an oxhide into tiny strips and set them on the ground end to end until she had completely encircled Byrsa. This story is considered apocryphal, and was most likely invented because Byrsa sounds similar to the Greek word βυρσα, meaning oxhide. For other uses see Virgil (disambiguation). ... In Greek and Roman sources Elissa or Dido appears as the founder and first Queen of Carthage in Tunisia. ... A map of the central Mediterranean Sea, showing the location of Carthage (near modern Tunis). ...

The citadel dominated the city below and formed the principal military installation of Carthage. It was beseiged by Scipio Aemilianus Africanus in the Third Punic War and was defeated and destroyed in 146 BC. Storybook illustration depicting Scipio as being reluctant to carry out the genocide of the Carthaginians by Senate order. ... The Third Punic War was fought between Carthage and the Roman Republic from 149 BC to 146 BC. This was the last in a series of three wars. ... Centuries: 3rd century BC - 2nd century BC - 1st century BC Decades: 190s BC 180s BC 170s BC 160s BC 150s BC - 140s BC - 130s BC 120s BC 110s BC 100s BC 90s BC Years: 151 BC 150 BC 149 BC 148 BC 147 BC - 146 BC - 145 BC 144 BC...