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The abandoned expedition against Carthage

Cambyses' planned naval war on Carthage, called off after Egypt fell, about 525-524 BCE

In the game: Level 2: The Spear-bearer

After conquering Egypt, Cambyses planned to push the empire west by sending his fleet against Carthage in North Africa. Herodotus says the plan failed because the Phoenicians, who supplied the core of the fleet, refused to attack a city their own people had founded. The episode shows how much the King's sea power rested on the willing service of subject peoples.

In the game: The game shows this as a 524 event in which Cambyses drops the plan after the Phoenicians refuse, as Herodotus tells it. Herodotus gives no exact year, so the date is the game's choice.

Three campaigns planned from Egypt

Ancient account

Herodotus says that once Egypt was taken, Cambyses planned three further campaigns: against the Carthaginians, against the Ammonians of the western desert, and against the long-lived Ethiopians to the south. Carthage was to be attacked by sea, the other two by land. The Libyans and the Greek cities of Cyrene and Barca had already submitted to him, which opened the coast to the west.

Herodotus 3.13; Herodotus 3.17

The Phoenicians refuse

Ancient account

Herodotus says the Phoenicians would not sail, because they were bound by oaths and it would be an impious act to make war on their own children. Carthage was by tradition a foundation of Tyre. Since the Phoenicians had joined the Persians of their own will, Cambyses did not think it right to force them, and without them the rest of the fleet was too weak, so the plan was dropped.

Herodotus 3.19

Was the plan ever serious

Disputed

No Persian, Egyptian or Phoenician document mentions the expedition, so it rests on Herodotus alone. Some historians accept it as a natural next step after the submission of Libya and Cyrene. Others doubt that a long voyage against a distant city was ever planned in earnest, or suspect the story was shaped to contrast Cambyses' restraint here with the cruelty Herodotus gives him elsewhere. It fits the central place of the Phoenician fleet in Persian naval power.

P. Briant, From Cyrus to Alexander, 2002; A. Kuhrt, The Persian Empire, 2007

Later tales of Persia and Carthage

Later legend

Writers of the Roman period told further stories of Persian dealings with Carthage. Justin says Darius sent envoys forbidding the Carthaginians human sacrifice and the eating of dogs, and asking for help against the Greeks. Diodorus says Xerxes made a pact with Carthage so that it would attack the Sicilian Greeks in 480. Both stories come long after the events, and many historians treat them as later inventions.

Justin, Epitome of Pompeius Trogus 19.1; Diodorus 11.1