The Second Carthaginian in History
Have you ever wondered who was the second Carthaginian in history after Dido?
Meet Malchus.
He is the first historical Carthaginian we can actually name after the legendary founder. His story comes down to us through the much later Roman historian Justin, and it’s a strange, messy, almost cinematic tale of victory, exile, civil war, and family betrayal.
Malchus (his name is simply the Phoenician word mlk - “king”) was remembered as a general who first won glory fighting Greek cities in Sicily. Then he suffered a defeat in Sardinia. The Carthaginians exiled him for the failure. He returned with what was essentially a private army, camped outside the walls of Carthage, and laid siege to his own city.
While the siege was underway, his son Carthalo arrived back from Tyre. The young man had been sent on a religious mission to deliver tribute to the temple of Melqart and was still wearing his priestly robes. Malchus was so enraged by what he saw as a sacrilege that he had his own son killed.
He then stormed the city, executed ten of the ruling senators, and briefly seized power before being overthrown himself, put on trial for treason and the murder of his son, and (presumably) executed.
The story is full of contradictions and later Roman coloring, but it seems to capture a real and violent moment of transition. Malchus may have been one of the last figures who still carried the aura of kingship. After him, Carthage clearly moves into the era of the sufetes, annually elected magistrates (the word is related to the Hebrew shophet, “judge”).
An inscription from the late sixth century BCE already counts time “in the twentieth year of the rule of the sufetes in Carthage.” Power was now shared between two magistrates chosen from the aristocratic elite, backed by a kind of senate.
The family that rose after Malchus, the Magonids, would dominate Carthaginian politics and military command for the next hundred years.
So the second Carthaginian we can name is not a polished founder-hero. He is a warlord who stormed his own capital, killed his priest-son, and helped force the city from monarchy into oligarchy.