TANIT

The ancient symbol shared by many religions

The Khmissa, also known as the Khamsa and the Hand of Fatima, is the symbol of the five-fingered hand well known across the Middle East and North Africa as a symbol of protection. The symbol is believed to be connected to many gods and faiths, but is most commonly ascribed to a female deity. TANIT

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanit

https://www.bbc.com/reel/video/p07fh10c/the-ancient-symbol-shared-by-many-religions

This led me to think mirror

The Punic Wars foughtr beetween the Roman Republic and Carthage, where TANIT was worshipped. North Africa is where the Khmissa is widely used

who is the best known Carthaginian from history? HANNIBAL

what was his family name? BARCA

BARCA

The Arabic cognate is barq (not to be confused with bārak, which is cognate with Hebrew בָּרוּךְ‬ bārûch). The epithet Barcas of the Punic general Hamilcar is derived from the same root, as is the name of Al-Buraq, the miraculous steed of Islamic Mi'raj tradition.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barcids

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barak_(given_name)

Lots of strange parallels with Punic Wars

Libyan War

The Mercenary War (240 BC – 238 BC), also called the Libyan War and the Truceless War by Polybius, was an uprising of mercenary armies formerly employed by Carthage, backed by Libyan settlements revolting against Carthaginian control.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercenary_War

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punic_Wars

>>6963656

>>6963656

>>6963745

One of the most important Punic deities that were not worshipped in Phoenicia was Tanit (Tnt), although she may have been considered an attendant of Astarte there. Tanit came to prominence only from the 5th century BCE at Carthage, but she would eventually supersede Melqart and Baal Hammon in importance. She represented a mother goddess, life, and fertility. Strongly linked to Baal and considered the consort of Baal Hammon, she was commonly referred to as ‘Tanit face of Baal’ (Tnt pn B’l) and represented in inscriptions, mosaics, pottery, and stelae as a symbol (a triangle with a straight line and circle above it) seemingly representing a stylised female figure with arms outstretched. No other symbols are known of the other Carthaginian gods. Tanit was also associated with the palm tree, dove, the moon, fish, and pomegranate, all of which appear with her on Carthaginian coins and stelae dedicated to her. In later sculpture, she is most often portrayed with a lion’s head and wings, and a second symbol of her is the bottle shape prevalent on votive stelae.

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Tanit

The Tophet

One of the rituals of the Phoenician and Punic religions was to sacrifice humans, especially children (but not only), according to ancient sources. The victims were killed by fire, although it is not clear precisely how. According to the ancient historians Clitarch and Diodorus, a hearth was set before a bronze statue of the god Baal (or El), who had outstretched arms on which the victim was placed before falling into the fire. They also mention the victims wearing a smiling mask to hide their tears from the god to whom they were being offered. The victim’s ashes were then placed in an urn topped with a stone. The urns themselves were often recycled pots and jars from as far afield as Corinth and Egypt and so provide an interesting and valuable record of Mediterranean trade. From the 6th century BCE, stelae were dedicated to Baal or Tanit and placed on top of the urns instead of stones. Thousands of examples survive of these votive markers and are powerful evidence that the Carthaginian religion was practised by all levels of society. Some urns were buried in shaft tombs and the dedicated sacred open space for these urns was surrounded by walls and known as a tophet.

The tophet at Carthage was known as the ‘precinct of Tanit’ and located to the south of the city at Salammbo. It was first used in the 8th century BCE and continuously thereafter until the fall of Carthage in the Punic Wars. At its largest extent, it covered 6,000 square meters and has nine descending levels. There is a shrine area with an altar where the sacrifices were made.

Child Sacrifice

Western Classical writers, describing little-understood eastern practices, gleefully recounted tales of child sacrifice holocausts, which gave the Phoenicians a blood-thirsty reputation throughout antiquity. Roman writers, eager to show that the defeated Carthaginians were barbaric, also exaggerated their Phoenician-inspired cults to better illustrate the virtue of Rome in defeating such a despicable foe. The Bible, too, describes these bloody practices (molk) in honour of the god Baal (II Kings 23:10, Exodus 22:29-30 and Jeremiah 7:30-31) locating them near Jerusalem in the valley of Ben Hinnom, literally, a site of slaughter, and stating they were of Phoenician origin. Whether the Phoenicians deserved their reputation as terrible baby-killers has only relatively recently been addressed by modern scholarship.

https://www.ancient.eu/Tophet/

https://www.ancient.eu/Carthaginian_Religion/

https://www.ancient.eu/image/5054/tanit-mosaic/

Cemetery or sacrifice? Infant burials at the Carthage Tophet: Phoenician bones of contention

Paolo Xella (a1), Josephine Quinn (a2), Valentina Melchiorri (a3) and Peter van Dommelen (a4)

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003598X00049966Published online: 22 November 2013

Abstract

Even if the foundation, rise and eventual demise of Carthage and its overseas territories in the West Mediterranean occurred in much the same space and time as the glory days of Archaic, Classical and Hellenistic Greece and Rome, there is no doubt that the Phoenicians and their Punic successors (to use the conventional terms) have rarely been regarded as fully signed-up members of the ancient world. Reduced to walk-on cameos as skilled silversmiths, agricultural experts, shrewd traders or military strategists, Phoenician and Punic representations tend to be rather stereotypical (Prag 2010, with earlier bibliography), which perhaps should not come as a surprise, as nearly all these portraits have been sketched by outsiders; they certainly do not add up to a coherent ethnographic or political description.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/cemetery-or-sacrifice-infant-burials-at-the-carthage-tophet/DAC7C386CD20F5C280C9DB41E5184A2E

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Q. PUBLILIUS PHILO

Evaluation

Quintus Publilius Philo achieved a substantial amount across his career. Before anything he was a plebeian, something that despite his wealth and that of other wealthy plebeian families would have placed them at a disadvantage to the Roman patrician class. Despite this, Q.Publilius Philo was not only elected to a senatorial position in 352 BC, but was the first plebeian in Roman history to be elected to the position of consul in 339 [24] This was enabled by the passing of the lex Genucia de feneratione in 342. The law restricted anyone from being appointed to more than one magisterial position at any one time, or within 10 years of a previous appointment. Importantly, it required that at least one of the appointed Consuls every year to be a plebeian.

Now this seems most interesting, as not only does the senate, which is full of patricians seem to ignore the Lex Genucia de feneratione for the 3 years prior to Philo’s election to his first consulship – as the law was passed in 342 BC and he was elected in 339 BC [29] – but once he is elected they seem to embrace him – along with his skills no doubt – with open arms, not only by honouring him numerous times and in a variety of ways, but also by seemingly ignoring the Lex Genucia yet again for his third election is 4 years sooner - as consulship was not to be awarded more than once within 10 years to the same Roman - than it should have been legal. This is once again repeated 5 years later in 315BC, when Philo is elected to his 4th Consulship; it is debated that Philo potentially only had 2 consulships, as Diodorus claimed that 315 was but his 2nd consulship, although it is not the leading theory [30]. During the term of his final consulship in 315 he seems to have stayed in Rome, whilst the Dictator, Q. Fabius waged war abroad.

To consider the achievements of Q Publilius Philo we must remember he is a trailblazer for the future political landscape and positions in Rome. He made history in being the first plebeian to hold the posts of both Consul and Praetor, and then the first Roman to have his imperium extended as proconsul, and the first to celebrate a triumph as a proconsul. He was honoured with the post of both dictator and being chosen as the master of horse under L. Aemilius Mamercinus. Livy tells us that he was a popular leader in both the laws he passed as dictator and in 320 BC when he was elected ‘with universal approval’ after several other candidates had been rejected [31] Philo was an exceptional figure and his many achievements speak for themselves when we examine his significance as a political and military figure.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quintus_Publilius_Philo

The end of the Conflict of the Orders (367–287 BC)

In the decades following the passage of the Licinio-Sextian law of 367 BE, a series of laws were passed which ultimately granted Plebeians political equality with Patricians.[9][10] The Patrician era came to a complete end in 287 BC, with the passage of the Hortensian law.[10] When the Curule Aedileship had been created, it had only been opened to Patricians. However, an unusual agreement was ultimately secured between the Plebeians and the Patricians. One year, the Curule Aedileship was to be open to Plebeians, and the next year, it was only to be open to Patricians.[11] Eventually, however, this agreement was abandoned and the Plebeians won full admission to the Curule Aedileship. In addition, after the Consulship had been opened to the Plebeians, the Plebeians acquired a de facto right to hold both the Roman Dictatorship and the Roman Censorship [5] since only former Consuls could hold either office. 356 BC saw the appointment of the first Plebeian Dictator,[12] and in 339 BC the Plebeians facilitated the passage of a law (the lex Publilia), which required the election of at least one Plebeian Censor for each five-year term.[12] In 337 BC, the first Plebeian Praetor (Q. PUBLILIUS PHILO)was elected.[12] In addition, during these years, the Plebeian Tribunes and the senators grew increasingly close.[13] The senate realized the need to use Plebeian officials to accomplish desired goals,[13] and so to win over the Tribunes, the senators gave the Tribunes a great deal of power, and unsurprisingly, the Tribunes began to feel obligated to the senate. As the Tribunes and the senators grew closer, Plebeian senators were often able to secure the Tribunate for members of their own families.[14] In time, the Tribunate became a stepping stone to higher office.[14]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conflict_of_the_Orders