Carthage
- Scot Stoddard
- Jun 8
- 8 min read
Updated: 5 days ago
An Introduction to the album "Carthage" and Track 1, Dido
About a year ago, I finished an album based on the culture, history, people, deities and cities of the ancient Sumerian civilization. The album was titled "Kengir", and it was released on April 25, 2024. Immediately after that, I had to decide what my next music project was going to be. I decided to go with the theme of my last few albums, and do just one more (probably not) concept album based on an ancient civilization. But who would it be?
There's plenty of ancient civilizations and cultures to choose from, but I landed on a very interesting topic for my next album: The Phoenicians.
I will be writing a blog post about each track for the album. There's 12 album tracks, so you can expect 12 blog posts, or maybe more, as I go through. The purpose of this endeavor is to give the background of this whole album and help you, the listener, to get an understanding of the Phoenicians, and especially, the Carthaginians, as well as understand what's going on in each track. As I dove deeper and deeper into my research on this album, I decided to put my focus on Carthage, as it was just so fascinating. These stories are unbelievably complicated and interesting, as I hope the music is, as well. The genre for this album is progressive rock, blended with progressive metal, jazz and classical elements. It is completely instrumental music, as I don't feel my voice sits well with the style of the music. Therefore, there's no lyrics to tell the story. The stories have to be told within the music. But these blogs posts are designed to give you more background. I highly suggest you read the blog, then, even if you've heard at least some of the tracks, go back and listen to each track again, keeping in mind what you've learned from the blog. I think you'll understand the music better and see the Carthaginians and the music itself in an entirely new light. When talking about various aspects of Carthage that I have done tracks about, in all these blogs, I will reference the album track number!
Listen To Dido! by hitting this link, or simply flip over to this site's main page. All the album tracks released so far are on the site, as well as a couple yet-unreleased tracks!
Who were the Phoenicians?
The Phoenicians were an ancient Semitic group of people who occupied various city states in the Levant region of the Eastern Mediterranean Sea, mostly what we call Lebanon and Syria today. Through trade and colonization they later expanded into Cyprus, Sicily, Northern Africa and the Iberian peninsula. They were known for their prowess in trade, seafaring and navigation, being the first to travel even outside the Mediterranean Sea, and they dominated commerce across classical antiquity and developed an expansive maritime trade network lasting over a millennium. The culture began somewhere around 2,500 BC, was at its peak around 800 BC, and was totally gone, due to Roman conquest and the rise of the Great Roman Empire, by 65 BC.
There was never an official capital of the Phoenician civilization, but the most notable city in their lands was usually considered to be Tyre (Track 2), located in modern-day Lebanon. a bronze age city which became a prominent Phoenician city state between the 9th and 6th centuries BC. Sidon and Byblos were other notable Phoenician city states. And then came a split between possible successors to the throne, and the establishment of the Western Phoenician City State of Carthage.
Why the split?
Around the 8th century BC there was a king of Tyre who made his very beautiful daughter, Dido (Track 1) (a/k/a Elissa), and his son, Pygmalion, heirs to the throne upon his death. However, upon the death of the king, the people chose Pygmalion alone as the sole heir to the throne, although he was still yet a boy. Dido then married her uncle Acerbas, who was quite wealthy, although his wealth was secretly buried. Pygmalion had Acerbas murdered in an attempt to gain that wealth for himself. Dido, desiring to escape Tyre at that point, expressed a wish to move into the palace of Pygmalion, but she then ordered the attendants whom Pygmalion sent to aid in the move to throw all of Acerbas' bags of gold into the sea, apparently as an offering to his spirit. In fact, the bags contained only sand. Dido then pursuaded the attendants to join her in flight to another land rather than face the pending wrath of Pygmalion. Some senators also joined Dido in flight.
The Origins of Carthage
The party left Tyre, with the gold and whatever they could take, and went to Cyprus, where they picked up more personnel, including about 80 women who worked as prostitutes on the shore to provide wives for the men in the party. Eventually they left Cyprus and traveled on to Northern Africa, a spot in modern day Tunisia, where Dido asked a local king, Iarbas, for some land for a temporary refuge, and they came to an agreement on only the amount of land that could be encompassed by an oxhide. Dido cut the oxhide into small strips and had enough material to encircle a nearby hill, which then became home for the new city, Carthage. The name Carthage traces back to the Punic name "Qart-hadast", meaning "new city".
Our departed party of ex-Tyrians and others from another local Phoenician city state called Utica, or "Utique" (Track 3), then set about building the city that would become Carthage, the seat of the Western Phoenician Empire. While excavating the hill to begin to build the New City, the head of an ox was found, indicating that Carthage would be wealthy, yet subject to others. In later excavation, the head of a horse was found, indicating that Carthage would be powerful in war. These omens eventually came to be quite precise and true, and they, in fact, coincided with one another. Carthage would have many wars with both the Greeks, and later, the Romans, for control over the central Mediterranean region, and Carthage was the home of the famous general Hannibal (Track 10), who later invaded Italy. More on him later! Also to be noted here is the creation and rise of the Roman Empire, which nearly coincided with the rise of Carthage, maybe offset by about 70 years.
Dido founded Carthage in the year 814 BC.
The Demise of Dido
As with any great civilization, there's a beginning and an end. They rise, then eventually they all fall: The Sumerians, The Egyptians, The Hittites, The Babylonians, The Persians, The Romans, The Ottomans, the Byzantines. All of them. It is inevitable.
As it was with Dido, herself.
As Carthage rose to become a great city and powerful trade hub and mercantile establishment of the central Mediterranean, our friend from above, King Iarbas of the Mauritani, became a bit jealous and demanded Dido for his wife, a little something for the land he had given, or else he would make war on Carthage. Yet, Dido decided to remain faithful to her deceased first husband and proceeded to build a ceremonial funeral pyre, sacrificing many victims to the honor of her first husband in preparation for her marriage to Iarbas. Dido proceeded to ascend the pyre, stating that she would go to her husband as they desired, and upon drawing her sword, slew herself. After this self-sacrifice in the name of survival of the Carthaginian city state, Dido was deified and forever worshipped as long as Carthage stood.
So why do a track dedicated to Dido?
The most important aspect is the story I just told you. This was an incredible woman, a beautiful woman, who left her home in Tyre to begin a new life. That takes a lot of courage, a lot of intelligence and a lot of unmitigated fortitude. Not only beautiful and courageous, Dido had unbridled spirit, intelligence, and displayed a wide array in ingenuity. Dido was the founder of the topic of the album, Carthage, the Phoenician city state that rose to become a great entity. Carthage developed many industries, including the manufacturing of textiles, embroidery, textiles, crafts, metal works, and a particularly famous fabric dye that became known as "Tyrian Purple" (Track 4).
To me, as the founder of all of this, Dido deserved to be included in the track list, and since she started Carthage, she deserved to be in the leadoff position. I couldn't do an album about Carthage without including Dido, honestly.
Now, the track, itself.
The track Dido, Track 1, is as complex and multi-faceted as Dido was herself. The opening of the track is rather neo-classical with a driving rhythm, depicting the spirit and drive of Dido. The meter is a measure of 5/4 followed by a measure of 6/4, repeatedly, indicating the complexity of Dido's personality. This merges seamlessly into the following section, a rather majestic and melodic theme, indicating that Dido was of royal blood. At about the 1:15 mark the music flows into a highly melodic and beautiful section, with a guitar melody I like to call The Dido Theme. Whenever I think about this track, the haunting theme carried by the lead guitar pops into my head first. This represents the beauty of Dido. A minute later we merge into a bouncy almost Latin-feeling rhythm that's lively and playful, another side of Dido that comes out from her escapades. This section builds, representing how the great City State of Carthage was built. A little after the 3 minute mark we build into a prog metal section that represents the growing tensions between Carthage and their neighbor the Mauritani, what with Dido being pressured into the marriage she did not want. This section escalates the intensity of the track with heavy rhythms on the 7-string guitar and intense drums and lead guitar work. Which leads us to the next section and, as is quite often the case in many of these tracks on this and other albums of mine, the use of leitmotif occurs, or the repeating of a previous theme. Here we go back to the second theme, that majestic theme again, only it's more intense this time. After a short but dramatic interlude filled with added tension, we come back, again, through leitmotif, to the opening neoclassical theme, but this time it brings us to the end of the track and the ultimate demise of Dido.
Conclusion
I hope you will enjoy this series of blog posts, as well as the music in the album. They will go together and help you to understand all that craziness that goes on in my head while writing these tracks. None of this would be possible without endless research, continuing for more than a year now, on the people and places and culture of ancient Carthage. I have lived this topic for that entire time, using Google, ChatGPT, Wikipedia, watching endless videos on YouTube, and really doing a deep dive into the historical, cultural and emotional aspects of each track. This blog gives me a chance to share all of this experience with you. I do this because I love history, and I love music; why not combine the two? I believe this will help you to understand where I'm coming from on this album, what the tracks are about, and how this album with tell the entire story of the rise and fall of Carthage, in chronological order, ending with the Fall of Carthage (Track 12) at the hands of the Romans.
You will take a walk with me through the ancient City of Tyre at sunset; discover the City State of Utique; hear the color of Tyrian Purple; get introduced to the Phoenician deity Melqart, the equivalent of Hercules or Heracles; visit the colony of Gadir in the Iberian Peninsula; sail to the mouth of the Mediterranean and see the Pillars of Heracles; ride upon the Battle Elephants used by Hannibal in his conquest of Rome; fight the Seventh Sicilian War against the Greeks for control over the Island of Sicily, meeting the great General Hannibal himself; only to have to fight the Romans later in the final battles of the Third Punic War. And then you will witness the Fall of Carthage. It's going to be quite the story.
Thank you for being with me. Thank you for your support. And above all, enjoy the music!
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