Description
Recruited from among descendants of Phoenician settlers and the native Lebu, Garamantian, and Berber peoples of the Sahara these troops were the largest non-mercenary Carthaginian contingent in the army. Colonising the African coast from around the 1st millennium BC, the Phoenicians founded Carthage and other cities, later known as Leptis Magna and Sabratha. Important trading centres, they acted alongside Tingis, which was founded by their Carthaginian descendants, and the Greek colony of Cyrene as gateways into Africa and the western Mediterranean. By the 5th century BC, however, the three Libyan cities had passed under the control and protection of Carthage and its mercantile dominance. Mixing together a variety of eastern and Saharan customs, and influenced by contact with much of the Mediterranean through their trading network, the Liby-Phoenicians were varied in their style of dress and armament.
