And how did they compare to their contemporaries in the Mediterranean?
Is there any recommended reading for Carthage's history? (I have read Richard Miles' "Carthage must be destroyed")
I personally quite liked Miles' book, but his use of sources has been criticised by people more knowledgeable about Carthage than myself.
As you can read at the link, /u/ScipioAsina points to Serge Lancel's Carthage: A History (Oxford and Cambridge: Blackwell, 1995) and Dexter Hoyos' The Carthaginians (Oxon and New York: Routledge, 2010) as better books for an introduction to Carthage.