Is there any Carthaginian account kept about the Punic Wars ?

by AquilaInsanis
publiusclodius

We don't have any Carthaginian accounts of the Punic Wars, and contrary to what /u/Omegastar19 says, there is no evidence that the Romans systematically burned every Carthaginian book they could find; Carthaginian libraries were taken by north African princes after the sack of Carthage in 146, while only Mago's treatise on agriculture was brought to Rome and translated into Latin (Pliny, Natural History, 18.5; Colunmella, 1.1.13). That being said, there's no evidence either way of whether the Carthaginians ever wrote histories/historiography themselves. Some scholars think that they did and that these works have been lost to time, others that historiography was simply not a genre in Carthaginian literature (which is very possible, as Richard Miles points out in his book Carthage Must be Destroyed). I can't think of any instances of Greek or Roman authors quoting Carthaginian authors, aside from Mago or inscriptions; if I'm wrong, someone please correct me. (Edit: /u/LegalAction cites a passage of Sallust in which he claims to have seen Punic history books, so I'm probably wrong here.)

There were, however, Greeks who wrote histories about the Punic Wars that were more sympathetic to the Carthaginians than the Romans. The most famous example is Philinus, who wrote a history of the first Punic War that Polybius used as a source; he criticizes him (Polybius 1.14-15) for being too pro-Carthaginian, just as he criticizes Fabius Pictor for being too pro-Roman. Philinus himself hasn't survived. But it's possible to get at some more pro-Carthaginian sources through our surviving Greek and Roman authors, like Polybius, Plutarch and Livy. Polybius himself grows more critical of Rome as his history goes on and in particular presents criticisms of Rome's actions during the Third Punic War.