Symbol of ancient carthage armies

by livesooner

I'm curious if hannibal barca had a symbol he used to represent his family or his armies, and if didn't have one I'd carthage had one. Kind of similar as to how Greek armies had city symbols on their shields or roman armies had their standards.

redshoesrock

One thing to keep in mind was Hannibal's army consisted of many mercenaries from various parts of the Mediterranean. Besides his core Carthaginian forces, Hannibal fielded Iberian (Spain) infantry, African infantry, Celtic warriors from various places such as Cisalpine Gaul, and Numidian (Algeria/Tunisia) cavalry. Because there were so many mercenaries from so many different places, there was not one specific Carthaginian insignia for his entire army.

That being said, there were a few Carthaginian symbols for purely Carthaginian units. The most famous symbol for Carthaginian battle standards consisted of a horizontal crescent, with the points of the crescent pointing upward, above a circle, which is believed to symbolized both the moon (crescent) and the sun (circle). The symbol would be slightly altered based on the regiment, just as the Romans did with their battle standard, the Aquila, and apparently was also the symbol of the Carthaginian goddess Tanit, who was associated with fertility and war.

I'd recommend Armies of the Macedonian & Punic Wars - 359 BC to 146 BC by Duncan Head if you'd like to learn, and see, more.