Mastia Tarseion Revisited A clause in the second treaty between Carthage and Rome, struck in 348 BC, forbade the Romans to pillage, trade, and found cities beyond the Fair Promontory and a place called “Mastia Tarseion.” This book challenges the current communis opinio that Mastia and Tarseion were two different cities or territories in southern Iberia. A close examination of the contents of the treaty, of Polybius’ comments on it, and of the rest of the evidence available, including two problematic entries in Stephanus of Byzantium’s Ethnika, reveals that Mastia Tarseion must have been a promontory on the North African coast, to the west of but not very far from the city of
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Mastia Tarseion Revisited
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Carthage. The treaty emerges as a key document to understand the evolu-
Mastia Tarseion Revisited
tion of Carthaginian imperialism in the Western Mediterranean.
Luis Silva Reneses is Research and Teaching Fellow in Ancient History at
The Geographical Limits of Polybius’ Second Romano-Carthaginian Treaty
the University of Geneva. He specialises in Roman and Carthaginian imperialism, diplomatic relations, population transfers, and identity-making in
LUIS SILVA RENESES
the Hellenistic Mediterranean.
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