The Carthaginians were sly merchants and cruel child killers – at least according to the Ancient Romans and Greeks. But research shows that they weren’t as bad as their reputation. The Carthaginians’ story began around 3,000 years ago, when settlers left their homes in what is now Lebanon to set up new colonies around the Mediterranean. The most splendid and powerful of these settlements was Carthage, a bustling Metropolis in what is now Tunisia, with a port that was the envy of the entire world.