Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "Roman Carthage" in English language version.
Only one population figure for the city of Carthage survives and nobody believes it. The Augustan geographer Strabo wrote that in 149 bc, when the third Punic War opened, the Carthaginians ruled 300 cities in Libya and 700,000 people lived in the city. Since by then their territories had been drastically cut back by the acquisitive Numidian king Masinissa, the 300 'cities' must at best have been mostly villages and hamlets. Not only that, but it was a physical impossibility at any period for nearly three-quarters of a million persons to reside within Carthage's walls.
