This painting is Turner’s symbolic representation of the decline of the ancient Carthaginian civilization

Established by Phoenician migrants from the Levant, Carthage was located in modern-day Tunisia. It was one of the most affluent cities in the Ancient World and at its peak during the first millennium B.C. ruled 300 other cities around the western Mediterranean

But the rise of Roman power led to three wars against Carthage. The Roman Republic eventually captured the city in the Third Punic War in 146 B.C. (“Punic” is the Latin equivalent of the Greek-derived term “Phoenician”). Carthage was looted and burnt to the ground, and its people deported and sold as slaves

In this painting, the buildings on the harbourfront are intact, but the shambles in the foreground provide hints of the upcoming ruin. The fading sunset also alludes to the diminishing power of the empire

Soon after the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815, Turner exhibited a pair of paintings on the theme of the rise and fall of Carthage (the fates of empires being a popular topic at the time). The companion piece to this work is Dido Building Carthage, which depicts the founding of the city by the legendary Queen Dido, an exiled princess of Tyre (in today’s Lebanon)

Turner greatly admired Claude Lorrain and emulated the landscape paintings of the 17th century French master. It is hard to not notice the similarities between The Decline of the Carthaginian Empire and Lorrain’s Embarkation of the Queen of Sheba, for example