Review of Kaufman, Phoenicia, Carthage, and popular government in the pre-classical Mediterranean

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Phoenicia, Carthage, and popular government in the pre-classical Mediterranean: the other democracy.

Brett Kaufman, Phoenicia, Carthage, and popular government in the pre-classical Mediterranean: the other democracy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2026. Pp. 320. ISBN 9780198867685.

Review by
Christopher Stedman Parmenter, Ohio State University.
parmenter.14@osu.edu

... Brett Kaufman’s new book is an exercise in flag-planting. Kaufman also makes a bold claim: the people of ancient west Asia invented democracy and the Phoenicians carried it to Europe. Kaufman’s Phoenician history follows well-received work by Josephine Crawley Quinn (2017), Carolina López-Ruiz (2021), and Denise Demetriou (2023), who cast the Phoenicians as the stars of the first millennium BCE. Parts of Kaufman’s argument ring true, for instance his critique of ancient history’s Hellenocentric bias. But much cannot be endorsed. ...

I noted the publication of the book here and a topical essay by the author here. Cross-file under Phoenician Watch and Punic Watch.

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