Punic

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Punic (Latin pūnicus, Phoenician). After the Punic Wars, Romans used this term as an adjective meaning treacherous.

In archaeological and linguistic usage, it refers to the Greco-Roman era culture and dialect of Carthage and its empire as distinct from their Phoenician originals. Phoenicians settled in Northwest Africa (the Maghreb) from the city of Tyre (in modern Lebanon) and their culture and political organisation separated into a distinct form. There were distinct Punic settlements from the Iberian Peninsula in the West to Cyprus in the East; Sicily was a battleground between Punic and Greek forces for a long time. In the end, the Romans fought against and managed to defeat the Carthaginians, enabling a Roman settlement of Africa and eventual domination of the Mediterranean Sea. Cato the Elder notoriously ended his speeches with the imperative that Carthage should be utterly crushed, a view summarised in Latin by the phrase Delenda est Carthago, meaning simply, "Carthage must be destroyed".

See Phoenician languages and Carthage for more on Punic.