Painting, above:  Dido building Carthage, or The Rise of the Carthaginian Empire, is an oil on canvas painting by JMW Turner. The painting is one of Turner's most important works, greatly influenced by the luminous classical landscapes of Claude Lorraine. Turner described it as his chef d'oeuvre. First exhibited at the Royal Academy summer exhibition in 1815, Turner kept the painting until he left it to the nation in the Turner Bequest. It has been held by the National Gallery in London since 1856.  See Hours 2 and 3, Carthage Must Be Destroyed: The Rise and Fall of an Ancient Civilization by Richard Miles.

Like their Phoenician predecessors, the Carthaginians produced and exported the very valuable tyrian purple dye that was extracted from shellfish. The Phoenician colony of Mogador on the Northeastern coast of Africa was a centre of Tyrian dye production.

Tyrian purple is a reddish-purple natural dye, a secretion produced by a certain species of predatory sea snails in the family Muricidae, a type of rock snail. This dye may first have been used by the ancient Phoenicians as early as 1570 BC, although the recent archaeological discovery of substantial numbers of Murex shells on Crete suggests that the Minoans may have pioneered the extraction of Royal purple centuries before the Tyrians. Dating from colocated pottery  suggests the dye may have been produced during the Middle Minoan period in the Twentieth–Eighteenth century BCE.

The dye was greatly prized in antiquity because the colour did not easily fade, but instead became brighter with weathering and sunlight. Its significance is such that the name Phoenicia means "land of purple." It came in various shades, the most prized being that of "blackish clotted blood". Tyrian purple was expensive: the Fourth-century BC historian Theopompus reported, "Purple for dyes fetched its weight in silver at Colophon" in Asia Minor. One source reports that 12,000 Murex shells were needed to make only 1.4 grams of dye, making it immensely laborious and expensive to produce.

The expense meant that purple-dyed textiles became status symbols, and early sumptuary laws restricted their uses. The production of Tyrian purple was tightly controlled in Byzantium and was subsidized by the imperial court, which restricted its use for the coloring of imperial silks; thus a child born to a reigning emperor was porphyrogenitos, "born in the purple," although this term may also refer to the fact that the imperial birthing apartment was walled in porphyry, a rock whose colors range from white to purple-red.

Pliny, writing in the First century AD, describes the dye process:  The vein [hypobranchial gland] already mentioned is then extracted and about a sextarius [ca. 7 lb] of salt added to each hundred pounds of material. It should be soaked for three days, for the fresher the extract, the more powerful the dye, then boiled in a leaden vessel. Next, five hundred pounds of dye-stuff, diluted with an amphora [about 8 gallons] of water, are subjected to an even and moderate heat by placing the vessels in a flue communicating with a distant furnace.

Meanwhile, the flesh which necessarily adheres to the veins is skimmed off and a test is made about the tenth day by steeping a well-washed fleece in the liquefied contents of one of the vessels. The liquid is then heated till the colour answers to expectations. A frankly red colour is inferior to one with a tinge of black. The wool drinks in the dye for five hours and after carding is dipped again and again until all the colour is absorbed. 

JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW

Hour One

Sunday 14 September   2014  / Hour 1, Block A: Absolute Monarchs: A History of the Papacy by John Julius Norwich (1 of 2)

Sunday 14 September   2014  / Hour 1, Block B: Absolute Monarchs: A History of the Papacy by John Julius Norwich (2 of 2)

Sunday 14 September   2014  / Hour 1, Block C: Why We Should Call Ourselves Christians: The Religious Roots of Free Societies by Marcello Pera (1 of 2)

Sunday 14 September   2014  / Hour 1, Block D: Why We Should Call Ourselves Christians: The Religious Roots of Free Societies by Marcello Pera   (2 of 2)

Hour Two

Sunday 14 September   2014  / Hour 2, Block A: Carthage Must Be Destroyed: The Rise and Fall of an Ancient Civilization by Richard Miles (1 of 6)

Sunday 14 September   2014  / Hour 2, Block B: Carthage Must Be Destroyed: The Rise and Fall of an Ancient Civilization by Richard Miles  (2 of 6)

Sunday 14 September   2014  / Hour 2, Block C: Carthage Must Be Destroyed: The Rise and Fall of an Ancient Civilization by Richard Miles  (3 of 6)

Sunday 14 September   2014  / Hour 2, Block D: Carthage Must Be Destroyed: The Rise and Fall of an Ancient Civilization by Richard Miles  (4 of 6)

Hour Three

Sunday 14 September   2014  / Hour 3, Block A: Carthage Must Be Destroyed: The Rise and Fall of an Ancient Civilization by Richard Miles  (5 of 6)

Sunday 14 September   2014  / Hour 3, Block B: Carthage Must Be Destroyed: The Rise and Fall of an Ancient Civilization by Richard Miles  (6 of 6)

Sunday 14 September   2014  / Hour 3, Block C: Chasing Aphrodite: The Hunt for Looted Antiquities at the World's Richest Museum by Jason Felch and Ralph Frammolino  (1 of 2)

Sunday 14 September   2014  / Hour 3, Block D: Chasing Aphrodite: The Hunt for Looted Antiquities at the World's Richest Museum by Jason Felch and Ralph Frammolino (2 of 2)

Hour Four

Sunday 14 September   2014  / Hour 4, Block A: Listening to Pain: Finding Words, Compassion, and Relief by David Biro  (1 of 2)

Sunday 14 September   2014  / Hour 4, Block B: Listening to Pain: Finding Words, Compassion, and Relief by David Biro (2 of 2)

Sunday 14 September   2014  / Hour 4, Block C: Absolute Monarchs: A History of the Papacy by John Julius Norwich (1 of 2)

Sunday 14 September   2014  / Hour 4, Block D: Absolute Monarchs: A History of the Papacy by John Julius Norwich  (2 of 2)