About 10,000 years ago, what is now the Sahara desert, was a huge Savanna feed by water from Monsoons. This is believed to be related to the retreat of the Glaciers and then a warming up of the Sahara. The problem was about 6000 years ago North Africa started to cool down, which meant they was less of a temperature difference between North Africa and the South Atlantic so the Monsoons stop going as far north about 3400 BC. This cut back the rains drastically leading to a slow but steady drying up of the Sahara. Thus the problem for North Africa is a DROP in temperature not an increase in temperature.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saharahttp://www.livescience.com/history/060720_sahara_rains.htmlThis also leads to the Mediterranean Climate noted for in the Mediterranean:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediterranean_climateCarthage was a Granary, but the main Roman Granary was Egypt (and after the Arab Conquest and the move of the Capital to Constantinople, the Ukraine). Egypt became so important that even by the time of Augustus NO Roman Senator could go to Egypt without permission of the Emperor. The Emperor feared that a Senator wanting to grab power, would cut off the grain from Egypt to Rome thus the ban on any Senator. In fact while Egypt was the richest Provence of The Roman Empire, no Senator was ever Governor of Egypt. The Imperial Prefect in Egypt was always a member of the Equestrian Order, the middle class of Rome. Elsewhere such prefects ranged from Tax Collectors to what we would call Governors (But as members of the Equestrian order could command no Roman Troops, but could command non-Roman Troops thus the comment that the Prefect of Judea, Pontius Pilate, had no Roman Troops under his command, all he had was Jewish and Greek Troops (Called Axillary for NOT Roman Citizens).
More on Prefect:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PrefectAnyway, Rome survived on Egyptian Bread not African Bread (Using Africa as the Romans used that term, to mean modern Tunisia). Tunisia us still a rich agricultural area but has suffered form the drying of the Sahara over the last 3600 years. At the time of Carthage, horse could still be used as transport in the Sahara, but by the time of Augustus Camels were brought over from Arabia to do the same work (Do to the continued drying of the climate).
My point is simple, Carthage was an important source of food for Rome (More Olives and Olive oil then anything else), it was secondary to Egypt when it came to grain (Through Grain is still the #3 agriculture export). Carthage main function after it became part of the Roman Empire was as the Roman Gateway to Africa (Remember the sea route would NOT open up till about 1492 AD, about the same time Columbus discovered America). Carthage had been destroy by Rome, but had been rebuilt by Caesar and had quickly become the Second largest City in the Western Half of the Roman Empire (Alexandria and the wealth of Egypt made Alexandria the Second largest city, but it was in the Eastern half of the Empire, Carthage was #3 overall during the Empire and stayed Roman for 20 more years then did Egypt as both fell to the Arabs 20 years apart).
Even today Tunisia is known for its Olive production, an important item in Roman Days:
agricultural Production in order of Importance: "olives, olive oil, grain, tomatoes, citrus fruit, sugar beets, dates, almonds; beef, dairy products"
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ts.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunisia
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