Onward and Upward - Carthaginian reenacting

[Paullus Scipio]

"You have to remember that the equipment of the Sidon mercenaries isn't really indicative of anything Phoenician because the mercenaries weren't Phoenician- they were almost entirely Anatolian (mostly Pisidian and Carian). Unless you suppose that their equipment was provided by the state, in which case you would have to go about proving that, and I know from experience that there's almost no evidence one way or the other!"

I think you may have misunderstood my point here !The Sidon tombstones, and Alexandrian ones too depict a troop type called thureophoroi or mercenary ( the type is usually synonymous).They come from a variety of places - Anatolia (Bithinyans,Lycians,Pisidians) Greece (Aechea,Crete - this is the source for cretan red tunics, by the way) etc. The point is, wherever they come from in the Hellenistic world, and regardless of whether state or privately supplied, or whether they are Macedonian, Seleucid or Ptolemaic, they are all alike in appearance -namely, thureos (usually plain white), bronze hellenistic helmet (often peaked thraco-Attic types-as seen on coin), tunic (usually red), booted and armed with spear or longche, sword and (probably) javelins. We know that Carthage traded with the "mother country" on a big scale, so no surprise that Carthaginian troops should be similarly equipped, and possibly even some of them recruited there.
( as an aside, we also hear - Polybius - of a troop type called Thorakitai or 'breastplate wearers' in the Achean and Seleucid armies,who are sometimes described as "armed in the Roman fashion". These too appear on tomb paintings as thureophroi with the addition of mail body armour. We may surmise that Carthage did not have these, since otherwise it would have been pointless to adopt "the choicest Roman arms" after Trebia/Trasimene).
I see your point about the "Athena" coins, but am still inclined to think that they are meant to be 'classical corinthian'. As I said earlier, given the limitations of the medium, you may well be right, but in any event the carthaginian coin clearly depicts a 'debased corinthian' in use by a Carthaginian officer, probably Hannibal. Again, as said before a helmet sourced from one of Carthage's main trade routes/allies.