Haul crone before cardinal - an enemy of Rome (8)
I believe the answer is:
carthage
'an enemy of rome' is the definition.
(enemy of Rome during the Punic Wars)
'haul crone before cardinal' is the wordplay.
'haul' becomes 'cart' (synonyms).
'crone' becomes 'hag' (synonyms).
'before' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'cardinal' becomes 'e' (East, a cardinal direction).
'cart'+'hag'+'e'='CARTHAGE'
(Other definitions for carthage that I've seen before include "It fought the Punic wars against ancient Rome" , "Ancient Tunisian city" , "Dido was queen of this ancient city in N Africa" , "Phoenician city state near modern Tunis" , "Ancient N. African city" .)