Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - Carthago Delenda Est: The Third Punic War

Episode Date: September 17, 2022

In 201 BC, the Romans were victorious over their archrivals, the city-state of Carthage, in the Second Punic War.  This was was the closest which Rome had ever come to defeat and almost spelled the end of the republic.  50 years later, some Romans felt that they left the job unfinished. In fact, some Romans could talk about nothing else.  Learn more about the Third Punic War and the destruction of Carthage on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Subscribe to the podcast!  https://link.chtbl.com/EverythingEverywhere?sid=ShowNotes -------------------------------- Executive Producer: Darcy Adams Associate Producers: Peter Bennett & Thor Thomsen   Become a supporter on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/everythingeverywhere Update your podcast app at newpodcastapps.com Discord Server: https://discord.gg/UkRUJFh Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/everythingeverywhere/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EverythingEverywhere Twitter: https://twitter.com/everywheretrip Website: https://everything-everywhere.com/everything-everywhere-daily-podcast/ Everything Everywhere is an Airwave Media podcast." or "Everything Everywhere is part of the Airwave Media podcast network Please contact [e-mail] to advertise on Everything Everywhere. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the year 201 BC, the Romans were victorious over their arch rivals the city-state of Carthage in the Second Punic War. This was the closest which Rome had ever come to defeat and almost spelled the end of the Republic. 50 years later, some Romans felt that they left the job unfinished. In fact, some Romans could talk about nothing else. Learn more about the third Punic War and the destruction of Carthage on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. What if your perceptions about the past were wrong? throughline is a podcast that takes you back in time to uncover the parts of the story that may have gone unnoticed. It effectively turned day into night and how it shaped the world now.

Time travel with us every week on the ThruLine podcast from NPR. To understand why the city of Carthage was destroyed, it's important to understand the events which led up to its destruction. As I explained in a previous episode on the Phoenician civilization, Carthage, was a Phoenician colony that eventually grew to outshine its parent cities back in Lebanon. Carthage, located in what is today northern Tunisia, had an extensive trading network as well as colonies scattered all about the Mediterranean. As the young Republic of Rome began expanding out of the Italian peninsula, it started to buttheads with the Carthaginians, especially on the island of Sicily. This resulted in a series of wars between Roman Carthage, called the Punic Wars, which is derived from the Latin word for Phoenicia. The first Punic War lasted 23 years, from 264 to 241 BC.

It was primarily fought on Sicily and at sea, and it was arguably the largest naval conflict ever fought in the ancient world. The war was won by Rome, who managed to extract reparations from Carthage and completely annexed Sicily as a Roman province. 23 years later, in 218 BC, another war erupted between Carthage and Rome. The second Punic War was the largest war that Rome had ever seen up until. tell that point, and it almost destroyed the Roman Republic. The Carthaginian forces were led by their brilliant general Hannibal, who was perhaps the

greatest general in the ancient world. He imported African elephants to Europe and fought the Romans on the Iberian and Italian peninsula's. Hannibal delivered two of the greatest defeats to Rome in its history. At the Battle of Lake Trasimane, Hannibal's forces killed approximately 25,000 Romans in one of the greatest ambushes in history. Then at the Battle of Canny, on which I did a previous episode, Hannibal killed almost 50,000 Romans in what is considered one of the greatest set-piece battles in all of history. The Romans eventually learned that the best way to fight Hannibal was not to try and defeat him, but just to keep him at bay and try not to lose. This strategy developed by Quintus Fabius Maximus became known as the Fabian strategy,

and it worked insofar as it kept Rome alive. Eventually, the Romans realized that if the main Carthaginian threat was in Italy, then no one was minding the store back in Carthage. So Rome sent a general, Publius Cornelius-Scipio, to Africa, which managed to get Hannibal to come out of Italy. It was there that the Romans finally beat Hannibal at the Battle of Zama in 2002, BC, and Publius Cornelius Scipio-Africanus. Carthage agreed to punishing peace terms, abandoning all of their overseas colonies, the loss of most of their land in Africa and an enormous war reparation of 10,000 silver talents which had to be paid over the course of 50 years. There was one other term to the peace treaty which became

relevant later on. Carthage could not wage war with anyone unless it was first approved by Rome. Carthage was effectively rendered a single city state, was no longer a threat to Rome for supremacy in the Mediterranean. Fighting at the Battle of Zama, there was a local ruler by the name of Massanisa, who was the leader of the Numidians. Massanisa was a staunch ally of Rome and supported them against the Carthaginians. Numidia was basically everything on the coast of North Africa from the middle of Libya through the coast of Algeria to northern Morocco. Massanisa and the Numidians were Berbers, ancestors of the Berber people who still live in

the region today. After the Second Punic War, Massanisa took advantage of this relationship with Rome and the onerous peace treaty with Carthage. He would constantly attack Carthaginian territory, and the Carthaginians couldn't do anything about it. They would appeal to Rome to let them go to war, but Rome would always deny their request. Massanisa ruled for a really long time. Having come to power just before the Battle of Zama, he spent the next 50 years harassing Carthage. Back in Rome, Carthage had been put on the back burner.

They weren't a threat anymore, and Rome had bigger things to worry about. That changed in the year 152 BC. when a delegation of senators was sent to Carthage to mediate a dispute between Carthage and Massanissa, who was now 87 years old. One member of the Roman delegation was an elderly 82-year-old senator by the name of Marcus Porchius Cato, better known to history as Cato the Elder. And he was given that title not because of his age, but because another notable Cato came 100 years after him.

Cato was a veteran of the Second Punic War and was shocked at what he saw in Carthage. Carthage was still an incredibly wealthy city. What he saw convinced him that Carthage was still a threat to Rome. Their wealth made them an economic rival, and with enough money they could easily become a military power once again. When Cato got back to Rome, he made the destruction of Carthage his primary mission. In particular, every time he got up to talk in the Senate, regardless of the subject he was talking about,

he would always end his speech by saying in Latin, Carthago delenda est, or Carthage must be destroyed. Here I should note that he actually didn't use those exact words. The phrase is just a modern shortened version that's easy to remember. What he probably said was something along the lines of Kendram-Kentheo-Karthaginium essay delendum, which means, furthermore, I consider that Carthage must be destroyed, which if you think about it actually makes a lot more sense. The shorter phrase, Carthago Delenda Est, is often adapted as a reference for anything which should be destroyed.

For example, Chicagum Ursus Delenda Est means the Chicago Bears must be destroyed, an opinion of which I'm sure we all can agree. While Cato was adamant that Carthage had to go, most of the Senate did not share in his opinion. In fact, one senator, Publius Cornelius-Scipio-Nascaucculum, the son-in-law of Scipio-Africanus, basically countered Cato by saying the exact opposite after the end of every one of his speeches. Corculum was probably the most powerful man sent it at the time, and there was a good chance that he was even in the same delegation as Cato to Carthage. He felt that Carthage was necessary so Rome would have a rival. While in reality, Carthage was no threat at all, they could be used as an excuse to increase support for Rome amongst the Plobilians.

The stories of Hannibal were burned into the minds of Roman citizens, and a neutered Carthage. Carthage could keep the threat alive. He would end each of his speeches, again, regardless of the topic, with Carthago Sarwanda est, or Carthage must be saved. In 151 BC, Carthage had paid off its 50-year debt, and in 150 BC, they finally got fed up with the constant attacks by the now 89-year-old Massanisa. So they did what any country would do. They raised an army and set out to take care of the Numidians once and for all. The Carthaginian army was led by the General Hasdrable, and they met the numidiums at the Battle of Oroscopa. Massanisa's 50 years of battle experience proved to be no match for the now inexperienced Carthaginians who hadn't really fought anyone in 50 years. Carthage was decisively beaten, and Hasdrable was no Hannibal. Say what you want about the Romans, but they were very legalistic and always stuck to the letter of the law.

One of the reasons why no one previously followed Cato's advice on destroying Carthage was that they had no excuse to go to war. Now, because Carthage raised an army and fought the Numidians without prior Roman approval, they had broken the terms of their now 50-year peace treaty. Rome had their Casas Beli, aka their excuse for war. In early 149 BC, Rome formally declared war on Carthage. Corculum was conveniently in Greece. Rome sent over an army and a navy headed by both consuls for that year. This should have been a cakewalk. Carthage didn't have much of an army,

and what they did have had been soundly beaten by the Numidians. Rome landed an army of 20,000 soldiers at Utica, which was about 35 kilometers north of Carthage. When the Romans landed, the Carthaginians tried to negotiate to get out of this predicament. The Romans demanded that Carthage hand over all of their weapons. So, they did. The records show that 200,000, sets of armor and 2,000 catapults were given to the Romans. And then they also sailed all of

their warships out of Carthage and burned them in front of the Romans. The next Roman demand was something that went too far for the Carthaginians. The Romans demanded that they evacuate Carthage and move somewhere else along the coast so the Romans could destroy Carthage. The Carthaginians went back into their city to defend it. Things didn't go well for the Romans after this. The Carthaginians hadn't given up all of their weapons. The Romans attempted to scale the walls of the city but failed. The Carthaginians made repeated forays outside the city walls and were more often than not successful. The siege of Carthage actually lasted several years without any success. The only real success the Romans had came from a military tribune by the name

of Scipio Amelianus, who just so happened to be the grandson of Scipio Afrikanus, the general who defeated Carthage in the Second Punic War. In 147 BC, Scipio Emilianus was 36 and was going to run for the position of Adial. However, his battlefield success, plus his name and lineage, resulted in a grassroots campaign for him to be elected consul. The age requirement for consul was waived, and Scipio Amelianus was elected. The tide began to turn for the Romans. Scipio Amelianus moved the Roman camp closer to the city walls, removed ineffective troops,

and began creating siege works to control the harrow. It was a slow process, but the Romans made advancements throughout the year. In 146 BC, Scipio Emilianus had his command extended by a year, which was all that was needed. In the spring of that year, the Romans finally breached the walls of Carthage. It was a slaughter, literally. For six days, the Romans methodically worked their way through Carthage, killing everyone they found, and burning the buildings as they advanced. The death toll was staggering. The upper estimates placed on the population of Carthage was 800,000 people, which would have made it about roughly the same size as Rome.

There were only 50,000 survivors, all of which were enslaved. Scipio Emilianus received a hero's welcome and triumph back in Rome. He was once again elected consul in 134 BC and sent to Hispania, where he defeated the Celtabarian tribes and was again awarded another triumph. Cato and Massanisa both died of old age during the war. The Romans wanted to ensure that no one ever lived in Carthage again, so they sent a team back after the war to destroy any buildings that were still standing. Despite legends to the contrary, the soil in Carthage was not salted. That is a 19th century invention. But a curse was placed on anyone who might decide to live there in the future.

In the year 29 BC, over 100 years after its destruction, the city was rebuilt as a Roman city named Carthage by the Emperor Augustus. 300 years later, this new Carthage was one of the largest cities in the Roman Empire. Today you can visit the ruins of Carthage, which lie about 16 kilometers east of the modern city of Tunis. There's a modern area called Carthage, which is a suburb of Tunis. And in 1985, the mayors of Rome and Carthage signed a peace treaty, 2,131 years after the end of the Third Punic War. There are a great many ancient cities that are still vibrant cities today. Rome, Athens, Alexandria, and Beirut are all good examples. Carthage, however, is not one of them.

This is largely due to what happened by a Roman army over 2,000 years ago, who made the decision that Carthage must be destroyed. Everything Everywhere Daily is an airwave media podcast. The executive producer is Darcy Adams. The associate producers are Thor Thompson and Peter Bennett. I have so, so many boostograms to catch up on. You've probably noticed from my voice, I've been sick the last couple weeks,

and I just want to thank everyone that's been listening over on the fountain app. I get your boosts in a browser window that I have open all the time, and there's actually a sound that plays every time one comes in. And sometimes it actually wakes me up. A big shout-out goes to Petar, who's donated 1,000 sats for every episode. Also, Joel W. has been sending sets for every episode as well, and Dave Jones, who sends a weekly 12, 112 sets. Other boosters include, but are not limited to.

And hang on, this is a long list. Taylor Johnson 2792 Peanut Butter Life Gimp 5 times 9 is 45 Andy Bowley Unit of ACC Take Phoenix

Never Other BTC photo PB 5433 Harrington's dad Roodaluka Carl 6007 PJ Ninja Yesterday's TNT Mom

Ann U Kool Bumi Beat Bowl Chandler Bingcoin Yazzik Fabo Crypto Kingdom Jim Seyfert, Tony M.H., Wildcat, Nestorke, Gerard, Pat, Gene Everett, Elf Camacho, T-Man, not He-Man. Thank you to everyone. I am pretty sure there's close to a 100% chance that I'm missing people, given how many people have been boosting over on Fountain.

If you're curious as to what all this boosting stuff is about, I recommend checking out the Fountain Podcast app at Fountain.fm. They have versions for both iPhone and Android, and they'll set you up with some free sats when you sign up. And remember, if you leave a review or send a boostagram message, you two can have it read on the show.