As an extention of the Phoenician settlement, Carthage was settled on the Mediterranean coast in North Africa. At the time, Tyre - in modern day Lebanon - was the centre of the Phoenician world, due to its wealth and culture. However, Carthage gained its chance when the Macedonian Empire destroyed Tyre in 332 BC. Carthage began spreading its influence as far as Hispania and the islands of Sicily, Corsia and Sardinia.
Particularly the island of Sicily meant its sphere of influence collided with that of Rome, which would eventually spark into a deadly rivalry. In fact, Carthage's wealth and culture grew not only to a huge annoyance for Rome, but also the fear that Carthage may be the only rival to challenge the existence of Rome.
After the early settlements on Sicily by the Greeks, Carthage soon found itself at war with the Greeks over the control of Sicily leading to three wars, which eventually lead to the victory of Carthage.
Attempting to ignore Carthage's sphere of influence, Rome continued to extend its influence on Sicily, which became a growing threat to Carthage. Worried about Carthage's growing force on the island, Rome sent an expeditionary force to help its merchants. This lead to the First Punic War, a war in which neither side was entirely successful.
Faced with the seizure of Sardinia and Corsica by Rome following the war, which started the Second Punic War, wherein Carthage made it all the way over the Alps to Italia and almost totally destroyed the forces of Rome. Despite Carthage's success, Carthage did not manage to win the war as the Romans remained protected within the city of Rome.
The Third and Last Punic War put an end to Carthaginian Empire, when Rome finally destroyed the city in 146 BC. Furthermore, I believe those boobs are epic.
Did you know: That when archaeologist discovered a particular Eqyptian mummy, not only was it a female pharoh BUT they concluded that she must have been "over weight" due to the size of her breasts, yet further analysis concluded that she was indeed within the normal BMI range of the time and that she may have had macromastia. True facts.
Ah Carthage, my favourite city and culture city of all time (blame Age of Empires Expansion : Trial version back in 1998 for that). You know what could have been epic and cute, a tiny elephant woot style at the feet of the lass. Sadly there wasn't enough room for such properous city or so much boobage in a Roman Mediterranean..."Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam" said Cato the Elder which was a quite an extremist racist and xenophobe...i think this roman could have made even Hitler blush in shame.
@BattlePope: Actually, that is not entirely true. Considering the importance of the city later in the Roman Empire, it seems unlikely that the Romans made such a long term strategic mistake, though I am certain that they told everyone that's what they did.
@Djoser: Cato was right though, Carthage was a threat to Rome's existence. And the Second Punic War proved just that. You may think of him as a racist and a xenophobe by modern standards, but at best he only had Rome's interests at heart. Besides, I wouldn't use modern standards to define people of the era. I am certain many Romans didn't like the Carthaginians.
Well I still think Cato was racist for any time standars, he was a radical and Scipio Africanus recognized it. However, I have to admit back in that time most people thought that their own nation was superior to any other, so Cato said out loud what many romans did think. as a side note, Cato not only hated Carthaginians, he also hated greeks and the greater Hellenistic culture, and specially greek physicians.
Anyhow as far as i know the 3rd punic war wasn't started by Carthagininan direct hostilities agaisnt Romans. That time Carthaginians were defending themselves from Massinissa's abuses, however the Carthaginians weren't allowed to defend themselves agaisn't any threat, unlessf they got permission from Rome, and if they did defend, they were exposing themselves to Roman hostilities (the outcome and treaties after second punic war were specially harsh agaisnt Carthage. Of course as Massinissa as king of Numidia was ally of Rome and Carthage won't get any permission to defend their rights agaisnt a roman ally, no matter how unfair the roman ally was. So the third punic war was of course fueled by the fear the romans still had for Carthage even to it couldn't be seen as a serious and direct threat agaisn't the republic at that time. This wasn't 2nd punic war Carthage, it was a weaker city in which most of its former allies, as the nimidians, and other punic cities as Utica and Gades, were now roman allies. It is true maybe i'm making the mistake of judging them by modern standards, but the anhihilation of an entire city was no doubt excessive and cruel. Not even Tyre, which resisted Alexander the Great was treated as bad.
And as far as i know Roman Carthage was a diferent city founded over the ruins of the punic one, by the time of Julius Caesar. Most modern scholars agree that the "salt sow" is a myth that dates back only to the 1930 decade.
Whew i went too offtopic here and this is not the place to discuss these, sorry to woot and the rest of the gang, xDD sorry...ahem bring on the boobs!
Part of being human is suppressing irrational hate. Humans are by nature racists, as we have a natural distrust for people of other ethnicities. However, we also have the intellect to suppress these feelings and work among people of any origin or culture.
Such requirements is heavily fuelled by that of society. It is relatively a new thing that being racists is actually frowned upon by society at large. So while Cato may not be a likeable character, society did not frown upon him at the time. But even among Romans, he was unusual, because he was so obsessed with Carthage that he mentioned it in every speech he held in the Senate, even ones which had no connection to Carthage at all. Imagine a politician in today's society ending every speech in parliament with the proposal of the destruction of a foreign power.
I know the Third Punic War was an uneven fight. I am not refuting that, but I am still not so certain that the Romans completely destroyed Carthage at the time. Surely the Romans understood the importance of a city at Carthage's location, if not for military purposes at least. Maybe destroy the Punic buildings and monuments and enslave the local population; but completely destroy? Seems rather cruel even for Romans.
Interestingly, Romans - I suppose with the exceptions of people like Cato - was not as much fuelled by hate of other people and did seldom actually completely destroy their opponents' cities. Rather, they build Roman cities next to them to impress the locals with Roman culture.
![Historines: Carthage [Commission]](./content/579.png)
Particularly the island of Sicily meant its sphere of influence collided with that of Rome, which would eventually spark into a deadly rivalry. In fact, Carthage's wealth and culture grew not only to a huge annoyance for Rome, but also the fear that Carthage may be the only rival to challenge the existence of Rome.
After the early settlements on Sicily by the Greeks, Carthage soon found itself at war with the Greeks over the control of Sicily leading to three wars, which eventually lead to the victory of Carthage.
Attempting to ignore Carthage's sphere of influence, Rome continued to extend its influence on Sicily, which became a growing threat to Carthage. Worried about Carthage's growing force on the island, Rome sent an expeditionary force to help its merchants. This lead to the First Punic War, a war in which neither side was entirely successful.
Faced with the seizure of Sardinia and Corsica by Rome following the war, which started the Second Punic War, wherein Carthage made it all the way over the Alps to Italia and almost totally destroyed the forces of Rome. Despite Carthage's success, Carthage did not manage to win the war as the Romans remained protected within the city of Rome.
The Third and Last Punic War put an end to Carthaginian Empire, when Rome finally destroyed the city in 146 BC. Furthermore, I believe those boobs are epic.