Third Punic War

The Third Punic War, fought between 149 and 146 BCE, ended with the Roman destruction of Carthage, one of the great cities of the ancient Mediterranean. It was the last of three wars between Rome and Carthage, and it removed Rome's oldest rival for good. The city's fall left Rome without a major competitor in the western Mediterranean and showed how far the Republic was willing to go to eliminate a perceived threat.

The background lay in the Second Punic War, which ended in 201 BCE with Hannibal's defeat. Carthage lost its overseas territory, surrendered most of its fleet, paid a heavy indemnity, and agreed not to wage war without Roman permission. Despite these terms, the city recovered economically, and its prosperity unsettled many Romans. The senator Cato the Elder is traditionally said to have ended speeches by urging that Carthage be destroyed, though the exact wording is a later tradition. Meanwhile, the neighboring Numidian kingdom repeatedly encroached on Carthaginian land, and Carthage's appeals to Rome brought little help.

The war began when Carthage, after enduring Numidian pressure, raised an army and fought back, which Rome treated as a breach of the treaty. Rome sent forces to Africa in 149 BCE. Carthage tried to appease Rome by surrendering hostages and weapons, but the Romans then demanded that the inhabitants abandon the city and settle inland, away from the sea. The Carthaginians refused and prepared to defend their walls. They spent the next years under siege, producing arms and holding out with considerable determination, while early Roman efforts achieved little.

The turning point came when Scipio Aemilianus, adopted grandson of the Scipio who had defeated Hannibal, was given command in 147 BCE. He tightened the blockade, cut off the harbor, and in spring 146 BCE his troops broke into the city. Fighting continued street by street for about a week. Most of the population died or was enslaved, with survivors numbering in the tens of thousands according to ancient sources, though figures are uncertain. The city was burned and its ruins leveled.

The famous story that the Romans sowed Carthage's fields with salt is probably a later invention. Ancient writers describe a ritual curse on the site, but none mention salt, and the idea appears to have been popularized in modern times. What is certain is that Rome annexed Carthaginian territory as the province of Africa. Roughly a century later, Julius Caesar and Augustus refounded Carthage as a Roman colony, and it grew into one of the empire's leading cities. The war remains a notorious example of imperial ruthlessness, and some ancient authors themselves viewed it as a moral turning point for Rome.