149–146 BC · Carthage, North Africa (modern Tunisia) Theater
149–146 BC
Rome's final war against Carthage was driven not by any military threat but by the paranoid insistence of Cato the Elder, who ended every Senate speech with 'Carthage must be destroyed.' Rome manufactured a pretext, stripped Carthage of its army and weapons, then demanded the Carthaginians abandon their city entirely and resettle ten miles from the sea. Carthage refused and fought. For three years the city of half a million defended itself. In 146 BC, Scipio Aemilianus broke through the harbour defences and fought street by street for six days. The 50,000 survivors were enslaved. The city was razed to its foundations and, according to later legend, the earth was salted so nothing would grow. Scipio reportedly wept over the ruins, quoting Homer: all cities must fall.
Commanders