Destroy Carthage: The Death Throes of an Ancient Culture by Alan Lloyd

Author:Alan Lloyd [Lloyd, Alan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Non Fiction
ISBN: 9780285622357
Publisher: Souvenir Press Ltd
Published: 1977-10-19T22:00:00+00:00

BOOK TWO

16: The Fatal Enemy

Watching the Tunisian farmer hoeing the dry soil on the prosaic site that today marks the home of ancient Carthage, it seems incredible that marbled temples, pillars of porphyry, great halls of state once towered on that spot within the mightiest battlements of Africa. Not even Cato can have im­agined the complete and utter oblivion that was to befall the city following his fiat - an extinction so complete that the ex­act location of the metropolis, the heart of the Punic empire, was rediscovered with certainty only last century.

The fate of Carthage was finally sealed in 149 b.c. By then her forces, restricted by treaty after Zama, had been shattered by Masinissa of Numidia. Everything favoured a Roman inter­vention in Africa. Those, such as Scipio Nasica, who opposed the policy had lost ground. An immense Italian army was available: 80,000 infantry and 4,000 cavalry. Young men who had painstakingly dodged service in Spain now flocked to join an expedition which promised the spoils of the richest city in the world for slight effort. With them assembled shady dealers and camp followers of every kind.

The destination of the army was not revealed, but few, least of all the Carthaginians, had any doubt. In a hopeless position from which to negotiate, the Punic government prepared to buy peace at almost any price. Popular leaders held responsible for the Numidian war were condemned, among them the de­feated general Hasdrubal, and the pro-Roman faction gained prominence.

But attempts at rapprochement were frustrated by the Romans. Carthaginian diplomats, seeking the terms on which the affray with Masinissa might be pardoned, were kept on tenterhooks with obscure allusions and veiled threats. The ancient historians put it simply. Asked repeatedly how Carth­age might make amends, Rome replied that she wanted only 'satisfaction.' Asked what 'satisfaction' meant, the Romans rejoined that the Carthaginians knew that best themselves.

The technique, diplomatic war waged by confusion, pro­duced a bonus for its exponents. While Carthage grew in­creasingly desperate to avert invasion, her western neighbour, Utica, lost nerve altogether and placed herself at Rome's dis­posal.

Assured a safe port of disembarcation in Africa, the Roman expeditionary force advanced to Sicily, increasing pressure on the Punic government. At this point, its members abandoned hope of buying peace through an indemnity or territorial bargain and, like Utica, offered a formal submission (deditio in fidem). Technically, the deditio gave Rome possession of all lands, cities and towns of the Carthaginians, who then held their freedom and way of life by concession rather than sovereign right.

On this legality, Rome justified the course upon which she was already set. The stock-in-trade of governments does not change. Among several unpleasant aspects of politics familiar to the modern world, the ancients knew all about cold war, class war, trade war, terrorism, martial coups, purges, assassin­ations, the so-called liberation of peoples and a dozen forms of legal and diplomatic bad faith. But it would be hard to find a more striking example of cynical deception by the leaders of a great state than that now employed by Rome to achieve her ends.

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