Destruction of Carthage. Carthage: From Greatness to Fall. Masinissa and Carthage

The Roman senator Mark Porcius Cato Sr. (234 - 149 BC), who lived in the era of the Punic Wars, ended each speech, regardless of the topic, with the phrase: "In addition, I think that Carthage must be destroyed." As you know, in 146 BC. his dream came true, Rome destroyed its most dangerous rival, clearing the way for the creation of the greatest empire of antiquity. Cato himself did not live for three years before the fall of Carthage, but his idea of the complete destruction of a rival city was successfully implemented by the Roman soldiers: destroy everything, leave no stone unturned, so that the defeated enemy never reborn, the defeated enemy did not gather strength, and did not warm up again hotbed of resistance.

Many centuries have passed, but the principle: "Carthage must be destroyed" still exists as one of the basic principles of world politics. And there is the main conductor of this principle on a global scale - the United States, a state that has turned from a "republic of freedom" into an "empire of money", for the second century in a row following the path to world domination and eliminating states and peoples that interfere with the fulfillment of the will of financial tycoons from Wall Street ...

We, Russian people and Russians in general, who live today in modern Russia are both lucky and unlucky.

It is fortunate that we are a great nation with a glorious and unique history that has made a huge cultural, scientific and technical contribution to the treasury of world civilization. It is also lucky that we, as a nation, have the best opportunities in the world of various kinds for the development of state and human potential.

Only one thing was unlucky, that there were always enough evil and envious enemies eager for our good. Seven hundred years, out of the last thousand, our ancestors spent in defensive wars, and three hundred years of them plowed their land holding a sword on their belt.

The Russian people were able to fight off all enemies, until the turn of the latter came, for whom we became a kind of "Carthage", and who for more than a century has been pursuing a purposeful policy to destroy our state and destroy the Russian people, as a force that prevents it from world hegemony. Russia does not suit, and will never suit the United States, in any form: neither in the form of an absolute or constitutional monarchy, nor in the form of a bourgeois-democratic republic, nor in the form of the Republic of Soviets, nor in the form of the USSR, let alone "PRC No. 2 ".

Sixty-three years ago, on August 18, 1948, the US National Security Council adopted Directive 20/1 "US Objectives in the War against Russia." This date is usually considered the beginning of the US information war against the USSR. Directive 20/1 was first published in the United States in 1978 in Deterrence. Documents on American Policy and Strategy 1945-1950. "

The document is interesting, full text on 33 pages, so I am citing only excerpts, everything, from A to Z, is permeated with the spirit of Cato the Elder: "Carthage (Russia) must be destroyed!" Here it is.

“The government is forced, in the interests of the now unfolding political war, to outline more definite and militant goals in relation to Russia now, in peacetime, than was necessary in relation to Germany and Japan even before the outbreak of hostilities with them ... war, we should define our goals, achievable both in peace and in war, reducing to a minimum the gap between them. "

“Our main goals in relation to Russia, in essence, boil down to just two:

A) Minimize the power and influence of Moscow;

B) Carry out fundamental changes in the theory and practice of foreign policy, which the government in power in Russia adheres to. "

For a peaceful period, SNB directive 20/1 provided for the surrender of the USSR under external pressure.

“Our efforts to get Moscow to accept our concepts are tantamount to declaring: our goal is to overthrow Soviet power. Starting from this point of view, we can prove that these goals are unattainable without war, and, therefore, we thereby recognize that our ultimate goal in relation to the Soviet Union is war and the overthrow of Soviet power by force. It would be a mistake to adhere to this line of reasoning.

First, we are not bound by a specific timeframe to achieve our goals in peacetime. We do not have a strict alternation of periods of war and peace, it would induce us to declare: we must achieve our goals in peacetime by such and such a date, or "we will resort to other means."

Secondly, we must rightly not feel absolutely any sense of guilt in seeking to destroy concepts that are incompatible with international peace and replace them with concepts of tolerance and international cooperation. It is not our business to ponder the internal consequences of the adoption of such concepts in another country, nor should we think that we bear any responsibility for these events ... If Soviet leaders consider the growing importance of the more enlightened concepts of international relations are incompatible with the preservation of their power in Russia, it is theirs, not our business. Our business is to work and ensure that internal events take place there ... As a government, we are not responsible for the internal conditions in Russia. "

SNB directive 20/1 recognizes subversive work against the Soviet Union as state policy.

“Our goal in time of peace is not to overthrow the Soviet government. It goes without saying that we are striving to create circumstances and conditions with which the current Soviet leaders will not be able to reconcile and which will not be to their taste. It is possible that once they find themselves in such an environment, they will not be able to keep their run into Russia. However, it should be emphasized with all force - that they, and not our business ...

If a situation really arises, to which we are directing our efforts in peacetime, and it turns out to be unbearable for the preservation of the internal system of government in the USSR, which makes the Soviet government disappear from the scene, we should not regret what happened, but we will not take it upon ourselves. responsibility for having achieved or accomplished it. "

"It is primarily about making and keeping the Soviet Union politically, militarily and psychologically weak in comparison with external forces outside its control."

“We must, first of all, proceed from the fact that it will not be profitable or practically feasible for us to completely occupy the entire territory of the Soviet Union by establishing our administration on it. This is impossible both in view of the vastness of the territory and the size of the population ... In other words, one should not hope to achieve a false implementation of our will on Russian territory, as we tried to do in Germany and Japan. We must understand that the final settlement must be political. "

And here are the ways of such a "settlement", depending on the outcome of hostilities:

“If we take the worst case, that is, the preservation of Soviet power over all or almost all of the present Soviet territory, then we must demand:

A) fulfillment of purely military conditions (surrender of weapons, evacuation of key areas, etc.) in order to ensure military helplessness for a long time

B) fulfillment of conditions in order to ensure significant economic dependence on the outside world. "

“All conditions must be harsh and clearly humiliating for this communist regime. They may roughly resemble the Brest-Litovsk Treaty of 1918, which deserves the most careful study in this regard. "

"We must accept as an unconditional premise that we will not conclude a peace treaty and will not resume normal diplomatic relations with any regime in Russia, which will be dominated by any of the current Soviet leaders or persons who share their way of thinking."

“So what goals should we look for in relation to any non-communist government that may arise in part or all of Russian territory as a result of the events of the war? It should be emphasized with all force that regardless of the ideological basis of any such non-communist regime and regardless of the extent to which it will be willing to pay lip service to democracy and liberalism, we must achieve our goals arising from the requirements already mentioned. In other words, we must create automatic guarantees to ensure that even a non-communist and nominally friendly regime:

A) did not have great military power;

B) economically highly dependent on the outside world;

C) did not have serious power over the main national minorities and

D) did not install anything like an iron curtain.

In the event that such a regime expresses hostility towards the Communists and friendship towards us, we must make sure that these conditions are not imposed in an offensive or humiliating manner. But we are obliged not to impose them by washing so by skating to protect our interests. "

“At the present time there are a number of interesting and strong émigré groups ... any of them is suitable, from our point of view, as the rulers of Russia.

We must expect the various groups to make vigorous efforts to induce us to take steps in Russia's internal affairs that will bind us and cause political groups in Russia to continue to beg for our help. Therefore, we need to take decisive steps to avoid responsibility for deciding who will rule Russia after the collapse of the Soviet regime. The best way out for us is to allow all emigrant elements to return to Russia as quickly as possible and to take care of the extent to which it depends on us, so that they receive approximately equal opportunities in their applications for power ... Probably, an armed struggle will break out between different groups. Even so, we should not interfere, unless this struggle affects our military interests. "

“In any territory liberated from the rule of the Soviets, we will face the problem of the human remnants of the Soviet apparatus of power. In the event of an orderly withdrawal of Soviet troops from present Soviet territory, the local Communist Party apparatus is likely to go underground, as happened in the areas occupied by the Germans in the recent war. Then he will reassert himself in the form of guerrilla bands. In this regard, the problem of how to deal with it is relatively simple: it will be sufficient for us to distribute weapons and support any non-communist government that controls the area, and to allow the communist gangs to be dealt with to the end with the traditional methods of the Russian civil war. A much more difficult problem will be created by ordinary members of the Communist Party or workers (of the Soviet apparatus) who are discovered or arrested or who will surrender to the mercy of our troops or any Russian government. And in this case, we should not take responsibility for the reprisals against these people or give direct orders to local authorities on how to deal with them. This is the business of any Russian government that will replace the communist regime. We can be sure that such a government will be able to judge much better about the danger of the former communists for the security of the new regime and deal with them so that they do not harm in the future ... We must always remember: repression by the hands of foreigners inevitably creates local martyrs .. ...

So, we should not set as our goal the conduct of our troops on the territory liberated from communism, a wide program of decommunization and, in general, should leave it to the lot of any local authorities that will replace Soviet power. "

As you know, there were three Punic Wars.

In the first war, Rome acted as a contender for dominance in the Mediterranean and as a result of a protracted twenty-three-year war was able to significantly strengthen its geopolitical positions.

In the second war, which lasted seventeen years, the Carthaginians under the command of Hannibal tried to take revenge on enemy territory, at first successfully, but, in the end, were forced to leave Italy, and were finished off in Africa by the troops of Scipio.

The third war lasted only three years. It was already provoked by Rome itself. Disarmed Carthage did not need war. Despite the fact that the Carthaginians executed all supporters of the anti-Roman party and were ready to pay off, nevertheless, Rome began a war. After a long siege, Carthage was taken, plundered and razed to the ground, 55,000 inhabitants were enslaved. The place where the fortress stood was plowed with a plow and covered with salt.

Rome won because it was firmly guided by one goal: "Carthage must be destroyed", for this purpose Rome fought, deceived, bribed and made its agents influential, interfered with trade, set against Carthage everyone who was possible, did not spare either itself or enemies.

Carthage lost because it believed in the peaceful coexistence of "great powers", and wanted to trade more than to fight, and when it became obvious that war could not be avoided, it tried to wage war with the hands of mercenaries and, as a result, was beaten and disappeared forever from the historical stage ...

Why am I writing all this. These days it is 20 years since the State Emergency Committee was established. What was it? An attempt to save "Carthage-Russia" from defeat in the "cold war" and plunder by the victors? Or Gorbachev's "setup" in order to break the back of the Soviet Union and fulfill the requirements of the SNB directive 20/1 on the wave of popular hatred for "Uncle Misha"?

It doesn't matter today. Another thing is important. Let's remember ourselves twenty years ago, but rather remember our leaders of the party and state. Which of us, or of them, like Cato the Elder, ended each of his speeches with the words: "Capitalism must be destroyed!" Probably only Fidel Castro and Kim Il Sung, therefore, in Cuba and the DPRK, despite the brutal trade embargo from the United States and their puppets, socialism still lives and flourishes.

And at that time we had solid: "detente", "disarmament", "peaceful coexistence", "strategic partnership" and other defeatist-peace-loving rubbish against the background of the furious philippics of Reagan, Thatcher and the like, against the "Evil Empire", t .e. against our country.

You could go to every bookstore in the USSR and find exactly a dozen books warning you and me about the aggressive plans of world imperialism and subversive activities against our state.

Alas, the word of truth by that time had ceased to be a basic commodity.

We, the inhabitants of the freest and most advanced state in the world, somewhere inside ourselves agreed that our "Carthage" is bad and "must be destroyed."

It was you and I who rushed to the video salons (opened, as a rule, by Komsomol functionaries with the permission of the party apparatus) to watch films how “good Americans”, killing and maiming countless numbers, save the world from communists and “bad Russians”.

It was you and I who lined up for newspapers and magazines that poison us with streams of slander and misinformation.

We did not take to the streets and did not support the State Emergency Committee in the declared desire to preserve the USSR and socialism.

We are paying for this.

Now it is obvious that the historical lesson of Russia has not gone into the future. Our "Carthage" has lost vast territories, it is disarmed and subject to the will of the victor, but it is still potentially dangerous. At any moment we can be reborn and some people will have a hard time.

Therefore, soon, in the near historical perspective, we will be leveled to the ground.

Regardless of our groveling and servility before the overseas "Rome".

Otherwise, death.

P.S. It is interesting that having executed the "enemies of Rome and the Senate", absolutely pacifist-minded Carthaginian oligarchs sent an embassy to Rome with this joyful message for Rome, however, the Roman army had already sailed to Africa by that time. The Romans demanded that the Carthaginians hand over all their weapons and 300 noble citizens as hostages. After fulfilling these requirements, the consul Lucius Censorinus announced the main condition - the city of Carthage must be destroyed, and a new settlement was founded at least 10 miles from the sea.

In Carthage, this demand was greeted with horror and absolutely irreconcilable - the citizens tore the messengers to pieces and were determined to die, but not accept this condition.

Having asked the Romans for a month's delay to fulfill the requirement, while maintaining complete secrecy, the Carthaginians began belated preparations for the defense.

The whole city worked - not a single traitor was found in the more than half a million population. Carthage was an excellent fortress, in a month the citizens brought its defenses to the maximum possible level, and when the Roman army appeared under the walls of the city, the consuls were surprised to see an enemy ready for battle in front of them.

Disarmed, but already ready to die defending, withstanding the siege and repelling the assaults, Carthage held out for another two years. This time, it didn't work out to pay off, because the enemy came to take everything and did it.

Although many Romans dreamed of personally directing the destruction of the capital of an old enemy, Publius Cornelius Scipio Emilian Africanus the Younger was the one who destroyed Carthage. He was a skilled Roman commander, not deprived of oratory and having significant political weight. When he was appointed military tribune, Rome began the last Punic War, during which Carthage was destroyed.

Its history has been quite rich. He was the son of Lucius Aemilius Paulus, and he entered the Scipio family through adoption. His military career began early enough - in 168 BC. he took part in the battle of Pydna, after which he marched with his father and his army throughout Greece, after which he entered Rome in triumph. Already in 151 BC. he was appointed to the post of legate under the consul Lucie Lucullus Scipio Emilian. In this position, he took part in hostilities against the Celtiberians. In the battle of Intercation, he was challenged to a duel by the leader of the tribes of the Spaniards, whom the Roman defeated in battle.

In 149, the Third Punic War began. The Romans decided to destroy the unbeaten enemy, and began to send the Carthaginians unrealizable demands. When they refused to leave their city and go inland, the Romans started a war. Scipio Aemilian may not have expected to be the one who destroyed Carthage, but it was he who was appointed commander in this campaign. During the siege of Carthage, which lasted three years, he suppressed any attempts to repel the siege from the Carthaginians, and more than once saved his people from inevitable defeat. For his exploits in 147, he received the post of consul and supreme commander in the war. When in 146 he captured and destroyed Carthage, the Romans called him African.
The destroyer of Carthage has since gained considerable fame in Roman society. Already in 142 he was elected censor, and he went to Asia and Egypt on special orders from the Senate. In 134 he was re-elected consul, and was appointed commander of the Roman troops in Spain. There he won the Numantian War, managing to impose a system of insurmountable fortifications on the city of Numantia and deprive it of support.
When Scipio Aemilian returned to Rome, there was a riot. He openly opposed Tiberius Gracchus, and had significant support in the country. However, during a heated debate in the Senate, he died unexpectedly. It is possible that he was killed as a result of a conspiracy by his political rivals.

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Good day, colleagues. Today I am publishing the 10th and final part of my historical cycle of articles about Carthage, its foundation, rise and fall under the heel of Rome. In the future, various divan-analytical articles on this topic are planned, as well as the publication of the actual alternative associated with Carthage. Like the last times, the material is published without an introduction.

Revenge of the vanquished

One of the drawings of Carthage from a bird's eye view. Coton and the radial layout of the Old City are faithfully reproduced, but the size of the city is greatly understated, there are no city walls and Megara (suburbs) as such.

20 years have passed since the defeat in the Second Punic War, and in the meantime Carthage has been transformed. Its main source of income has always been not the direct exploitation of territories, but trade - but now, without imperial ambitions and huge expenditures on the armed forces, the city received colossal profits. An unreasonable contribution by the standards of that time, which had to be paid within 50 years, Carthage offered to pay Rome ahead of schedule already 10 years after the end of the war - the Romans, nevertheless, refused. Agriculture was also significantly strengthened - using, probably, the most perfect scientific basis of that time, the Carthaginians began to cultivate the lands of Africa, and they began to give huge yields. A year after the end of the Second Punic War, Carthage supplied 400,000 bushels of grain to the Roman army; in 191 BC. The Romans, at war with Antiochus Seleucid, received from the Carthaginians 500 thousand bushels of grain and 500 thousand bushels of barley as a gift, while continuing to actively trade the same goods. And in 171, the Roman army had already received 1 million bushels of Carthaginian grain and 500 thousand bushels of Carthaginian barley. At the same time, it should be noted that while Carthage was rebuilding the economy and getting rich, Rome was waging exhausting wars with the Hellenistic world - a sign of exertion is the fact that the army received salaries in bronze coins, occasionally - in silver, and did not see gold coins at all. Another sign of the city's prosperity is the construction of Coton, a vast commercial harbor that required a significant amount of engineering to build.

But the Carthaginians at this time did not live peacefully. They were annoyed by Massinissa - the same one who helped Scipio defeat Hannibal at Zama. Taking advantage of the fact that the Romans, who were still hostile towards Carthage, actually decided for Carthage, Massinissa gradually began to occupy the fertile lands of the Carthaginians. At the same time, he actively used the myth of the insidious purchase of land by Elissa, who by cunning acquired significant territories for a pittance. Having occupied another part of the fertile territories, the Numidian king sent envoys to Rome, and the Carthaginian ambassadors also went there with complaints about the Numidians. However, the Senate always sided with the Numidians - as a result of which the territory of the Carthaginian state was reduced without losing wars. In addition, Carthage had no friends left even close - the Romans at that time fully unleashed their own heroism and greatness, and the Carthaginians, who were able to shatter Rome itself, saw the forces of evil, from which they had to get rid of. This attitude was a direct development of the ideas that were once popular among the Greeks about their exclusivity and the threats of barbarians, to which Carthage undoubtedly belonged - however, even in their most secret dreams, the Greeks were not going to destroy one of the largest cities in the Western Mediterranean, and the Romans had such an idea even during Second Punic War. At this time, the final stereotype was also formed about the Punyans as insidious and cruel people, unworthy to live in a civilized society. The Numidians, on the other hand, did not have any personal conflicts with the Carthaginians - however, there was a territorial conflict, which was quite enough. Even the controlled Libyans, no, no, they raised mutinies - as a result, Carthage became a clear example of the fact that money is not everything: despite the improvement in the city's well-being, its position became more and more precarious. After the Third Macedonian War in Rome, the issues of "the final solution of the question of Carthage" were already openly discussed.

Mark Porcius Cato the Elder. The presence of a prosperous Carthage grieves him, as well as many other things.

In 162 BC. Massinissa conquered the fertile areas of Lesser Sirte. At the same time, he showed even more arrogance than usual, and claimed his rights to the Carthaginian trading posts off the coast, which were well protected and could not get him without significant military efforts. The Romans again took his side - and in addition to territories and trading posts, the Carthaginians were also obliged to pay an indemnity to the Numidians in the amount of 500 talents. From such a turn of events in Carthage, anti-Roman and anti-Numidian sentiments were finally established - there were no guarantees that in the same way the Numidians would not get the city itself. Ten years later, history repeated itself, and at the Roman embassy, which was supposed to judge both sides, there was Cato the Elder, who fiercely hated the Carthaginians - and the sight of a prosperous rich city with a large population finally convinced him that Carthage should be destroyed. However, in the Senate, he did not receive unequivocal support - his main opponent and defender of Carthage was Scipio Nazica, the son-in-law of Scipio Africanus, the winner of the Second Punic War. However, the Senate could break spears in political battles as much as he wanted, trying to resolve the issue of Carthage, but the only thing that stopped the Romans from war so far was the lack of a worthy reason.

But the Carthaginians gave Rome a reason. In the city, the opinion prevailed that they would have to fight for their own interests on their own, after which an army was assembled, and a war began, which went on with varying success until the Carthaginian commander Hasdrubal Boetarch did not let the Numidians surround his army. As a result, the list of lost land battles of Carthage was replenished with one more item, Hasdrubal himself barely escaped, hiding in Carthage. Massinissa again expanded his possessions, and Carthage was waiting for a showdown - after all, they violated the terms of the 201 peace treaty. This happened at an extremely favorable time for Rome, when he did not wage any wars and could throw all his forces against the Carthaginians. As a result, when a commission was sent to Carthage to investigate, the Romans were already gathering an army. The Carthaginians tried to convince the Romans of their obedience by expelling the initiators of the war with the Numidians and sentencing Hasdrubal to death, but this did not help either. Meanwhile, Cato spurred on the senators in every possible way, citing examples of violations of treaties by the Carthaginians, accusing them of hypocrisy, duplicity, treachery and treachery. Meanwhile, with Carthage, they gradually began to conclude an agreement. His first condition was the surrender of 300 children of noble families as hostages, which the Carthaginians readily did. After the arrival of the Roman army (80 thousand foot and 4 thousand cavalry) to Utica from Sicily, the Carthaginians were demanded to hand over all the weapons and throwing machines that they had in their possession - and they complied with this requirement, giving the Romans 20 thousand sets of heavy armor and weapons , as well as 4 thousand throwing machines of various sizes and capacities. And only after all this, the Romans voiced the last demand - to move all residents deep into Africa at a distance of at least 16 km from the coast, while destroying Carthage. It was a death sentence for a city living on sea trade. None of the pleas of the ambassadors not to do this had any effect on the Romans - even accusations of treachery in the negotiations were swept aside. The elders who were negotiating returned to the city and announced the Roman decree - but the people refused to obey and killed the envoys. Choosing between slow extinction and death in battle, the Carthaginians chose the latter.

Agony

Carthage Defense Map

While the leaders of Carthage were trying in every possible way to gain time, Hasdrubal Boetarch returned to the city, under his leadership preparations for the siege began. The whole city worked on the creation of weapons, fortifications, armor. The slaves were released, so that they fought along with their former masters for the city. The women cut their hair, giving it to the construction of throwing machines. All the gold they could find was given to the merchants, who were now responsible for supplying the city with provisions - while their ships actually became blockade breakers, since the Roman fleet was at sea. This single impulse did honor to the Carthaginians, and he also saved them from quick death - the Romans, when trying to take possession of the city, met with resistance, and the major assault ended in complete failure. The allied cities of Carthage like Utica went over to the side of the Romans - however, this did not break the spirit of the besieged. Hasdrubal with part of the troops left the city and acted in the rear of the Romans, constantly reminding of his existence by raids and raids.

And the siege itself dragged on. In 147, the Romans again decided on a decisive assault, but that also ended in complete failure, the consul Lucius Hostilius Mancinus, who commanded the assault, was almost captured, being rescued by the detachment of the young Scipio Emilian. The latter then became the commander of the army in Africa - the Senate was very unhappy with the protracted war, and the adopted grandson of Scipio Africanus proved to be a fairly competent commander, unlike the others. Under him, the affairs of the Romans went on the mend - after seizing the outskirts of the city, he forced Hasdrubal to return to Carthage, thus securing his rear, and then decided to completely block the city's commercial port, thus depriving the Carthaginians of outside support and trying to cause famine. The Carthaginians decided to dig a secret entrance to the harbor in order to fend off the actions of Scipio - and they finished doing this simultaneously with the completion of the construction of the dam. The Carthaginian fleet was taken out to sea from light and hastily assembled ships, but there was no way to greatly interfere with the Romans - the ships did not carry a sufficient number of troops. The next day, a major naval battle took place, and the success was more likely accompanied by the Carthaginians, who easily avoided the blows of the heavy Roman penteres, but when returning to the harbor, many ships ran aground in the passage, after which they were captured or sunk by the Romans. After that, the Carthaginian fleet almost never went to sea.

Meanwhile, the Scipio Dam had a dual purpose - not only to block the exit from the harbor, but also to place throwing machines against the less protected section of the city walls, which began to throw stones and burning pots into the city. The Carthaginians made a desperate sortie - at night, with torches, naked, they took possession of the positions of the Roman artillery and burned it. However, the Romans soon restored these losses, and shelling of the city resumed. The Carthaginians were forced to leave the dilapidated port complex, through which the Romans could easily get into the city itself. In the city itself, the situation was catastrophic - epidemics raged, the dead were often not even buried, food supplies were running out. Hasdrubal himself, whom the Carthaginians declared a dictator, added to the problems, and he began to deal with his political enemies with particular cruelty. In addition, he seemed to be trying to raise the morale of the city by torturing prisoners - which had a different effect: during the assault, the Romans were not going to leave anyone alive. Finally, in the spring of 146 BC. the Romans went to the assault, taking advantage of the abandoned port complex.

Carthage destroyed

Street battles for Carthage, Scipio's legionnaires attack the rooftops, killing everyone in their path

Carthage withstood the siege for almost three years, until the spring of 146, when the Roman commander Scipio Emilian still took possession of the exhausted and exhausted city. But it was not easy for the Romans to conquer even a city that was completely exhausted. It was located on a peninsula formed by sandstone hills. In the northeast and southeast, like two fangs, narrow ledges protruded into the sea, and the southeastern promontory cut off the sea and created a large lagoon, which now turned into Lake Tunis. The northern part of the peninsula was protected by steep sandstone cliffs, and on the southern plain, fortifications, ditches and ramparts were erected.

On the side of the sea, two harbors were hidden behind a tall wall. Due to the lack of living space, the Carthaginians had to sacrifice safety. If before nothing was built between the wall and the nearest buildings, then recently the entire territory up to the wall has been filled with houses. This allowed the Romans to set them on fire and helped during the assault. Although the walls themselves were almost impregnable: they were built from huge sandstone blocks weighing more than 13 tons. The blocks were faced with white plaster, which not only protected them from bad weather, but also created the famous marble luster, which marveled sailors, approaching the harbors of the city.

From the harbors - commercial and military - there was only a reminder of the former greatness of Carthage as a maritime power. They occupied an area of about 13 hectares. For their construction, 235,000 cubic meters of rock were manually dredged. The rectangular commercial harbor had numerous marinas and warehouses that received goods from all over the Mediterranean. In the slipways of the round naval harbor, 170 warships could be simultaneously located. Now the piers and slipways were inactive. The Romans blocked the harbor, blocking the entrance with a dam.

After the Romans locked Carthage from the mainland, the supply of food stopped and famine began in the city. Material evidence of the plight of its inhabitants has been preserved. At some point, the city ceased to remove waste and garbage (a nightmare for residents and a boon for archaeologists). It seems that only the corpses of those who died from hunger and disease were removed. At the same time, no one mourned the dead, the bodies of the rich, and the poor were buried in common graves not far from the place where they lived.

The defenders of the city were taken by surprise by Scipio. The Carthaginian commander Hasdrubal expected an attack on the trading port, but the Romans attacked the naval harbor first. From here they quickly took possession of the famous agora of Carthage, the marketplace, where, on the orders of Scipio, they set up camp for the night. The Roman soldiers, anticipating victory, plundered and took all the gold from the temple of Apollo.

Carthage was divided into two interconnected parts. The lower city was a rectangle filled with a grid of streets. On the slopes of Birsa, the streets were located radially. Having seized the suburbs on the plain, Scipio brought in fresh troops to storm the citadel. The soldiers moved carefully, fearing ambushes. Three narrow streets led up the steep slopes. Six-story buildings towered on them, from the roofs of which the townspeople threw stones at the legionnaires. Then Scipio ordered the soldiers to storm every house, climb the roofs and eliminate the stone throwers. Here the legionnaires built bridges from planks and moved along them from one house to another. Fierce hand-to-hand fights now began not only on the streets, but also on the roofs of buildings.

Having won the war on the rooftops, Scipio ordered the houses to be set on fire. In order to facilitate and accelerate the advance of troops to the top of the hill, he also ordered to clear the streets of debris and ruins. From above, not only burning rafters or beams fell on the Romans, but also the bodies of children and old people who were hiding in the secret rooms of buildings. Many of them, though crippled and burned, were still alive, and heartbreaking screams added to the rumble of the fires and crumbling houses. Some were crushed by the cavalry, moving through the streets to the top of Birsa, others suffered an even more terrible death: street sweepers with iron pitchforks threw them into the burial pits along with the corpses.

So Carthage fell

For six days and nights in the streets of Carthage, the carnage continued, and Scipio constantly changed his teams of murderers. On the seventh day, a delegation of Carthaginian elders came to him with olive branches from the temple of Eshmun and prayers to save the lives of fellow citizens. The Roman general heeded their requests, and on the same day 50,000 men, women and children went into slavery through a narrow gate in the wall.

Most of the citizens of Carthage surrendered to the victor's mercy, but Hasdrubal, with his family and nine hundred Roman defectors, whom Scipio would hardly have forgiven for desertion, continued to persist. They took refuge in the temple of Eshmun and, taking advantage of its special status and inaccessibility, could hold out for some more time. Hunger, physical exhaustion and fear nevertheless forced them to go up to the roof and there to accept a voluntary death.

However, Hasdrubal did not want to share the fate of his comrades. Leaving them and his family, he secretly fled, surrendering to Scipio. The sight of the commander crawling at the feet of his worst enemy only strengthened the conviction of the surviving defenders of Carthage in the inevitability of suicide. Sending curses to Hasdrubal, they set fire to the temple to perish in the fire.

Hasdrubal's own wife, surrounded by frightened children, pronounced a terrible sentence on him, condemning him to eternal shame: “Scoundrel, traitor, hare soul, let this fire bury both me and the children, and you, the leader of the great Carthage, decorate the triumph of the Roman. But you also cannot escape the punishment of the one at whose feet you sit "... After that, she killed the children by throwing their bodies into the fire, and she herself threw herself into the flames.

Thus ended the 700-year history of Carthage.

Notes (edit)

1) Probably, the reason for this is the fact that a certain part of the contribution, upon gradual payment, went into the hands of the patricians, and in the event of its early repayment, they would generally fall less than with an annual contribution. However, this is only a theory.

2) Or simply the Romans decided to embellish the history of Massinissa's claims. At least we can say that Elissa bought only the territory for Carthage itself, but the surrounding fertile lands were acquired or conquered by her heirs - which means that the terms of the agreement between Elissa and Iarbant did not apply to them.

3) Although the Romans at that time apparently had no problems with fabricating reasons. However, here one should understand the heterogeneity of the political elite of Rome - and if a very serious reason was required to fabricate a pretext, then with an already existing pretext, war for the Romans became almost inevitable.

4) Most likely this is not a dynastic affiliation, but the military position of the commander of auxiliary forces (although it can be both). This person is also known as Hasdrubal the Last.

5) It's funny that many of these accusations were inherent in the Romans themselves, including in the last war of Carthage.

6) We are not like that - such is life!

7) There is also a completely different version of military operations at sea - after the completion of the digging of the channel, the Carthaginian fleet went to sea, but for some unknown reason it only roamed in front of the Romans, and later was easily destroyed by the strongest Roman fleet. Which version to believe is up to you.

8) Apparently, they got to the dam by swimming, and therefore the lack of armor and clothing that would interfere with swimming and pulled the soldiers to the bottom.

9) This section is an introduction to the book by Richard Miles "Carthage Must Be Destroyed". Here she is used as an epilogue because of her literary success and high degree of drama, worthy of the fall of a great city.

10) In the same year, the Romans destroyed the ancient city of Corinth. For the ancient world, such destruction, and even more so the sale of citizens of free cities into slavery, was something like war crimes, but there could no longer be any consequences for Rome - it became the most powerful state in the Mediterranean, and there was simply no one to call it to account (more precisely , the last one who will be destined to call Rome to account in full, has not yet been born).