Carthage Must Be Destroyed (2 page)

390s–380s
The Magonids lose their political power base in Carthage.

373
Treaty between Carthage and Syracuse.

348
Second treaty between Carthage and Rome.

340
Syracusan forces under Timoleon defeat the Carthaginians at the Battle of the Crimisus.

338
New treaty between Carthage and Syracuse by which the dominion of Carthage in Sicily is confined to the lands west of the river Halycus (Platani).

332
Siege and capture of Tyre by Alexander the Great.

323
Death of Alexander the Great.

310–307
Invasion of Punic North Africa by Agathocles of Syracuse.

308
Failed coup attempt by Carthaginian general Bomilcar.

306
Supposed third treaty between Carthage and Rome.

280–275
The wars between Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, and the Romans and Carthaginians.

279
Treaty between Carthage and Rome against Pyrrhus.

264
The outbreak of the First Punic War between Carthage and Rome.

260
Roman naval victory at Mylae.

256–255
Regulus’ expedition to North Africa.

249
Carthaginian naval victory at Drepana.

247
Hamilcar Barca appointed general in Sicily. His son Hannibal Barca is born.

241
Carthaginian naval defeat at the Battle of the Aegates. Carthage sues for peace, and the First Punic War comes to an end with Rome victorious. Carthage loses its Sicilian territories.

241–238
The Mercenaries’ Revolt.

237
Annexation of Sardinia and Corsica by Rome.

237–229
Hamilcar Barca establishes the Barcid protectorate in southern Spain.

231
Alleged first Roman embassy to Hamilcar Barca.

229
Death of Hamilcar Barca and the assumption of his generalship by his son-in-law, Hasdrubal.

228–227
Hasdrubal Barca’s alleged unsuccessful return to Carthage.
227
Foundation of New Carthage by Hasdrubal.

226
Treaty between Hasdrubal and the Romans.

221
Murder of Hasdrubal. Hannibal Barca is acclaimed as the general of the Carthaginian forces in Spain.

220
Meeting between Hannibal and Roman envoys at New Carthage.

219
Hannibal starts to besiege Saguntum.

218
Roman embassy to Spain and then Carthage. Rome declares war on Carthage, and the Second Punic War begins. Hannibal sets off overland for Italy with his army (June). Battles of the Ticinus and the Trebia (November and December).

217
Battle of Lake Trasimene (June). Quintus Fabius Maximus becomes Roman dictator.

216
Battle of Cannae (August). Defection of Capua to Hannibal.

215
Hannibal’s treaty with Philip V of Macedon. Hieronymus becomes king of Syracuse.

214
Hieronymus is murdered. Hippocrates and Epicydes are elected magistrates and ally Syracuse with Carthage.

213
Syracuse besieged by Roman army under the command of Marcellus.

212
Defection of Tarentum, Locri, Thurii and Metapontum to Hannibal. The Romans besiege Capua. Marcellus captures Syracuse.

211
Hannibal marches on Rome. Surrender of Capua to the Romans. Deaths of the Scipios in Spain.

209
Capture of Tarentum by Fabius. Capture of New Carthage by Scipio Africanus.

208
Death of Marcellus. Defeat of Hasdrubal Barca (Hannibal’s brother) by Scipio Africanus at Baecula. Hasdrubal leaves with an army for Italy.

207
Hasdrubal defeated and killed at the Battle of the Metaurus.

206
Hannibal trapped in Bruttium. Scipio defeats the Carthaginian army at Ilipa. Gades surrenders to the Romans. Numidian king Syphax allies himself to Carthage.

205
Philip V of Macedon makes peace with Rome.

204
Scipio Africanus invades North Africa. The destruction of the Carthaginian and Numidian camps near Utica.

203
Defeat of the Carthaginians and Numidians at the Battle of the Great Plains. Syphax killed and Masinissa becomes king of all Numidia. Hannibal recalled from Italy.

202
Battle of Zama (October).

201
End of the Second Punic War.

196
Hannibal elected suffete.

195
Hannibal leaves for exile in the eastern Mediterranean.

184
Rome rejects the Carthaginians’ appeal against Numidian incursions into their territory.

183
Hannibal commits suicide in Bithynia.

182
Further Carthaginian appeal over Numidian aggression rejected.

174
The Romans reject another Carthaginian appeal against territorial encroachments by Masinissa.

168
The Macedonians comprehensively defeated by the Romans at the Battle of Pydna.

162
Masinissa seizes the emporia of Syrtis Minor. Carthage’s subsequent appeal to Rome is rejected.

153
Roman embassy sent to Carthage.

151
Carthage pays off the final instalment of its indemnity from the Second Punic War.

151–150
Popular party gains power in Carthage.

150
Rome decides on war against Carthage. Third Punic War starts.

149
Oligarchic party led by Hanno returns to power in Carthage. Start of siege of Carthage.

146
Destruction of Carthage by Scipio Aemilianus. Destruction of Corinth by a Roman army under Lucius Mummius.

122
Attempted Roman colony on site of Carthage led by Gaius Gracchus fails.

29
Augustus begins the construction of the new Roman city of Carthage.

29–19
Vergil writes the
Aeneid.

This book would not have been written without the support and forbearance of a large number of people.

Particular thanks are due to my editors Simon Winder and Wendy Wolf at Penguin and Viking and Peter Robinson for their patience and advice over the years. I owe an enormous debt of gratitude to Philip Booth, Peter Garnsey, Irad Malkin, Robin Osborne and Peter Van Dommelen, who read and commented on the whole or various sections of this book. I also benefited greatly from discussions with Roald Docter, the late Friedrich Rakob and Dick Whittaker, Henry Hurst, Dexter Hoyos, Tim Whitmarsh, Claudia Kunze, Mike Clover, Jim McKeown, Martin Davidson, and Joseph Maxwell on different aspects of Carthage and the ancient Mediterranean world. Various chapters of this book were greatly improved by the valuable contributions made by participants at seminars at the Universities of London, Illinois–Champaign–Urbana, Wisconsin–Madison, Cambridge and Sydney.

Much of this book was written during sabbatical leave at the Institute of Research into the Humanities at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 2007–8. I am very grateful to the director of the Institute, Susan Friedman, and its fellows and staff for providing such an intellectually congenial working environment. I would also like to acknowledge the support afforded to me over the years by my colleagues in the Faculty of Classics and Trinity Hall at the University of Cambridge.

Lastly, my love and thanks to Camilla, Maisie, Jessamy and Gabriel, who have all lived with Carthage for far too long.

Cambridge
May 2009

Carthage had been under siege for nearly three years when one day during the spring of 146 BC the Roman commander, Scipio Aemilianus, ordered the final assault on the stricken city and its increasingly desperate inhabitants.

Even now, with its defences and defenders greatly weakened, Carthage still posed a daunting challenge for the Roman attackers. Situated on the Mediterranean coast of what is now Tunisia, the city was built on a peninsula made up of a series of sandstone hills. On its north-eastern and south-eastern peripheries, two narrow strands of land jutted out like wings, with the latter almost cutting off the sea and creating the large lagoon now known as the Lake of Tunis. The northern area of the peninsula was protected by a series of steep sandstone cliffs, whereas to the south lay a large coastal plain protected by a formidable set of walls, ditches and ramparts.

On the seaward side of the city two magnificent harbours were shielded by a sea wall. A chronic shortage of available living space within the city had meant that security had been somewhat compromised in this area. Whereas previously a gap had been carefully maintained between the wall and the nearest buildings, now houses had been constructed right up to the sea walls, allowing determined attackers the opportunity of setting fire to them with missiles or gaining access by climbing on to their roofs.
¹
However, the walls themselves still presented an intimidating obstacle, with some of the huge sandstone blocks weighing over 13 tonnes. The blocks were covered in white plaster, which not only protected the stone from the elements, but also gave the walls a famous shimmering marble effect when looked upon from ships sailing into the city’s harbours.
²

 

The two harbours–one commercial and one military–stood as a reminder of Carthage’s past fame as a maritime superpower. These vast man-made structures, which covered an area of around 13 hectares, had required the manual excavation of some 235,000 cubic metres of soil. The rectangular commercial harbour had extensive quays and warehousing where goods from all over the Mediterranean world and beyond were loaded and unloaded.
³
The circular war harbour was an engineering masterpiece, with storeyed ship-sheds which could hold at least 170 vessels, with ramps to drag them from and to the water’s edge.
⁴
Now the harbours lay idle, because the Romans, after many fruitless attempts, had finally managed to secure their blockade by constructing a mole to block their entrance.

As the Romans had also managed to seal Carthage from its North African hinterland, no further food supplies could be brought into the city–meaning that much of the population was beginning to starve. Physical evidence still exists showing that life for the inhabitants of Carthage had taken a dramatic turn for the worse during the siege. At some point, probably when the siege made them impossible, rubbish collections ceased (a resident’s nightmare, but an archaeologist’s dream).
⁵
During the last difficult years of the city, the only waste that seems to have been regularly removed was the corpses of the many who died as starvation and disease took hold. Now, in the last terrible months of the city’s existence, in contrast to the care that had traditionally been taken of the dead, the corpses of both rich and poor were unceremoniously dumped in a number of mass graves just a short distance away from where they had lived.
⁶

When the attack finally came, the city’s defenders were caught off guard, because the Carthaginian commander, Hasdrubal, had gambled on an assault being mounted on the commercial port, whereas in fact the Romans attacked the war harbour first. From the harbour, the legionaries quickly moved to seize control of Carthage’s famous agora, or marketplace, where Scipio ordered his men to set up camp for the night. The Roman troops, sensing that final victory was near, began the inevitable plunder by stripping the nearby temple of Apollo of its gold decoration.
⁷

Carthage was divided into two distinct but integrated parts. While the lower city was laid out orthogonally in a formal grid, the streets on the slopes of the citadel, the Byrsa, were arranged in a radial pattern.
⁸
Now that many of the neighbourhoods on the plain had been secured, Scipio called up fresh troops in preparation for the storming of the Byrsa. The soldiers proceeded with caution, as the nature of the hill made it an excellent terrain from which to stage ambushes. Three narrow streets led up the steep slopes. Each was flanked by six-storey houses from whose roofs their inhabitants mounted a desperate last defence by raining missiles down on to the advancing legionaries. However, Scipio, a seasoned siege tactician, quickly regained the momentum by commanding his troops to storm the houses and make their way to the roofs. From there they used planks to create gangways over to the adjacent houses. While this battle raged above, the slaughter on the streets continued.

Once the resistance on the roofs had been neutralized, Scipio ordered that the houses be set alight. So that his troops’ progress up the hill should be unimpeded, he also commanded that cleaning parties should keep the streets clear of debris. However, it would not be just stone and burning timber that came crashing down from above, but also the bodies of children and the elderly who had been sheltered in secret hiding places within the buildings. Many, although injured and horribly burnt, were still alive, and their piteous cries would add to the cacophony around them. Some were subsequently crushed to death by the Roman cavalry proceeding up the streets. Others would meet a far more gruesome end as the street cleaners dragged their still breathing bodies out of the way with their iron tools before tossing both the living and the dead into pits.