Siege of Carthage (Third Punic War)

The Siege of Carthage was the main engagement of the Third Punic War between the Punic city of Carthage in Africa and the Roman Republic. It was a siege operation, starting sometime in 149 or 148 BC, and ending in spring 146 BC with the sack or razing and complete demolition of the city of Carthage by the Romans.

Siege of Carthage
Part of the Third Punic War

Catapulta by Edward Poynter. Roman siege engine in action during the siege of Carthage in the Third Punic War.
Datec. 149 – spring 146 BC
Location
Carthage (near modern Tunis)
Result
  • Decisive Roman victory
    • End of the Punic Wars
    • Destruction of Carthage, and enslavement of survivors
    • Roman Republic annexes the remaining Carthaginian territory and Africa Proconsularis is established
Belligerents
Roman Republic Carthage
Commanders and leaders
 Hasdrubal the Boetharch
Strength
80,000 infantry[1]
4,000 cavalry[1]
50 quinqueremes[2]		 30,000 soldiers[3]
150,000–500,000 civilians[4][2]
Casualties and losses
The location of Carthage

Primary sources
Polybius

The main source for almost every aspect of the Third Punic War[note 1] is the historian Polybius (c. 200 – c. 118 BC), a Greek sent to Rome in 167 BC as a hostage.[6] His works include a now-lost manual on military tactics,[7] but he is now known for The Histories, written sometime after 146 BC.[8][9] Polybius's work is considered broadly objective and largely neutral as between Carthaginian and Roman points of view.[10][11] Polybius was an analytical historian and wherever possible personally interviewed participants, from both sides, in the events he wrote about.[12][13][14] He accompanied the Roman general Scipio Aemilianus during his campaign in North Africa which resulted in the storming of Carhage and Roman victory in the war.[15]

The accuracy of Polybius's account has been much debated over the past 150 years, but the modern consensus is to accept it largely at face value, and the details of the war in modern sources are largely based on interpretations of Polybius's account.[6][16][17] The modern historian Andrew Curry sees Polybius as being "fairly reliable";[18] while Craige Champion describes him as "a remarkably well-informed, industrious, and insightful historian".[19]

Other, later, ancient histories of the war exist, although often in fragmentary or summary form.[20] Appian's account of the Third Punic War is especially valuable.[21] Modern historians usually also take into account the writings of various Roman annalists, some contemporary; the Sicilian Greek Diodorus Siculus; the later Roman historians Livy (who relied heavily on Polybius[22]), Plutarch and Dio Cassius.[23] The classicist Adrian Goldsworthy states "Polybius' account is usually to be preferred when it differs with any of our other accounts".[note 2][13] Other sources include coins, inscriptions, archaeological evidence and empirical evidence from reconstructions such as the trireme Olympias.[24]

Background
Archaeological Site of Carthage

Carthage and Rome fought the 17-year-long Second Punic War between 218 and 201 BC which ended with a Roman victory. The peace treaty imposed on the Carthaginians stripped them of all of their overseas territories, and some of their African ones. An indemnity of 10,000 silver talents[note 3][note 4] was to be paid over 50 years. Hostages were taken. Carthage was forbidden to possess war elephants and its fleet was restricted to 10 warships. It was prohibited from waging war outside Africa, and in Africa only with Rome's express permission. Many senior Carthaginians wanted to reject it, but Hannibal spoke strongly in its favour and it was accepted in spring 201 BC.[27][28] Henceforth it was clear that Carthage was politically subordinate to Rome.[29]

At the end of the war the Roman ally Masinissa emerged as by far the most powerful ruler among the Numidians.[30] Over the following 48 years he repeatedly took advantage of Carthage's inability to protect its possessions. Whenever Carthage petioned Rome for redress, or permission to take military action, Rome backed its ally, Masinissa, and refused.[31] Masinissa's seizures of and raids into Carthaginian territory became increasingly flagrant. In 151 BC Carthage raised a large army commanded by Hasdrubal and, the treaty notwithstanding, counter attacked the Numidians. The campaign ended in disaster and the army surrendered[32] and was then massacred.[33] Hasdrubal escaped to Carthage, where in an attempt to placate Rome he was condemned to death.[34] Carthage had paid off its indemnity and was prospering economically, but was no military threat to Rome.[35][36] Elements in the Roman Senate had long wished to destroy Carthage, and with the breach of the treaty as a casus belli, war was declared in 149 BC.[32]

Siege

Unfortunately for Carthage, even before the arrival of the Romans, its Libyan allies began to revolt over the unfair treatment and the unfairness of how they had suffered during the previous wars against Rome, with many of towns and cities in Libya facing financial ruin from its constant wars with Rome. Many of the Libyan subjects and soldiers of Carthage now saw a chance to enrich themselves at the expense of their Carthaginian masters and as such duly revolted.[37]

In 149 BC a Roman army of approximately 50,000 men, jointly commanded by both consuls, landed near Utica, 35 kilometres (22 mi) north of Carthage.[38] Rome demanded that if war were to be avoided, the Carthaginians must hand over all of their armaments. Vast amounts of materiel delivered, including 200,000 sets of armour, 2,000 catapults and a large number of warships.[39] This done, the Romans demanded the Carthaginians burn their city and relocate at least 16 kilometres (10 mi) from the sea; the Carthaginians broke off negotiations and set to recreating their armoury.[40]

The Carthaginians manned the walls and defied the Romans, a situation which lasted two years. During this period, the 500,000 Carthaginians behind the wall transformed the city into a huge arsenal. They produced a daily supply of about 300 swords, 500 spears, 140 shields, and over 1,000 projectiles for catapults.[3] The Romans elected the young and popular Scipio Aemilianus as consul, after a special law was passed in order to lift the age restriction. Scipio restored discipline, defeated the Carthaginians at Nepheris and besieged the city closely, constructing a mole to block the harbour.[41]

In the spring of 146 BC, Scipio and the Roman troops seized the Cothon wall of Carthage. They then battled their way through the double city harbors, which was made possible by the fact that Hasdrubal had assumed that the Roman attack would come from another direction. When day broke, 4,000 fresh Roman troops led by Scipio attacked the Byrsa, the strongest part of the city. Three streets lined with six story houses led to the Byrsa fortress and the Carthaginians and Romans fought each other from the rooftops of the buildings as well as in the streets. The Romans used captured buildings to capture other buildings. Scipio ordered the houses to be burned while their defenders were still inside. Scipio then captured the Byrsa and immediately set fire to the buildings, which caused even more destruction and deaths. The fighting continued for six more days and nights, until the Carthaginians surrendered. An estimated 50,000 surviving inhabitants were sold into slavery and the city was then levelled. The land surrounding Carthage was eventually declared ager publicus (public land) and shared between local farmers and Roman and Italian colonists.[42]

During the siege, 900 survivors, most of them Roman deserters, had found refuge in the temple of Eshmun, in the citadel of Byrsa, although it was already burning. They tried to negotiate a surrender but Scipio Aemilianus declared that forgiveness was impossible either for Hasdrubal, the general who defended the city or the defectors. Hasdrubal left the Citadel to surrender and pray for mercy (he had tortured Roman prisoners in front of the Roman army).[43] At that moment Hasdrubal's wife allegedly went out with her two children, insulted her husband, sacrificed her sons and jumped with them into a fire that the deserters had started.[44]

Scipio moved back to a close blockade of the city, and built a mole which cut off supply from the sea.[45] In the spring of 146 BC the Roman army managed to secure a foothold on the fortifications near the harbour.[46][47] When the main assault began it quickly captured the city's main square, where the legions camped overnight.[48] The next morning the Romans systematically worked their way through the residential part of the city, killing everyone they encountered and firing the buildings behind them.[46] At times the Romans progressed from rooftop to rooftop, to prevent missiles being hurled down on them.[48] It took six days to clear the city of resistance, and on the last day Scipio agreed to accept prisoners. The last holdouts, including Roman deserters in Carthaginian service, fought on from the Temple of Eshmoun and burnt it down around themselves when all hope was gone.[49] There were 50,000 Carthaginian prisoners, a small proportion of the pre-war population, who were sold into slavery.[50] The historian Ben Kiernan claims that the destruction of Carthage may have been history's first genocide.[51][52] The notion that Roman forces then sowed the city with salt is a 19th-century invention.[53][54]

Aftermath
Part of the ruins of Carthage

The remaining Carthaginian territories were annexed by Rome and reconstituted to become the Roman province of Africa with Utica as its capital.[55] The province became a major source of grain and other foodstuffs.[56] Numerous large Punic cities, such as those in Mauretania, were taken over by the Romans,[57] although they were permitted to retain their Punic system of government.[58] A century later, the site of Carthage was rebuilt as a Roman city by Julius Caesar, and would become one of the main cities of Roman Africa by the time of the Empire.[59][60] Rome still exists as the capital of Italy; the ruins of Carthage lie 16 kilometres (10 mi) east of modern Tunis on the North African coast.[61]

Notes, citations and sources

Notes
  1. The term Punic comes from the Latin word Punicus (or Poenicus), meaning "Carthaginian", and is a reference to the Carthaginians' Phoenician ancestry.[5]
  2. Sources other than Polybius are discussed by Bernard Mineo in "Principal Literary Sources for the Punic Wars (apart from Polybius)".[23]
  3. 50,000 talents was approximately 1,285,000 kg (1,265 long tons) of silver.[25]
  4. Several different "talents" are known from antiquity. The ones referred to in this article are all Euboic (or Euboeic) talents, of approximately 26 kilograms (57 lb).[25][26]

Citations
  1. Appian
  2. Tucker, Spencer (2010). Battles That Changed History: An Encyclopedia of World Conflict. ABC-CLIO. p. 66. ISBN 978-1-598-84429-0.
  3. Appian of Alexandria, The Punic Wars, ""
  4. Dutton, Donald G. (2007). The Psychology of Genocide, Massacres, and Extreme Violence: Why "normal" People Come to Commit Atrocities. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 14. ISBN 978-0275990008.
  5. Sidwell & Jones 1998, p. 16.
  6. Goldsworthy 2006, pp. 20–21.
  7. Shutt 1938, p. 53.
  8. Goldsworthy 2006, p. 20.
  9. Walbank 1990, pp. 11–12.
  10. Lazenby 1996, pp. x–xi.
  11. Hau 2016, pp. 23–24.
  12. Shutt 1938, p. 55.
  13. Goldsworthy 2006, p. 21.
  14. Champion 2015, pp. 98, 101.
  15. Champion 2015, p. 96.
  16. Lazenby 1996, pp. x–xi, 82–84.
  17. Tipps 1985, p. 432.
  18. Curry 2012, p. 34.
  19. Champion 2015, p. 102.
  20. Goldsworthy 2006, pp. 21–23.
  21. Le Bohec 2015, p. 430.
  22. Champion 2015, p. 95.
  23. Mineo 2015, pp. 111–127.
  24. Goldsworthy 2006, pp. 23, 98.
  25. Lazenby 1996, p. 158.
  26. Scullard 2006, p. 565.
  27. Miles 2011, p. 317.
  28. Goldsworthy 2006, pp. 308–309.
  29. Eckstein 2006, p. 176.
  30. Kunze 2015, p. 398.
  31. Kunze 2015, pp. 398, 407.
  32. Kunze 2015, p. 407.
  33. Bagnall 1999, p. 307.
  34. Bagnall 1999, p. 308.
  35. Kunze 2015, p. 408.
  36. Le Bohec 2015, p. 434.
  37. "truceless war".
  38. Le Bohec 2015, pp. 436–437.
  39. Le Bohec 2015, p. 438.
  40. Bagnall 1999, pp. 309–310.
  41. Goldworthy pp. 346–349
  42. Appian The Punic Wars
  43. Appian, Punica 118
  44. Appian of Alexandria,The Punic Wars, "The Third Punic War"
  45. Miles 2011, p. 2.
  46. Le Bohec 2015, p. 441.
  47. Miles 2011, p. 346.
  48. Miles 2011, p. 3.
  49. Miles 2011, pp. 3–4.
  50. Scullard 2002, p. 316.
  51. Kiernan, Ben (1 August 2004). "The First Genocide: Carthage, 146 BC". Diogenes. 51 (3): 27–39. doi:10.1177/0392192104043648. ISSN 0392-1921.
  52. Rubinstein, William D. (2014). Genocide. Routledge. p. 25. ISBN 9781317869962.
  53. Ridley 1986, pp. 144–145.
  54. Ripley & Dana 1858–1863, p. 497.
  55. Scullard 2002, pp. 310, 316.
  56. Whittaker 1996, p. 596.
  57. Pollard 2015, p. 249.
  58. Fantar 2015, pp. 455–456.
  59. Richardson 2015, pp. 480–481.
  60. Miles 2011, pp. 363–364.
  61. UNESCO 2020.

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