The history of Carthage is long and complex, involving alliances and counter-alliances and abandoned alliances and renewed alliances. Professor Miles describes them in detail, as well as the three Punic Wars. He also unravels for us the long history of complicated maneuvering by both Rome and Carthage to influence and control portions of both Sardinia and Sicily.
When Hamilcar Barca (Hannibal’s father) died in 247 BC, his son-in-law, Hasdrubal, carved out a Carthaginian Protectorate along the southern edge of Spain (227 BC), and named its chief city New Carthage, known to this day as Cartegena. Unfortunately, Hasdrubal appears not to have been much of a diplomat; he was assassinated in 221 BC by the servant of someone he had had killed.
His successor, by virtual acclaim, was the 26-year-old son of Hamilcar Barca, Hannibal Barca, he of the elephants-over-the-Alps fame. Marching on Italy, he launched the second Punic War, which was fought all over Italy, and ultimately in Numidia, for seventeen years. When Rome finally triumphed, Carthage was saddled with a huge punitive debt. Oddly enough, the ensuing years actually went rather better for Carthage than for Rome, and the Carthaginians were able to pay off their war debt in 151 BC.
In 150 BC, Rome declared war on Carthage, and the Third Punic War began. In 149 BC, there was a siege of Carthage by the forces of Scipio Aemilianus (afterwards called Scipio Africanus in honor of his victory), and although the city held out until 146 BC, Roman troops finally overran it. Fifty thousand of Carthage’s citizens were permitted to leave the city, to be sold into slavery. Those who remained retreated to a temple, and perished in a fire they themselves had set. The city was then razed by the Romans. Hannibal was not among them; he survived and lived in exile in the Hellenistic East. His last year was spent in Bithynia, where the king was persuaded to surrender Hannibal. When soldiers came for him, Professor Miles writes: Hannibal “took the poison that he always carried with him, thus avoiding the humiliation of the capture.”
Carthage Must Be Destroyed is not a swift read, nor will it be an easy one unless the reader has some general knowledge of ancient history. While Professor Miles goes into great detail and background, he often sent me to the dictionary, using terms like didrachm, salvitio, nuraghic, and tophet (the last two terms are actually explained but coming on them again many pages later, I had to scramble for my dictionary or page back to re-discover them). It seems a pity that there isn’t, at the back of the book, a glossary of such esoteric terms, to which one might refer.
At times, Miles is simply carried away, using the term “euhemeristic” or “euhermerism” seven times in two paragraphs, followed by another two times on the following page. That was, at the least, a good way to hammer the meaning into my brain, but it did bring on an eye-roll or two.
I also wish there had been a family tree somewhere in the notes so that I could have kept track of the dozens of Carthaginians whose names begin with the letter “H.” There are easily more than 2 dozen H-names, among them several namesakes, and after awhile it becomes hard to remember who is which and related to whom. The quick visual of a family tree or two might solve the problem.
There are, however, a couple of really good helps for the reader. The book contains a wonderful timeline, without which this review could not have been written. The maps accompanying the text are also a big help, their simple, direct graphics enabling one to place actions and reactions with ease.
The title of the book alone will be enough to ensnare anyone who loves ancient history, especially anyone who has gotten past “All Gaul is divided into 3 parts” in Latin II, and moved on to the more advanced material of Latin III or IV. I well remember little Miss Diveley, my Latin III teacher, crying out in a stirring voice: “Cartago delenda est!” She then blanched at my feeble attempt at translation of: “Carthage is destroyed.”
More Articles
- The Beige Book Summary of Commentary on Current Economic Conditions By Federal Reserve District Wednesday November 30, 2022
- A la Frank Sinatra: "Come Fly With Me", U.S. Department of Transportation Airline Customer Service Dashboard
- Adrienne G. Cannon Writes: Those Lonely Days
- From the CDC: When You've Been Fully Vaccinated You Can ........For the 30,000,000 Who Have Been Vaccinated
- Jill Norgren Reviews a New Inspector Gamache Mystery: All the Devils Are Here
- FactCheck Post: The Facts on Trump’s Travel Restrictions: "We Don't Have a Travel Ban; We Have a Travel Band-Aid Right Now"
- Heard of the Novel Corona Virus Before? The New England Journal of Medicine's Free Reading Lists and the W.H.O.'s Statement
- Horse, Horse, Tiger, Tiger; It's the Tone of the Character That Makes the Word
- Although the Summer Travel Season is Drawing to a Close, A Worldwide Caution is Still in Effect From the State Department; Hong Kong Update
- The Bodleian Library and Worldmapper Create a Cartogram Depicting Trump's Tweets and Countries that Dominate US President's Foreign Policy