In 146 BCE, Carthage fell. Appian tells us Scipio Aemilianus wept as flames climbed the Byrsa, then received the Senate’s order: obliterate what remained and forbid habitation. Beams cracked, ash went black, and a rival city vanished by policy as much as fire [4].
What Happened
The last assault drove into the Byrsa. House by house, room by room, legionaries cut their way upward. The air turned black with ash; timbers cracked like whips; the smell of pitch and death mixed in alleys that had once sold purple dye and glass. Hasdrubal surrendered; his wife, Appian says, chose fire [4].
Scipio Aemilianus stood in the ruin and cried. Appian preserves the moment: the general gazed into flames and quoted Homer, mourning the fortune of the enemy and perhaps foreseeing future turns of fate. Then duty resumed. Messages passed between the smoking citadel and Rome [4].
The Senate’s decree was stark: if anything remained of Carthage, obliterate it, and let no one live there. The language converted victory into policy. Stones came down; walls were leveled; survivors were sold. The Megara became mute. The blue arc of the Gulf of Tunis reflected only ruin [4].
A city that had once sent trade to Sardinia and war to Sicily became a memory enforced by law. The sound of picks on stone replaced the sound of merchants in the agora. The color of the place was ash [4].
In Rome, the triumph celebrated Scipio. In Africa, nothing rose where Byrsa had burned [4].
Why This Matters
The decree made annihilation an administrative act. Carthage did not just fall; it was unmade by vote and executed by soldiers. Appian’s pathos—the tears, the quote—sits beside a very Roman prose: raze, forbid, erase [4].
It epitomizes “Total War and Erasure.” Beyond victory, the Senate sought to end possibility. The silence enforced on Byrsa and Megara was meant to last longer than the generation that fought there [4].
The decision also codified Rome’s new posture: rivals could be turned into provinces or into absence. The Republic that had learned the sea and won with treaties now showed it could also win by removing an enemy from the map entirely [4][16].
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