Carthage's Destruction

In Our Time

BBC

History

4.6 • 9.9K Ratings

🗓️ 12 February 2009

⏱️ 43 minutes

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Summary

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Destruction of Carthage. The North African city of Carthage was rich and powerful, but in the second century BC it suffered a terrible fate. The Greek historian Appian wrote about it: “Then came new scenes of horror. As the fire spread and carried everything down, the soldiers did not wait to destroy the buildings little by little, but all in a heap. So the crashing grew louder, and many corpses fell with the stones into the midst. Others were seen still living, especially old men, women, and young children who had hidden in the inmost nooks of the houses, some of them wounded, some more or less burned, and uttering piteous cries.”When the Romans finally conquered their great enemy in 146 BC, they razed it to the ground, sold off its library and tried to destroy not merely the city but the civilisation based upon it. Carthage was removed from history with such effect that it’s hard to know the city save through Roman eyes.It was a pivotal moment in world history that left Rome as the supreme power in the Mediterranean but after it was gone the ghosts of Carthage haunted Rome and seemed to hint at Rome’s own fate. With Mary Beard, Professor of Classics at the University of Cambridge; Jo Quinn, Lecturer in Ancient History at the University of Oxford and Ellen O’Gorman, Senior Lecturer in Classics at the University of Bristol

Transcript

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0:00.0	Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know.
0:04.7	My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds.
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0:39.0	For more details about In Our Time and for our terms of use, please go to BBC.co. UK forward slash radio for. I hope you
0:46.4	enjoy the program. Hello the North African City of Carthage was rich and
0:51.4	powerful but in the second in the second century BC it suffered a terrible fate.
0:56.4	The Greek historian Appian wrote about it.
0:59.2	Then came new scenes of horror.
1:00.9	As the fire spread and carried everything down the soldiers
1:03.6	didn't wait to destroy the buildings little by little but all in a heap. So the
1:07.5	crashing grew louder and many corpses fell with the stones into the midst.
1:11.6	Others were seen still living, especially old men, women and
1:14.9	young children who had hidden in the inmost nooks of the houses, some of the wounded, some of them
1:19.4	more or less burned, and uttering pitious cries. Carthage was destroyed by Rome and destroyed utterly.
1:26.2	Its people scattered and its library broken up.
1:28.6	The Romans removed Carthage from history with such effect that it's hard to know to know the city saved through Roman eyes.
1:34.8	But the ghosts of Carthage haunted the citizens of Rome for many centuries and the
1:40.3	destruction of the opulent and civilized Carthage was not a moment of triumph but seemed
	...

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