In the year 201 BC, the Romans were victorious over their arch rivals the city state of Carthage in the second Punic war.

This was the closest which Rome had ever come to defeat and almost spelled the end of the republic.

50 years later, some Romans felt that they left the job unfinished.

In fact, some Romans could talk about nothing else.

Learn more about the third Punic War and the destruction of Carthage

on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Book your ticket to happiness with Sun Express Airlines. lines. To understand why the city of Carthage was destroyed, it's important to understand the events which led up to its destruction.

As I explained in a previous episode on the Phoenician civilization, Carthage was a Phoenician colony that eventually

grew to outshine its parent cities back in Lebanon. Carthage

located in what is today northern Tunisia had an extensive trading network as

well as colonies scattered all about the Mediterranean.

As the young Republic of Rome began expanding out of the Italian peninsula,

it started to butt heads with the Carthaginians,

especially on the island of Sicily.

This resulted in a series of wars between Roman Carthage called the Punic Wars, which

is derived from the Latin word for Phoenicia. The first Punic War lasted 23 years from 264 to 241 BC. It was primarily fought on

Sicily and at sea and it was arguably the largest naval conflict ever fought in the

ancient world. The war was won by Rome who managed to

extract reparations from Carthage and completely annexedly as a Roman

province. 23 years later in 218 BC another war erupted between Carthagin Rome.

The second Punic War was the largest war that Rome had ever seen up until that point, and

it almost destroyed the Roman Republic.

The Carthaginian forces were led by their brilliant general Hannibal,

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