The famous Latin phrase Carthago delenda est - Carthage must be destroyed - an expression meaning an insistent call to fight an enemy or an obstacle, every diligent student knows. It is known from the course of ancient history that the Roman commander and statesman Cato the Elder finished all his speeches in the Senate. The historian Guy Velley Paterculus, several centuries later, commented on this eternal motto: “Rome, having already conquered the whole world, could not be safe until Carthage was destroyed”.
Carthage was actually the worst enemy of Rome in the 4th-2nd centuries BC. e. This huge city-state with about a million inhabitants, located on the African coast of the Mediterranean Sea, near modern Tunisia, was founded by the Phoenicians and was the capital of the trading empire that challenged Rome. Carthage maintained its monopoly on trade with the help of a fairly large navy and a powerful mercenary army.
However, despite the fact that the confrontation was based on the same principles as now, that is, the struggle for resources and the sales market, the antagonism between the great empires of the Ancient World was exacerbated by different beliefs and, as they say now, the mentality of the two nations. The empire of Rome in the pre-Christian period was distinguished by significant religious tolerance and made it possible for different religions to coexist peacefully. However, despite this and the general cruelty of morals at that time, ancient authors more than once spoke with hatred and curse about how children were executed in Carthage, in an effort to honor their bloodthirsty gods.
So what can you learn from the ancient chroniclers about this dark side of the life of Carthaginian society?
All due to the fact that Carthage inherited the ancient customs of the Phoenicians, which were long obsolete in the Middle East. And these customs were terrible. To this day, they thrill all those interested in ancient history. In one passage belonging to Sanhunyaton, the Phoenician historian of the XII-XI centuries BC. e., it is said that "during the great disasters that occurred either from wars, or from droughts or a pestilence, the Phoenicians sacrificed one of the most dear people."
The sacrifice of a son, especially the firstborn, was considered a feat of piety, accomplished in the name of God and, as a rule, for the good of the native city. Children from noble families were often sacrificed; it was the duty of those who ruled the city to give up what was most dear, in order to win the favor of the people. In such cases, the location of the deity was probably considered secure. The Phoenicians believed that the souls of the sacrificed children rise immediately to God and from that time they protect the homeland and family. Over time, in Carthage, noble people began to buy other people's children, giving them to the priests under the guise of their own.
For a Roman of ancient times, murder was not out of the ordinary. Hundreds of gladiators killed each other in the circus arenas, for the amusement of the public. Intrigue, conspiracy and murder were commonplace in imperial Rome. And yet, the Carthaginian practice of sacrifices caused disgust and horror among both plebeians and patricians.
The supreme deity among the Phoenicians and their descendants is Baal (Baal) - the thunderer, the god of fertility, waters, war, sky, sun and other things. He was also worshiped in Assyria, Babylon, the Old Kingdom of Israel, Judea, Canaan and Syria. It was to him that bloody sacrifices were intended. Of course, human sacrifice was common among many ancient peoples, but among the religious fanatics of Carthage, the ritual murder of an innocent child grew into a disgusting sadistic act. The dark beginning of primitive magic in the Punic (Carthaginian) religion was intertwined with the sophisticated cruelty of an aging civilization.
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In the central square of Carthage towered a huge hollow copper idol with the head of a bull, the totem animal of Baal. A fire was kindled under it. According to the historian of the 1st century BC. e. Diodorus of Siculus, the children chosen for the sacrifice, were brought to the red-hot statue and placed on its brass hands, along which they slid down into the fire.
It was forbidden to cry during the sacrifice. It was believed that any tear, every sigh detract from the value of the sacrifice. Looking at the death of children, their parents, dressed in bright, elegant clothes, should have rejoiced. According to some of the historians, this is what the gods allegedly demanded. Others, such as Justin, who lived in the second century, were convinced that "with these atrocities the Carthaginians turned the gods away from themselves."
Known in the Christian religion, Beelzebub - one of the evil spirits, the devil's henchman, often identified with him - is none other than Baal, more precisely, one of the personifications of this ancient deity. Baal Zevuv means "lord of the flies" or "lord of things flying."
“As soon as they reached the edge of the hole, the victims disappeared like water droplets on a red-hot iron, and white smoke soared up among the crimson flames, - this is how, using ancient sources, Gustave Flaubert described the execution in honor of the monstrous deity in the novel“Salammbeau”. long, unbearably long, until the very evening. The inner walls of the compartments turned red, burning meat became visible. Some even thought that they could distinguish hair, individual limbs, the whole body of the victims."
Both the Romans and Greeks of ancient times, and the Europeans of the 19th century, did not understand and did not accept this terrible custom. With such gods, perhaps, only the 20th century - the century of mass executions, the death of millions of people in wars, gas chambers, furnaces of concentration camps could have endured …
Rome fought against Carthage three times until what Cato dreamed of came true. The Roman troops finally managed to approach the walls of Carthage.
And the disaster began. The fire moved on the city. He moved from floor to floor, and a terrible heat burned the people hiding under the roofs. Some cursed the gods, some enemies, but their voices were cut off when a new building, burned to the ground, fell, blocking the street and killing the fleeing. The screams of the wounded were heard from under the stones, but no one heard them.
Fierce battles were fought on the roofs of other houses. Spears, arrows and stones were flying. People fell one after another. If horsemen appeared in the street openings, they cut the fleeing with their swords, and the horses crushed the wounded with their hooves.
And then the collectors came out of their hiding places and with hooks dragged both the dead and those still alive into the pit. People filled the ditches like rubbish.
Trumpets sounded, inspiring the victors and sending great fear to the dying city. The centurions shouted loudly, summoning the soldiers, the troops were rapidly moving, convinced of victory. Madness and cruelty took possession of everyone.
Some of the residents locked themselves in the temple of Eshmun and were burned alive in it. After six days of street fighting, about 50,000 starved defenders of Carthage surrendered to the mercy of the soldiers of Rome. Some were executed, others were sold into slavery.
So in 146 BC. e. Carthage fell. The third Punic War was ending. Now it was possible to talk about him only in the past tense. The city disappeared, was wiped off the face of the earth. Its territory was plowed and covered with salt so that the grass would not grow there either. All monuments of art, handwritten books, architectural structures were destroyed, so that nothing could remind descendants of the despicable Punas.
However, after a hundred years, the city began to revive, but already under Roman rule. In its place, Roman temples and public buildings have now begun to be erected, a circus for 60,000 spectators, a theater, an amphitheater, huge thermae (baths) and a 132-kilometer aqueduct have been built. In Roman times, Carthage had about 300,000 inhabitants and rivaled Alexandria in wealth and enlightenment.
439 - it was captured and plundered by vandals, 100 years later he submitted to the Byzantine commander Belisarius and became the residence of the Constantinople governor. And at the very end of the 7th century, Muslim Arabs conquered almost all of North Africa with inconceivable speed. 698 - the city was taken by the Arabs, and its stones served as material for the construction of the city of Tunisia. In the centuries that followed, the marble and granite that once adorned the Roman city were removed from the country. According to some accounts, they were used to build cathedrals in Genoa, Pisa, and Canterbury Cathedral in Britain. A city with a thousand-year history, which terrified the entire ancient world, was again wiped off the face of the earth and never revived.
Y. Podolsky