Cold Open

It’s spring, 146 BCE, in the city of Carthage, on the north coast of Africa.

39-year-old Roman General Scipio Aemilianus leads two dozen of his finest soldiers down a narrow passageway. After a long siege, he’s finally broken through the Carthaginian defenses, and now his men are fighting street by street toward the temple in the heart of the city.

There’s a smash of breaking pottery, and a soldier in front of Scipio collapses to the ground. Scipio looks up. From the rooftops of the buildings on either side, Carthaginian citizens are hurling pots and pans, even furniture, at the invaders.

Scipio raises his shield above his head.

As bowls and plates shatter on the ground around him, Scipio orders his soldiers to deal with this new threat.

Breaking off, a small group of them smashes through a door and heads for the roof.

The battle for control of the city has lasted six days so far. It’s been a brutal fight. Scipio has ordered his men to leave no one alive, and the Carthaginians are putting up fierce resistance. But desperate civilians are no match for heavily armed and experienced Roman soldiers.

Scipio looks up as screams echo across the rooftop. With a nod of satisfaction, he raises his sword and orders his men on. Because they have a city to conquer.

By the time this battle is over, Carthage will be reduced to ashes and dust. The fall of the city will result in the deaths of tens of thousands of people. And those who survive will be sold into slavery. But with no one left to sign an official surrender, the war between Rome and Carthage will technically continue for hundreds of years, until it's finally, officially brought to an end with the signing of a symbolic peace treaty on February 5th, 1985.

Introduction

From Noiser and Airship, I’m Lindsay Graham, and this is History Daily.

History is made every day. On this podcast—every day—we tell the true stories of the people and events that shaped our world.

Today is February 5th, 1985: The Official End of the Third Punic War.

Act One: Fig Trouble in Little Carthage

It’s 157 BCE, in Rome, eleven years before the sack of Carthage.

Amid the soaring columns of the Senate, 77-year-old Marcus Cato raises his arms and pleads for silence as applause flows around the chamber. He’s in the middle of a speech on his favorite subject—the threat to Rome represented by its decadent and immoral enemy, the city of Carthage.

Separated by 300 miles of sea, Rome and Carthage have long tussled for dominance over the Mediterranean. A century ago, as Rome’s influence and power spread farther south, the two cities went to war over control of the island of Sicily. This First Punic War was a long and bloody conflict that ended in defeat for the Carthaginians. Sicily was annexed by the Romans, and Carthage was forced to pay reparations to Rome.

But the proud city of Carthage refused to live under what it saw as Roman oppression, and a generation later, a second conflict broke out. The great Carthaginian leader Hannibal amassed a giant army and invaded Italy in a surprise attack from the north. The two powers fought each other for 17 years. Hannibal and his army came close to victory, but a Roman invasion of North Africa eventually forced Hannibal and his men to hurry back across the seas to defend their homeland. But a catastrophic defeat forced Hannibal to sue for peace.

The negotiations were one-sided. Carthage was stripped of its empire. And once again forced to pay heavy reparations to Rome. It was also forbidden from building a powerful navy or waging war outside of Africa.

So Carthage’s days as a regional superpower seemed to be over. Rome was the undisputed master of the Mediterranean. But now, almost fifty years after Hannibal’s defeat, Carthage is rising once again. The city is enjoying an economic boom. And for the Roman senator Cato, this is unacceptable. As a young man, he fought in the Second Punic War and has never been able to forget it. So, he believes something must be done about Carthage before it’s too late.

As his colleagues in the Senate look on, Cato pulls a fresh, juicy fig from the folds of his toga. He holds it aloft and declares that this fruit has come from Carthage. It was plucked from a tree in the city just three days ago. The message is clear—Rome’s old enemy is thriving, and it's not as far away as many people think. Cato finishes his speech with the same Latin phrase he uses every time he speaks in the Senate—“carthago delenda est”. Carthage must be destroyed.

Cato wants war—and eventually, after a long campaign, he gets his wish. In 149 BCE, a land dispute between Carthage and a Roman ally in North Africa provides the Senate with the excuse it needs. Rome amasses an army of 80,000 men and marches on Carthage.

Outside the gates of the city, the Roman forces are met by a Carthaginian delegation. Led by a man named Banno, they try to negotiate. They make it clear that they have no desire for war with Rome. They are willing to settle the land dispute with their neighbor, and even offer to give the Romans 300 young Carthaginians as slaves.

This peace offering is accepted, and Banno hopes he has avoided war. But as soon as the new slaves have been taken away, the Roman general demands more. He insists that Carthage relinquish all its weapons—or the Romans will have no choice but to attack.

Reluctantly, Banno again does as he’s told. He hands over armor and weaponry that could equip 20,000 soldiers. But still, the Roman general is not satisfied and makes another, final demand. He tells Banno that all Carthaginians must leave their homes immediately. The city is to be destroyed.

Banno realizes that the negotiations have been a sham—there was never any chance of peace. He still tries his best to save his people, but his words and pleas fall on deaf ears. The Romans are resolute. The people of Carthage must leave or face annihilation.

But this is one demand too far. The Carthaginians refuse to abandon their home. And instead, they shut the gates on the Roman invaders and put their faith in the one weapon they have left—the city’s mighty walls.

For the next two years, those walls will protect them, and a series of Roman generals will try and fail to take the city. But when a battle-smart, cunning young man is placed in charge of the Roman army, Carthage’s resistance will come to a bloody end.

Act Two: Total Destruction

It’s 147 BCE, outside Carthage, on the coast of North Africa, two years after the outbreak of the Third Punic War.

From the Roman encampment, Scipio Aemilianus looks across the sun-scorched earth at the high fortifications surrounding the city. Despite several direct assaults, the walls of Carthage have held firm. The Romans have thrown thousands of men at the city, but they are no closer to defeating it than they were two years ago.

By land, the Romans have Carthage surrounded. No food or reinforcements can reach the besieged city that way. But as of yet, the invaders have not been able to stop supplies coming in by sea. As long as that lifeline remains open, Carthage can hold out almost indefinitely.

But Scipio has had an idea, and now he’s summoned his senior commanders to give them new orders.

Scipio has been in North Africa since the beginning of Rome’s campaign against Carthage. Back then, he was just a military tribune—a senior officer, but not the man responsible for overall strategy. Instead, a series of other commanders led the Roman invasion forces as they tried to breach the city walls. And although the Romans had seized most of their enemy’s weapons, the Carthaginians adapted quickly. Led by their general, Hasdrubal, every available building in the city was turned into a workshop to make shields, spears, and missiles. Women cut off their long hair to make rope and string for weapons, even children were trained to fight alongside their elders. With high walls and deep ditches protecting one side of the city and the sea protecting the other, the Carthaginians were able to throw the Romans back time and time again.

But despite these setbacks, one Roman officer managed to distinguish himself in the fighting—Scipio Aemilianus. And thanks to his performance in battle and the lobbying of his powerful family back home, he was eventually put in charge of the entire invasion force. Decades earlier, his adoptive grandfather had won the decisive battle of the Second Punic War. So now, all of Rome hopes Scipio the Younger will go on to even greater heights and destroy Carthage once and for all.

But Scipio is more than just a famous name. He has a brilliant tactical mind, and he believes he knows how they can finally break Carthage’s stubborn resistance.

Meeting with his senior lieutenants, he tells them that they are to build a “mole”, a solid wall-like structure that will extend out into the Carthaginian harbor and effectively cut off their enemy from its one remaining supply line. This immense structure takes weeks to construct. But when it’s finally complete, the Carthaginians are trapped. They make a final attempt to break out by sea, but when that fails, they have no choice but to hunker down behind their walls and wait for the inevitable.

The Carthaginians begin to starve. By the spring of 146 BCE, the defenders of the city are so weak that their general, Hasdrubal, can do nothing to stop the Romans breaching the walls.

Then, after six more days of bloody fighting, General Hasdrubal, his family, and a few hundred other Carthaginians have retreated to a temple in the heart of the city. But they’re surrounded.

Rather than fight one final, pointless battle, Hasdrubal decides to beg the Romans for mercy. He slips out of the temple and falls to his knees at Scipio’s feet.

But to the other surviving Carthaginians, this is an act of cowardice. Even Hasdrubal’s own wife is ashamed of him. She refuses to follow her husband and surrender. Instead, she sets the temple on fire. Then, as the blaze consumes the building around her, she slits the throats of her children and walks into the flames.

There is no more resistance, and Scipio is at last triumphant. So with his enemy utterly defeated, Scipio orders the complete destruction of Carthage. Its temples are pulled down, its homes and palaces are set alight.

But as he watches the once mighty city be consumed by flames, Scipio begins to weep. When he’s asked why, he replies that he fears that one day Rome will suffer a similar fate.

Rome will fall one day, but not in Scipio’s lifetime. Instead, it will dominate the Mediterranean for another five centuries. But Rome will never make a formal peace with the few remaining people of Carthage —until more than a thousand years later, when two modern-day politicians will decide to reimagine the relationship between the two former rivals, and finally end the war between Carthage and Rome.

Act Three: No Tears Over Spilt Water

It’s February 5th, 1985, near the ruins of Ancient Carthage in Tunisia, more than 2,000 years after the fall of the city.

In a modern government building, the 60-year-old Mayor of Rome, Ugo Vetere, rises from his seat and steps toward the smiling figure of Chedli Klibi, the Mayor of Carthage. The two men smile and shake hands, then sit down at a long table, where they will sign a peace treaty and finally declare an end to the war between Rome and Carthage.

Two decades ago, historians discovered that no official end to the conflict was ever documented. Seeing an opportunity to promote cooperation between Italy and Tunisia, Mayor Vetere and his counterpart, Mayor Klibi, have decided to sign a symbolic “peace treaty”, officially ending the Third Punic War.

Over 150 dignitaries have been invited to witness the ceremony, as well as members of the press. But such is the crush that a glass of water on the table is knocked over by a photographer. The two mayors are quick to save the treaty, but they can’t stop the water from flooding onto Mayor Vetere’s seat.

It’s not how either of them imagined the ceremony would begin. But it gives the quick-thinking Mayor of Carthage the opportunity to underline the new friendship between these two historic enemies. He immediately stands and offers his own, dry seat to the mayor of Rome.

The two men then take turn signing the treaty. Mayor Vetere likens Rome and Carthage to the modern superpowers and calls for peace and reconciliation instead of destructive wars, while Mayor Klibi describes the treaty as “a lesson in humility and wisdom”. As the ink dries, the men shake hands once again, and applause rings out.

Finally, after more than two thousand years, the Third Punic War is over, officially.

In truth, the animosity between the two cities ended long ago. After its destruction by the Romans, Carthage eventually rose again. Rebuilt by Julius Caesar in the first century BCE, it became a prosperous regional center in the wider Roman Empire. But the scars of its bitter defeat could never be entirely wiped away. The fire-blackened ruins of Ancient Carthage could still be seen centuries later, even when the Mayor of Rome came to the city to finally sign a peace accord on February 5th, 1985.

Outro

Next on History Daily. February 6th, 1958. An airplane crashes in Munich, Germany, killing 23 people, including eight members of Manchester United's championship-winning soccer team.

From Noiser and Airship, this is History Daily, hosted, edited, and executive produced by me, Lindsay Graham.

Audio editing by Muhammad Shahzaib.

Sound design by Mollie Baack.

Music by Thrumm.

This episode is written and researched by Owen Paul Nicholls.

Edited by William Simpson.

Managing producer Emily Burke.

Executive Producers are William Simpson for Airship and Pascal Hughes for Noiser.