Third Punic War
Date -149 to -146
Location Carthage
Territorial changes Destruction of Carthage
Outcome Decisive Roman victory
Belligerents
Roman Republic Carthage
Commanders
Scipion Emilian Hasdrubal
Opposing forces
40,000 90,000
Losses
17,000 62,000
Battles
Carthage
The Third Punic War was the last phase of a conflict that opposed Rome and Carthage for more than a century and which ended after a short campaign and a long siege with the destruction of the Punic city.
Origins
This war was caused more by Roman fears of having to face the Carthaginians again than by real threats (see the famous phrase Delenda est Carthago - "Carthage must be destroyed" - by Cato). The real pretext for waging this war is the attack of the Carthaginians on one of their allies (Massinissa). The Romans accuse them of having violated the peace treaty of -202, which prohibited Carthage from any military action without the approval of Rome. Although Carthage regained some economic prosperity between 200 and 149 BC. J.-C., and that it had completed in - 151 to reimburse the war indemnities provided for by the treaty, it could not reconstitute either a war fleet or an army of importance.
Procedure
This war decided by the Roman Senate therefore consisted of a short campaign intended to bring the Roman troops to work for the siege of Carthage which lasted three years and was carried out by Publius Cornelius Scipio, which earned him the nickname of Second African ("Africanus minor"), the first being Scipio the African.
The Romans landed at Utica in -149 and completed their siege in 146 BC. BC by the complete destruction of the city, razed the same year as Corinth. Its location is cursed and salt would have been ritually poured there (the complete salting of the site of Carthage, often professed, remains a legend:in addition to the prohibitive cost of such an operation, its implementation would have been very long).
Later resurrection of Carthage
From the year -123, however, Caius Sempronius Gracchus proposed, for his loss, to establish 5,000 Roman colonists on the ancient site of Carthage. Taken over by Caesar, the project was carried out by Augustus from -29. With Roman Carthage was founded (refounded) one of the most brilliant cities of the empire, destined to prosper until the Vandal or even Arab invasions. The Romans thus solved the inconvenience of having destroyed in -146 an essential link in the Mediterranean trade.