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“Carthago delenda est!” The Roman statesman, Cato the Elder used to end all his political speeches with this phrase, even if his speech had nothing to do with Carthage. The phrase means, “Carthage must be destroyed.”

Three times, Rome faced down its mortal enemy in the ancient civilization of Carthage. The First Punic War lasted 23 long years, running from 264-241 BC. The Second Punic War was 17 years, from 218-201 BC. The Third Punic War took only three years, 149-146 BC. The beginning of the war was primarily over trade and dominance of the Mediterranean. But as the Romans got to know their enemy, they also came to realize that what was truly at the heart of their conflict were two completely incompatible ways of life.

The Romans, despite their pagan brutality in some areas, focused on the importance of and centrality of the family and never practiced human sacrifice. The Carthaginians, however, focused on wealth, luxury, pleasure, and most certainly practiced child sacrifice. Carthage was the center of the world at the time of the conflict with Rome. It was the wealthiest and most impressive city-state in the world, and it truly had no equal. But its religious practices, which were the last vestiges of the Canaanite religion*, were all about the destruction of children. Plutarch, in the 13 th chapter of his book, “De Superstitione” described the sacrifices like this:

“with full knowledge and understanding they themselves offered up their own children, and those who had no children would buy little ones from poor people and cut their throats as if they were so many lambs or young birds; meanwhile the mother stood by without a tear or moan; but should she utter a single moan or let fall a single tear, she had to forfeit the money, and her child was sacrificed nevertheless; and the whole area before the statue was filled with a loud noise of flutes and drums took the cries of wailing should not reach the ears of the people.

—Lepanto Institute, February 9, 2019

* perhaps not the last