We don’t learn from history. Seriously, we don’t. It’s pathetic how stupid we really are. Of course there are numerous examples we could use, but by now people should know I’m always going to refer back to the ancient world. Back in the year 146 BCE, Carthage, the ancient trading super power of the western Mediterranean was razed to the ground and literally ceased to exist (of course there are always pockets of resistance, but they died out eventually). Its capital city, Carthage of course, was completely plundered, looted, burned, destroyed, razed and use another adjective you would like to add in there. Who were the perpetrators? The civilization we base our culture on at its very roots, the Romans. We have many things to thank the Romans for. Like our government, our laws and religious beliefs were given birth in the Roman world in some way, shape or form. Of course there is another art that they were the first to truly perfect, GENOCIDE! But that’s not what this blabber is about. It’s about how today’s situation in Iraq ( or I-RaK in American) is all too similar to the third Punic war that started in 149.
To truly grasp the situation I’ve got to tell you guys a bit about the great Carthaginian Empire. According to the Romans (winners write history), the city of Carthage was founded by queen Dido. Originally a Phoenician princess from Tyre, she was exiled after her husband was murdered. She soon quickly escaped from Tyre (basically today in Lebanon, if I’m not mistaken, I’m trying to avoid Wikipedia). From there on, Dido and her “entourage” founded Carthage in 814 BCE, about the time of Homer if it’s any help. Carthage, basically today’s Tunis in Tunisia, was amazingly well placed for trade across the Mediterranean being at the tip of North Africa. For almost 450 years Carthage was top Dog in the Mediterranean. They were distantly placed away from the Greek, Macedonian, Persian conflicts in the east and so prospered because they had no competition. The situation in the world was Greek/Persian in the east and Carthage in the west. This worked out fine until the Romans finally truly came on the scene in the 270’s. The Romans had just come off defeating the Etruscans, Samnites and of course, Pyrrhus and so had the entire Italian Peninsula under their control beneath the river Po.
Now, I’m not going to get into detail about the first two Punic wars because they are lengthy and don’t have much to do with what I want to say. To sum them up I will say Rome won the first by sea battles (which surprises everyone since the Punic fleets were considered to be the best at the time). The second Punic war is the most well known because of two men, Hannibal Barca and Scipio Africanus. These two men probably rank as the best generals of all time, certainly my top ten. This war ended with the defeat of Hannibal at the battle of Zama in 202.
So to get to my point, the Romans put a series of serious diplomatic measures after the victories over Carthage. This included reparation payments, the seizing of territories such as Corsica and Sardinia and the reduction of Carthage’s naval capacity. After the second Punic war the Romans made it so that Carthage would have to pay Rome a certain amount of Gold every year, for 50 years. (I forget how much). After a few years of saving, Carthage offered to hand the entire sum due in one year, but Rome refused. They wanted Carthage to have the constant reminder that Rome was her superior.
For half a century Carthage made her payments and never was late on them either. Things were very peaceful between the two empires for a long time. This was the case until Rome received its last payment in 152 BCE. The Romans became instantly worried that Carthage would strike back for her revenge. This really wasn’t true. The Punic civilisation was in no condition to fight the now mighty Roman republic that now had territories in Greece, Macedonia and Anatolia (Turkey today). The Carthaginians had no interest in renewed military activity. They just didn’t have the means to do so. The Senate was aware of this and wanted to keep their prestige over that of the Carthaginians. Since the payments had stopped the senate felt that Carthage no longer considered itself to be under the dominion of the Republic. This was not the case; Carthage was a broken city that had lost almost everything in which it had 50 years previously. The people were only now coming back on the rise as a society. Still, the Romans did not like this.
Carthago delenda est! (Carthage must be destroyed) was the famous calling card for the third Punic war. The man who made this comment was none other than Cato the elder. In today’s standards Cato would be considered a conservative. He was well aware that a rising Carthage was a blemish on Rome’s image and therefore wanted it to be dealt with. But the trash that he and his supporters/comrades put out was that if Carthage would be on the rise they would pose a threat to the roman people (which is total bullshit) and soon enough the call to war was made in 149 BCE. Now this is where the comparison starts. We all know of the “They have weapons of mass destruction” B.S. that was splattered all over the media at the beginning of the decade. This was the doing of the president Chaney and his bitch, George Bush. We all know now that there were never any WMD’s. Thousands of people have lost their lives to a very pointless war like what happened in North Africa 149 -146 BCE. The superpower of the time walking into a broken defenceless country and just deciding to ransack it because they fucking feel like it! I have no problem with war. War is a justifiable means to an end in my view, but what happened in 146 BCE and 2000 years later is not war. Its needless massacre for no good reason at all. We don’t learn from history, but then again coming from the Bush administration now that I think of it, it doesn’t surprise me. People died to suit someone else’s very stupid needs The Republic’s “image”, or.... or.... I really don’t know what was happening in the heads of southern friends a few years ago.... oh I forgot OIL!!!
Well that’s it, forgive me for my rant and for my lack of knowledge of all this modern world stuff, but I like to always make a historical reference to something when I have the chance.