“Carthage must be destroyed” – and with these words Cato the Elder doomed his North African rival by helping spark the Third Punic War, the last in a century of conflicts between Rome and Carthage. Deprived of its military in the aftermath of Zama and harassed by the Numidian king Massinissa, Carthage nevertheless managed to bounce back as an economic powerhouse during the first half of the second century B.C. Yet this recovery made the Senate suspicious of their Punic neighbor, which rapidly escalated into a war of annihilation as the Romans were determined to secure their position as sole master of the Mediterranean.

Episode Notes:

(https://hellenisticagepodcast.wordpress.com/2026/01/20/115-the-third-punic-war-delenda-est/)

Episode Transcript:

(https://hellenisticagepodcast.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/115-the-third-punic-war-delenda-est-transcript.pdf)

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