Posted by Dan Ewert : 9/06/2002 12:01:00 AM (Archive Link)
A thought just came to me while I was thinking about action against Iraq. It reminded me of the Punic Wars. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, these were a series of three wars between the ancient Roman Republic (before the empire) and Carthage in North Africa… roughly 264-146 BC. You might remember the Second Punic War… it was the one with Hannibal and the elephants crossing the Alps and all. What brings this all to mind, though, is the Third Punic War. Carthage had rebuilt its wealth and a little power after its defeat in the second war (although Hannibal did give Rome a run for its money… the phrase, “Hannibal at the gates!” was often used by mothers to scare their children) and it had built a special harbor for warships. Rome saw the potential threat in Carthage’s military buildup, especially considering the first two conflicts, and decided to eliminate the threat. The famous senator Cato was known to end all of his senate speeches, no matter the topic, by saying, “I also think that Carthage should be destroyed!” In one speech, in an act of bravado, he released a collection of fresh dates from his toga, declaring they had been picked in Carthage only two days prior. We can only assume they got the point. Ultimately, the Romans razed Carthage, killed most of its citizenry and sold the rest into slavery. Ok, so we shouldn’t be anywhere near that brutal in dealing with Iraq, but it goes to show that the old Roman folks knew how to take preemptive action.