5 February 1985

According to the Arizona Republic, today in 1985 the Third Punic War officially ended. The Third Punic War was fought between Rome and Carthage from 149-146 B.C. It was a bit of an anti-climax after the Second Punic War, the one with Hannibal crossing the Alps, but it did give us Cato's famous announcement that "Carthage must be destroyed," from which comes the title of the blog. Carthage was utterly destroyed, and the story is that the Romans salted the earth so that nothing would ever grow there again.

I suppose the Republic means that a treaty was never signed, and in 1985 Italy and Tunisia decided to end it. Does anyone know if my wonderful newspaper is just blowing smoke up my ass? It doesn't really matter, of course, but it's an interesting little fact.