Ancient writers and modern archaeology indicate that Carthage practiced child sacrifice, especially during times of crisis. Wealthy citizens would sometimes buy poor children for the ritual, and archaeological sites known as tophets contain thousands of cremated infant remains. ✦ AI generated
Paul Cooper · Fall of Civilizations · 2023-06-18 · original ↗
starts at this moment · 136:45
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. The whole area before the statue was filled with a loud noise of flutes and drums so that the cries of wailing should not reach the ears of the people.
verbatim transcript · starts at 136:45
136:55battle was enormous and probably involved at least 120,000 sailors, soldiers, rowers, and marines. The vast battlefield would have devolved into a chaos of clashing oars and rams, shouting men, and the thud of the corvus bridges crushing down onto the decks, the clashing of shields and swords, the crashing of waves, and the shrieking of gulls overhead. By the end of the day, the result of the battle was a decisive defeat for the
137:27Carthaginians. With the fleet of Carthage scattered, the Romans successfully made the crossing into Africa and landed on the peninsula of Cape Bon, on the other side of the bay from the city. The citizens of Carthage would now have been able to see the campfires of the Roman army in the distance at night. Some of the city's oldest residents would still have remembered when the army of Agathocles had menaced the city
137:58only half a century before, when they had watched those ships burning on the shoreline. The Carthaginians had had enough. They asked the Romans for a peace treaty to sign, but the Roman demands were so punishing that the Carthaginians, even in their desperate state, could not accept it, and so, the war dragged on. But the Romans, like Agathocles, found themselves unable to take the city of Carthage. The Roman expeditionary force sent to
138:31capture the city was beaten disastrously by a smaller Carthaginian army at the battle of Tunis, and the Roman consul leading it was captured and killed. In this way, the fortunes of each side ticked back and forth like a pendulum. Another naval battle at Cape Hermaeum saw another Roman victory and another hundred Carthaginian ships sunk, but the Romans had no time to celebrate. On its return voyage home, the victorious