Graham, Alexander: Roman Africa: an outline of the history of the Roman occupation of North Africa ; based chiefly upon inscriptions and monumental remains in that country (London [u.a.], 1902)

Carthage and Rome 13

m ake to avert a conflict were unlimited in respect of ships, war
material of all kinds, and personal weapons. But the decree
of* the Senate and people of Rome was irresistible. Carthage
must be destroyed, and the city must cease to exist. The
events which followed the issue of this terrible edict, terminating
the third and last Punic war and erasing the metropolis of the
Phoenician world from the book of nations, are too well known
to need recapitulation.1 They form the last chapters of African
history prior to the Roman occupation.

In the opening paragraph of this chapter it was said that
the history of Roman Africa commences with the close of the
second Punic war, B.C. 201 ; and, in support of this assertion,
it may be fairly added that, till the fall of Hannibal and the
recognition of Carthage and Numidia as powerful States subject
to the will of Rome, Africa held no place in the Roman mind
as a country adapted either for the establishment of military
strongholds or for the future settlement of a civil population.
To keep Carthage in subjection, to destroy her fleet, and to
force her to supply the Roman army with money and provisions,
seem to have met the immediate requirements of the Senate.
Continuous wars in other parts of the world had decimated the
Italian army, and caused sad havoc in the ranks of the male
population. Colonisation on any organised plan was not even
contemplated, nor do we hear of any attempt, so far as African
possessions were concerned, till Julius Caesar set the example.
It is true that inhabitants of Rome and of the Italian provinces,
prompted by a love of change and adventure, had migrated to
towns on the African coast, and had even located themselves
at Cirta, the capital of Numidia. But they were not the repre-
sentatives of any organised system. All we know is, that
when Jugurtha laid siege to the town, B.C. 107, he found it
mainly defended by Italians, who were put to death by his
orders on the surrender of the place.2 Indeed, after the destruc-
tion of Carthage, when the ploughshare had passed over the
site, and merchants from Italy crossed the Mediterranean in
search of new fields for commercial enterprise, we hear of little

1 To use the words of Polybius, the Carthaginians, at the suddenness of their
fall, perished from off the face of the earth. Their annihilation as a people made
them insensible of their misfortunes. The whole subject is admirably treated in Mr.
R. Bosworth Smith's Carthage and the Carthaginians, London, 1877.

2 Sallust, Jug. xxvi.