The Curse of Carthage
The Curse of Carthage was a supposed curse that forbade the rebuilding of Carthage after it was destroyed in 146 BC. On the one hand, the story of the Curse is one of the most haunting scenes in Roman history. Scipio Aemilianus, the very general who wrecked the great temple of Baal and set ablaze the clay bricks of the city, surveyed the smoking ruins and rued the day that one day the same terrible fate would befall Rome. Humane feeling and eerie foresight suffuse his solemn words. Yet the “curse” had a more immediate impact, as it seemed to doom attempts by the reformer and populist political leader Gracchus, to establish a Roman colonia (colony) on the former site of the city. And that was awfully convenient for Gracchus’ enemies in the Senate, wasn’t it? Kar Jin Ong argues in an interesting essay that the idea that the Curse of Carthage was Fake News. https://www.academia.edu/12180739/The_Curse_of_Carthage_The_...