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Watch Carthage burn. Cato talked Rome into razing it to the ground....
Joseph Pickett 🇺🇸@Pastpassport
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Sep 14, 2026
~1 min read
Watch Carthage burn. Cato talked Rome into razing it to the ground.
Cato was a veteran of the war against Hannibal, decades earlier. In 152 BC, he visited Carthage on a diplomatic mission and came home rattled by how wealthy and rebuilt the city had become.
So he staged a show.
Cato walked into the Senate one day, shook out his toga, and let a fresh fig fall to the floor as if by accident.
Senators admired how big and ripe it was. Then he told them where it came from: Carthage. Three days' sail from Rome.
That was the point. Close enough to strike, and getting richer every year.
From then on, whatever the actual topic of debate, Cato ended every single speech he gave with the same five words:
"Carthago delenda est." Carthage must be destroyed.
His rival, Scipio Nasica, answered him just as consistently:
"Carthago servanda est." Carthage must be saved.
Cato won. Rome besieged the city for three years, then burned it block by block in 146 BC.
One popular detail about the ending is fake, though.
No ancient source- not Polybius, not Appian- mentions Rome salting the earth so nothing would grow again.
That story first shows up in the 1800s. Rome was farming that land again within decades.
Follow me on X: @Pastpassport
Subscribe on Substack: Pastpassport.com.
Cato was a veteran of the war against Hannibal, decades earlier. In 152 BC, he visited Carthage on a diplomatic mission and came home rattled by how wealthy and rebuilt the city had become.
So he staged a show.
Cato walked into the Senate one day, shook out his toga, and let a fresh fig fall to the floor as if by accident.
Senators admired how big and ripe it was. Then he told them where it came from: Carthage. Three days' sail from Rome.
That was the point. Close enough to strike, and getting richer every year.
From then on, whatever the actual topic of debate, Cato ended every single speech he gave with the same five words:
"Carthago delenda est." Carthage must be destroyed.
His rival, Scipio Nasica, answered him just as consistently:
"Carthago servanda est." Carthage must be saved.
Cato won. Rome besieged the city for three years, then burned it block by block in 146 BC.
One popular detail about the ending is fake, though.
No ancient source- not Polybius, not Appian- mentions Rome salting the earth so nothing would grow again.
That story first shows up in the 1800s. Rome was farming that land again within decades.
Follow me on X: @Pastpassport
Subscribe on Substack: Pastpassport.com.
