Was it necessary to destroy Carthage? Sounded pretty brutal.

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It was pretty overkill, and I'm a Romaboo. Made for some great imagery and dramatic prose though
>TFW Scipio Aemilanus sobbing over the destruction of Carthage, realizing some day this too will happen to Rome

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>>2532675
No.
It was both unnecessary and a crime against humanity. So much culture, knowledge, talent lost.

Becuase they just caused so much trouble

>>2532675
Probably not. Another victory leading into a treaty keeping carthage as a small empire would've probably done the trick. But nothing will guarantee that carthage won't just break that treaty and things would always be uncomfortable considering their past conflicts.

Cato was just tired of their shit and went full on carthago delena est on them. It's a shame, lots of history was destroyed with the last punic war.

>>2532675
It was brutal and perhaps unnecessary as Carthage had posed no threat anymore. However, it's destruction served many ends; namely it sent the message to remind them the price of resistance. Corinth shared the same fate in that year, to make the message doubly clear. It also eliminated the last alternative cultural/civilizational rival in the Western Mediterranean. No other country besides Carthage and Rome had sophisticated governments, expansionist impulses (arguable in Carthage's case) and dense population base, the latter of which allowed the recruitment of large armies (though Carthage did rely heavily on mercenaries)

>>2532837
>remind them
remind other provinces of the empire*