Although Rome was successful in the first two
Punic Wars, as it vied for dominance with the seafaring
Punic city-state of Carthage in
North Africa (now
Tunisia), it suffered several humiliations and damaging reverses in the course of these engagements, especially at the
Battle of Cannae in 216 BC. Rome nonetheless managed to win the
Second Punic War thanks to
Scipio Africanus in 201 BC. After its defeat, Carthage ceased to be a threat to Rome and was reduced to a small territory that was equivalent to what is now northeastern Tunisia. However, Cato the Censor visited Carthage in 152 BC as a member of a senatorial embassy, which was sent to arbitrate a conflict between the Punic city and
Massinissa, the king of
Numidia and ally of Rome at the end of the Second Punic War. Cato, a veteran of the Second Punic War, was shocked by Carthage's wealth, which he considered dangerous for Rome. He then relentlessly called for its destruction and ended all of his speeches with the phrase, even when the debate was on a completely different matter. The Senate did not follow him, especially due to
Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica Corculum, the son-in-law of Scipio Africanus and the most influential senator, being opposed to the war; Corculum argued that the fear of a common enemy was necessary to maintain Roman unity and keep the people in check. Like Cato, he ended all his speeches with the same phrase, saying "Carthage must be saved" (
Carthago servanda est). Cato finally won the debate after Carthage had attacked
Massinissa, which gave a
casus belli to Rome since the peace treaty of 201 BC prevented Carthage from declaring war without Rome's assent. In 146 BC,
Carthage was razed by
Scipio Aemilianus—Africanus's grandson—and its entire remaining population was sold into
slavery, and
Africa then became a
Roman province. The notion that Roman forces then
sowed the city with salt is a 19th-century invention. ==Historical literary sources==