ProQuest Dissertations - Historia Antigua

ETTIOVTES, Tct 5E XOITTCX KQSEXCOUEV. ou yap Kai vecopiois 8UETE OU8' ivayi^ETETEIXSOIV. Ecrriag 8i Kai lEpa aXAa Kai dyopds EVI KOI UETEXSOVTOS Epydoaa6ai, KaiTaxu KaKETva uuTv sarai TraTpia, c£> Xoyco Kai TOC ev Tupop KaxaXiTrovTESfiXXd^aa8E AifJuriv TO TE E-rriKTTyra uutv TOTE yEvouEva vuv TraTpia TI8EO9E. App.Pun. 89(418-419)"Do not pretend that you are grieved for your temples, your shrines, your forum, yourtombs. We shall not harm your tombs. You may come and make offerings there, andsacrifice in your temples, as often as you like. The rest, however, we shall destroy. Youdo not sacrifice to your shipyards nor do you make offerings to your walls. You canprovide yourselves with other shrines and temples and a forum in the place you moveto, and presently this will be your country; just as you left your old ones in Tyre whenyou migrated to Africa, and now consider the newly acquired land your country." [H.White, trans.]The Roman general makes the distinction between the religious landscape, which heintends to preserve provided that the Carthaginians surrender, and the secular landscape,which will be destroyed in order to break the naval power and defensive capabilities ofthe Carthaginians. Furthermore, Censorinus asserts that the Carthaginians will make theirnew territory their TraTpia through the construction of new Ecrriai, iepa aXXa, anddyopdi. While the Carthaginians might be allowed to maintain their rituals at their oldtombs and temples, they are encouraged to colonize a new landscape and transfer theirworship, livelihood, and, therefore, their self-identification to it. Just as they becameCarthaginians once they left Tyre and made temples, tombs, and a forum in Carthage, sotoo would they adapt their identity to their new location. To the Roman general, the mostimportant aspect was that the Carthaginians move into a new physical space, while theCarthaginians strove to hold on to their conceived identity as Carthaginians. Thus,ultimately, the Carthaginians refused surrender under these terms, and the Roman armycaptured the city and destroyed it. 10App. Pun. 131, Livy Per. 51. Laurence (1996), pp. 117-119 notes that the account of the sack ofCarthage emphasized the burning of the city's main temple as a symbol of burning the whole city. As often150