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The location of Carthage in North Africa

Carthago delenda est ("Carthage must be destroyed") is a famous Latin phrase. The sentence was a clarion call in the Roman Republic in the latter years of the Punic Wars.^{[citation needed]}

Although the Romans were successful in the first two Punic Wars, as they vied for dominance with the seafaring Phoenician city-state of Carthage in North Africa (modern day Tunisia), they did suffer a number of humiliations and damaging reverses. This built into an attitude of seeking vengeance and total victory that was expressed in "Carthago delenda est."

Although no ancient source gives the phrase exactly as it is usually quoted in modern times (either Carthago delenda est or the fuller Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam), something like this wording can be inferred from several ancient sources, which state that the Roman statesman Cato the Elder would always end his speeches with some variation of this expression.^[1]

The attitude of total warfare toward Carthage resulted in the utter destruction of the city at the end of the Third Punic War. The city was ploughed over and surviving inhabitants sold into slavery. Historians dispute whether the fields were sown with salt, but the very notion is indicative of the vengeance wrought.

Gramatically, it expresses necessity by using a gerundive with a form of the verb esse, "to be".

The term is sometimes adapted in modern usage, in a learned reference to total warfare.^[2]

1. ^ Charles E. Little, "The Authenticity and Form of Cato's Saying 'Carthago Delenda Est,'" Classical Journal 29 (1934), pp. 429-435. The main ancient sources are Plutarch, Cato 27 (δοκεῖ δέ μοι καὶ Καρχηδόνα μὴ εἶναι); Pliny the Elder, NH 15.74; Florus 1.31; Aurelius Victor De viris illustribus 47.8. (The evolution of the phrasing towards its modern form has been further considered in Silvia Thürlemann-Rapperswil, "'Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam,'" Gymnasium 81 (1974).)
2. ^ http://ancienthistory.about.com/b/a/129595.htm