I'm not sure that child sacrifice or abandonment was really as shocking an idea to the Romans as you might think. After all, their founders, Romulus and Remus, were abandoned in the elements. It was a not uncommon practice.
It was Christianity that brought that kind of thing to an end.
It's not abandonment, it's literally putting children into a pit of flame to burn them alive. The Romans did not want to do human or animal sacrifices because they saw them as abhorrent, but they still had some practices like that remaining in their celebrations.
The Romans did not want to take over Carthage and rule it as conquerors, they wanted it burned to the ground and all the citizens slaughtered. You don't do that unless you have powerful emotions guiding you.
The Romans did not want to take over Carthage and rule it as conquerors, they wanted it burned to the ground and all the citizens slaughtered. You don't do that unless you have powerful emotions guiding you.
They wanted Carthage's territory and wealth. They wanted to destroy a rival. Cato's famous expression (roughly) -- "Carthago delenda est!" / "Carthage must be destroyed" was his call to war. Rome had already fought two wars with Carthage, and Cato believed Carthage was becoming too wealthy and might again challenge Rome. Carthage must be destroyed.
Fighting against a rival to gain dominance is one of the most fundamental animal and human behaviors.
Roman culture was brutal by our modern, Western standards. Animal sacrifice was common and accepted part of religion. The Romans even had an priest official -- the haruspex -- whose job was to examine the entrails of scarified animals for messages from the gods.
Crucifixion of rebellious slaves, enemies, criminals, etc., was common place.
Gladiatorial combat to the death and other blood sports were common.
You're right that the Romans did not perform human sacrifice (or very, very rarely sacrificed humans), but there doesn't seem to be any major moral drive to defeat Carthage. Carthage was an economic and military rival. They fought. It's the story of human history.
Even the article you linked says, regarding Carthaginian child sacrifice:
'Indeed, contemporary Greek and Roman writers tended to describe the practice as more of an eccentricity or historical oddity – they're not actually very critical.
'We should not imagine that ancient people thought like us and were horrified by the same things.'
They didn't have "all the citizens slaughtered", they enslaved them. As usual. Of course, some were ritually executed. As usual.
You're reading way too much into Roman propaganda. Look how they were OH MY GODS outraged whenever their captive soldiers were being sacrificed (by the British druids or the German witches), or by the Gaul practice of headhunting, despite routinely torturing their own prisoners to death in public (including but not limited to crucifixion) or forcing them to kill each other in what they called "games" for the enjoyment of what they called "mob". Hypocritical pricks. Nice civilization tho. Even if just culturally appropriated from the Greeks, after murdering their way all through Greece.
Btw they also honestly believed, or wanted their people to believe, that Christians were literally bloodthirsty cannibals.
Yeah I was going to say that. The Roman people often deposed of female babies too, as it was a cultural standard to just have one girl. I know it's not the same as sacrificing many children but it's not a million miles away from it at the same time. I could be wrong about all that, but I'm pretty sure I read that in The Rise of Christianity by Rodney Stark
I'm not sure that child sacrifice or abandonment was really as shocking an idea to the Romans as you might think. After all, their founders, Romulus and Remus, were abandoned in the elements. It was a not uncommon practice.
It was Christianity that brought that kind of thing to an end.
It's not abandonment, it's literally putting children into a pit of flame to burn them alive. The Romans did not want to do human or animal sacrifices because they saw them as abhorrent, but they still had some practices like that remaining in their celebrations.
The Romans did not want to take over Carthage and rule it as conquerors, they wanted it burned to the ground and all the citizens slaughtered. You don't do that unless you have powerful emotions guiding you.
They wanted Carthage's territory and wealth. They wanted to destroy a rival. Cato's famous expression (roughly) -- "Carthago delenda est!" / "Carthage must be destroyed" was his call to war. Rome had already fought two wars with Carthage, and Cato believed Carthage was becoming too wealthy and might again challenge Rome. Carthage must be destroyed.
Fighting against a rival to gain dominance is one of the most fundamental animal and human behaviors.
Roman culture was brutal by our modern, Western standards. Animal sacrifice was common and accepted part of religion. The Romans even had an priest official -- the haruspex -- whose job was to examine the entrails of scarified animals for messages from the gods.
Crucifixion of rebellious slaves, enemies, criminals, etc., was common place.
Gladiatorial combat to the death and other blood sports were common.
You're right that the Romans did not perform human sacrifice (or very, very rarely sacrificed humans), but there doesn't seem to be any major moral drive to defeat Carthage. Carthage was an economic and military rival. They fought. It's the story of human history.
Even the article you linked says, regarding Carthaginian child sacrifice:
They didn't have "all the citizens slaughtered", they enslaved them. As usual. Of course, some were ritually executed. As usual.
You're reading way too much into Roman propaganda. Look how they were OH MY GODS outraged whenever their captive soldiers were being sacrificed (by the British druids or the German witches), or by the Gaul practice of headhunting, despite routinely torturing their own prisoners to death in public (including but not limited to crucifixion) or forcing them to kill each other in what they called "games" for the enjoyment of what they called "mob". Hypocritical pricks. Nice civilization tho. Even if just culturally appropriated from the Greeks, after murdering their way all through Greece.
Btw they also honestly believed, or wanted their people to believe, that Christians were literally bloodthirsty cannibals.
Yeah I was going to say that. The Roman people often deposed of female babies too, as it was a cultural standard to just have one girl. I know it's not the same as sacrificing many children but it's not a million miles away from it at the same time. I could be wrong about all that, but I'm pretty sure I read that in The Rise of Christianity by Rodney Stark
The early Christians were surrounded by rumors of cannibalism.