That crusty old Roman, Cato the Elder, was in the habit of telling the Roman Senate over and over: Delenda est Carthago. Which Carthage was, in the end, its houses and temples and public buildings destroyed or burnt, its site ploughed up, and salt thrown in the furrows to sterilise them. The Punic (Phoenician) base in North Africa was a standing challenge to Rome's growing mastery of the Mediterranean, and though the first war between them ended rather indecisively, the second resulted in Scipio Africanus's total victory over Hannibal at Zama and Carthage's surrender and humiliation. The final war was fatal for it, since Punic culture vanished from Africa and was never revived. A sound retelling of a crucial chapter in history, presaging Rome's eventual dominance both in Europe and the Near and Middle East.
Brian Fallon