On the second day after the beginning of spring, it snowed heavily in Beijing. For two days and two nights, the city was full of snow. Even if the outside world is chaotic, Feixue Mantian will always be able to complete the gorgeous falling performances in our eyes as if he were alone. Therefore, people like to listen to Xueluo’s voice attentively.
What is the snow in his eyes? Must be cruel, right?
It was a snowfall more than 2,200 years ago. At the top of the Alps, there were winds, blizzards, cliffs, and broken walls. A Carthaginian named Hannibal led the elephant army to climb hard. Born in sunny North Africa, it should be the first time he saw snow, right? There is no romantic experience, only the test of life and death. The blizzard made him see the deterrence of nature, and he replied with the resilience to survive the Jedi.
The snow scene is thousands of years away, but you can feel the tremor of life at that end. I am reading his extraordinary life in the beauty of the moment. Carthage, the empire that was wiped from the earth by the Romans, is now hidden in the outskirts of Tunis, the capital of Tunisia, on the west coast of the Mediterranean, and is embraced in the Gulf of Tunisia.
Before I set foot on this country, I only knew that it was the place where the “Arab Spring” movement broke out in 2010, because the self-immolation of a hawker triggered the collapse of Tunisian politics and immediately swept the entire Arab world. One night nine years later, I read the second volume of Shiono Chiyo’s “The Story of the Romans”. I was attracted by the Punic War more than 2,000 years ago, and I fancied Hannibal of Carthage overnight. Just for this thought, I set foot on the land of Tunisia—touching his land, witnessing the traces of destruction and the hope of rebirth.
A sea power in exchange for a piece of cowhide
The Four Seasons Hotel in Tunisia faces the Mediterranean Sea, away from the hustle and bustle of the Medina, but very close to the ruins of Carthage and the red, blue and white towns. For tourists like me who only come for Carthage, it couldn’t be more suitable.
Take a taxi from the hotel and go up and down along the coastline. The view of the Mediterranean Sea sometimes appears and sometimes hidden. I always feel that its color is darker than other oceans. In winter, North Africa is still sunny and warm and picturesque. The scene in front of me is really hard to think of the tragedy of being massacred 2000 years ago.
The driver said that the Carthage ruins are an area with seven or eight scenic spots scattered around, extending from the top of the mountain to the sea. My first stop was at the top of the mountain. There was a large platform at the top of the mountain, and I resisted the urge to run to touch those monuments, and first came to the edge of the platform. The whole picture of Tunisian Bay is in front of you. The direction of the coastline is clearly visible, like two outstretched arms, holding the houses on the shore and stroking the water. The end of its embrace is the location connected to the Mediterranean Sea, and its immensity can highlight its strategic position.
This obvious characteristic was recognized by the Phoenicians more than 800 BC. It’s just that every great country will have a destined extraordinary beginning. Whether it is a myth or a legend, it can be worthy of a historical choice. Carthage was born in this way. At that time, the Phoenician base camp was in Lebanon. Legend has it that before the death of the Phoenician king, he was afraid of two children competing for the throne, so he divided the country into two, one for the prince and one for the princess Dido. However, after the king’s death, the fierce prince smashed the princess’s family. Princess Dido fled to Carthage by boat and asked the local tribal leader for help. In order to deal with her, the leader said to give her a piece of cowhide, and the area covered by the cowhide was given to her.
As a result, the legend began to play wonderfully. The princess asked me to cut the cowhide into small strips, twist each one into a rope, and then tie the ropes one by one to circle the site of the site under my feet. The princess occupied the mountain as the king and took advantage of the natural maritime trade advantages of the Tunisian Gulf to quickly build Carthage into a famous city. The tribe leader was finally fascinated by the charm of the princess, and forced the princess to marry him with the lives of the people in the city. On the day of the wedding, Princess Dido jumped from the top of the mountain and was buried in the Mediterranean, saving her people and pushing Carthage to the pinnacle of history.
Carthage deserves to be loaded with such a legend, although in real history, its budding may only be the place where the Phoenicians used as a trading port. Nearly a century after Carthage was founded, the city of Rome was born.
Tunisia is located at the northernmost point of the African continent, facing the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east, and facing Sicily in Italy across the Tunis Strait.
Tunisia is one of the few countries in the world where beaches, deserts, mountains and forests and ancient civilizations are concentrated. It is a place where ancient civilizations and diverse cultures blend.
The ruins of the ancient city of Carthage is located 17 kilometers northeast of Tunis, the capital of Tunisia. In 1979, UNESCO listed the ruins of the ancient city of Carthage as a cultural heritage and included it in the “World Heritage List.”
The ruins of Carthage, a masterpiece of the Romans
I looked back at the ruins behind me. Several huge foundation stone pedestals, broken Roman columns, stone busts without heads, and Roman statues with only heads left messy on the ground. A sign standing next to it indicates that this place may have been a palace. These are the only remaining ruined monuments. In order to preserve their most primitive appearance, they were placed on the spot. Yes, in the ruins of Carthage, what remains is the glory of the Romans.
This is the last thing Hannibal wants to see. Even modern people come here especially to see the vicissitudes of life and touch the traces of history. However, this is the Carthage of the Romans after all, not the Carthage of the Carthaginians that Hannibal has been obsessed with throughout his life.
This was once the hometown of Hannibal. Before Rome became an invincible empire, Carthage was already the maritime hegemon of the Mediterranean. However, Rome’s strong expansion is bound to cause a fight for the interests of Carthage. Thus, a battle for Sicily triggered the first war between Rome and Carthage, because the Romans called Carthage the Punic, which was also the first Punic war.
The result of the war was that Rome, which was not good at naval battles or even had a navy, won the naval battle with Carthage. While fighting, they learned from the powerful maritime forces Carthage, and quickly defeated their opponents in one fell swoop. The defeat of the Romans was Hannibal’s father Hamilka.
As a result, the 9-year-old Hannibal was led to the altar by his father and swore: Immortality is the enemy of Rome.
Some people say that this oath is the beginning of Hannibal’s tragic life. If it were not for such a deep hatred, Carthage would not be subjugated. But I think this is not so much the beginning of a tragedy, but rather the belief of the army and horse throughout his life, which has made him an unshakable position in the history of war.
There are very few tourists on the site and no tour groups come here. Individual tourists usually ask a local guide to explain it. I occasionally come over to listen, mostly about the original appearance of Roman monuments. The person who built this Roman city in Carthage was Caesar. This once made me wonder how the hand of God is so actuarial. There have been many historical assumptions. For example, if Hannibal was not an enemy of Rome, would he become a leader like Caesar?
Caesar of Carthage? Do not! In that case, the four greatest military leaders in European history should be reduced to three: Alexander, Caesar, and Napoleon, and there is no Caesar of Carthage—Hannibal. Although he was defeated in the battle with Rome, Hannibal ranked second among the four European generals, making Napoleon admire him for a lifetime.
The feat of crossing the Alps is perfectly replicated
Every day in Tunisia, I struggled to find Hannibal. Will it be like the Egyptian pharaoh Ramses II, spreading his statues all the way along the Nile? Or is there a city named after him, just like Alexandria all over the world? Or at least there will be a street named Hannibal, right?
No, there is no trace.
Beside the Roman ruins on the top of the hill, there is a Catholic church called St. Louis Church. In the 19th century, France conquered Tunisia. This church was built here to commemorate King Louis IX of France, who took part in the Crusades and died in Tunisia after being infected with the plague.
At that moment, I was a little bit lost: How could Hannibal, who is famous all over the world and has countless admirers in his own country, not remembered so much?
Yes, the great strategic strategist, Hannibal, who almost killed the Roman Empire, did not make the Carthaginians feel extremely honored even when he completed the human feat of crossing the Alps.
A view of the blue and white town.
Tourists shuttle back and forth on the winding stone path.
Statue of Louis IX. Louis IX was the 9th king of the French Capet dynasty. During the Second Crusade, he died in Tunisia from the plague.
In 219 BC, the 28-year-old Hannibal was about to set off from Spain to fulfill the vow he made when he was 9 years old-to attack Rome. After the failure of the First Punic War, Carthage cedes land and pays compensation, and spent decades surrendering his head in peace. So when Hannibal sent his troops, in the eyes of the Romans, this young man who was less than 30 years old was not enough for civil affairs and political participation. He did not attract too much attention from Rome, and even the Carthaginians did not know what he was. What’s the point.
Hannibal interprets this confusingly to the end. His target was Rome, but after setting off, he chose to take Gaul, then cross the Alps, and attacked from behind Rome in the most concealed way. This strategy showed the effect that the Romans probed his movements along the way and made many kinds of judgments. For example, he wanted to conquer the Gauls, but he did not predict that Hannibal would attack Rome. It wasn’t until the elephant legion reached the top of the Alps and was about to descend into the belly of Rome, that Roman talent suddenly realized. However, it was too late, and the Romans had to send two men and horses to bet on which way Hannibal would go down the mountain, and then the other passer-by would make an emergency U-turn to support.
Crossing the Alps, this is the starting point of Hannibal’s brilliant life. Leading an army of 50,000 and 30 elephants, he walked along the ice-bound cliffs and on a mountain road that was only one person wide. The road is covered with snow and ice, and there is a cliff underneath. This is a realistic version of elephant walking on a tightrope, but it does not have the comic effect of a circus, only the tragedy of the elephant falling into the abyss and the despair that follows. When the elephant army stumbled all the way and finally reached the top of the mountain, Hannibal knew in his heart that not many people were willing to go on like this at this time. This was not going to war, it was going to die.
In the face of the depressed soldiers, the 29-year-old commander-in-chief ordered all people to assemble. He pointed to the east and said: “There is Italy. As long as we enter Italy, it means we are standing in front of the city gate of Rome. Next, , We are all going downhill, we only need to fight one or two times, and Italy will surrender. We will be the new masters of Italy!”
After 2000, Napoleon attacked Italy and completed the feat of crossing the Alps. Standing on the top of the mountain, he said the same thing to all the soldiers.
It is impossible for Hannibal and Napoleon not to know that the road down the mountain is far more difficult than the uphill. It took Hannibal 15 days to cross the Alps and lost half of his troops, leaving only 30 elephants. But this price gave him the best opportunity to attack Rome.
Mosque and St. Louis Church on the ruins of Carthage
“Carthage must be destroyed!”
Fifty years after the end of the Second Punic War, called the “Hannibal War” by the Romans, the words of Old Cato in the Roman Senate are still echoed in this site today.
From the ruins on the top of the mountain, the taxi driver who sent me was waiting for me at the door. All the way down the mountain, a bifurcation appeared on the mountainside. A main road leads directly to the seaside at the foot of the mountain. The houses on both sides are small villas with two or three floors. When I came, the driver said that the wealthy people in Tunisia live in this area. I asked him, what do these rich people do? He said of course it was in business. For thousands of years, the Carthaginians’ business acumen has been inherited perfectly. Whether it is a Carthaginian or a Tunisian, facing the Mediterranean estuary that can be seen from above, they have seen hope for the future.
I chose a small road at a fork in the road, passing through the rich area, and at the end is another ruin-the Roman Theater. There are no pedestrians or vehicles on the street, but from the open windows of the houses on both sides, it can be judged that most of the owners are at home, and maybe they don’t like to go out in the hot noon. So I can stand unscrupulously under the corner of the house and look at the big bunch of bougainvillea overflowing outside the wall. The white wall is matched with pink and purple flowers and sprinkled with sunlight to reflect the beauty of the blooming flowers.
After a long walk, the asphalt road was blocked in front of the last two villas. In front of it was an empty place full of weeds. There was no sign. There was only a small watchtower, which was actually the ticket office for the ruins of the Roman theater. This unobstructed view of the world heritage level is really full of hardcore.
The Roman theater is slightly better preserved than the hilltop site, and the remaining ruins can at least look like a theater, and it covers a larger area, and a vast lawn is spread along the hillside. I ran up the slope to see what was on the top of the slope. As I ran, a white dome gradually appeared, and then a white body appeared: a huge new mosque appeared before my eyes. Within a few kilometers to the left of it, the twin towers of the Saint-Louis Church stand impressively.
This scene surprised me a little: in front of me, a church in the Christian world and a mosque in the Islamic world stood side by side, and behind me was the Roman ruins, and further away, there was a vast ocean.
This Catholic church, dedicated to the King of France, has neither an altar nor benches, but a lively indoor Arab market. Locals put Islamic jewelry, scarves and other small ornaments here. The cheerful Arabic music makes people want to twist their bodies when they walk in. I chose a red pendant with a golden hollow shape hanging at the bottom. The owner said that this is Arabic, which means peace.
At this time, standing in front of the Roman theater ruins, I turned out the pendant box and sat on the floor, imagining what happened back then. The Roman Empire was almost destroyed, and this great humiliation ended with the complete destruction of Carthage in the Third Punic War.
The Eljem Colosseum has a long history and was built in the early 3rd century. It is a famous and brilliant building left by the ancient Roman Empire in Africa. Many celebrities such as Maupassant and Flaubert have made a special trip to visit here, describing it as “the world’s wonderful Colosseum” and “the symbol and symbol of the existence of the Roman Empire in Africa”.
The Anthony Baths were built during the reign of the Roman Emperor Anthony. Although its upper structure has been destroyed long ago, and only the pillars remain on the ground, the whole view of the bathroom can still be clearly seen from the excavated cross-section of the ground.
The architectural restoration map and visual presentation of the site.
The architectural restoration map and visual presentation of the site.
Hannibal fought alone for 16 years and achieved the rebirth of Rome
After Hannibal crossed the Alps and formally invaded Rome, he fought a famous victory-the Battle of Cannae. This battle has remained in the teaching materials of Western military academies so far. From the US generals in the Second World War to the US generals in the Iraq War, they are well versed in it.
I don’t quite understand the strategy and tactics. I only know that Hannibal put out a 4:1 ratio of infantry to cavalry, while the ratio of Roman infantry to cavalry is 11:1. In the final battle, almost all 80,000 people in Rome were wiped out. Among them, none of the 80 Senate members survived. When clearing the battlefield, people discovered that among the piles of roman soldiers’ bodies, many of them suffocated themselves by burying themselves alive. They dug a hole under their bodies, then buried their faces in the hole, and then filled them with soil. The invincible Romans used this desperate way to self-decision on the battlefield. It is hard to imagine how tragic the scene was at that time. Hannibal only injured 5,000 people, most of whom were Gaul mercenaries recruited along the way.
In history, this was the first and last time the Roman Legion suffered such a severe damage.
The news of the defeat came back, but the Romans accepted it calmly. The families of the fallen soldiers shortened the mourning period from the traditional one year to 30 days. No one blamed the commander-in-chief who escaped by chance, and the Senate unanimously agreed to continue appointing him as the commander-in-chief against Hannibal. The Battle of Cannae, more than any victorious battle, showed the tenacity of Rome, and Hannibal finally achieved the rebirth of Rome.
From the Roman theater, I then walked down the mountain to the sea. Having just returned from a trip to Italy, I am familiar with these Roman monuments, but I don’t have the slightest feeling of revisiting. I walked all the way and finally figured out why. Rome, with the most typical temperament of a landlocked country, is huge and magnificent, with a sense of vicissitudes of historical axis rotation, and the ruins of the arena standing for thousands of years, filled with too much pride and tragic. And Carthage, no, Tunisia is favored by the Mediterranean Sea. This blue softens the edges and corners of all history. Even buildings like the huge Roman ruins, the blue that faces them, has been given the oath of the mountain alliance. Romantic appointment.
Therefore, when I walked to the most famous place in the Carthage ruins-Anthony Baths, it turned out to be thrilling joy.
This Anthony is not Peter Anthony, the Roman emperor Anthony, not the Roman general Anthony who wanted to be an emperor but fell into the arms of Cleopatra and was defeated by Octavian.
Don’t rush into the baths, stop at 100 meters from the entrance, where there is a restored map of the baths carved in stone. Turn on the panoramic mode of the phone and find the horizontal surface at the stone carvings, and there will be a picture left in your phone: the original image of the stone carvings is a large open book. Because it is a close-up view, the size is almost the same as the area of the bathing area. At the opening of the title page of the big book, under the two giant Optimus Roman pillars, the remains of Anthony’s Baths are surrounded by white clouds, and the junction of the sea and the sky in the distance is blurred, and the sea and the blue sky blend together, rendering the bathing area a majestic picture. Beautiful background.
The bathing area is divided into upper and lower levels. The upper level is the dressing room, hot spring pool, lounge, etc., and the lower level is the water conservancy system. Instead of bringing in the sea water in front of you, the hot springs dozens of kilometers away are brought in and heated here. Building an artificial hot spring bath in this natural bath by the sea is a Roman who will really enjoy it!
If Hannibal won the Cannae battle and his class returned to the court, he would never stay here for half a step. He has no sense of prosperity and wealth throughout his life, indifferent to the beauty of women, and isolated from all the pleasures of life. He just fought one battlefield after another alone, and that was the only destination in his life. Someone once described Hannibal like this: “No matter whether it is hot or cold, there is no kind of work that can exhaust his body or spirit. Whether in cavalry or infantry, he always leaves others far behind. , The first to enter the battle, after the battle, the last to exit the battlefield.”
After the victory of the Battle of Canney, Hannibal fought in Rome for 16 years and never returned to Carthage. During this period, the Roman Empire was almost destroyed. This was the only moment in Roman history when it was nearly destroyed.
The eternal nightmare of the Romans-Hannibal has reached the door!
The Anthony Baths not only had no blessings for Hannibal, but the nobles of Carthage could only stand on the top of the mountain and sigh. In the eyes of the Roman nobles, lying here blowing the sea breeze, soaking in hot springs, drinking small wine, and talking about various anecdotes from the mother country on the other side of the Mediterranean, even if it is lazy and luxurious, it is also the myth of the winner, because Anthony When the baths were built, Carthage had been destroyed by Rome for 100 years before being rebuilt as a province of Rome by Caesar. But the Carthage nobles who had become subjects of the Roman Empire, faced with such a luxury casino covering an area of 4 hectares, must be thinking: If a commercial port is built here, how much gold and silver should be shipped ashore!
This is the shrewdness of the Carthaginians.
Yes, during the 16 years Hannibal fought with Rome, the Anthony Baths were indeed a bustling port of trade. The Carthaginians like to build cities near the sea and conduct maritime trade in the most cost- and time-saving way. The Carthage Empire, which was in parallel with the Roman Empire, built a 12-meter-high and 9-meter-thick city wall on the seashore, stretching 35 kilometers of coastline, and building two ports in the city, one for sea trade and the other for military port.
Commercial oligarchy became the mainstay of Carthage society, and politics would correspondingly become oligarchy. Throughout history, the consequence of such a ruling structure is that the people will think that the country is the business oligarchs, and they only need to one-sidedly pursue personal economic interests and live their own lives. The indifference to the country and society eventually led to the difficulty for Carthage to form a national centripetal force in the face of powerful foreign enemies. The sense of national identity is easier to be ignored in the peaceful and heyday, and it has been cruelly fulfilled countless times by history since ancient times.
Therefore, Hannibal’s tragedy is not that his enemy is the mighty Rome, but that he fights against the might of an empire with his strength. But in the following 16 years of fighting, he did make several fatal mistakes. For example, he naively thought that by disintegrating Rome’s allied forces, Rome could be isolated. As everyone knows, the strongest cornerstone in the construction of the Roman Empire is the indomitability of the Allies. He selected 10 representatives from the 8,000 Roman prisoners and sent them back to Rome, but was returned by the Senate and clearly informed the refusal to pay the ransom. What Rome refused was not to pay the ransom, but to refuse Hannibal’s temptation to make peace.
In 211 BC, many meaningful events took place. That year, in the 36th year of Qin Shihuang in Chinese history, the meteorite fell to Dongjun, and the engraved “Shihuang Diparts”. People say that this conveyed the will of God: Qin Shihuang died and the Great Qin Empire died. In the same year, Hannibal rode a white horse to the gates of Rome. The Romans squeezed up the walls and watched him with breathlessness. He watched the 36-year-old Carthage commander walk along the walls of Rome. Circle, went straight to the front of Colin’s gate. This scene became an eternal nightmare in the hearts of the Romans. The Roman Empire had never brought the enemy so close. To this day, there is an Italian saying often used by mothers to scare children-Hannibal is at the door!
However, this was the first and last time Hannibal witnessed Rome with his own eyes. He did not issue an order to siege the city. Many historians say that this was the most daring wrong decision Hannibal made in his life, so that he missed the opportunity to win the second Punic War. But more people said that in fact, he knew very well the strength of the city of Rome.
Hannibal and Scipio: a duel of kings
The Roman Empire did not perish because of Carthage, and there is another very important reason: the Roman Legion gave birth to a student Hannibal should be most proud of-the 25-year-old Roman general Scipio, who eventually defeated him. Up the teacher. He was 3 years younger than Hannibal who led the army across the Alps when he was in charge of the Roman Legion, but before that, half of his 25-year-old years had lived in the world where Hannibal attacked Rome. He learned All Hannibal’s tactics.
Scipio not only forced Hannibal into the toe of the Italian “boots”, he also went straight to Hannibal’s base camp, Spain, and eventually led the fleet to land in Cartagena. Hannibal did not have any more. Aces can be played.
The Second Punic War ended with Hannibal making peace with Scipio.
There was a famous conversation between Hannibal and Scipio, who was 12 years younger than him—
Scipio asked Hannibal: “Who do you think is the best general in this era?”
Hannibal said: “Alexander, he not only defeated the Persian army with an outnumbered enemy, but he also fought far away, far beyond what we can think of. He can only be judged by greatness.”
Scipio then asked: “Where is the second best general?”
“Pyrrhus, King of Epirus, is the most outstanding as a tactician.”
“So, who is the third one?” Scipio asked next.
Hannibal said, “There is no doubt that it is me.”
“So if you beat me in the Battle of Zama, where would you rank in number?”
Hannibal said, “Then I will be the worthy number one.”
This is not like a conversation between enemies, but a discussion between friends. Hannibal and Scipio ended this 16-year war in the most respectful and generous manner to each other.
There are no restaurants or cafes near the Carthage ruins. Most tourists go to the blue and white town 3 kilometers away to eat and go shopping. The blue and white town in Tunisia is known as one of the three largest blue and white towns in the world. The other two are in Greece and Morocco. That is to say, the world’s three major blue and white towns are all on the Mediterranean coast, which shows that this azure blue gives people too much peace and tranquility.
In the town, a two-story building with uniform specifications, white walls, blue doors and windows, rich people just replaced the door with copper or iron, painted with blue paint, and then inlaid with black obtuse rivets to show the numbers Password-like shape. It’s a pity that today’s blue and white town is full of commercial flavor. The standard Internet celebrity punch-in location is very suitable for concave-shaped photography, but it is difficult for people to sit quietly and savor the taste.
There are shops on both sides of the streets. Bird cages, copper plates, leather piers, essential oils, jewelry made of olive wood… are full of Arabian style.
There are shops on both sides of the streets. Bird cages, copper plates, leather piers, essential oils, jewelry made of olive wood… are full of Arabian style.
The shops in the market always attract the most attention, colorful spices, warm lights, bunches of crystal dates hanging upside down, and old and young people lining up to buy flatbread.
Like the street art stalls in Europe, the patterns on the handicrafts here are mostly based on local scenery.
The evening was approaching, the light showed a soft orange, but the town was still lively.
On the pedestrian street, a family renovated their house for tourists to visit. I glanced over the courtyard decoration hastily, and heard the sound of decoration on the roof. Climbing along the narrow blue wooden ladder to the top of the building, a man who looks like a master is directing several workers to work. Seeing me coming up, he motioned to the workers to turn off the machine.
“Do you want to go up and have a look?” he asked.
“Go up? Isn’t this the roof already?”
“Come with me.” He asked the workers to set up a construction ladder on a one-meter-high compartment next to him.
I staggered up the ladder. The day was overcast and rainy, and the closer to the beach, the stronger the sea breeze. Climbing to the top of the attic, I was blown around by the wind in an instant. At the next moment, I would rather believe that I was standing on my feet. The sight in front of me completely fascinated me: the blue and white roof under my feet was flat. Spread out and directly meet the sea level. The blue of the sea and the blue of the house cleverly set off each other, and in the distance, what seems to be an island and a continent, faintly emerge.
“There is Sicily in Italy. This is the place where Tunisia is closest to the European continent.” said the host.
I’m pretty sure that the island in the distance is not the island of Sicily because it’s not that close. But I also know that Italy is really not far away.
In 206 BC, Scipio, who had won the battle, probably returned to Sicily from here on a warship. Hannibal, who was in Rome, was also ordered by the Carthage monarch to lead his army back home. Because it was clearly stated in the peace treaty that Carthage must immediately withdraw all its troops in Rome, and only 10 warships were left in the country, and all the rest were turned over to Rome.
Hannibal returned to Carthage from the port city of Crotone. The city still retains the remains of a Greek-style temple. Although there is only one column left, it is the only witness that Hannibal’s footprint is left behind. According to the Roman historian Li Wei, Hannibal asked to embed a copper plate with text on the wall of the altar, writing in Phoenician and Greek at the same time. The content is all the results of his battles after he left Spain. Li Wei came here 50 years after Hannibal was defeated and copied these words. The Romans, who hated Hannibal, kept this copper plate intact, and they have to be admired for their generosity.
The 44-year-old Hannibal left his many years of glory in Rome without taking it back to Carthage, because he knew that both Carthage, who had lost his elite troops, and Hannibal, who had taken off his shirt, were already unable to carry them. This glory.
Roman Senate: Carthage must be destroyed!
There is a well-known restaurant on the top of the blue and white town called “the cliff”, as the name suggests, a restaurant built on the top of the cliff. The restaurant is made of glass as a whole, like a transparent house suspended on the edge of a cliff. There are open-air seats around the edge, with only glass fences, and the waves of the Mediterranean Sea under your feet. People like to order a seafood barbecue platter here, with white wine chilled in an ice bucket. In this Islamic country, fine wine and delicacies can be found everywhere. Tunisians say this is the fault of the French. Who made them bring wine culture in the colonial era.
The most famous wine in Tunisia is fig brandy, which was brewed by a local Jewish wine merchant in the 19th century and used as a pre-dinner aperitif. In this expensive seafood restaurant, the price of fig brandy is really affordable.
At dusk, I was sitting in the outdoor deck, tasting the unique fig brandy, and looking at the Mediterranean Sea in front of me. At this moment, the sea in front of me can only be dimmed after the light reflected by the sunset gradually faded. I was scratching the map with my phone, and suddenly I saw that the direction in which I had sunk into darkness was Italy…
In 149 BC, the heavyweight figure of the Roman Senate, Cato, holding a Carthage fig, delivered an inciting speech: “The enemy who can produce such a rich fruit is located 3 days away by sea. A country With economic strength, it is not difficult to recruit mercenaries. Wouldn’t there be a second Hannibal in Carthage?”
“Carthage must be destroyed!” One day 50 years after the end of the Second Punic War, this famous saying that has been reverberating for thousands of years was finally uttered, and the demise of Carthage became destined.
However, this time, it was no longer Hannibal who bravely resisted the Roman invasion. He was exhausted in the war. In order to avoid the pursuit and kill, he eventually took poison and died. The Carthaginians without a commander closed the gates and turned the capital into an arsenal. The women even cut their hair to make bow ropes.
The Third Punic War lasted for three years, and it was Scipio’s adopted grandson Emilius who served as the commander-in-chief of Rome. This brave general, like his adoptive grandfather, has a kind and sincere heart. He was still not sure how to determine the fate of Carthage.
However, regardless of whether Carthage existed or not, the year 146 BC was a turning point for the Roman Empire from being stable to severe. It can be said that Carthage hit the muzzle.
Emilius received the final order from the Senate.
The massacre lasted for 6 days and 6 nights. The historian Polybius wrote in his book “History”: “For a long time, Emilius’ eyes never left exposed to him. The city of Carthage. In terms of courage and courage, Carthage is far superior to any empire. Despite submitting to Rome’s requirements, all weapons and battleships were handed over; even though the city fell and was completely destroyed, They want to disappear from the earth, but they fought desperately to resist the Roman attack for three years. Emilius said, “Carthage once enjoyed the glory, but now, I stand in this empire. The great moment of destruction. At this moment, what fills my heart is not the joy of the winner, but the sorrow. I’m thinking, maybe we will usher in such a moment in Rome. ”
It is said that after that, even the birds above Carthage were shot, the walls, temples, and houses were all destroyed, and the fire burned the last rubble of the city.
It was not until the arrival of Caesar 100 years later that Roman architecture began to appear in this country that was once erased from the earth.
Carthage became the province of Rome, Spain became the province of Rome, and Greece became the de facto province of Rome. It took the Romans 130 years to dominate the Mediterranean. Perhaps this godlike speed should be attributed to Hannibal. After all, Carthage was destroyed because Rome was afraid of the appearance of a second Hannibal. To dominate the Mediterranean, it seems that he also gave Rome stronger power than ever.
Many years after that, Mallor, the strategist who had carried out a historic reform of the Roman army, came to the ruins of Carthage. Mario looked at Carthage, and Carthage was also looking at Mario. At this time, Mario had fallen into the trough of life, reflecting the fate of Carthage that had been destroyed. The cycle of history, the rise and fall of empires, the ups and downs of life, everything has become a cloud of smoke.
