Posted on 07/26/2005 1:20:19 AM PDT by onja
my pleasure.
I guess we're the only ones. :')
bookMARK. Thank you.
In the movie "Patton", George C. Scott (portraying that general) recounts being a Carthaginian soldier killed in the final assault (in a past life -- Patton subscribing to a general view of reincarnation); in the poem above he's Roman two or three different times.
I love in Gladiator when they're reenacting the sacking of Carthage. The "Carthaginians" win and the Roman said "I don't remember that in the history books."
Heh... I found that movie in one of the local used disk places; there were two copies, one of which was the regular version, the other was the original, two-disk version with the extra "Age of the Gladiator" one hour program (dunno the actual title), and they were the same price, so I got the latter. (': The whole movie was only barely historical (if memory serves, Commodus killed his sister after one too many plots of hers to kill him was traced back to her) but looks terrific, and the battle scene at the beginning is very realistic and to period.
And the Carthaginians weren't unique in child killing. Most ancient civilizations did it. Some just weren't so open. Romans would expose their children and let them die. Same thing. And when they were afraid Hannibal would conquer them they did human sacrifice. And don't forget the coloseums where many thousands of slaves, christians, etc. died.
BTW-The Romans likely exaggerated Carthage's faults to get support in fighting them. And also possibly to make it look like a crusade when it was merely political. To the victor belongs the history.
"Romans would expose their children and let them die. Same thing."
Nope, not the same thing. Abandoning unwanted children to almost certain death is something that is not Roman, and not particularly common (nor a religious rite), but probably universal, and is even done today from time to time. On a superficial level these are both killing children. But the murdering of ones own healthy children to satiate one's diety on a systematic and regular basis is something which is found in Carthage and other Canaanite cultures, and was so alien to Romans and Greeks that it was remarked upon.
OTOH, the Spartans (for example) had their "Place of Rejection", a cliff on the edge of town, where newborn male children were inspected, and if found to be defective or too frail, were hurled to their deaths. That was a form of eugenics.
The Roman games often involved the brutal slaughter of men, women, and children. It began as an odd Etruscan funeral rite, grew out of that, and later became a handy way to carry out public executions, as well as to entertain the many unemployed who crowded Rome. Up to 400,000 lived on the bread dole during the centuries of Roman prosperity.
Carthage Tries To Live Down Image As Site Of Infanticide
Post-Gazette/Wall Street Journal | 5-26-2004 | Andrew Higgins
Posted on 05/27/2005 12:20:44 PM PDT by blam
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1411857/posts
Prehistoric Archaeology of the Aegean, Human Sacrifice
Dartmouth University | 1995 | Various
Posted on 07/26/2005 1:07:44 PM PDT by Little Bill
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1451005/posts
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