62. The Third Punic War

“Carthago Delenda Est…” (Cato the Elder 234 B.C. – 149 B.C.)

“Carthage must be destroyed!”

Sprang from the statesman’s ancient lips.

“Carthage must be destroyed!”

The senate yelled for blood.

“Carthage must be destroyed!”

The people want revenge.

“Carthage must be destroyed!”

Rome wanted revenge.

“Carthage must be destroyed!”

She screamed it with harpy’s fury.

“No more peace!”

“The time has come!”

“Take arms!”

“Carthage must be destroyed!”

Rome went

After Numidian problems.

Two years passed

Another Scipio made the charge to Hannibal’s city

Forcing his way in.

People were killed.

People were enslaved.

The city was razed to the ground.

The walls where Dido fell

Proclaiming endless hate

For the sons and daughters of Aeneas

Were gone.

Rome’s hate burned for Dido’s people too.

It could be seen in every Roman soldier.

Burning more intense

Than Dido’s own.

“Carthage must be destroyed!”

Echoing through history

Along with legion’s sandaled feet

Digging salt into the ground

Kicking it up

Into Roman eyes.

“Carthage must be destroyed!”

“Carthage was destroyed.”

60. The First Punic War

“Poor Dido!”

Carthage cried.

Our beautiful queen

Has died.

It was Aeneas

Who rejected her.

His descendants must pay.

Carthage looked up

At the growing Rome

Seeing that she wants the island of Sicily

“We will take it for ourselves,”

Carthage said.

You took our beautiful queen away

We’ll take the island.

Rome sent her men

Securing the island

Just as Carthage did the same.

Mercenaries,

Fleets of ships,

Legions clashed

For the beautiful island

To the south of her land.

Carthage’s navy had Rome cornered

But adapting well

The white republic

Built her ships

Overcoming Carthage in the end.

Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica

All fell to Rome’s might.

56. Aeneas’s Journey

“Arms and the man I sing, the first who came

Compelled by fate an exile out of Troy…” (The Aeneid, Rolfe Humphies translation)

“Remember what they did”

Said the ghosts of Trojan women,

“Remember the fire.”

“The horse.”

“How they cut down our heroes”

“How they murdered us”

“Tearing our children from our comforting arms.”

Those words haunted him

As Aphrodite’s son escaped the mighty cyclopean walls.

His people burned.

They pleaded for help from Athena

But it was all in vain.

Hera’s hatred sent them to their doom.

Hector appeared to injured Aeneas in a dream.

“My brother,”

The fallen prince told him,

“Fate has given you a chance”

“To get even with those that did this.”

“Go west and you shall see.”

“In the land above Sicily.”

Aeneas and his family

Left the dead and ruined city.

To the ships they went

Eager to find this new promised land.

They came to Thrace

Where the black blood of Polydorus

Gave warnings of greed in the land

Sending them off once again.

Apollo’s island welcomed them

With great earthquake

They were off to Crete, the lonely Isle

Where, in a dream, he was told of Italus’ land.

Passed the turning point they traveled

Where flocks of harpies pestered them.

They followed Greek islands

Up to the lands that Alexander saved.

From there they sailed passed the boot

That will house their future home

To the land where Poseidon’s sons live.

They saved a man from the one eyed one.

Left carelessly by the horse maker on his way home.

Then between the treacherous rocky whirlpool and sister monster.

After surviving those two beasts

They met a storm stirred up by Hera

That brought them to rest on Dido’s mighty shores.

As Aeneas told his story

Aphrodite set the queen aflame.

In a cave on hunting trip

Came Dido’s poor undoing.

Aphrodite’s son promised marriage

But left her to fall to her grave

Cursing the Trojan race

And all who spring from them.

After a visit to Hades’ land

They went north to their promised fate.