Destruction of Carthage and Corinth; Roman Mediterranean hegemony
- Date
- 146 BCE
- Category
- Military & conflict
- Region
- North Africa and Greece (Mediterranean)
- Era
- Classical Antiquity
- Significance
In a single year Rome obliterated two of the Mediterranean's most storied cities, announcing its supremacy over both the western and eastern halves of the sea.
Ending the Third Punic War, Scipio Aemilianus stormed Carthage after a prolonged siege; over six days the Romans systematically destroyed the city, killing much of its population and enslaving some 50,000 survivors, and annexed its territory as the province of Africa. In the same year Lucius Mummius sacked Corinth, crushing the Achaean League: its defenders were killed, its people enslaved, and the wealthy Greek city was levelled, completing the subjugation of mainland Greece begun by the defeat of Macedon at Pydna in 168 BCE. These twin destructions, deliberately exemplary in their brutality, demonstrated Rome's willingness to annihilate rivals and turned the Mediterranean into effectively a Roman sphere. The flood of wealth, slaves and Greek culture that followed transformed Roman society and economy, widening the gap between rich and poor and helping to generate the social tensions that would soon convulse the Republic.
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Empires active in 146 BCE
- Roman Republic509 BCE – 27 BCE
- Han Dynasty202 BCE – 220 CE
- Shunga Empire185 BCE – 73 BCE
- Ptolemaic Kingdom305 BCE – 30 BCE
- Kingdom of Numidia202 BCE – 25 BCE
- Seleucid Empire312 BCE – 63 BCE
Related military & conflict events
- Battle of Gaixia and the founding of the Han dynasty202 BCE
- Battle of Actium ends the Hellenistic age2 September 31 BCE
- The Kalinga War and Ashoka's turn to Dhammac. 261 BCE
- Yuezhi defeat by the Xiongnu and westward migrationc. 176 BCE
- Battle of Zama ends the Second Punic War19 October 202 BCE
- Battle of Gaugamela destroys the Achaemenid Empire1 October 331 BCE
Further reading
The wider story
Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic
Gripping popular narrative of the Republic's fall.
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