The Third Punic War (149-146 BC) was a siege of the city of Carthage. The Romans eventually took the city, killed the men of Carthage, and enslaved the women and children. The city was burnt to the ground, and, it was written, that the Romans sewed salt into the fields so nothing could grow there again.
The Third Punic War, by far the most controversial of the three conflicts between Rome and Carthage, was the result of efforts by Cato the Elder and other hawkish members of the Roman Senate to convince their colleagues that Carthage (even in its weakened state) was a continuing threat to Rome's supremacy in the region.
