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Ancient Carthaginians did sacrifice their children (2014)

ox.ac.uk

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Re: Ancient Carthaginians did sacrifice their children (2014)

#111
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It is interesting that civilizations have engaged in ritual sacrifice. The question is why? A few thoughts: - Sacrifice and civilization are closely related. To live in a society you have to sacrifice some autonomy, some of your (and your family's) goals and some resources. Further, to prepare for the future you have to make a sacrifice in the present. Many people even sacrifice their present selves for their futur…

It leaves a bad taste in my mouth bringing it back around to politics (I wish I lived in a world where I didn't have anything to say about it), but cancel culture has shown that people still love to gather 'round for a good old fashioned sacrifice.

We sacrifice millions every year because we

1. Don’t want to change our reliance on cars

2. Don’t want to address hunger and houselessness.

3. We are doing basically nothing about global warming.

A lot of countries COVID strategy was effectively human sacrifice too. This practice never ended.

Re: Ancient Carthaginians did sacrifice their children (2014)

#112

More controversially, note that Phoenicia invented the alphabet, had the first maritime global trade empire, colonized Europe in the 13th century BC, and Punic dynasties eventually sat on the Roman throne despite losing the Punic wars ostensibly, with one such Severan emperor dismantling the Pantheon of Jupiter. You can also trace Byzantine dynasties back eastward and later empires too have this connection through dy…

> So those conspiracy theories claiming Jewish world domination are all rather quaint when you consider that Israel was just a backwater

You realize Phoenicia and Israel are neighbors and two very small countries? The distance from Tel Aviv to Beirut is only 200Km. They are practically the same people except at some point in history they diverged in religion and became hostile to one another. Maybe if they kept sacrificing their children then... okay, I'll see myself out.

Re: Ancient Carthaginians did sacrifice their children (2014)

#113
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very strange to see US-style political discourse applied to the ancients. It really is true that as we do one thing we do all things.

The destruction of Cartagena is the first known example of purposeful destruction of the whole civilization. The USA and the annihilation of native american civilizations came many centuries later.

Just off the top of my head... Assyria.

Re: Ancient Carthaginians did sacrifice their children (2014)

#114

Turns out that Cato the Censor was right.

[flagged]

Rome declared war on Carthage when it tried to expand West (Modern day Algeria). Carthage was warned about this but decided to try its' hand. Let's just say that the Roman at the time were not Chamberlain.

Re: Ancient Carthaginians did sacrifice their children (2014)

#115
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very strange to see US-style political discourse applied to the ancients. It really is true that as we do one thing we do all things.

The destruction of Cartagena is the first known example of purposeful destruction of the whole civilization. The USA and the annihilation of native american civilizations came many centuries later.

There are still significant artifacts from Carthage and the city rose back very quickly. My guess is that the same-same of war happened: The elite were killed but the rest of the population was spared. Rome probably spread this rhetoric to embolden its image. Let's just say this was a different time.

Re: Ancient Carthaginians did sacrifice their children (2014)

#118
post #117

I want to make a plug for the Fall of Civilizations podcast. Last month was the Carthage episode. Here's the audio version(video version hasn't been released yet): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mqX9twdyYo

That is such a well done podcast and give a detailed look at a series of cultures as they grew, prospered, and faded. Fascinating stuff.

Re: Ancient Carthaginians did sacrifice their children (2014)

#120

[flagged]

I’m not sure why you are bringing abortion into this. The Carthaginian’s would not consider what they were doing abortion and most modern people would also not consider this related to abortion. Is there some correlation that you wanted to make?
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