Did Carthage really sacrifice babies, or is that just Roman propaganda?
They probably did on rare occasions. Their cousins back in the Levant had the same practices.
The Romans can't really claim any moral high ground though.
>We only kill babies and rape their mothers and then sell them into slavery, we don't SACRIFICE them
Possibly, and very likely near the end of the Punic wars. After all, the Romans did it too in times of extreme crisis.
>>1070545
>The Romans can't really claim any moral high ground though.
This, antiquity was pretty fucked up overall
Wasn't infanticide a normal practice in Rome?
>>1070585
Sure, but not for religious reasons.
>>1070585
Infanticide is a normal human practice in general, especially in antiquity.
>>1070534
The romans did have human sacrifices as late as a century before the punic wars (then they banned it, but it didn't abruptly stop just like that), so it wouldn't be strange at all if contemporary cultures did the same.
>>1070534
Roman propaganda, the tophets mostly were covered by the bones of unborn children, not sacrified babies.
Fun fact: there are more tophets in Sardinia than in the rest of the Mediterranean.
>>1070662
Actually scratch that, the law banning it came in 97BC, it just became infrequent around the 3rd century BC.
>>1070534
>believing the eternal Italian
>>1070601
Religious reasons are just cultural or practical reasons given a religious meaning.
>>1070534
Only in times of crisis. This was actually thought to be Roman propaganda for many years until a burial mound discovered fairly recently proved it true.
>>1070778
What burial mound?
>>1070791
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/jan/21/carthaginians-sacrificed-own-children-study
>>1070803
Tophets are known since centuries ago by archeologists, there are many of them near where I live too (Sardinia).
It's not a recent discovery.
Also I've read that most of those bones belonged to unborn children.
>>1070672
So the Carthaginians used abortion as sacrifice?
>>1070534
>Carthaginian Iberia
>246 BC
That map is bad and you should feel bad.
>>1070585
Infanticide was pretty common place in many countries actually as a form of post-birth abortion. That changed once Abrahamic religions started popping up which strongly condemn that practice. In countries that didn't have much Abrahamic influence (China, parts of India etc.) infanticide was still practiced semi-regularly, especially among the poorest populace.
>>1070545
>implying morality applies to the outgroup
>>1070534
>Carthage
>Empire
It was a republic by then, you silly map.
Oh sorry, a "Shofetim"
>>1070534
>carthaginian """""empire"""""
??
????
>>1070534
They probably did.
They also had a great library, an amazing economy even after losing two massive wars against Rome and a political system which even Aristotle found praiseworthy.
They weren't that bad. ;_;
>>1073989
>They weren't that bad. ;_;
Go to bed Hannibal.
>>1070832
Historically, most of the "sacrifices" where stillborns and other children that didn't survive birth. However when Rome was beating on Carthage's doors and shit had completely hit the fan they took to sacrificing living babies again because their situation was just that bad.
Roman writers exaggerated and made up shit all the time. It was a tradition among historians throughout antiquity since standards of objectivity weren't a thing.
