Carthago delenda est

"Ceterum censeo delendam esse Carthaginem", or "Ceterum autem censeo

delendam esse Carthaginem" (English: "Furthermore, (moreover) I consider that
Carthage must be destroyed"), often abbreviated to "Ceterum censeo", "Carthago
delenda est", or "Delenda est Carthago" (English: "Carthage must be destroyed"), is
a Latin oratorical phrase of the Roman Republic in the 2nd century BC prior to the
Third Punic War against Carthage, by the party advocating destruction of Rome's
ancient rival Carthage, which was thought to be rebuilding its capacity for further
warfare. The phrase is associated with the Roman senatorCato the Elder, who is said
to have used it as the conclusion to all his speeches.

Contents
1 Grammatical analysis
2 Historical background
Cato the Elder (234149 BC), the
3 Historical literary sources
most persistent advocate in the
4 Modern usage Senate for the total destruction of
5 Notes Carthage, and most famously
associated with repeated use, in or
6 References
out of its proper context, of the
phrase Delenda est Carthago

Grammatical analysis
The phrase employs delenda, the feminine singular gerundive form of the verb
delre ("destroy").[1] The gerundive (or future passive participle) delenda is a verbal
adjective that may be translated as "to be destroyed". When combined with a form of
the verb esse ("to be"), it adds an element of compulsion or necessity, yielding "is to
be destroyed", or, as it is more commonly rendered, "must be destroyed". The
gerundive delenda functions as a predicative adjective in this construction,[2] which
is known as the passive periphrastic.
Ruins in Carthage
The short form of the phrase, Carthago delenda est, is an independent clause.
Consequently, the feminine singular subject noun Carthago appears in the
nominative case.[3] The verb est[i] functions as a copulalinking the subject noun Carthago to the predicative verbal adjective
delendaand further imports a deontic modality to the clause as a whole.[4] Because delenda is a predicative adjective in relation to
the subject noun Carthago, it takes the same number (singular), gender (feminine) and case (nominative) as Carthago.[5]

The fuller forms Ceterum censeo delendam esse Carthaginem and Ceterum autem censeo delendam esse Carthaginem use the so-
called accusative and infinitiveconstruction for the indirect statement. In each of these forms, the verb censeo ("I opine") sets up the
indirect statement delendam esse Carthaginem ("[that] Carthage is to be destroyed").[6] Carthaginem, the subject of the indirect
statement, is in the accusative case; while the verb esse is in its present infinitive form. Delendam is a predicate adjective in relation
to the subject noun Carthaginem and thus takes the same number (singular); gender (feminine); and case (accusative) as
Carthaginem.[7]
Historical background
Although the Romans were successful in the first two Punic Wars, as they vied for
dominance with the seafaring Phoenician city-state of Carthage in North Africa
(modern day Tunisia), they suffered a number of humiliations and damaging reverses in
the course of these engagements, especially at the Battle of Cannae (216 BC). This
grew into an attitude of seeking vengeance and total victory, which was expressed by
these phrases. The city of Carthage was indeed finally razed by the Roman general
Scipio Aemilianus after the Third Battle of Carthage in 146 BC, and its entire
remaining population was sold into slavery. It thus never again posed a threat to Rome
The location of Carthage in North
at least until taken over by the Vandals, who looted Rome in 455.[8] The modern
Africa
legend that the city was sown with salt reflects the perceived savagery of its
destruction.

Historical literary sources

Although no ancient source gives the phrase exactly as it is usually quoted in modern times (either Carthago delenda est or the fuller
Ceterum censeo delendam esse Carthaginem), according to several ancient sources the Roman statesman Cato the Elder frequently if
not invariably ended his speeches in the Senate with a variant of this expression even when his speech had been totally unrelated to
Roman foreign policy towardsCarthage.[9] The main ancient sources, are:

"
Plutarch, biography of Cato in his "Parallel Lives", written in Greek, who quoted Cato's expression as
."[10]
Pliny the Elder, in his "Natural History", 15.20: "[Cato] clamaret omni senatu Carthaginem delendam. "
Aurelius Victor in his De Viris Illustribus, 47.8.: "Carthaginem delendam censuit."
Livy, Ab Urbe Condita, XLIX.
.[11] "Cato inexpiabili odio
Florus, Epitoma de Tito Livio bellorum omnium annorum DCC, Liber primus, XXXI
delendam esse Carthaginem pronunciabat."
The evolution of the phrasing towards its modern forms has been considered by Silvia Thrlemann, in her article Ceterum censeo
Carthaginem esse delendamin the journal Gymnasium 81 (1974).

Modern usage
A common modern use in order to emphasise to third parties the strength of one's opinion about a perceived necessary course of
action is to add either at the beginning or the end of a statement the two opening wordsCeterum
" censeo"

The phrase is sometimes fully adapted in modern usage, as a learned reference to total warfare.[12] In 1673 the English minister
Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury revived the phrase in the form "Delenda est Carthago" in a famous speech before
Parliament during the Third Anglo-Dutch War, comparing England to Rome and the Dutch Republic to Carthage. The pro-German
radio station Radio Paris in occupied France between 1940 and 1944 had "England, like Carthage, shall be destroyed!" as its slogan.
The phrase was used as the title forAlan Wilkins' 2007 play on the Third Punic War.[13] and for a book about Carthaginian history by
Richard Miles.

In Isaac Asimov's novel Robots and Empire, Dr. Mandamus uses a note with the phrase in order to convince Kelden Amadiro to see
him about his plan of destroying Earth, which they both consider the ultimate enemy of the Spacer worlds. In this case, the phrase is
written as "Ceterum censeo, delenda est Carthago" and Mandamus translates it as "In my opinion, Carthage must be destroyed". A
modified version of the phrase is used in the novel Peace on Earth by Stanisaw Lem ("Ceterum censeo humanitatem preservandam
[14]
esse""Furthermore, I consider that mankind must be saved").

Notes
 i. Est is the third-person singular present active indicative form of the verbesse; here, the person (third) and number
(singular) of the verb are controlled by the subject noun,Carthago.

References
1. Cassell's Latin Dictionary, ed. Marchant & Charles.
2. Betts, Gavin, Teach Yourself Latin, Sevenoaks, 1992, p.125,ISBN 978-0340867037
3. Latin Case. Department of Classics - The Ohio State University
. (https://classics.osu.edu/Undergraduate-Studies/Lati
n-Program/Grammar/Cases/latin-case)Web. 16 Feb. 2016. (noting that "[t]he nominative case is the case for the
subject of the sentence.")
4. To be clear, the semantic import of "Carthage is to be destroyed" isnot "Carthage is scheduled for future
destruction," but rather that "Carthagemust be destroyed." The former is a flaccid recital of a future eventuality; the
latter is a normative statement of whatneeds to happen, of moral desert. That is the deontic modality. See, e.g.,
Risselada, Rodie. Imperatives and Other Directive Expressions in Latin: A Study in the Pragmatics of a Dead
Language. Brill Academic Publishers, 1993. p. 179. Print. (noting that the periphrastic gerundival construction "has a
general deontic value.")
5. Allen, J. H., Greenough, J. B., et al.Allen and Greenough's New Latin Grammar for Schools and Colleges, ART
P
FIRST WORDS AND FORMS, ADJECTIVES.(http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3
A1999.04.0001%3Apart%3D1%3Asection%3D16)Perseus Digital Library. Web. 13 Feb. 2016. (noting that "
[adjectives] agree with their nouns in gender , number, and case.")
6. Allen and Greenough's New Latin Grammar for Schools and Colleges, Part Second Syntax, Indirect Discourse (ht
tp://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0001:part=2:section=12) . Perseus Digital Library;
accessed 13 Feb. 2016. (noting that "Verbs . . . of knowing, thinking, telling, and perceiving, govern the Indirect
Discourse.")
7. Allen and Greenough's New Latin Grammar for Schools and Colleges, Part First Words and Forms, Adjectives.
(h
ttp://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0001%3Apart%3D1%3Asection%3D16)
Perseus Digital Library, accessed 13 Feb. 2016.
8. Lempriere's Classical Dictionary, ISBN 978-0946495122, 1984, Bracken Books
9. Charles E. Little, "The Authenticity and Form of Cato's Saying 'Carthago Delenda Est,'(http://www.jstor.org/stable/32
89867)" Classical Journal 29 (1934), pp. 429-435.
10. "Plutarch Life of Cato the Elder"(http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/T
exts/Plutarch/Lives/Cato_Major*.
html#27). Penelope.uchicago.edu. Retrieved 2015-04-30.
11. "Florus: Epitome of Roman Wars" (http://thelatinlibrary.com/florus1.html#31). Thelatinlibrary.com. Retrieved
2015-04-30.
12. " "Delenda est" shouldn't be destroyed"(https://web.archive.org/web/20060625015443/http://ancienthistory.about.co
m/b/a/129595.htm). Archived from the original (http://ancienthistory.about.com/b/a/129595.htm) on June 25, 2006.
Retrieved January 29, 2007.
13. "Traverse THeatre : Homepage"(http://www.traverse.co.uk/show_detail.php?id=432). Traberse.co.uk. Retrieved
2015-04-30.
14. Stanislaw Lem (2002).Peace on Earth. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. p. 178. ISBN 015602814X.

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Carthago_delenda_est&oldid=809420341

"

This page was last edited on 9 November 2017, at 00:09.

Text is available under theCreative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License ; additional terms may apply. By using this
site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia is a registered trademark of theWikimedia
Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.