4 ms·
Marhabat. This particular list is pretty strict on the "continuous" criteria. I guess when the Romans plowed salt into it, continuity was broken, for the purpos
by netcan 7y ago
Marhabat. This particular list is pretty strict on the "continuous" criteria. I guess when the Romans plowed salt into it, continuity was broken, for the purposes of this list.
Carthage does make this list. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_cities_throughout_history https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_cities_through...
It was the world's biggest city circa 300BC.
- Cyph0n 7y agoMarahba! Yeah, it's either that, or the fact that Tunis (the new capital) was founded 10 miles away after the Umayyads took Carthage from the Byzantines (mentioned by u/scythe).
- lostlogin 7y agoI don’t think that the ‘ploughed salt’ approach is considered true anymore. The articles I want to link to are paywalled but there is a good discussion in the below reddit thread. The tldr is the salt was very expensive. http://www.jstor.org/stable/269786 http://www.jstor.org/stable/269786 https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/2lr8h3/did_the_romans_really_salt_fields_to_make_sure/ https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/...
- netcan 7y agoDo you mean the literal salt, or the destruction? I've often wonder about the salt. The salt ritual (or figure of speech) originates in the eastern Mediterranean, which is why it features in the bible. Being Israeli, I always figured the dead sea inspired the idea. I think you'd need a lot of salt to do it literally though. I wonder how the expression got to Rome? Punic culture & language came from Lebanon, and was similar to biblical Hebrew. It makes sense they used the same metaphors & rituals. Rome though? Was Scipio using a Carthaginian expression? Did he do their own ancient victory ritual to them?
- lostlogin 7y agoI meant the literal ploughing in of salt crystals seems not to have happened. The destruction doesn’t seem to be disputed. You have given me a new angle to think on though as maybe that is what was meant? Presumably the concept of salting came from somewhere, but short of breaching sea dykes, I can’t see how it could be done easily.