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Carthage was a Phoenician colony. The Phoenicians (Sidon, Tyre) were independently described by other cultures as having a national cult that sacrificed childr
by tomohawk 3y ago
Carthage was a Phoenician colony. The Phoenicians (Sidon, Tyre) were independently described by other cultures as having a national cult that sacrificed children. These descriptions are preserved in the Bible. The struggle with this cult was a significant formative experience of Judaism that lasted many generations.
- fastball 3y agoSocieties have also been known to completely fabricate horrible anecdotes about their neighbors / nemeses.
- harywilke 3y agoAnd about themselves to induce fear in their enemies. 'The Spartan Mirage' comes to mind.
- ffgjgf1 3y agoIn this case you have multiple societies independently telling the same thing about the same society. Seems about as credible as it gets in a situation like this. Also it’s not like killing infants was a big deal for the Greeks. There were even a bit shocked by their perceived lack of female infanticide in the Etruscan society.
- fastball 3y agoI don't think it is entirely clear that the accounts are independent.
- tomohawk 3y agoIt's pretty clear. There was no love lost between the Jews and Romans. The civilizations developed independently, and the survival of Judaism required rejection of the Roman world view in most things.
- GloomyBoots 3y agoI don’t know. My reading of ancient anti-Christian polemic seems to show that Greeks and Romans familiarized themselves with Jewish sources enough to use them to bolster their arguments. One example being the story of Jesus having been fathered by a Roman soldier named Pantera.
- TSiege 3y agoThe sack of Carthage happened 150 years before Christ was born and almost 100 years before the conquest of Judea