When did the third Punic War end?

The Third Punic War ended in 146 B.C., when Rome defeated Carthage and destroyed the city.

The conflict was fought from 149 to 146 B.C. and was the final war between the Roman Republic and Carthage. Rome used a dispute between Carthage and the Numidian king Masinissa as a pretext for intervention, even though Carthage was no longer a serious military threat.

The Roman commander Scipio Aemilianus tightened the siege and launched the final assault in 146 B.C. Roman forces fought through Carthage for several days, killing many inhabitants and enslaving about 50,000 survivors. The city’s territory became the Roman province of Africa, with Utica as its capital.

A common misconception is that Roman soldiers famously sowed Carthage with salt. That story appears to be a much later invention, not an event recorded in the ancient accounts. The war’s ending also marked the permanent destruction of Carthage as an independent power and confirmed Rome’s dominance in the western Mediterranean.