# Romans salting the earth after the 3rd Punic War. Fact or Myth? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 27, 2014, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romans-salting-the-earth-after-the-3rd-punic-war-fact-or-myth/679819 "2014-01-27T03:34:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![davidmich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e56c9b/32.png) [@davidmich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidmich)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2014, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romans-salting-the-earth-after-the-3rd-punic-war-fact-or-myth/679819/1 "2014-01-27T03:34:43Z")
Hi, I’ve read some sources stating that the Romans would never have wasted such a precious commodity as salt. Did the Romans really salt the earth after the Battle of Carthage (c. 149-146 BC) to make it infertile/barren? I look forward to your feedback davidmich ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2014, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romans-salting-the-earth-after-the-3rd-punic-war-fact-or-myth/679819/2 "2014-01-27T03:48:04Z")
It’s neither fact (never happened) nor myth (in any technical sense). It is a legendary motif which was attached to Carthage in the 20th century. See, for example, “The Destruction of Carthage: A Retractatio” by B. H. Warmington in _Classical Philology_, 83:4 (Oct., 1988), 308–310. ---
**Author:** ![davidmich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e56c9b/32.png) [@davidmich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidmich)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2014, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romans-salting-the-earth-after-the-3rd-punic-war-fact-or-myth/679819/3 "2014-01-27T04:27:06Z")
So why do modern historians state is as a fact? eg. Peter Turchin’s “War Peace and War”(2007) “Even in the harsh treatment meted out to the defeated Carthaginians (the other nation that Romans hated with a passion)when their beautiful and wealthy city was razed and its ground salted, the Romans left the agricultural population in the Carthaginian territory alone” (p. 152) davidmich ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2014, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romans-salting-the-earth-after-the-3rd-punic-war-fact-or-myth/679819/4 "2014-01-27T05:17:56Z")
Basically, because one historian did so early on, falling for the folklore, and because people accepted the claim without investigation, it was repeated. Then, after a few decades, the claim was investigated and found not to be historical, and careful historian no longer repeat it. For someone to do so in 2007 is pretty poor scholarship. ---
**Author:** ![davidmich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e56c9b/32.png) [@davidmich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidmich)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2014, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romans-salting-the-earth-after-the-3rd-punic-war-fact-or-myth/679819/5 "2014-01-27T05:28:56Z")
Thanks Dr… Drake. Very helpful. davidmich ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2014, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romans-salting-the-earth-after-the-3rd-punic-war-fact-or-myth/679819/6 "2014-01-27T11:40:52Z")
Okay, what’s the difference between folklore (which said historian fell for) and myth, which did not exist? ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2014, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romans-salting-the-earth-after-the-3rd-punic-war-fact-or-myth/679819/7 "2014-01-27T12:23:26Z")
Seems like a waste of good salt. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2014, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romans-salting-the-earth-after-the-3rd-punic-war-fact-or-myth/679819/8 "2014-01-27T13:07:39Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > Seems like a waste of good salt. Especially as, to Romans, it was a valuable commodity (valuable enough that it is the latin basis of our word ‘salary’) ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2014, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romans-salting-the-earth-after-the-3rd-punic-war-fact-or-myth/679819/9 "2014-01-27T14:27:05Z")
> [@Sailboat](#): > > Okay, what’s the difference between folklore (which said historian fell for) and myth, which did not exist? Myth is a particular genre of folklore. In ordinary speech, it gets used a lot to mean “untrue fact,” but in Folklore Studies, it is not used that way. It is reserved for a particular type of narrative involving gods and heroes. The OP’s use of “myth” isn’t wrong, since that’s a common use of the word in everyday English, but it’s not helpful in certain fields such as Roman history where some ahistorical data, such as what you’ll find in Livy, really is myth, whereas this example is not. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2014, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romans-salting-the-earth-after-the-3rd-punic-war-fact-or-myth/679819/10 "2014-01-27T15:50:39Z")
[The Master Speaks](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2698/did-ancient-conquerors-punish-their-enemies-by-sowing-captured-fields-with-salt). Basically, there was plenty of salt available, but there is no contemporary evidence of it happening. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2014, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romans-salting-the-earth-after-the-3rd-punic-war-fact-or-myth/679819/11 "2014-01-28T02:09:26Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > Especially as, to Romans, it was a valuable commodity (valuable enough that it is the latin basis of our word ‘salary’) In English, the words _dough_ and _bread_ are used to mean _money_, but that doesn’t mean they’re especially valuable commodities. The same applies to the Romans and _sal_. ---
**Author:** ![coremelt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@coremelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coremelt)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2014, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romans-salting-the-earth-after-the-3rd-punic-war-fact-or-myth/679819/12 "2014-01-28T05:01:26Z")
H. H ---
**Author:** ![coremelt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@coremelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coremelt)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2014, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romans-salting-the-earth-after-the-3rd-punic-war-fact-or-myth/679819/13 "2014-01-28T05:03:37Z")
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