must be destroyed") or the fuller "Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam" or "Ceterum autem censeo, Carthaginem esse delendam" (English: "Furthermore, I think Carthage must be destroyed") are Latin political phrases which were popular in the Roman Republic

Roman Republic

The Roman Republic was the period of the ancient Roman civilization where the government operated as a republic. It began with the overthrow of the Roman monarchy, traditionally dated around 508 BC, and its replacement by a government headed by two consuls, elected annually by the citizens and...

 during the latter years of the Punic Wars

Punic Wars

The Punic Wars were a series of three wars fought between Rome and Carthage from 264 B.C.E. to 146 B.C.E. At the time, they were probably the largest wars that had ever taken place...

 against Carthage

Carthage

Carthage , implying it was a 'new Tyre') is a major urban centre that has existed for nearly 3,000 years on the Gulf of Tunis, developing from a Phoenician colony of the 1st millennium BC...

. The city was indeed finally razed by the Romans after the Battle of Carthage in 146 BC, and its entire remaining population sold into slavery

Slavery

Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...

.

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 Carthaginem esse delendam), according to several ancient sources the Roman statesman Cato the Elder

Cato the Elder

Marcus Porcius Cato was a Roman statesman, commonly referred to as Censorius , Sapiens , Priscus , or Major, Cato the Elder, or Cato the Censor, to distinguish him from his great-grandson, Cato the Younger.He came of an ancient Plebeian family who all were noted for some...

 would always end his speeches with some variation of this expression even if he had not been discussing Carthage in the speech.

Although the Romans were successful in the first two Punic Wars, as they vied for dominance with the seafaring Phoenicia

Phoenicia

Phoenicia , was an ancient civilization in Canaan which covered most of the western, coastal part of the Fertile Crescent. Several major Phoenician cities were built on the coastline of the Mediterranean. It was an enterprising maritime trading culture that spread across the Mediterranean from 1550...

n city-state of Carthage in North Africa

North Africa

North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, linked by the Sahara to Sub-Saharan Africa. Geopolitically, the United Nations definition of Northern Africa includes eight countries or territories; Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, South Sudan, Sudan, Tunisia, and...

 (modern day Tunisia

Tunisia

Tunisia , officially the Tunisian RepublicThe long name of Tunisia in other languages used in the country is: , is the northernmost country in Africa. It is a Maghreb country and is bordered by Algeria to the west, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Its area...

), they did suffer a number of humiliations and damaging reverses, especially at the Battle of Cannae

Battle of Cannae

The Battle of Cannae was a major battle of the Second Punic War, which took place on August 2, 216 BC near the town of Cannae in Apulia in southeast Italy. The army of Carthage under Hannibal decisively defeated a numerically superior army of the Roman Republic under command of the consuls Lucius...

 (216 BC). This grew into an attitude of seeking vengeance and total victory that was expressed with these phrases.
The attitude of total warfare toward Carthage resulted in the utter destruction of the city at the end of the Third Punic War

Third Punic War

The Third Punic War was the third and last of the Punic Wars fought between the former Phoenician colony of Carthage, and the Roman Republic...

 and the surviving inhabitants were sold into slavery. The modern legend that the city was sown with salt

Salting the earth

Salting the earth, or sowing with salt, is the ritual of spreading salt on conquered cities to symbolize a curse on its re-inhabitation. It originated as a practice in the ancient Near East and became a well-established folkloric motif in the Middle Ages.-Destroying cities:The custom of purifying...

 reflects the perceived savagery of destruction.

The phrase is sometimes adapted in modern usage, in a learned reference to total warfare, The English minister Anthony Ashley Cooper (Earl of Shaftesbury)

Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury

Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury PC , known as Anthony Ashley Cooper from 1621 to 1631, as Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper, 2nd Baronet from 1631 to 1661, and as The Lord Ashley from 1661 to 1672, was a prominent English politician during the Interregnum and during the reign of King Charles...

 revived the phrase (rendered as "Delenda est Carthago") in a famous 1673 speech before Parliament during the Third Anglo-Dutch War

Third Anglo-Dutch War

The Third Anglo–Dutch War or Third Dutch War was a military conflict between England and the Dutch Republic lasting from 1672 to 1674. It was part of the larger Franco-Dutch War...

, comparing England to Rome and the Dutch Republic to Carthage. The phrase has been used as the title for Alan Wilkins

Alan Wilkins (playwright)

Alan Wilkins is a Edinburgh based Scots playwright. His first professionally produced play was The Nest, which opened at the Traverse Theatre in April 2004 and then toured the Highlands and islands of Scotland. The play was set in a Highland bothy and features five hill walkers sheltering from a...

' 2007 play on the Third Punic War.

Grammatically, it expresses necessity by using a gerundive with a form of the verb esse, "to be". The fuller form Ceterum censeo … uses the so-called accusative and infinitive

Accusative and infinitive

In grammar, accusative and infinitive is the name for a syntactic construction of Latin and Greek, also found in various forms in other languages such as English and Spanish. In this construction, the subject of a subordinate clause is put in the accusative case and the verb appears in the...

 for the indirect statement. This construction in Latin is known as the passive periphrastic.