"Cato the Elder was one of the great figures of roman politics. Born in 234 BC in central Italy, the man had, for much of his youth, lived and worked in the farm he inherited from his father, where he developed a firmly conservative outlook and staunch dedication to traditional roman values. He fought in the second punic war, distinguishing himself in both combat and leadership, and quickly rose through the ranks, soon gaining a place in the Roman senate and becoming well known as the defender of the old Roman virtues of frugality, self-sacrifice and strict decisiveness; said values were, so he believed, rapidly disappearing, as they often do, as wealth from newly conquered territories flowed into the Republic in the years after Rome defeated all of its enemies across the Mediterranean. The brutal second Punic war, fought against Carthage, which by some accounts had directly caused the deaths of a fifth of the men in Rome, had made them strong, but now Asian silk and Spanish silver and Greek philosophy were softening the spirit of the once fearsome Roman soldier-farmer. One of the many ways in which this man was the epitome of said ideal was his unflinching hatred of the enemies of Rome. When Cato the Elder believed someone was a threat, he pushed for their destruction with unrelenting conviction. So it was with Carthage; and so whenever he made a speech, no matter whether the subject was the most grand foreign policy or trivial garbage collection, he always ended in the exact same way: "And furthermore, it is my belief that Carthage must be destroyed." And by destroyed, he meant exterminated. So now you know what it means to say 'Carthago delenda est'." SOURCE: History of Rome Podcast, Roman History 06 - The Late Republic 1 200 - 130 BC