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Perang ini merupakan satu pertempuran dalam skala yang lebih kecil berbanding dua peperangan Punic sebelumnya. Ia terdiri dari satu pertempuran sahaja iaitu [[Pertempuran Carthage (sekitar 149 SM)|Pertempuran Carthage]], yang menyebabkan kota Carthage musnah sepenuhnya, pendudukan wilayah Carthage yang selebihnya oleh Rom, dan kematian atau perhambaan ke atas keseluruhan rakyat Carthage. Perang Punic Ketiga juga menamatkan kewujudan kemerdekaan Carthage.
==BackgroundLatar belakang==
InDalam thetahun-tahun years between theantara [[SecondPerang Punic War|SecondKedua]] anddan ThirdPerang Punic WarKedua, RomeRom wastelah engagedterlibat indengan thepenaklukan conquest of theempayar [[Tamadun Hellenistic civilization|Hellenistic]] empires todi thearah easttimur (seelihat [[MacedonianPerang-perang WarsMacedonia]], [[IllyrianPerang WarsIllyria]], and thedan [[Roman-SyrianPerang WarRom-Syria]]) anddan ruthlesslydengan suppressingkejamnya themenekan penduduk [[Hispania]]n peoples in thedi westbarat, althoughwalaubagaimanapun theysumbangan hadmereka beenadalah essentialpenting todalam themembawa Romankejayaan successkepada inRom thedalam SecondPerang Punic WarKedua. Carthage, strippedyang ofditinggalkan alliessekutu anddan territorywilayah yang dirampas ([[Sicily]], [[Sardinia]], [[Hispania]]), wasmembayar sufferingpampasan underyang abesar hugedalam indemnity ofbentuk 200 silver [[Talent (weightberat)|talent]]s toperak beyang paidmesti everydibayar yearpada forsetiap tahun selama 50 yearstahun.
According to [[Appian]] the senator [[Cato the Elder|Cato]] usually finished his speeches on any subject in the Senate with the phrase ''[[Carthago delenda est|ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam]]'', which means "Furthermore, it is my opinion that Carthage must be destroyed", a position earlier cited by [[Cicero]] in his dialogue [[De Senectute]].<ref>''At Senatui quae sint gerenda praescribo et quo modo, Carthagini male iam diu cogitanti bellum multo ante denuntio, de qua vereri non ante desinam, quam illam excissam esse cognovero.'' Cicero, Marcus Tullius: ''De senectute.'' English translation and comments by William Armistead Falconer. Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press, 1923, page 26. ISBN 0674991702</ref> He was opposed by the senator [[Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica Corculum]], who favoured a different course, one that would not destroy Carthage, and who usually convinced the Senate.
The peace treaty at the end of the Second Punic War required that all border disputes involving Carthage be arbitrated by the [[Roman Senate]] and required Carthage to get explicit Roman approval before going to war. As a result, in the fifty intervening years between the Second and Third Punic War, Carthage had to take all border disputes with Rome's ally [[Numidia]] to the Roman Senate, where they were decided almost exclusively in Numidian favor.
In [[151 BC]], the Carthaginian debt to Rome was fully repaid, meaning that, in Punic eyes, the treaty was now expired{{Citation needed|date=August 2008}}, though not so according to the Romans, who instead viewed the treaty as a permanent declaration of Carthaginian subordination to Rome akin to the Roman treaties with its Italian allies. Moreover, the retirement of the indemnity removed one of the main incentives the Romans had to keep the peace with Carthage - there were no further payments that might be interrupted.
The Romans had other reasons to conquer Carthage and her remaining territories{{Citation needed|date=August 2008}}. By the middle of the [[second century BC]] the population of the city of Rome was about 400,000 and rising. Feeding the growing populace was becoming a major challenge. The farmlands surrounding Carthage represented the most productive, most accessible and perhaps the most easily obtainable agricultural lands not yet under Roman control.
==The course of war==
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