Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!cica!iuvax!att!cbnews!military
From: convex!cash@uunet.UU.NET (Peter Cash)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: Civil War technology
Summary: a grain of salt
Keywords: Ironclads, Civil War
Message-ID: <1990Oct24.152208.16921@cbnews.att.com>
Date: 24 Oct 90 15:22:08 GMT
References: <1990Oct11.050851.29295@cbnews.att.com> <1990Oct18.021506.7493@cbnews.att.com>
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Followup-To: soc.history
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From: convex!cash@uunet.UU.NET (Peter Cash)


[mod.note: Followups to soc.history. - Bill ]

>Well, not meaning to nit-pick, but I would say "Total War" was
>achieved much earlier than the 1800's in the 3rd Roman-Carthrage
>war in which after the Romans defeated Carthrage they looted
>and burned the city and then put salt in the soil of the entire area
>around Carthrage so that nothing would ever grow there again.

Is this just an old story, or has it been verified? It seems to me that the
quantity of salt that would be required to ruin Carthaginian agriculture
would be enormous. (I'll leave the exact calculations to others.) In view
of the fact that salt was a precious commodity in the ancient world, I
doubt very much that the Romans would squander it in this manner. 

Moreover, any salt dumped into the soil would leach away in a few years.
Thus, the effect of this salinization would be temporary at best. Well,
maybe the Romans were as successful with this technology as Hannibal was in
using vinegar to break his way through the boulders in the alps...






--
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             |      Die Welt ist alles, was Zerfall ist.     |
Peter Cash   |       (apologies to Ludwig Wittgenstein)      |cash@convex.com
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