“Russia Delenda Est.” The current fanatic witch-hunt against Russia reminds the historian of the Roman destruction of Carthage. After Carthage’s defeat in 201 BC, the country ceased to be a threat to Rome and was reduced to a small territory that was equivalent to what is now northeastern Tunisia. However, when Cato the Censor visited its capital Carthage in 153 BC he was shocked that, despite its defeat, Carthage, a seaport, had managed to remain wealthy. For him, as long as Carthage existed, a “potential” threat to the Roman Empire persisted, and therefore, Carthago Delenda Est ("Carthago should be destroyed"). Since the Carthaginians refused to relocate their capital to another location, in 146 BC, Carthage was leveled to the ground by a Roman military expedition. Most of its population, cattle and pets were slaughtered, the rest sold into slavery. The land, it has been said, was sowed with salt to prevent any return of its inhabitants. Africa then became a Roman province.
That spirit is back. Only three weeks after Russia announced its military operation to stop a war that started in 2014 in Ukraine, the Space Foundation has removed the name of Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin from its space industry conference. As everyone knows or should know, Gagarin was the first human in history to orbit the Earth, and travel to outer space.
Citing the geopolitical conflict and the aggression of the Russian Federation as the reason, the Space Foundation changed the name of the fundraiser event at its 37th Space Symposium Conference to “A Celebration of Space: Discover What’s Next” from “Yuri’s night.”
