Word.ws English Dictionary

Carthaginian peace

Carthaginian peace noun: peace maintained with devastating consequences for one of the parties involved; a very harsh peace, particularly one that results in the defeated side being destroyed or nearly so.

carthaginian peace: peace maintained with devastating consequences for one of the parties involved; a very harsh peace,...
Image: Edward Poynter, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

Carthaginian peace (usually uncountable, plural Carthaginian peaces)

  1. (usually) Peace maintained with devastating consequences for one of the parties involved; a very harsh peace, particularly one that results in the defeated side being destroyed or nearly so.
    • To be sure, the Treaty of Versailles was not a Carthaginian peace as many contemporaries, most notably John Maynard Keynes, believed. Germany was not crippled as an economic power. It remained the most populous state in Europe, its industrial potential was largely intact, and with the demise of the...2015, Stephen Gross, Export Empire, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, pages 50–51

Forms of Carthaginian peace

pluralCarthaginian peaces

Origin of Carthaginian peace

In reference to the draconian peace terms imposed on the Carthaginian Empire by the Roman Republic following the Punic Wars. At the end of the Third Punic War, Rome destroyed Carthage.

Questions about Carthaginian peace

What does Carthaginian peace mean?
Carthaginian peace means peace maintained with devastating consequences for one of the parties involved; a very harsh peace, particularly one that results in the defeated side being destroyed or nearly so.
What part of speech is Carthaginian peace?
Carthaginian peace is a noun.
What is the plural of Carthaginian peace?
The plural of Carthaginian peace is Carthaginian peaces.

Words near Carthaginian peace in the dictionary

  1. Cartesians
  2. cartful
  3. cartfuls
  4. Carthage
  5. Carthaginian
  6. Carthaginian peace
  7. Carthaginian peaces
  8. Carthaginians
  9. carthamic acid
  10. carthamin
  11. carthamine

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Carthaginian peace (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “Carthaginian peace.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/carthaginian_peace. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.