the story in the roman history texts is that they tore down every brick one by one, they salted the fields, etc. but, that was actually not that uncommon - the romans did that to a dozen cities, and the assyrians did it to babylon, too.
the romans intended to erase carthage from history. that's a different, more developed task, and a more difficult one, given that we were no longer talking about bronze age egypt (where such things were apparently routine). the roman project destroyed all written references to carthage that could be found. they translated all punic texts to latin, then burned them. they eradicated all records of trade throughout the empire.
carthage must be destroyed was not a physical statement but a temporal, historical condition.
so, our knowledge of what was a very important maritime empire in it's day is startlingly poor, by intent. and, it's long been assumed that the romans basically made this up.
i wouldn't take this as entirely conclusive proof of widespread sacrifice, because i've seen reports of similar sacrifices in italy, well into the supposed christian period. iron age humans throughout the world resorted to human sacrifice in times of drought, disease and famine - because they believed the gods were angry. i mean, what do you do, if you believe a god is going to eat you? you give it something to eat - it's a rational deduction, rooted in an insane axiom. i need more than this.
but, the fact that we can't answer such a simple question about such a powerful state reflects just how vicious the roman genocide really was, and makes other questions - like whether they circumnavigated africa, or even sailed to south america - that much more impossible to grapple with.
but. where did the baby eating jew meme actually come from, anyways? it's not where you probably think, it's much older than that. it comes from this longstanding roman accusation that the carthaginians sacrificed their children, in rituals that seemed a lot like the stories in genesis.
