Editing Tophet (section)

===Greco-Roman sources===
Greco-Roman sources frequently criticize the Carthaginians for engaging in child sacrifice.{{sfn|Warmington|1995|p=453}} The earliest references to the practice are bare references in [[Sophocles]]<ref>{{cite book |author=[[Sophocles]] |orig-date=5th century BCE |title=Andromeda |at=fragment&nbsp;122}}</ref> and the Pseudo-Platonic dialogue, ''[[Minos (dialogue)|Minos]]'', probably of the fourth century BCE.{{sfn|McCarty|2019|p=316}} The late fourth century BCE philosopher [[Theophrastus]] claimed that the Syracusan tyrant [[Gelon]] had demanded that the Carthaginians abandon the practice after he defeated them in the [[Battle of Himera (480 BC)]].{{sfn|Quinn|2019|p=677}}

The first detailed account comes from [[Cleitarchus]], an early third-century BCE historian of [[Alexander the Great]], who is quoted by a [[scholiast]] as saying:
<blockquote> Phoenicians, and above all Carthaginians, worship Kronos; if they wish to achieve something big, they devote a child of theirs, and in the case of success, sacrifice it to the god. There is a bronze statue of Kronos among them, which stands upright with open arms and palms of its hands facing upwards above a bronze brazier on which the child is burnt. When the flames reach the body, the victim's limbs stiffen and the tense mouth almost seems like it is laughing until, with a final spasm, the child falls in the brazier.<br/>Cleitarchus ''[[FGrH]]'' no. 137, F 9<ref>{{cite web |last1=Prandi |first1=Luisa |title=Kleitarchos of Alexandria (137) |work=Brill's New Jacoby |publisher=Brill |access-date=6 January 2012 |page=F9 |date=2016 |url=https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/browse/brill-s-new-jacoby?fromBrillOnline=true |archive-date=3 May 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120503214512/http://referenceworks.brillonline.com/browse/brill-s-new-jacoby?fromBrillOnline=true |url-status=dead }}</ref></blockquote>

The first century BCE Greek historian [[Diodorus Siculus]] writes that, when the Carthaginians were besieged by [[Agathocles]] of [[Syracuse, Sicily|Syracuse]] in 310 BCE, the Carthaginians responded by sacrificing large numbers of children according to an old custom they had abandoned:
<blockquote>They also alleged that Kronos had turned against them inasmuch as in former times they had been accustomed to sacrifice to this god the noblest of their sons, but more recently, secretly buying and nurturing children, they had sent these to the sacrifice; and when an investigation was made, some of those who had been sacrificed were discovered to have been substituted by stealth. ... In their zeal to make amends for the omission, they selected two hundred of the noblest children and sacrificed them publicly; and others who were under suspicion sacrificed themselves voluntarily, in number not less than three hundred. There was in the city a bronze image of Kronos, extending its hands, palms up and sloping towards the ground, so that each of the children when placed thereon rolled down and fell into a sort of gaping pit filled with fire.{{sfn|Quinn|2011|pp=388-389}}<ref name=Siculus>{{cite book |author=[[Diodorus Siculus]] |title=[[Bibliotheca historica|Bibliotheca]] |at=XX, xiv}}</ref></blockquote> Elsewhere in the [[Bibliotheca historica|Bibliotheca]]<ref name=Siculus/>{{rp|style=ama|at=14.4}} Diodorus claims that wealthy Carthaginians would purchase infant slaves to offer in lieu of their own children.

The writer [[Plutarch]]  (c. 46–120 CE) also mentions the practice:
{{blockquote|... with full knowledge and understanding they themselves offered up their own children, and those who had no children would buy little ones from poor people and cut their throats as if they were so many lambs or young birds; meanwhile the mother stood by without a tear or moan; but should she utter a single moan or let fall a single tear, she had to forfeit the money, and her child was sacrificed nevertheless; and the whole area before the statue was filled with a loud noise of flutes and drums so that the cries of wailing should not reach the ears of the people."<ref>{{cite book |author=[[Plutarch]] |title=Moralia |at=Book 2, chap. 13 |section=De superstitione |section-url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2008.01.0189%3Asection%3D13}}</ref> }}

Several Christian authors allude to the practice in the early centuries CE. The Christian apologist [[Tertullian]], about 200 CE, states that although the priests who sacrificed children had been [[crucifixion|crucified]] by a [[Procurator (Roman)|Roman procurator]], "that holy crime persists in secret".<ref>{{cite book |author=[[Tertullian]] |title=Apologeticus [[de spectaculis]] |section=IX |section-url=https://archive.org/stream/apologydespectac00tertuoft#page/46/mode/2up |access-date=18 June 2014}}</ref> Another Christian writer, [[Minucius Felix]], claims that Punic women aborted their children as a form of sacrifice.{{sfn|Xella|2013|p=271}}