The sacrifice of children by burning them alive is recorded both in the Bible and by th
e classical authors, but it is likely that this was actually a kind of initiation after death, in which children who had met a premature end were ½offered╗ to \b \cf4 \ATXht4139 Ba'al-Hammon\b0 \cf0 \ATXht0 and \b \cf4 \ATXht5139 Tanit\b0 \cf0 \ATXht0 ,
so that they would protect them in the afterlife. However it is possible that in wholly exceptional cases, such as during the siege of Carthage in 146 BC, the sacrifice of live children was actually carried out in order to propitiate the gods.\par