One Alexander, that also declared himself to be a son of Perseus and collected a band of warriors, had occupied the country round about the river which is called the Mestus:[40] but he now took to flight, and Metellus chased him as far as Dardania.
B.C. 148
(a.u. 606)IX, 29.—The Romans put Piso the consul in the field against the Carthaginians. Piso did not try conclusions with Carthage and Hasdrubal, but devoted himself to the coast cities. He was repulsed from Aspis, captured and razed Neapolis, and in his expedition against the town of Hippo merely used up time without accomplishing anything. The Carthaginians took heart both for the reasons indicated and because some allies had joined their cause. Learning this the Romans in army and city alike had recourse to Scipio and created him consul in spite of the fact that his age would not properly let him hold the office. Cp. Frag. 71 own deeds and the excellence of his father Paulus and of his grandfather Africanus implanted in the breasts of all a firm hope that through him they should vanquish their enemies and utterly root out Carthage.
B.C. 147
(a.u. 607)While Scipio was en route to Libya, Mancinus was sailing along the coast of Carthage. He noticed a point called Megalia which was inside the city wall and was located on a cliff having a sheer descent into the sea. This point was a long distance away from the rest of the town and had but few guards because of the natural strength of its position. Suddenly Mancinus applied ladders to it from the ships and ascended. Not till he was safely up did some of the Carthaginians hastily gather, but even so they were unable to repulse him from his vantage ground. He then sent to Piso an account of his exploit and a request for assistance. Piso, however, being far in the interior, proved of no aid to Mancinus, but Scipio happened along at nightfall just after the receipt of the news and immediately sent him help. The Carthaginians would have either captured or destroyed Mancinus, if they had not seen Scipio's vessels skirting the shore: then they grew discouraged, but would not fall back. So Scipio sent them some captives to tell them that he was at hand, upon receipt of which information they no longer stood their ground, but retired to send for Hasdrubal and fortify with trenches and palisades the cross-wall in front of the residences. Scipio now left Mancinus to guard Megalia and himself set out to join Piso and the troops so as to have their support in his conduct of operations. He made a rapid return journey with the lightest equipped portion of the army and found that Hasdrubal had entered Carthage and was attacking Mancinus fiercely. The arrival of Scipio put an end to the attack. When Piso too had come there, Scipio bade him take up his position outside the wall opposite certain gates, and he sent other soldiers around to a little gate a long distance away from the main force, with orders as to what they must do. He himself about midnight took the strongest portion of the army, got inside the circuit (using deserters as guides) and moving quietly to a point inside the little gate he hacked the bar in two, let in the men who were on the watch outside and destroyed the guards. Then he hastened to the gate opposite which Piso had his station, routing the intervening guards (who were only a few in each place), so that Hasdrubal by the time he found out what had happened could see that nearly the entire body of Roman troops was inside. For a while the Carthaginians withstood them: then they abandoned the city, all but the Cotho and Byrsa, in which they took refuge. Next Hasdrubal killed all the Roman captives in order that his people in despair of pardon might show the greater fortitude in resistance. He also made away with many of the natives on the charge that they wanted to betray their own cause. And Scipio encircled them with trench and palisade and intercepted them by a wall, yet it was some time before he took them captive. The walls were strong and the men within being many in number and confined in a small space fought with vehemence. They were well off for food, too, for Bithias from the mainland opposite the city sent merchantmen, amid wind and wave into the harbor to them so often as there was a heavy gale blowing. To overcome this obstacle Scipio conceived and executed a startling operation, namely, the damming of the narrow entrance to the harbor. The work was difficult and toilsome, for the Carthaginians undertook to check them, yet he accomplished it by the number of laborers at his disposal. Many battles took place in the meantime, but the enemy were unable to prevent the filling of the channel.
IX, 30.—So when the mouth of the harbor had been filled up, the Carthaginians were terribly oppressed by the scarcity of food; some of them deserted, others endured it and died, and still others ate the dead bodies. Hasdrubal, accordingly, in dejection sent envoys to Scipio with regard to truce, and would have obtained immunity, had he not desired to secure both preservation and freedom for all the rest as well. After he had failed for this reason to accomplish his purpose he confined his wife in the acropolis because she had made propositions to Scipio for the safety of herself and her children, and behaved in other ways more boldly on account of his despair. He, therefore, and some others, mastered by frenzy, fought both night and day; and sometimes they would be defeated and sometimes gain advantage; and they devised machinery to oppose the Roman engines. Bithias, who held a high-perched fortress and scoured wide stretches of the mainland, did what he could to help the Carthaginians and damage the Romans. Hence Scipio also divided his army, assigning one half of it to invest Carthage while he sent the other half against Bithias, placing at the head of it his lieutenant Gaius Lælius. He himself spent his time in passing from one division to the other for inspection. Then the fortress was taken, and the siege of Carthage was once more conducted by an undivided force.
B.C. 146
(a.u. 608)The Carthaginians despairing consequently of being any longer able to save both walls betook themselves to the enclosure of the Byrsa, since it was higher up, at the same time transferring thither all the objects that they could. By night they burned the dockyard and most of the other structures in order to deprive the enemy of any benefit from them. When the Romans became aware of their action, they occupied the harbor and advanced against Byrsa. Occupying the houses on each side of it some of the besiegers walked straight along on top of the roofs by successively stepping to those immediately adjacent, and others by digging through the walls pushed onward below until they reached the very citadel. When they had got so far, the Carthaginians offered no further opposition, but all except Hasdrubal sued for clemency. He together with the deserters (for Scipio would not grant them a truce) was crowded into the temple of Æsculapius, as were also his wife and children, and there he defended himself against assailants until the deserters set fire to the temple and climbed to the roof to await the last extremity of the flames. Then, beaten, he came to Scipio holding the suppliant branch. His wife, who witnessed his entreaty, after calling him by name and reproaching him for securing safety for himself when he had not allowed her to obtain terms threw her children into the fire and likewise cast herself in.
Thus did Scipio take Carthage, and he forwarded to the senate a letter in these terms: "Carthage is taken. What are your orders?" This being read they held a session to consider what should be done. Cato advanced the opinion that they ought to raze the city and blot out the Carthaginians, whereas Scipio Nasica still advised sparing the Carthaginians. From this beginning the senate became involved in great dispute and contention until some one said that if for no other reason it must be considered necessary to spare them for the Romans' own sake. With this nation for antagonists they would be sure to practice excellence and not turn aside to pleasures and luxury; for if those who were able to compel them to practice warlike pursuits should be removed from the scene, they might become inferior from want of practice, for a lack of worthy competitors. As a result of these words all became unanimous in favor of demolishing Carthage, since they felt sure that that people would never remain entirely at peace. The whole town was therefore overthrown from pinnacle to foundation and it was decreed that for any person to settle upon its site should be an accursed act. The majority of the population captured were thrown into prison and there perished, and some few (still excepting the very foremost men) were sold. These leaders and the hostages and Hasdrubal and Bithias lived to the end of their lives in different parts of Italy as prisoners, yet free from bonds. Scipio secured both glory and honor and was called Africanus not after his grandfather but from his own achievements.
IX, 31.—This year likewise saw the ruin of Corinth. The head men of the Greeks had been deported to Italy by Æmilius Paulus, whereupon their countrymen at first through embassies kept requesting the return of the men, and when their prayers were not granted some of the exiles in despair of ever effecting a return to their homes committed suicide. The Greeks took this situation with a very bad grace and made it a matter of public lamentation, besides evincing anger at any persons dwelling among them that favored the Roman cause; yet they displayed no open symptoms of hostility until they got back the remnants of those hostages. B.C. 149
(a.u. 605)
Frag. 72Then those that had been wronged and those that had obtained a hold upon the goods of others fell into strife and began a real warfare. the quarrel began by the action of the achæans in bringing charges against the lacedæmonians as being responsible for what had happened to them. the mediators whom the romans despatched to them they would not heed: they rather set their faces toward war, acting under the supervision of Critolaus. Metellus was consequently afraid that they might lay hands on Macedonia,—B.C. 148
(a.u. 606)they had already appeared in Thessaly,—and so he went to meet them and routed them.
At the fall of Critolaus the Greek world was split asunder. Some of them had embraced peace and laid down their weapons, whereas others had committed their interests to the care of Diæus and were still involved in factional turmoil. B.C. 146
(a.u. 608)On learning this the people of Rome sent Mummius against them. He got rid of Metellus and gave his personal attention to the war. Part of his army sustained a slight reverse through an ambuscade and Diæus pursued the fugitives up to their own camp, but Mummius made a sortie, routed him, and followed to the Achæan entrenchments. Diæus now gathered a larger force and undertook to give battle to them, but, as the Romans would make no hostile demonstration, he conceived a contempt for them and advanced to a depressed piece of ground lying between the camps. Mummius seeing this secretly sent horsemen to assail them on the flank. After these had attacked and thrown the enemy into confusion, he brought up the phalanx in front and caused considerable slaughter. As a consequence Diæus in despair killed himself, and of the survivors of the battle the Corinthians were scattered over the country, while the rest fled to their homes. Hence the Corinthians within the wall believing that all their citizens had been lost abandoned the city, and it was empty of men when Mummius took it. After that he won over without trouble both that nation and the rest of the Greeks. He now took possession of their arms, all the offerings that were consecrated in their temples, the statues, paintings, and whatever other kind of ornament they had; and as soon as he could send his father and some other men to arrange terms for the vanquished he caused the walls of some of the cities to be taken down and declared them all to be free and independent except the Corinthians. The dwellers in Corinth he sold, and confiscated their land and demolished their walls and all their houses besides, out of fear that some states might again unite with them, since they constituted the greatest state. To prevent any of them from remaining hidden and any of the other Greeks from being sold as Corinthians he assembled everybody present before he had disclosed his determination, and after having his soldiers surround them in such a way as not to attract notice he proclaimed the enslavement of the Corinthians and the liberation of the remainder. Then he instructed them all to take hold of any Corinthians standing beside them. In this way he arrived at an accurate distinction.
Thus was Corinth overthrown. The rest of the Greek world suffered temporarily from murders and levies of money, but afterward came to enjoy such immunity and prosperity that it used to be said: "If they had not been taken captive as early as they were, they could not have been preserved."
So this end simultaneously befell Carthage and Corinth, famous, ancient cities: but at a much later date they received colonies of Romans, became again flourishing, and regained their original position.