We must now pass to the war, which soon after occurred between the Carthaginians and Masinissa, king of Numidia. In this war the Carthaginians were, in the end, worsted. Scipio the younger, who afterwards destroyed Carthage, was present at the battle. He had been sent by Lucullus, who commanded in Spain, to Masinissa to desire some elephants. During the whole engagement, he is represented as standing upon a neighbouring hill; and was greatly surprised to see Masinissa, then eighty-eight years of age, mounted, agreeably to the custom of his country, on a horse without a saddle, flying from rank to rank like a young officer, and sustaining the most arduous toils. The fight was very obstinate, and continued all day; but at last the Carthaginians gave way, and Masinissa afterwards turned their camp into a blockade, so that no provisions could reach them. A famine ensued, and then the plague. They were, in consequence, reduced to agreeing to the king's terms, which were no other than these:—to deliver up all deserters; to pay five thousands talents of silver in fifty years, and restore all exiles. They were, also, made to suffer the ignominy of passing under the yoke; and dismissed with only one suit of clothes for each. Nor did their misfortunes terminate here. Gulussa, the son of Masinissa, whom the Carthaginians had treated in a disrespectful manner, intercepted them with a body of cavalry. They could neither resist nor escape. The consequence of which was, that out of fifty-eight thousand men only a very few returned to Carthage.
During the latter part of the second Punic war, it was stated in the Roman senate, that Rome could never be in safety while Carthage was permitted to exist:—"Carthage," said Cato, at the close of all his speeches, "must be destroyed." The time soon came, in which the threat was to be carried into execution: and this brings us to the commencement of the third and last Punic war. It lasted only four years; and yet it terminated in the total ruin and destruction of Carthage.
This war arose out of that which the Carthaginians had waged against Masinissa; that prince being an ally of the Romans. The vanquished party sent to Rome to justify their proceedings. When the matter came to be debated in the senate, Cato and Scipio were of different opinions. Nasica desired the preservation of Carthage, in order that the people might, who were grown excessively insolent, have something to fear. Cato, on the other hand, thought, that as the people had become what Nasica represented them, it was highly dangerous that so powerful an enemy as Carthage should be allowed to remain. "They may one day conquer us, so great is our prosperity." He was but lately returned from Africa; and he represented in the senate, that he had not found Carthage exhausted either of men or money. On the contrary, that it was full of vigorous young men, and abounded with immense quantities of gold and silver, and prodigious magazines of arms and all warlike stores; and was, moreover, so haughty and confident on account of all this, that their hopes and ambition had no bounds. On saying this, he took from the lappet of his coat a few figs, and, throwing them on the table, and the senators admiring them—he called out, "Know, this; it is but three days those figs were gathered; so short is the distance between the enemy and us."
The Carthaginians not having made good their cause in regard to their conduct towards Masinissa, war was declared against them, and the generals[179], who were charged with the command, received strict injunctions not to end the war but with the destruction of Carthage.
These instructions the Carthaginians did not become acquainted with till some time after. They, therefore, sent deputies to make all manner of submission. They were even instructed to declare, if necessity required, that they were willing to give themselves up, with all they possessed, to the will and pleasure of the Romans. On arriving at Rome, the deputies found that the war had been, before their arrival, already proclaimed, and that the army had actually sailed. They therefore returned to Carthage with certain proposals, in complying with which the Romans declared they would be satisfied. Amongst the terms demanded were three hundred hostages, the flower and the last hopes of the noblest families in Carthage. No spectacle, we are told, was ever more moving: nothing was heard but cries; nothing seen but tears; and all places echoed with groans and lamentations. Above all, the unhappy mothers, bathed in tears, tore their dishevelled hair, beat their breasts, and expressed their grief in terms so moving, that even savage beasts might have been moved to compassion. But the scene is stated to have been much more moving when the fatal moment arrived when, after having accompanied their children to the ship, they bade them a long and last farewell, persuaded that they should never see them again. They wept a flood of tears over them, embraced them with the utmost fondness, clasped them eagerly in their arms, and could not be prevailed upon to part with them, till they were forced away.
When the hostages arrived at Rome, the deputies were informed that when they should arrive at Utica, the consuls would acquaint them with the orders of the republic. The deputies, therefore, repaired to Utica, where they received orders to deliver up, without delay, all their arms. This command was put immediately in execution; and a long train of waggons soon after arrived at the Roman camp, laden with two hundred thousand complete sets of armour, a numberless multitude of darts and javelins, with two thousand engines for shooting darts and stones. Then followed the deputies, and a great number of the most venerable senators and priests, who came with the hope of moving the Romans to compassion. When they arrived, Censorinus addressed them in the following manner:—"I cannot but commend the readiness with which you execute the orders of the senate. They have commanded me to tell you, that it is their will and pleasure, that you depart out of Carthage, which they have resolved entirely to destroy; and that you remove into any other part of your dominions you shall think proper, provided it be at the distance of eight stadia (twelve miles) from the sea."
The instant the consul had pronounced this fulminating decree, nothing was heard among the Carthaginians but shrieks and howlings. Being now in a manner thunderstruck, they neither knew where they were, nor what they did; but rolled themselves in the dust, tearing their clothes, and unable to vent their grief any otherwise but by broken sighs and deep groans. Being afterwards a little recovered, they lifted up their hands with the air of suppliants, one moment towards the gods, and the next towards the Romans, imploring their mercy and justice with regard to a people, who would soon be reduced to the extremities of despair. But as both the gods and men were deaf to their fervent prayers, they now changed them into reproaches and imprecations; bidding the Romans call to mind, that there were such beings as avenging deities, whose severe eyes were ever open on guilt and treachery. The Romans themselves could not refrain from tears at so moving a spectacle: but their resolution was fixed. The deputies could not even prevail so far as to get the execution of the order suspended, till they should have an opportunity of presenting themselves again before the senate, if possible, to get it revoked. They were forced to set out immediately, and carry the answer to Carthage.
The people waited for their return, with such an impatience and terror, as words can never express. It was scarcely possible for them to break through the crowd that flocked around them, to hear the answer which was but too strongly painted in their faces. When they were come into the senate, and had declared the barbarous orders of the Romans, a general shriek informed the people of their too lamentable fate; and from that instant nothing was seen or heard in every part of the city but howling and despair, madness and fury. The consuls made no great haste to march against Carthage; not suspecting they had reason to be under apprehension from that city, as it was now disarmed. However, the inhabitants took advantage of this delay to put themselves in a posture of defence, being all unanimously resolved not to quit the city. They appointed, as a general, without the walls, Asdrubal, who was at the head of twenty thousand men; and to whom deputies were sent accordingly, to entreat him to forget, for his country's sake, the injustice which had been done to him, from the dread they were under of the Romans. The command of the troops, within the walls, was given to another Asdrubal, grandson to Masinissa. They then applied themselves to making arms with considerable expedition. The temples, the palaces, the open markets and squares, were all changed into so many arsenals, where men and women worked day and night. Every day were made one hundred and forty shields, three hundred swords, five hundred pikes or javelins, a thousand arrows, and a great number of engines to discharge them; and because they wanted materials to make ropes, the women cut off their hair, and abundantly supplied their wants on this occasion.
The combat, which was carried on from the tops of the houses, continued six days, during which a dreadful slaughter was made. To clear the streets, and make way for the troops, the Romans dragged aside with hooks the bodies of such of the inhabitants as had been slain, or precipitated headlong from the houses, and threw them into pits, the greatest part of them being still alive and panting.
There was still reason to believe that the siege would last much longer, and occasion a great effusion of blood. But on the seventh day there appeared a company of men, in a suppliant posture and habit, who desired no other conditions, but that the Romans would be pleased to spare the lives of all those who should be willing to leave the citadel; which request was granted them. The deserters only were excepted. Accordingly, there came out fifty thousand men and women, who were sent into the fields under a strong guard. The deserters were about nine hundred. Finding they would be allowed no quarter, they fortified themselves in the temple of Æsculapius, with Asdrubal, his wife, and two children; where, though their number was but small, they might have held out a long time, because the temple stood on a very high hill, upon rocks, to which the ascent was by sixty steps. But, at last, exhausted by hunger and watchings, oppressed with fear, and seeing their destruction at hand, they lost all patience, when, abandoning the lower part of the temple, they retired to the uppermost story, and resolved not to quit it but with their lives.