sieged filled them with the utmost astonishment. The Carthagi nians were for ever making the boldest sallies, in order to repulse the besiegers, to burn their engines, and to harass their foragers. Censorinus attacked the city on one side, and Manilius on the other. Scipio, afterwards surnamed Africanus, served, then as tribune in the army; and distinguished himself above the rest of the officers, no less by his prudence, than by his bravery. The consul under whom he fought, committed many oversights, by having refused to follow his advice. This young officer extricated the troops from several dangers into which the imprudence of their leaders had plunged them. A renowned officer, Phamas by name, who was general of the enemy's cavalry, and continually harassed the foragers, did not dare ever to keep the field, when it was Scipio's turn to support them, so capable was he of keeping his troops in good order, and posting himself to advantage. So great and universal a reputation excited some envy against him at first; but as he behaved, in all respects, with the utmost modesty and reserve, that envy was soon changed into admiration; so that when the senate sent deputies to the camp, to inquire into the state of the siege, the whole army gave him unanimously the highest commendation; the soldiers, as well as officers, nay, the very generals, with one voice extolled the merit of young Scipio: so necessary is it for a man to deaden, if I may be allowed the expression, the splendour of his rising glory, by a sweet and modest carriage; and not to excite jealousy, by haughty and self-sufficient behaviour, as this naturally awakens pride in others, and makes even virtue itself odious.

A. M. 3857.

About the same time Masinissa,* finding his end apA. Rom. 601. proach, sent to desire a visit from Scipio, in order that he might invest him with full powers to dispose, as he should see proper, of his kingdom and property, in behalf of his children. But, on Scipio's arrival, he found that monarch dead. Masinissa had commanded them, with his dying breath, to follow implicitly the directions of Scipio, whom he appointed to be a kind of father and guardian to them. I shall give no farther account here of the family and prosperity of Masinissa, because that would interrupt too much the history of Carthage.

The high esteem which Phammas had entertained for Scipio,† induced him to forsake the Carthaginians, and go over to the Romans. Accordingly, he joined them with above 2000 horse, and was afterwards of great service at the siege.

Calpurnius Pisoț the consul, and L. Mancinus, his lieutenant, arrived in Africa in the beginning of the spring. Nothing remarkable was transacted during this campaign. The Romans were even defeated on several occasions, and carried on the siege of Carthage but slowly. The besieged, on the contrary, had recovered their spirits. Their troops were considerably increased; they daily got new

allies; and even sent an express as far as Macedonia, to the counterfeit Philip, who pretended to be the son of Perseus, and was then engaged in a war with the Romans, to exhort him to carry it on with vigour, and promising to furnish him with money and ships.

This news occasioned some uneasiness at Rome. The people began to doubt the success of a war, which grew daily more uncertain, and was more important than had at first been imagined. As much as they were dissatisfied with the dilatoriness of the generals, and exclaimed against their conduct, so much did they unanimously agree in applauding young Scipio, and extolling his rare and uncommon virtues. He was come to Rome, in order to stand candidate for the edileship. The instant he appeared in the assembly, his name, his countenance, his reputation, a general persuasion that he was designed by the gods to end the third Punic war, as the first Scipio, his grandfather by adoption, had terminated the second; these several circumstances made a very strong impression on the people; and though it was contrary to law, and therefore opposed by the ancient men, instead of the edileship which he sued for, the people, disregardA. M. 3858. ing for once the laws, conferred the consulship upon him, and assigned him Africa for his province, without casting lots for the provinces, as usual, and as Drusus his colleague demanded.

A. Rom. 602.

As soon as Scipio had completed his recruits,‡ he set out for Sicily, and arrived soon after in Utica. He came very seasonably for Mancinus, Piso's lieutenant, who had rashly fixed himself in a post where he was surrounded by the enemy, and would have been cut to pieces that very morning, had not the new consul, who, on his arrival, heard of the danger he was in, re-embarked his troops in the night, and sailed with the utmost speed to his assistance.

Scipio's first care,) after his arrival, was to revive discipline among the troops, which he found had been entirely neglected. There was not the least regularity, subordination, or obedience. Nothing was attended to but rapine, feasting, and diversions. He drove from the camp all useless persons, settled the quality of the provisions he would have brought in by the sutlers, and allowed of none but what were plain and fit for soldiers, studiously banishing all dainties and luxuries.

After he had made these regulations, which cost him but little time and pains, because he himself first set the example, he was persuaded that those under him were soldiers, and thereupon he prepared to carry on the siege with vigour. Having ordered his troops to provide themselves with axes, levers, and scaling-ladders, he led them in the dead of the night, and without the least noise, to a district of the city, called Megara; when, ordering them to give a sudden and general shout, he attacked it with great vigour. The enemy, who did not expect to be attacked in the night, were at first in Ib. p. 70.

* Andriscus. † Appian. p. 68.

Appian. p. 69.

the utmost terror; however, they defended themselves so courageously, that Scipio could not scale the walls. But perceiving a tower that was forsaken, and which stood without the city, very near the walls, he detached thither a party of intrepid and resolute soldiers, who, by the help of pontons,* got from the tower on the walls, and from thence into Megara, the gates of which they broke down. Scipio entered it immediately after, and drove the enemies out of that post; who, terrified at this unexpected assault, and imagining that the whole city was taken, fled into the citadel, whither they were followed by those forces that were encamped without the city, who abandoned their camp to the Romans, and thought it necessary for them to fly to a place of security.

Before I proceed farther,† it will be proper to give some account of the situation and dimensions of Carthage, which, in the beginning of the war against the Romans, contained 700,000 inhabitants. It stood at the bottom of a gulf, surrounded by the sea, and in the form of a peninsula, whose neck, that is, the isthmus which joined it to the continent, was twenty-five stadia, or a league and a quarter in breadth. The peninsula was 360 stadia, or eighteen leagues round. On the west side there projected from it a long neck of land, half a stadium, or twelve fathoms, broad; which, advancing into the sea, divided it from a morass, and was fenced on all sides with rocks and a single wall. On the south side, towards the continent, where stood the citadel called Byrsa, the city was surrounded with a triple wall, thirty cubits high, exclusive of the parapets and towers, with which it was flanked all round at equal distances, each interval being fourscore fathoms. Every tower was four stories high, and the walls but two; they were arched, and in the lower part were stalls to hold 300 elephants with their fodder, and over these were stables for 4000 horses, and lofts for their food. There likewise was room enough to lodge 20,000 foot, and 4000 horse. All these were contained within the walls alone. In one place only the walls were weak and low; and that was a neglected angle, which began at the neck of land above mentioned, and extended as far as the harbours, which were on the west side. Of these there were two, which communicated with each other, but had only one entrance, seventy feet broad, shut up with chains. The first was appropriated for the merchants, and had several distinct habitations for the seamen. The second, or inner harbour, was for the ships of war, in the midst of which stood an island called Cothon, lined, as the harbour was, with large quays, in which were distinct receptaclest for sheltering from the weather 220 ships; over these were magazines or store-houses, wherein was lodged whatever is necessary for arming and equipping fleets. The entrance into each of these receptacles was adorned with two marble pillars, of the Ionic order. So that both the harbour and the

A sort of moveable bridge. † Appian. p. 56, 57. Strabo, 1. xvii. p. 839. * Newσcixous, Strabo.

island represented on each side two magnificent galleries. In this island was the admiral's palace; and as it stood opposite to the mouth of the harbour, he could from thence discover whatever was doing at sea, though no one, from thence, could see what was transacting in the inward part of the harbour. The merchants, in like manner, had no prospect of the men of war; the two ports being separated by a double wall, each having its particular gate, that led to the city, without passing through the other harbour. So that Carthage may be divided into three parts:* the harbour, which was double, and called sometimes Cothon, from the little island of that name: the citadel, named Byrsa: the city properly so called, where the inhabitants dwelt which lay around the citadel, and was called Megara.

At day-break, Asdrubal‡ perceiving the ignominious defeat of his troops, in order that he might be revenged on the Romans, and, at the same time, deprive the inhabitants of all hopes of accommodation and pardon, brought all the Roman prisoners he had taken upon the walls, in sight of the whole army. There he put them to the most exquisite torture; putting out their eyes, cutting off their noses, ears, and fingers; tearing their skin from their body with iron rakes or harrows, and then threw them headlong from the top of the battlements. So inhuman a treatment filled the Carthaginians with horror: however, he did not spare even them, but murdered many senators who had ventured to oppose his tyranny.

Scipio, finding himself absolute master of the isthmus, burnt the camp, which the enemy had deserted, and built a new one for his troops. It was of a square form, surrounded with large and deep intrenchments, and fenced with strong palisades. On the side which faced the Carthaginians, he built a wall twelve feet high, flanked at proper distances with towers and redoubts; and on the middle tower, he erected a very high wooden fort, from whence could be seen whatever was doing in the city. This wall was equal to the whole breadth of the isthmus, that is, twenty-five stadia. The enemy, who were within bow-shot of it, employed their utmost efforts to put a stop to this work; but as the whole army were employed upon it day and night without intermission, it was finished in twenty-four days. Scipio reaped a double advantage from this work: First, his forces were lodged more safely and commodiously than before: Secondly, he cut off all provisions from the besieged, to whom none could now be brought but by sea; which was attended with many difficulties, both because the sea is frequently very tempestuous in that place, and because the Roman fleet kept a strict guard. This proved one of the chief causes of the famine which raged soon after in the city. Besides, Asdrubal distributed the corn that was brought,

*Boch. in Phal. p. 512, † Appian. p. 72.

It was he who had first commanded without the city, but having caused the other Asdrubal, Masinissa's grandson, to be put to death, he got the command of the troops within the walls. Four miles and three quarters.

Appian. p. 73.

only among the 30,000 men who served under him, caring very little what became of the rest of the inhabitants.

To distress them still more by the want of provisions,* Scipio attempted to stop up the mouth of the haven by a mole, beginning at the above-mentioned neck of land, which was near the harbour. The besieged, at first, looked upon this attempt as ridiculous, and accordingly they insulted the workmen; but, at last, seeing them make an astonishing progress every day, they began to be afraid; and to take such measures as might, if possible, render the attempt unsuccessful. Every one, to the women and children, fell to work, but so privately, that all that Scipio could learn from the prisoners, was, that they had heard a great noise in the harbour, but did not know the occasion of it. At last, all things being ready, the Carthaginians opened, on a sudden, a new outlet on the other side of the haven; and appeared at sea with a numerous fleet, which they had just then built with the old materials found in their magazines. It is generally allowed, that had they attacked the Roman fleet directly, they must infallibly have taken it; because, as no such attempt was expected, and every man was elsewhere employed,the Carthaginians would have found it without rowers, soldiers or officers. But the ruin of Carthage, says the historian, was decrced. Having therefore only offered a kind of insult or bravado to the Romans, they returned into the harbour.

Two days after,† they brought forward their ships, with a resolution to fight in good earnest, and found the enemy ready for them. This battle was to determine the fate of both parties. The conflict was long and obstinate, each exerting themselves to the utmost; the one to save their country, now reduced to the last extremity, and the other to complete their victory. During the fight, the Carthaginian brigantines running along under the large Roman ships, broke to pieces sometimes their sterns, and at other times their rudders and oars; and, when briskly attacked, retreated with surprising swiftness, and returned immediately to the charge. At last, after the two armies had fought with equal success till sun-set, the Carthaginians thought proper to retire; not that they believed themselves overcome, but in order to begin the fight on the morrow. Part of their ships, not being able to run swiftly enough in the harbour, because the mouth of it was too narrow, took shelter under a very spacious terrace, which had been thrown up against the walls to unload goods, on the side of which a small rampart had been raised during this war, to prevent the enemy from possessing themselves of it. Here the fight was again renewed with more vigour than ever, and lasted till late at night. The Carthaginians suffered very much, and the few ships which got off, sailed for refuge to the city. Morning being come, Scipio attacked the terrace, and carried it, though with great difficulty; after which he made a lodgment there, and fortified himself