no farther account here of the family and pofterity of Mafiniffa, because that would interrupt too much the history of Carthage. (k) The high efteem which Phamæas had entertained for Scipio, induced him to forfake the Carthaginians, and go over to the Romans. Accordingly he joined him with above two thousand horfe, and did great fervice at the fiege. (1) Calpurnius Pifo the conful, and L. Mancinus his lieutenant, arrived in Africa in the beginning of the fpring." Nothing remarkable was tranfacted during this campaign. The Romans were even defeated on several occafions, and carried on the fiege of Carthage but flowly. The befieged, on the contrary, had recovered their fpirits. Their troops were confiderably increafed, they daily got new allies; and even fent an exprefs as far as Macedonia, to the counterfeit Philip *, who paffed for the fon of Perfeus, and was then engaged in a war with the Romans; to exhort him to carry it on with vi gour, and promifing to furnish him with money and fhips." Peo (m) This news occafioned fome uneafinefs at Rome. ple began to doubt the fuccefs of a war, which grew daily more uncertain, and was more important than had at first been imagined. As much as they were diffatisfied with the dilatorinefs of the generals, and exclaimed at their conduct, fo much did they unanimoufly agree in applauding young Scipio, and extolling his rare and uncommon virtues. He was come to Rome, in order to ftand candidate for the edilefhip. The inftant he appeared in the affembly, his name, his countenance, his reputation, a general perfuafion that he was defigned by the gods to end the third Punick war, as the first Scipio, his grandfather by adoption, had terminated the fecond; these several circumftances made a very ftrong impreffion on the people; and though it was contrary to law, and therefore oppofed by the ancient men, instead of the edileship which he fued for, the people, difregarding for once the laws, conferred the confulfhip upon him. (n), and affigned him Africa for his province, without cafting lots for the provinces, as ufual, and as Drufus his collegue demanded. (0) As foon as Scipio had compleated his recruits, he fet out for Sicily, and arrived foon after in Utica. He came very feasonably for Mancinus, Pifo's lieutenant, who had rafhly fixed himself in a poft where he was furrounded by the enemys and would have been cut to pieces, had not, that very morn (*) Strabo, 1. xvii p. 65. A. M. 3858. A. Rom. 602, * Andrifcus. C 3 ing, (1) ing, the new conful, who, at his arrival, heard of the danger he was in, re-embarked his troops in the night, and failed with the utmoft fpeed to his affiftance. (p) Scipio's first care, after his arrival, was to revive the difcipline among the troops, which he found had been entirely neglected. There was not the leaft regularity, fubordination, or obedience. Nothing was attended to but rapine, feafting, and diverfions. He drove from the camp all ufelefs perfons, fettled the quality of the provifions he would have brought in by the futlers, and allowed of none but what were plain and fit for foldiers, ftudiously banishing all things of a dainty, luxurious kind. After he had made thefe regulations, which coft him but little time and pains, because he himself firft fet the example, he was perfuaded that thofe under him were foldiers, and thereupon he prepared to carry on the fiege with vigour. Having ordered his troops to provide themfelves with axes, levers, and fcaling ladders, he led them, in the dead of the night, and without the leaft noife, to a diftrict of the city called Megara; when ordering them to give a fudden and general fhout, he attacked it with great vigour. The enemy, who did not expect to be attacked in the night, were, at first, in the utmost terror; however, they defended themselves fo courageoufly, that Scipio could not fcale the walls. But perceiving a tower that was forfaken, and which flood without the city, very near the walls; he detached thither a party of intrepid foldiers, who, by the help of pontons, got from the tower on the walls, and from . thence into Megara, whofe gates they broke down. Scipio entered it immediately after, and drove the enemies out of that poft; who terrified at this unexpected affault, and imagining that the whole city was taken, fled into the citadel, whither they were followed even by thofe forces that were encamped without the city, who abandoned their camp to the Romans, and thought it neceffary for them to fly to a place of fecurity. (g) Before I proceed further, it will be proper to give some account of the fituation and dimenfions of Carthage, which, in the beginning of the war against the Romans, contained feven hundred thousand inhabitants. It flood at the bottom of a gulf, furrounded with the fea, and in the form of a peninfula, whofe, neck, that is, the ifthmus which joined it to the continent, was twenty-five ftadia, or a league and a quarter in breadth. The peninfula was three hundred and fixty Radia, or eighteen leagues round. On the weft fide there pro jected (P) Appian. p. 70. jected from it a long neck of land, half a ftadium, or twelve fathoms broad; which advancing into the fea, divided it from a morafs, and was fenced on all fides with rocks and a fingle wall. On the fouth fide, towards the continent, where ftood the citadel called Byrfa, the city was furrounded with a triple wall, thirty cubits high, abstracted from the parapets and towers, with which it was flanked all round at equal distances, each interval being fourfcore fathoms. Every tower was four ftories high, and the walls but two; they were arched, and in the lower part were ftalls large enough to hold three hundred elephants with their fodder, &c. over thefe were stables for four thousand horfes, and lofts for their food. There likewise was room enough to lodge twenty thousand foot, and four thousand horse. In fine, all these were contained within the walls. The walls were weak and low in one place only; 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 weft fide. Two of thefe communicated with each other, and had but one entrance, feventy feet broad, fhut up with chains. The firft was appropriated for the merchants, and had feveral diftin& habitations for the feamen. The fecond, or inner harbour, was for the fhips of war, in the midft of which stood an ifland, called Cothon, lined, as the harbour was, with large keys, in which were diftinct receptacles () for fheltering from the weather two hundred and twenty fhips; over thefe were magazines or store-houses, wherein was lodged whatever is neceffary for arming and equipping fleets. The entrance into each of these receptacles was adorned with two marble pillars of the Ionick order: So that both the harbour and the island represented on each fide two magnificent galleries. In this ifland was the admiral's palaces and as it flood oppofite to the mouth of the harbour, he could from thence difcover whatever was doing at fea, though no one, from thence, could see what was tranfacting in the inward part of the harbour. The merchants, in like manner, had no profpect of the men of war; the two ports being feparated by a double wall, each having its particular gate that led to the city, without paffing through the other harbour._(s) So that Carthage may be divided into three parts: The harbour, which was double, and called fometimes Cothon, from the little ifland of that name: The citadel, named Byrfa: The city properly fo called, where the inhabitants dwelt, which lay round the citadel, and was called Megara. (r) Nawroinus, Strabo, C 4 (3) Boch. in Phal. p. 5121 At () At day-break, Afdrubal perceiving the ignominious defeat of his troops, in order that he might be revenged on the Romans, and, at the fame time, deprive the inhabitants. of all hopes of accommodation and pardon, brought all the Roman prifoners he had taken, upon the walls, in fight of the whole army. There he put them to the moft exquifite torture; putting out their eyes, cutting off their nofes, ears, and fingers tearing their skin to pieces 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 fpare even them; but murdered many Senators who had been fo brave as to oppofe his tyranny. (u) Scipio, finding himself abfolute maftor of the Ifthmus, burnt the camp, which the enemy had deferted, and built a new one for his troops. It was in a fquare form, furrounded with large and deep intrenchments, and fenced with ftrong pa lifades. On the fide which faced the Carthaginians, he built a wall twelve feet high, flanked at proper dillances with towers and redoubts; and, on the middle tower, he erected a very high wooden fort, from whence could be feen whatever was doing in the city. This wall was equal to the whole breadth of the Ifthmus, that is, twenty-five ftadia. The enemy, who were within arrow-fhot of it, employed their utmost ef forts to put a flop to this work; but, as the whole army worked at it day and night, without intermiflion, it was finished in twenty-four days. Scipio reaped a double advantage from this work: First, his forces were lodged more fafely and commodiously than before: Secondly, he cut off all provifions from the befieged, to whom none could be brought but by land; which diftreffed them exceedingly, both because the fea is frequently very tempeftuous in that place, and because the Roman fleet kept a strict guard. This proved one of the chief caufes of the famine which raged foon after in the city. Be fides, Afdrubal diftributed the corn that was brought, only among the thirty thoufand men who ferved under him, without regard to what became of the inhabitants. (w) To diftrefs them fill more, by the want of provifions, Scipio attempted to flop up the mouth of the haven, by a mole, beginning at the abovementioned neck of land, which was Dear the harbour. The befieged looked, at firft, upon this attempt as ridiculous, and accordingly they infulted the work men: But, at laft, feeing them make an aftonishing progrefs every day, they began to be afraid; and to take fuch measures as might, if poffible, render the attempt unfuccessful. Every one, to the women and children, fell to work, but fo privately, that all Scipio could learn from the prifoners, was, that they had heard a great noise in the harbour, but did not know the caufe or occafion of it. At laft, all things being ready, the Carthaginians opened, on a fudden, a new outlet, on the other fide of the haven; and appeared at fea with a numerous fleet, which they had 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 fuch attempt was expected, and every man was otherwife employed, the Carthaginians would have found it without rowers, foldiers, or officers. But the ruin of Carthage, fays the hiftorian, was decreed. Having therefore only offered a kind of infult or bravado to the Romans, they returned into the harbour, (x) Two days after, they brought forward their fhips, with a refolution to fight in good earneft, and found the enemy ready for them. This battle was to determine the fate of both parties. It lafted a long time, each exerting themselves to the utmoft; the one to fave their country reduced to the latt extremity, and the other to compleat their victory. During the fight, the Carthaginian brigantines running along under the large Roman fhips, broke to pieces fometimes their fterns, and at other times their rudders and oars; and when briskly attacked, retreated with furprizing fwiftnefs, and returned immediately to the charge. At laft, after the two armies had fought with equal fuccefs till fun-fet, the Carthaginians thought proper to retire; not that they believed themselves overcome, but in order to begin the fight again on the morrow. Part of their fhips, not being able to run swiftly enough into the harbour, becaufe the mouth of it was too narrow, took fhelter under a very spacious terrafs, which had been thrown up against the walls to unload goods, on the fide of which a fmall rampart had been raised during this war, to prevent the enemy from poffeffing themfelves of it. Here the fight was again renewed with more vigour than ever, and lasted till late at night. The Carthaginians fuffered very much, and the few fhips of theirs, which got off, failed for refuge to the city! Morning being come, Scipio attacked the terrafs, and carried it, though with great difficulty; after which he posted and fortified himself on it, and built a brick wall close to thole of (*) Appian, p. 75, |