at fifty thousand of their troops, after
having been blocked up in their camp till from want they were obliged
to submit to the most humiliating conditions, were inhumanly massacred
by Gulus'sa, the son of the Numidian king. The Romans chose this
distressing juncture to declare war against them.

As one proof of their sincere desire for peace, they had
previously delivered up to the Romans all their arms and warlike
engines, of which they possessed prodigious magazines; thus leaving
themselves still more defenceless than before.

23. The wretched Carthaginians, finding that the conquerors would not
desist from making demands, while the vanquished had any thing to
give, attempted to soften the victors by submission; but they received
orders to leave the city, which was to be levelled with the ground.
24. This severe command they received with all the distress of a
despairing people: they implored for a respite from such a hard
sentence: they used tears and lamentations; but finding the consuls
inexorable, they departed with a gloomy resolution, prepared to suffer
the utmost extremities, and fight to the last for their seat of
empire.

25. Those vessels, therefore, of gold and silver, which their luxury
had taken such pride in, were converted into arms. The women parted
also with their ornaments, and even cut off their hair to be converted
into strings for the bowmen. As'drubal, who had been lately condemned
for opposing the Romans, was now taken from prison to head their army;
and such preparations were made, that when the consuls came before the
city, which they expected to find an easy conquest, they met with such
resistance as quite dispirited their forces and shook their
resolution. 26. Several engagements were fought before the walls, with
disadvantage to the assailants; so that the siege would have been
discontinued, had not Scip'io AEmilia'nus, the adopted son of
Africa'nus, who was now appointed to command it, used as much skill to
save his forces after a defeat, as to inspire them with fresh hopes of
a victory. 27. But all his arts would have failed, had he not found
means to seduce Phar'nes, the master of the Carthaginian horse, who
came over to his side. The unhappy townsmen soon saw the enemy make
nearer approaches; the wall which led to the haven was quickly
demolished; soon after the forum itself was taken, which offered to
the conquerors a deplorable spectacle of houses nodding to their fall,
heaps of