thier spot, the
Carthaginians fitted out a great number of fire ships, filled with tar,
sulphur, bitumen, &c., and taking advantage of a favourable wind, they sent
them among the Roman fleet, great part of which was thus destroyed.

But these and other successes did not ultimately avail them: Scipio who had
been chosen consul, arrived in Africa, and Carthage was immediately
strictly blocked up by sea and land. His exertions were indeed astonishing;
as the new port of Carthage was effectually shut up by the Roman fleet, so
that no assistance or provisions could enter by it; and as lines of
circumvallation were formed on land, the consul's great object was to block
up the old port. The Romans were masters of the western neck of land, which
formed one side of its entrance; from this to the other side they built a
mole, ninety feet broad at bottom, and eighty at top; when this was
completed, the old port was rendered quite inaccessible and useless.

The Carthaginians on their part, imagined and executed works as surprising
as those of the Romans: deprived of both their ports, they dug, in a very
short time, a new harbour, from which they cut a passage to the sea; and
they built and equipped a fleet of fifty ships, which put to sea through
this new harbour. The Romans were astonished when they beheld a fleet, of
the existence or possibility of which they had no conception, advancing out
of a harbour, the formation of which equally astonished them, and this
fleet daring to hazard an engagement. The battle continued during the whole
day, with little advantage on either side; but, notwithstanding all their
efforts, and some partial and temporary successes, Carthage was at length
compelled to submit to Scipio, and was at first plundered, and afterwards
destroyed. The Romans burnt the new fleet which the Carthaginians had
built: indeed, in general, instead of augmenting their own naval force,
when they subdued any of their maritime enemies, they either destroyed
their ships or bestowed them on some of their allies; a certain proof, as
Huet remarks, of the very little regard they paid to sea affairs.

We are expressly informed, in the Life of Terence, generally ascribed to
Suetonius, that before the destruction of Carthage, the Romans did not
trade to Africa: but though his words are express, they must not be taken
literally; for we have already proved, that in the treaties between Rome
and Carthage at a very early period, the voy