owingly
described the power and wealth of Carthage. He held up some great figs,
and said, "These figs grow but three days' sail from Rome." There could
be no safety for Rome, he declared, while Carthage survived.

"Every speech which I shall make in this house," he sternly declared,
"shall finish with these words: 'My opinion is that _Carthage must be
destroyed_ (_delenda est Carthago_.)'"

These words sealed the fate of Carthage. Men of moderate views spoke
more mercifully, but Cato swayed the senate, and from that day the doom
of Carthage was fixed.

The Carthaginian territory was being assailed and ravaged by Masinissa,
the king of Numidia. Rome was appealed to for aid, but delayed and
temporized. Carthage raised an army, which was defeated by Masinissa,
then over ninety years of age. The war went on, and Carthage was reduced
to such straits that resistance became impossible, and in the end the
city and all its possessions were placed at the absolute disposal of the
senate of Rome, which, absolutely without provocation, had declared war.

An army of eighty thousand foot and four thousand horse was sent to
Africa. Before the consuls commanding it there appeared deputies from
Carthage, stating what acts of submission had already been made, and
humbly asking what more Rome could demand.

"Carthage is now under the protection of Rome," answered Censorinus, the
consul, "and can no longer have occasion to engage in war; she must
therefore deliver without reserve to Rome all her arms and engines of
war."

Hard as was this condition, the humiliated city accepted it. We may have
some conception of the strength of the city when it is stated that the
military stores given up included two hundred thousand stand of arms and
two thousand catapults. It was a condition to which only despair could
have yielded, seemingly the last act of humiliation to which any city
could consent.

But if Carthage thought that the end had been reached, she was destined
to be rudely awakened from her dream. The consuls, thinking the city now
to be wholly helpless, dropped the mask they had worn, and made known
the senate's treacherous decree.

"The decision of the senate is this," said Censorinus, coldly, to the
unhappy envoys of Carthage: "so long as you possess a fortified city
near the sea, Rome can never feel sure of your submission. The senate
therefore decrees that you must remove to some point ten miles distant
from the coast. _Cartha