ns there endeavoured
to persuade him that, as the Carthaginian armies had retired from each
other into three such distant quarters, he should attack the nearest
of them; yet concluding that if he did so there was danger lest he
should cause them to concentrate all their forces, and he alone should
not be a match for so many, he determined for the present to make an
attack upon New Carthage, a city not only possessing great wealth of
its own, but also full of every kind of military store belonging to
the enemy; there were their arms, their money, and the hostages from
every part of Spain. It was, besides, conveniently situated, not only
for a passage into Africa, but also near a port sufficiently capacious
for a fleet of any magnitude, and, for aught I know, the only one on
the coast of Spain which is washed by our sea. No one but Caius
Laelius knew whither he was going. He was sent round with the fleet,
and ordered so to regulate the sailing of his ships, that the army
might come in view and the fleet enter the harbour at the same time.
Both the fleet and army arrived at the same time at New Carthage, on
the seventh day after leaving the Iberus. The camp was pitched over
against that part of the city which looks to the north. A rampart was
thrown up as a defence on the rear of it, for the front was secured by
the nature of the ground. Now the situation of New Carthage is as
follows: at about the middle of the coast of Spain is a bay facing for
the most part the south-west, about two thousand five hundred paces in
depth, and a little more in breadth. In the mouth of this bay is a
small island forming a barrier towards the sea, and protecting the
harbour from every wind except the south-west. From the bottom of the
bay there runs out a peninsula, which forms the eminence on which the
city is built; which is washed in the east and south by the sea, and
on the west is enclosed by a lake which extends a little way also
towards the north, of variable depth according as the sea overflows or
ebbs. An isthmus of about two hundred paces broad connects the city
with the continent, on which, though it would have been a work of so
little labour, the Roman general did not raise a rampart; whether his
object was to make a display of his confidence to the enemy from
motives of pride, or that he might have free regress when frequently
advancing to the walls of the city.

43. Having completed the other requisite works, he drew up his shi