er the battle with Masinissa,
Hasdrubal lost all his influence in Carthage, and was, to all
appearance, hopelessly ruined. He had not, however, then given up the
struggle. He had contrived to assemble the remnant of his army in the
neighborhood of Carthage. His forces had been gradually increasing
during these transactions, as those who were opposed to these
concessions to the Romans naturally gathered around him. He was now in
his camp, not far from the city, at the head of twenty thousand men.
Finding themselves in so desperate an emergency, the Carthaginians
sent to him to come to their succor. He very gladly obeyed the
summons. He sent around to all the territories still subject to
Carthage, and gathered fresh troops, and collected supplies of arms
and of food. He advanced to the relief of the city. He compelled the
Romans, who were equally astonished at the resistance they met with
from within the walls, and at this formidable onset from without, to
retire a little, and intrench themselves in their camp, in order to
secure their own safety. He sent supplies of food into the city. He
also contrived to fit up, secretly, a great many fire-ships in the
harbor, and, setting them in flames, let them drift down upon the
Roman fleet, which was anchored in supposed security in the bay. The
plan was so skillfully managed that the Roman ships were almost all
destroyed. Thus the face of affairs was changed. The Romans found
themselves disappointed for the present of their prey. They confined
themselves to their encampment, and sent home to the Roman senate for
new re-enforcements and supplies.

In a word, the Romans found that, instead of having only to effect,
unresisted, the simple destruction of a city, they were involved in
what would, perhaps, prove a serious and a protracted war. The war
did, in fact, continue for two or three years--a horrible war, almost
of extermination, on both sides. Scipio came with the Roman army, at
first as a subordinate officer; but his bravery, his sagacity, and the
success of some of his almost romantic exploits, soon made him an
object of universal regard. At one time, a detachment of the army,
which he succeeded in releasing from a situation of great peril in
which they had been placed, testified their gratitude by platting a
crown of _grass_, and placing it upon his brow with great ceremony and
loud acclamations.

The Carthaginians did every thing in the prosecution of this war that
the