There was a powerful party in Rome (headed by the stern censor Porcius
Cato) who relentlessly insisted on the destruction of Carthage. Her
warlike neighbor, Masinissa, king of Numidia, was encouraged by the
Romans in harassing attacks, and in 149 B. C. Rome found a pretext for
war. Her forces could not be resisted, and Carthage offered a complete
submission, seeking the preservation of her commerce and her capital by
a surrender of arms, war-ships, and her internal independence.
When Rome insisted on the destruction of the city of Carthage itself,
and the removal of the inhabitants to inland abodes, the Carthaginians
took counsel of despair, and resolved to stand a siege within their
strong fortifications. Scipio Africanus Minor conducted the three years’
siege of the great commercial city and her citadel, and Roman
determination, as usual, carried its point. After fearful house-to-house
fighting the remnant of seven hundred thousand people surrendered; the
place was set on fire, and burned for seventeen days; the ruins were
leveled with the ground, and Carthage the proud city, alike with
Carthage the commercial state, ceased to exist, in 146 B. C., the year
of the final conquest of Greece. Part of the territory was given to
Masinissa of Numidia, Rome’s ally; part became the Roman province of
Africa.