[Illustration: A CARTHAGINIAN CATAPULT.]
The catapult which the Carthaginians used was not the little implement
that a boy uses nowadays; it was a big kind of windlass, by which a
number of ropes were twisted up tightly till they acted as a spring to a
strong wooden arm at the end of which was a leather cup. This held a
stone about the size of a man's head.
When the spring was let go, this arm was flung violently forward, and
the stone was thereby hurled into the air, and flew with great force
for 400 or 500 yards.
The catapults served the purpose of artillery in those days when
gunpowder had not been invented.
The Carthaginians, when a favourable wind blew, sent a lot of fire
boats filled with faggots and tar to drift among the Roman fleet and
burn their ships.
They also got together the wrecks of their own ships which had been
smashed up by the enemy, and from them they built up others and
sallied out of port in order to astonish the Romans.
But they did not make any bold attacks, consequently the Romans only
sat tight and got reinforcements over, and in the end they attacked
and forced their way into the city. There the fighting in the streets
was very close and bitter.
For six days it went on, but the stern discipline and valour of the
Romans gradually told, and very soon the whole city was in their
hands. Fifty thousand inhabitants were allowed to escape, and the city
was given over to the flames.
One lot of defenders the Romans refused to spare. Some 900 of them
took refuge, and made a last stand, in the Temple of AEsculapius, and
among them was the wife of Hasdrubal, the commander of the
Carthaginians, and her two sons.
Hasdrubal himself saved his skin by surrendering to Scipio, the Roman
commander, but his wife stood up on the temple, which was now on fire,
and reviled him as a coward. Then she killed her two boys, and threw
herself into the fire rather than give in to the Latin enemy.
* * * * *