The commencement of the third Punic war, dated [Y. R. 602. B. C. 150],
which was ended within five years after it began. Marcus Porcius Cato,
deemed the wisest man in the state, and Scipio Nasica, adjudged by the
senate to be the best, differ in opinion, and have a sharp altercation:
Cato urging the demolition of Carthage; Nasica arguing against it. It
was, however, resolved, that war should be declared against the
Carthaginians, for having fitted out a fleet contrary to treaty, and led
forth an army beyond the boundaries of their state; for having
committed hostilities against Masinissa the friend and ally of the
Romans; and refusing to admit Gulussa, who accompanied the ambassadors
into their city. [Y. R. 603. B. C. 149.] Before any forces were
embarked, ambassadors came from Utica, and surrendered their state and
property to the Romans: an ominous circumstance highly pleasing to the
Roman senate, and at the same time a grievous mortification to the
Carthaginians. Games were exhibited at Tarentum, in honour of Pluto,
according to directions found in the Sibylline books, the same as had
been celebrated a hundred years before, during the first Punic war. [Y.
R. 502.] The Carthaginians send thirty ambassadors to Rome to make a
tender of submission; but the opinion of Cato, that the consuls should
be ordered to proceed immediately to the war prevails. These, passing
over into Africa, receive three hundred hostages, and take possession of
all the arms and warlike stores to be found in Carthage; they then, by
authority of the senate, command them to build themselves a new city, at
least ten miles from the sea. Roused by this indignant treatment, the
Carthaginians resolve to have recourse to arms. Lucius Marcius and
Marcus Manlius, consuls, lay siege to Carthage. During this siege, two
military tribunes force their way in, with their troops, in a place
which they observed to be negligently guarded; they are set upon and
beaten by the townsmen, but rescued afterwards by Scipio Africanus, who
also, with a few horsemen, relieves a Roman fort, attacked by the enemy
in the night. He also repulsed the Carthaginians, who sallied forth in
great force to attack the camp. When, afterwards, one of the consuls
(the other having gone to Rome to hold the elections) observed that the
siege of Carthage was not going on prosperously, and proposed to attack
Hasdrubal, who had drawn up his forces in a narrow pass, he (Scipio)
first advised him not to venture upon an engagement on ground so very
disadvantageous: and then, when his advice was overruled by those who
were envious both of his prudence and valour, he himself rushed into the
pass; and when the Romans were routed and put to flight, as he foresaw
would take place, he returns with a very small body of horse, rescues
his friends, and brings them off in safety. Which valiant action, Cato,
although much more inclined to censure than to praise, extols in the
senate in very magnificent terms: saying that all the others, who were
fighting in Africa, were but mere shadows; Scipio was life itself: and
such was the favour he gained among his fellow-citizens, that at the
ensuing election the greater number of the tribes voted for electing him
consul, although he was under the legal age. Lucius Scribonius, tribune
of the people, proposes a law, that the Lusitanians, who,
notwithstanding they had surrendered upon the faith of the Roman people,
had been sold in Gaul, by Servius Galba, should be restored to liberty;
which Marcus Cato supports with great zeal, as may be seen by his
oration, which is still extant, being published in his annals. Quintus
Fulvius Nobilior, although Cato had before handled him with great
severity, yet takes up the cause of Galba. Galba himself too,
apprehensive of being condemned, taking up in his arms his own two
infant children, and the son of Sulpicius Gallus, speaks in his own
behalf, in such a piteous strain of supplication, that the question was
carried in his favour. One Andriscus, a man of the meanest extraction,
having given himself out to be the son of Perseus, and changed his name
to Philip, flies from Rome, whither Demetrius had sent him, on account
of this audacious forgery; many people believing his fabulous account of
himself to be true, gather round him, and enable him to raise an army;
at the head of which, partly by force, and partly by the willing
submission of the people, he acquires the possession of all Macedon. The
story which he propagated was this: that he was the son of Perseus by a
harlot; that he had been delivered to a certain Cretan woman to be taken
care of, and brought up; in order that whatever might be the event of
the war, in which the king was at that time engaged with the Romans,
some one, at least, of the royal progeny might remain. That, upon the
death of Perseus, he was educated at Adramytteum, until he was twelve
years old; ignorant all along of his real parentage, and always
supposing himself to be the son of the person who brought him up. That,
at length, this person being ill, and about to die, discovered to him
the secret of his birth; informing him at the same time of a certain
writing, sealed with the royal signet of Perseus, which had been
intrusted to his supposed mother, to keep and give to him, when he
should attain to manhood: but with the strictest injunctions that the
affair should be kept a profound secret until the arrival of that
period. That, when the time came, the writing was delivered to him; in
which was indicated a very considerable treasure, left him by his
father. That the woman, after informing him fully of the circumstance of
his birth, earnestly besought him to quit that part of the country
before the affair should come to the knowledge of Eumenes, the enemy of
his father Perseus, lest he should be murdered. That, fearful of being
assassinated, and in hopes also of receiving some assistance from
Demetrius, he had gone into Syria; and had there first ventured openly
to declare who he was.