Carthage, [Y. R. 605. B. C. 147,] comprehended in a circuit of
twenty-three miles, was besieged with immense exertion, and was
gradually taken; first, by Mancinus, acting as lieutenant-general; and
afterwards by Scipio, the consul, to whom Africa was voted as his
province, without casting lots. The Carthaginians having constructed a
new mole, (the old one being destroyed by Scipio,) and equipped,
secretly, in an unusually short space of time, a considerable fleet,
engage, unsuccessfully, in a sea-fight. Hasdrubal, with his army,
notwithstanding he had taken post in a place of extremely difficult
approach, was cut off by Scipio; who at length took the city by storm,
in the seven hundredth year after its foundation. [Y. R. 606. B. C.
146.] The greater part of the spoil was returned to the Sicilians, from
whom it had been taken. During the destruction of the city, when
Hasdrubal had given himself up into Scipio’s hands, his wife, who, a few
days before, had not been able to prevail upon him to surrender to the
conqueror, casts herself, with her two children, from a tower into the
flames of the burning city. Scipio, following the example of his father,
Æmilius Paullus, the conqueror of Macedon, celebrates solemn games;
during which he exposes the deserters and fugitives to wild beasts. The
origin of the Achæan war is referred to the circumstance of the
ambassadors of the Romans being expelled from Corinth by the Achæans,
when they were sent to separate from the Achæan council those cities
which had been under the dominion of Philip.