150 SIEGE OF CAETHAGE. 



like an open village. He found to his horror the 

 gates closed, and the battlements bristling with 

 artillery. 



Carthage was strongly fortified, and, it was held 

 by men who had abandoned hope. The siege lasted 

 more than three years. Cato did not live to see 

 his darling wish fulfilled. Masinissa also died while 

 the siege was going on, and bitter was his end. 

 The policy of the Romans had been death to all his 

 hopes. His dream of a great African empire was 

 dissolved. He sullenly refused to co-operate with the 

 Romans : it was his Carthage which they had decreed 

 should be levelled to the ground. 



There was a time when it seemed as if the great 

 city would prove itself to be impregnable ; the siege 

 was conducted with small skill or vigour by the 

 Roman generals. More than one reputation found its 

 grave before the walls of Carthage. But when Scipio 

 iEmilianus obtained the command, he at once displayed 

 the genius of his house. Perceiving that it would be 

 impossible to subdue the city as long as smuggling 

 traders could run into the port with provisions, he con- 

 structed a stone mole across the mouth of the har- 

 bour. Having thus cut off the city from the sea, he 

 pitched his camp on the neck of the isthmus, for 

 Carthage was built on a peninsula, and so cut it off 

 completely from the land. For the first time in the 

 siege, the blockade was complete : the city was enclosed 

 in a stone and iron cage. The Carthaginians in their 

 fury brought forth the prisoners whom they had taken 

 in their sallies, and hurled them headlong from the 

 walls. There were many in the city who protested 

 against this outrage. They were denounced as traitors ; 

 a Reign of Terror commenced ; the men of the moderate 



