Carthage was located on the headland of a stubby arrow-shaped peninsula, pointing eastwards into the Gulf of Tunis. The headland had extensions northwest and southwest towards the mainland creating lagoons on either side of the isthmus, i.e. Lake Arina (north) and the Lake of Tunis (south); the city occupied the area between the two extensions.
Carthage was protected by twenty-two miles (35 km) of circuit walls, increased to triple line of defence where it crossed the three-thousand-yard-wide isthmus. The outer line of this section was a sixty-foot-wide ditch backed by an earth rampart (usually manned by skirmishers who withdrew when confronted by a major assault), followed by a stone wall (the outer defensive line), and finally a third wall, forty-five feet high and at least thirty feet wide, with towers spaced at two-hundred yard intervals. Within this wall there was accommodation for three hundred elephants, four thousand horses, twenty thousand men as well as stores.
Having earlier surrendered their weapons, the citizens began to rapidly produce new swords, spears, shields, javelins and catapults. Hasdrubal (10), a grandson of Masinissa, was entrusted with the defence of the city. Hasdrubal (9) was pardoned and took command of an army of twenty-five thousand outside the city where his and other army under 07Himilco Phameas were to harry the Roman lines.
In 149 BC a Roman force of eighty thousand men crossed to Utica, which had already surrendered, and advanced to Carthage. There were two possible directions from which to attack the walls: from the west along the isthmus or from the narrow sand bar that was the southern extension. The northern extension was rocky and unsuitable for launching an attack.
The consul Manius Manilius (1) led his legionaries against the western defences, while his colleague 08Marcius Censorinus used the Roman fleet to attack the wall to the south of the city. They had no siege engines with them, however, and direct assaults from both directions were unsuccessful.
A foray across Lake Tunis produced sufficient wood to build two rams. The Romans had some success against the southern fortifications, but the defenders rebuilt the walls and under the cover of darkness managed to burn the rams. The Romans now settled in for a longer siege and constructed camps near the city’s walls. As the summer grew hotter, the Roman camp between the two lakes became unhealthy and Censorinus was forced to relocate his camp closer to the sea.
In 148 BC Manilius moved his camp to the western end of the peninsula, from where he planned to attack Hasdrubal’s base at Nepheris (twenty-four miles south of Carthage). Hasdrubal had made his camp on higher ground beyond a small river at the end of a valley. Manilius ordered a direct assault and his men initially made some headway. Hasdrubal waited until the Roman troops tired and began to pull back, then ordered a counterattack. Bottlenecked at the river, Manilius was on the verge of defeat when his tribune 29Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus (56; fl.168-129 BC) arrived and used his cavalry to cover the legionaries’ passage across the river.
Masinissa died and his will called for Scipio to oversee the division of the old king’s assets among his three legitimate sons. Scipio completed his task and persuaded one of these sons, Gulussa, to join the Roman effort against Carthage. Gulussa with his light cavalry proved to be especially helpful in repelling the attacks of Phameas, who perhaps sensing a change of fortunes soon defected to the Romans.
The new consuls in 148 BC, 09Postumius Albinus and 04Calpurnius Piso, did not bring a change for the better in the conduct of the siege; in fact they almost gave it up, simply busying themselves with assaults on the neighbouring towns. Postumius was particularly unfortunate at Hippo Zarytus (north of Tunis), where his siege works were destroyed by a sally of the citizens. Meanwhile, the new fleet commander 01Hostilius Mancinus decided to attack the northeast seawall of Carthage where the defences were lightest. His marines managed to penetrate the suburb of Megara but they got into difficulties and had to be withdrawn the following day.
In 147 BC 29Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus was appointed consul and commander-in-chief. As an occasional blockade runner had been getting through, he decided to seal the city off completely. He ordered the construction of double lined earthworks across the isthmus to prevent supplies from reaching the city by land; it only remained to close the sea route.
The harbour at Carthage consisted of two interconnected artificial docks north-south next to the southeast wall, an inner circular naval yard and an outer rectangular mercantile dock at the southern extremity of which just east of the sand bar a single entrance, seventy feet (21 metres) wide, which could be closed by chains, gave access to the sea. Starting at the sand bar the Romans began to tip boatloads of rocks to form a mole and seal the harbour entrance.
When the Carthaginians realised the Romans’ plan, they scraped together fifty ships and cut a new but narrow channel to the sea from their inner harbour. The Romans were taken by surprise but the Carthaginians, instead of attacking immediately, spent the next few days bringing their crews up to reasonable proficiency. On the third day they fought an indecisive battle but they were trapped and suffered severe damage when their return to the city was delayed by a collision between some of the smaller ships in the narrow channel.
Crossing the recently constructed mole the Romans attacked the southeast corner of the city wall. A breach was made and the Carthaginians worked feverishly to repair the damage. But Scipio persevered with his attacks, and finally gained control of the outer dock. However, the Romans had not yet gained access to the city itself: an inner wall west and north of the outer dock blocked their further advance.
Cut off from both land and sea, Carthage’s fate was now sealed and while waiting for the end Scipio decided to clear up the remaining Carthaginian resistance in the interior. Hasdrubal (9) had been recalled to fight in defence of the city, but a large part of his army remained in the vicinity of Nepheris. Storming the enemy camp, Scipio sent reserves into a frontal attack until the enemy was fully occupied and then sent in another force on the far side of the camp. Gulussa’s cavalry pursued the beaten soldiers relentlessly, while the main force moved in to take the city. Carthage’s last hope had been destroyed and local tribes hastened to surrender to Rome.
In spring 146 BC a party led by Gaius 02Laelius Sapiens managed during the night to slip across to the inner dock. Before the end of the night the Romans had made their way into the marketplace, adjacent to the outer dock. The following morning Scipio led four thousand men to support Laelius, and slow work of reducing the city proceeded. Tall houses along narrow lanes proved to be individual fortresses, and fighting was house-to-house for six days.
Scipio finally ordered the houses burned to allow easier passage. On the seventh day the Carthaginians surrendered wholesale. Fifty thousand men, women and children were sold into slavery. Hasdrubal and his family, along with nine hundred deserters, were all that remained in the Temple of Eshmun. Hasdrubal surrendered but the deserters decided to die in the flames of the temple.For ten more days the fires burned, the ruins were razed, a plough was drawn over the site and salt was sown in the furrows. The cities that had remained faithful to Carthage were destroyed. Those, like Utica, having submitted to Rome, were declared free and received territorial concessions. The rest of the land that Carthage had controlled at the beginning of the war became the new Roman province of Africa Vetus (‘Old Africa’).
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