For, on whatever subject he debated in the senate, he never
failed to conclude in these words, "I am also of opinion that Carthage
should be destroyed." The war, however, which had broken out in Spain,
and the bad success of the Roman arms in that quarter, for some time
delayed the fate of that devoted city; and it might, perhaps, have
stood much longer, had not some seditious demagogues incited the
populace to insult the Roman ambassador, and to banish those senators
who voted for peace.
To account for the apparent pusillanimity of the Carthaginians, it is
necessary to observe, that they had suffered repeated defeats in their
war with Massinis'sa; and that fifty thousand of their troops, after
having been blocked up in their camp till from want they were obliged
to submit to the most humiliating conditions, were inhumanly massacred
by Gulus'sa, the son of the Numidian king. The Romans chose this
distressing juncture to declare war against them.
As one proof of their sincere desire for peace, they had
previously delivered up to the Romans all their arms and warlike
engines, of which they possessed prodigious magazines; thus leaving
themselves still more defenceless than before.
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