26. Several engagements were fought before the walls, with
disadvantage to the assailants; so that the siege would have been
discontinued, had not Scip'io AEmilia'nus, the adopted son of
Africa'nus, who was now appointed to command it, used as much skill to
save his forces after a defeat, as to inspire them with fresh hopes of
a victory. 27. But all his arts would have failed, had he not found
means to seduce Phar'nes, the master of the Carthaginian horse, who
came over to his side. The unhappy townsmen soon saw the enemy make
nearer approaches; the wall which led to the haven was quickly
demolished; soon after the forum itself was taken, which offered to
the conquerors a deplorable spectacle of houses nodding to their fall,
heaps of men lying dead, hundreds of the wounded struggling to emerge
from the carnage around them, and deploring their own and their
country's ruin. The citadel soon after surrendered at discretion. 28.
All now but the temple was subdued, and that was defended by deserters
from the Roman army, and those who had been most forward to undertake
the war.
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