Spring 146 BC
The assault from the harbour
In spring 146 BC Scipio launches the final assault from the harbour area. Hasdrubal, expecting it, sets fire to the buildings around the merchant harbour. A Roman party, led by Gaius Laelius according to Appian, climbs the wall of the naval harbour and takes it, and the main force reaches the city’s main square, where the legions camp for the night.
Roman soldiers entering Carthage in 146 BC, illustration by Richard Henry Brock, 1915Wikimedia Commons, Richard Henry Brock, Public domain (Richard Henry Brockː The siege of Carthage 146 BC - Roman soldiers entering Carthage.jpg)
The next morning Scipio brings up 4,000 fresh men to join the troops at the naval harbour. On the way they stop to strip the gold from the temple of Apollo, and Scipio and his officers cannot prevent it. The Carthaginians do not counterattack. They fall back to the streets below the citadel on the Byrsa hill.
The two Punic harbours seen from the Byrsa hillWikimedia Commons, Verity Cridland, CC BY 2.0 (Carthage, Byrsa hill (13585102703).jpg)
Sources
- Appian, The Punic Wars, 127 to 128.
- Richard Miles, Carthage Must Be Destroyed (2010).
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