149 – 148 BC
The first assaults
The Roman army marches to Carthage and twice tries to scale the walls, from the sea and from the land side, and is driven back both times. Across the isthmus the city is defended by three lines, the strongest a brick wall 9 m thick and 15 to 20 m high with a ditch in front of it. Hasdrubal’s field army harasses the Roman supply lines and foraging parties.
Catapulta, painting by Edward Poynter, 1868, a Roman siege engine before the walls of CarthageWikimedia Commons, Edward Poynter, Public domain (Catapulta by Edward Poynter.jpg)
Censorinus’s men break down part of the wall by the lake with two huge battering rams and storm the breach, but they fall into disorder and are thrown back. Scipio Aemilianus, a military tribune with the 4th Legion, holds his men along the broken wall and covers the retreat. Carthaginian fireships later damage the Roman fleet, and a night attack on Manilius’s camp is beaten off, again with Scipio’s help.
In 148 BC the consul Lucius Calpurnius Piso loosens the siege into a blockade and fails to take Hippo and Aspis, towns that still support Carthage. Hasdrubal takes over the government of Carthage, and the city allies with Andriscus, a pretender to the Macedonian throne.
Sources
- Appian, The Punic Wars, 95 to 109.
- Adrian Goldsworthy, The Fall of Carthage (2006).
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