Part 9 (1/2)

Destruction.--The third Punic war.--Chronological table of the Punic wars.--Character of the Punic wars.--Intervals between them.--Animosities and dissensions.--Numidia.--Numidian hors.e.m.e.n.--Masinissa.--Parties at Rome and Carthage.--Their differences.--Masinissa prepares for war.--Hasdrubal.--Carthage declares war.--Parallel between Hannibal and Hasdrubal.--Battle with Masinissa.--Defeat of the Carthaginians.--The younger Scipio.--A spectator of the battle.--Negotiations for peace.--Scipio made umpire.--Hasdrubal surrenders.--Terms imposed by Masinissa.--Carthaginian emba.s.sy to Rome.--Their mission fruitless.--Another emba.s.sy.--The Romans declare war.--Negotiations for peace.--The Romans demand hostages.--Cruelty of the hostage system.--Return of the emba.s.sadors.--Consternation in Carthage.--Its deplorable condition.--Selecting the hostages.--The hour of parting.--The parting scene.--Grief and despair.--Advance of the Roman army.--Surrender of Utica.--Demands of the Romans.--The Carthaginians comply.--The Romans demand all the munitions of war.--Their great number.--Brutal demands of the Romans.--Carthage to be destroyed.--Desperation of the people.--Preparations for defense.--Hasdrubal.--Destruction of the Roman fleet.--Horrors of the siege.--Heroic valor of the Carthaginians.--Battering engines.--Attempt to destroy them.--The city stormed.--A desperate struggle.--The people retreat to the citadel.--The city fired.--Hasdrubal's wife.--Hasdrubal surrenders.--The citadel fired.--Resentment and despair of Hasdrubal's wife.--Carthage destroyed.--Its present condition.--War and commerce.--Antagonistic principles.--Hannibal's greatness as a military hero.

The consequences of Hannibal's reckless ambition, and of his wholly unjustifiable aggression on Roman rights to gratify it, did not end with his own personal ruin. The flame which he had kindled continued to burn until at last it accomplished the entire and irretrievable destruction of Carthage. This was effected in a third and final war between the Carthaginians and the Romans, which is known in history as the third Punic war. With a narrative of the events of this war, ending, as it did, in the total destruction of the city, we shall close this history of Hannibal.

It will be recollected that the war which Hannibal himself waged against Rome was the second in the series, the contest in which Regulus figured so prominently having been the first. The one whose history is now to be given is the third. The reader will distinctly understand the chronological relations of these contests by the following table:

TABLE.

+------+--------------------------------------+-------------+

Date

B.C.

Events.

Punic Wars.

+------+--------------------------------------+-------------+

264

War commenced in Sicily }

}

262

Naval battles in the Mediterranean }

I.

}

249

Regulus sent prisoner to Rome }

24 years.

}

241

Peace concluded }

Peace for 24 years.

217

Hannibal attacks Saguntum }

}

218

Crosses the Alps }

II.

}

216

Battle of Cannae }

17 years.

}

205

Is conquered by Scipio }

}

200

Peace concluded }

Peace for 52 years

148

War declared }

III.

}

145

Carthage destroyed }

3 years.

+------+--------------------------------------+-------------+

These three Punic wars extended, as the table shows, over a period of more than a hundred years. Each successive contest in the series was shorter, but more violent and desperate than its predecessor, while the intervals of peace were longer. Thus the first Punic war continued for twenty-four years, the second about seventeen, and the third only three or four. The interval, too, between the first and second was twenty-four years, while between the second and third there was a sort of peace for about fifty years. These differences were caused, indeed, in some degree, by the accidental circ.u.mstances on which the successive ruptures depended, but they were not entirely owing to that cause. The longer these belligerent relations between the two countries continued, and the more they both experienced the awful effects and consequences of their quarrels, the less disposed they were to renew such dreadful struggles, and yet, when they did renew them they engaged in them with redoubled energy of determination and fresh intensity of hate. Thus the wars followed each other at greater intervals, but the conflicts, when they came, though shorter in duration, were more and more desperate and merciless in character.