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he blocked it up, 2.334 with difficulty and laboriously, but nevertheless by the multitude of hands the work was completed. For the Carthaginians attempted to stop them, and many battles took place in this, but they were not able to prevent the banking up. The Carthaginians, therefore, with the mouth of the harbor banked up, were terribly pressed by the lack of grain; and some deserted, others who held out were dying, and others tasted of the dead. Wherefore Hasdrubal, despondent, sent envoys to Scipio concerning a truce; and he would have obtained security, if he had not also wished to arrange for salvation and freedom for all the rest. Having failed in this, therefore, he shut his wife in the acropolis, since she had negotiated with Scipio on behalf of herself and her children; and he managed the other affairs, having become bolder through despair. Therefore, he himself and others, possessed by desperation, fought both by night and by day, and were sometimes defeated, and sometimes prevailed, and they devised counter-engines against the Roman engines. And Bithias, holding a certain fortified post and advancing over much of the mainland, was helping the Carthaginians and harming the Romans. For this reason Scipio divided the army and ordered one part to continue the siege of Carthage, and sent the other against Bithias, placing his second-in-command Gaius Laelius over it; and he himself went back and forth to each, overseeing both. And the fort was taken. Then again Carthage was besieged by the whole army. The Carthaginians, therefore, despairing of being able to save both 2.335 walls any longer, packed up and moved into the precinct of the Byrsa, as it was stronger, and having moved whatever they could, they set fire by night to the dockyard and most of the other things, in order to deprive the enemy of the benefit from them. When the Romans realized what had been done, they seized the harbor and advanced upon the Byrsa, and having seized the houses on either side of it, some proceeded upon their roofs to the adjoining ones, while others, digging through the walls, passed through from below, until they arrived at the citadel itself. But when they had come there, the Carthaginians no longer resisted, but sent a herald, except for Hasdrubal. But he, with the deserters—for Scipio had not made a truce with them—was taken up into the Asclepieion with his wife and children, and from there he fought off the attackers, until the deserters set fire to the temple and climbed onto its roof, awaiting the final necessity of the fire; for then, defeated, he came to Scipio holding a suppliant's branch. And his wife, seeing him supplicating, called him by name, and reproaching him that, having arranged for his own safety, he did not permit her to make a truce, threw her children into the fire and cast herself in after them. Scipio, having thus taken Carthage, sent the following letter to the senate: "Carthage is taken; what therefore do you command?" When these things were read, therefore, they took counsel concerning what ought to be done. And Cato gave his opinion that it was necessary to raze the city and wipe out the Carthaginians, but Nasica still advised to spare the Carthaginians. And from this the 2.336 council was led into much contradiction and dispute, until someone said that if for no other reason, yet for their own sakes it should be thought necessary to spare them, so that having them as rivals they might practice virtue, and not turn to pleasures and luxury, once those who could compel them to the practice of warfare were taken away, and become worse through lack of practice, having no worthy adversaries. From these words, therefore, all unanimously agreed to raze Carthage, not believing that they would ever be truly at peace. And it was all utterly destroyed, and it was decreed to be a curse for anyone to inhabit it. And of the men who were captured, the greater part were thrown into prison and perished there, but a few, except for the very first men, were sold; for these, both the hostages and Hasdrubal and Bithias, lived out their lives in different places in Italy under guard but without chains. But Scipio obtained both glory and honor, and was called Africanus not from the

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συνέχωσε, 2.334 χαλεπῶς μὲν καὶ ἐπιπόνως, ομως μέντοι ὑπὸ πολυχειρίας τὸ εργον ἐξείργαστο. ειργειν μὲν γὰρ αὐτοὺς ἐπεχείρουν οἱ Καρχηδόνιοι, καὶ πολλαὶ μάχαι ἐν τούτῳ ἐγίνοντο, οὐ μέντοι καὶ κωλῦσαι τὸ χῶσαι ἠδυνήθησαν. Οἱ ουν Καρχηδόνιοι, τοῦ στόματος τοῦ λιμένος χωσθέντος, τῇ τοῦ σίτου σπάνει δεινῶς ἐπιέσθησαν· καὶ οἱ μὲν ηὐτομόλουν, οἱ δὲ ἐγκαρτεροῦντες εθνησκον, οἱ δὲ τῶν νεκρῶν ἐγεύοντο. οθεν ἀθυμήσας ̓Ασδρούβας πρέσβεις πρὸς τὸν Σκιπίωνα περὶ σπονδῶν επεμψε· καὶ ετυχεν αν τῆς ἀδείας, εἰ μὴ καὶ τοῖς λοιποῖς απασι καὶ τὴν σωτηρίαν καὶ τὴν ἐλευθερίαν πρᾶξαι ἠθέλησε. διαμαρτὼν ουν αὐτῆς εἰς τὴν ἀκρόπολιν τὴν γυναῖκα κατέκλεισεν, ἐπεὶ τῷ Σκιπίωνι ὑπὲρ ἑαυτῆς καὶ τῶν τέκνων διεκηρυκεύσατο· καὶ ταλλα διῴκει τολμηρότερος γενόμενος διὰ τὴν ἀπόγνωσιν. αὐτός τε ουν καὶ αλλοι ἀπονοίᾳ κρατούμενοι καὶ νυκτὸς καὶ ἡμέρας ἐμάχοντο, καὶ τὰ μὲν ἡττῶντο, τὰ δ' ἐπεκράτουν, καὶ ἀντεμηχανῶντο πρὸς τὰς ̔Ρωμαϊκὰς μηχανάς. καὶ ὁ Βιθίας δὲ φρούριόν τι ἐρυμνὸν εχων καὶ ἐπὶ πολλὰ τῆς ἠπείρου προϊὼν τούς τε Καρχηδονίους ὠφέλει καὶ τοὺς ̔Ρωμαίους ἐκάκου. διὸ καὶ ὁ Σκιπίων τὸ στράτευμα διελὼν τὸ μὲν τῇ Καρχηδόνι προσεδρεύειν εταξε, τὸ δὲ ἐπὶ τὸν Βιθίαν επεμψεν, ἐπιστήσας αὐτῷ τὸν ὑποστράτηγον τὸν Γάιον Λαίλιον· καὶ αὐτὸς ἑκατέρωσε διεφοίτα αμφω ἐπισκοπῶν. καὶ ηλω τὸ φρούριον. ειτ' αυθις πάσῃ τῇ στρατιᾷ ἐπολιορκεῖτο ἡ Καρχηδών. ̓Απογνόντες ουν οἱ Καρχηδόνιοι μηκέτι ἑκάτερον 2.335 τεῖχος διασώσασθαι δύνασθαι, εἰς τὸν τῆς Βύρσης περίβολον ατε καὶ ἐρυμνότερον ἀνεσκευάσαντο, καὶ μετακομίσαντες οσα ἠδύναντο, κατέπρησαν νυκτὸς τὸ νεώριον καὶ τῶν αλλων τὰ πλείω, ινα τῆς ἐξ αὐτῶν ὠφελείας τοὺς πολεμίους στερήσωσιν. ὡς δ' εγνων τὸ εργον οἱ ̔Ρωμαῖοι, τὸν λιμένα κατέσχον καὶ ἐπὶ τὴν Βύρσαν ἐχώρησαν, καὶ κατασχόντες τὰς ἑκατέρωθεν αὐτῆς οἰκίας οἱ μὲν ἐπὶ τῶν τεγῶν αὐτῶν ἐπὶ τὰς ἀεὶ ἐχομένας ἐβάδιζον, οἱ δὲ τοὺς τοίχους διορύσσοντες κάτωθεν διῄεσαν, εως πρὸς αὐτὴν τὴν ακραν ἀφίκοντο. ἐνταῦθα δὲ γενομένοις οὐκέτι ἀντῆραν οἱ Καρχηδόνιοι, ἀλλ' ἐπεκηρυκεύσαντο, πλὴν τοῦ ̓Ασδρούβου. ἐκεῖνος δὲ μετὰ τῶν αὐτομόλων, ὁ γὰρ Σκιπίων οὐκ ἐσπείσατο αὐτοῖς, εἰς τὸ ̓Ασκληπιεῖον ἀνειλήθη μετὰ τῆς γυναικὸς καὶ τῶν παίδων, κἀντεῦθεν ἠμύνετο τοὺς προσβάλλοντας, μέχρις ου ἐμπρήσαντες τὸν νεὼν οἱ αὐτόμολοι ἐπὶ τὸ τέγος αὐτοῦ ἀνέβησαν, τὴν ἐσχάτην τοῦ πυρὸς ἀνάγκην ἀναμένοντες· τότε γὰρ ἡσσηθεὶς πρὸς τὸν Σκιπίωνα ηλθεν ἱκετηρίαν εχων. ἰδοῦσα δὲ αὐτὸν ἡ γυνὴ ἀντιβολοῦντα ὀνομαστὶ ἀνεκάλεσεν, καὶ ἐξονειδίσασα οτι ἑαυτῷ τὴν σωτηρίαν πράξας οὐκ ἐπέτρεψεν ἐκείνῃ σπείσασθαι, τὰ τέκνα ἐνέβαλεν εἰς τὸ πῦρ καὶ ἑαυτὴν προσεπέρριψεν. ̔Ελὼν ουν ουτω τὴν Καρχηδόνα Σκιπίων τῇ γερουσίᾳ ἐπέστειλε τάδε "Καρχηδὼν ἑάλω· τί ουν κελεύετε;" ἀναγνωσθέντων ουν τούτων βουλὴν εθεντο περὶ τοῦ τί δέον ποιεῖν. καὶ ὁ μὲν Κάτων κατασκάψαι τὴν πόλιν καὶ τοὺς Καρχηδονίους ἐξαφανίσαι δεῖν ἐγνωμάτευσεν, ὁ δὲ Νασικᾶς φείσασθαι τῶν Καρχηδονίων καὶ ετι συνεβούλευε. κἀντεῦθεν εἰς ἀντιλογίαν πολλὴν προήχθη καὶ ἀμφισβήτησιν τὸ 2.336 συνέδριον, εως εφη τις οτι εἰ καὶ δι' οὐδὲν ετερον, ἀλλά γε ἑαυτῶν ενεκα φείσασθαι αὐτῶν ἀναγκαῖον νομίζοιτο αν, ιν' ἀνταγωνιστὰς αὐτοὺς εχοντες ἀρετὴν ἀσκῶσι, καὶ μὴ πρὸς ἡδονὰς καὶ τρυφὴν τράπωνται, τῶν δυναμένων αὐτοὺς καταναγκάζειν εἰς ασκησιν τῶν πολεμικῶν περιαιρεθέντων, καὶ χείρους ὑπ' ἀνασκησίας γένωνται, ἀξιοχρέους ἀντιπολέμους μὴ εχοντες. ἐκ τούτων ουν τῶν λόγων πάντες κατασκάψαι τὴν Καρχηδόνα ὡμογνωμόνησαν, μήποτε εἰρηνήσειν ἐκείνους πιστεύσαντες ἀκριβῶς. καὶ πᾶσα αρδην ἀνάστατος γέγονε, καὶ ἐπάρατον ἐψηφίσθη τὸ ἐπ' αὐτὴν κατοικῆσαί τινα. καὶ τῶν ἀνδρῶν τῶν ἁλόντων οἱ μὲν πλείους εἰς τὸ δεσμωτήριον ἐνεβλήθησαν κἀκεῖ διεφθάρησαν, ὀλίγοι δέ τινες πλὴν τῶν πάνυ πρώτων ἐπράθησαν· ουτοι γὰρ οι τε ομηροι καὶ ὁ ̓Ασδρούβας καὶ ὁ Βιθίας αλλοι αλλῃ τῆς ̓Ιταλίας ἐν φρουραῖς ἀδέσμοις κατεβίωσαν. ὁ δὲ Σκιπίων δόξης τε ετυχε καὶ τιμῆς, καὶ ̓Αφρικανὸς οὐκ ἀπὸ τοῦ