(BOOK 21, BOISSEVAIN.)

B.C. 153
(a.u. 601)IX, 26.—The rattling of dice in the box of Circumstance now announced the final cast in the struggle with Carthage,—the third of the series. The Carthaginians could not endure their subordinate position, but contrary to the treaty were setting their fleet in readiness and making alliances as measures of preparation for war with the Nomads: B.C. 152
(a.u. 602)and the Romans, having settled other questions to their own satisfaction, did not remain at rest, but by the mouth of Scipio Nasica their commissioner they charged their rivals with this breach of faith and ordered them to disband their armament. The Carthaginians found fault with Masinissa and on account of the war with him declined to obey the command. The Romans then arranged terms for them with Masinissa and prevailed upon him to retire from some territory in their favor. B.C. 150
(a.u. 604)Since they showed themselves no more tractable than before, the Romans waited a bit, and as soon as information was received that the Carthaginians had been worsted in a great battle by Masinissa they voted for war against them. The Carthaginians, who were feeling the effects of their defeat, became frightened on learning this and sent envoys to Rome to secure an alliance; for other neighboring tribes were also beginning to attack them. They feigned a readiness to yield to the Romans on all points, and their very intention of not remaining true to their agreements rendered them all the more ready to promise anything.

B.C. 149
(a.u. 605)When the senate called a meeting to consider the matter, Scipio Nasica advised receiving the Carthaginian embassy and making a truce with them, but Marcus Cato declared that no truce ought to be arranged nor the decree of war rescinded. The senators accepted the supplication of the envoys, promised to grant them a truce, and asked for hostages as an earnest of these conditions. These hostages were sent to Sicily and Lucius Marcius and Marcus Manilius went there, took charge of them, and sent them on to Rome. They themselves made haste to occupy Africa. After encamping they summoned the magistrates of Carthage to appear before them. When these officials arrived they did not unmask all their demands at once, for they feared that if the Carthaginians understood them in season they would plunge into war with resources unimpaired. So first they asked for and received grain, next the triremes, and after that the engines; and then they demanded the arms besides. They secured the entire visible supply (but the Carthaginians had a great deal of other equipment safely hidden) and at length ordered them to raze their city and to build in its place an unwalled town inland, eighty stades distant from the sea. At that the Carthaginians were dissolved in tears, acknowledged that they were trapped, and bewailed their fate, begging the consuls not to compel them to act as the assassins of their country. They soon found that they could accomplish nothing and had to face the repeated command either to execute the order or to cast the die of war. Many of the people then remained there on the Roman side, tacitly admitting their success: the remainder withdrew, and after killing some of their rulers for not having chosen war in the first place and after murdering such Romans as were discovered within the fortification they turned their attention to war. Under these circumstances they liberated all the slaves, restored the exiles, chose Hasdrubal once more as leader, and made ready arms, engines, and triremes. With war at their doors and the danger of slavery confronting them they prepared in the briefest possible time everything that they needed. They spared nothing, but melted down the statues for the sake of the bronze in them and used the hair of their women for ropes. The consuls at first, thinking them unarmed, expected to overcome them speedily and merely prepared ladders, with which they expected to scale the wall at once. As the assault showed their enemies to be armed and they saw that they possessed means for a siege, the Romans, before approaching close to the city again, devoted themselves to the manufacture of engines. The construction of these machines was fraught with danger, since Hasdrubal set ambuscades for those who were gathering the wood and annoyed them considerably, but in time they were able to assail the town. Now Manilius in his assault from the land side could not injure the Carthaginians at all, but Marcius, while delivering an attack from marshy ground on the side where the sea was, managed to shake down a part of the wall, though he could not get inside. The Carthaginians repulsed those who attempted to force their way in, and at night issued through the ruins to slay numerous men and burn up a very large number of engines. Hasdrubal and the cavalry, however, did not allow them to scatter over any considerable territory and Masinissa lent them no aid. He had not been invited at the opening of the war, and, though he had promised Hasdrubal that he would fight now, they gave him no opportunity of doing so.

IX, 27.—The consuls in view of the outcome of their attempts and because their fleet had been damaged by its stay in the lake raised the siege. Marcius endeavored to achieve some advantage by sea or at least to injure the coast districts, but not accomplishing anything he sailed for home, then turned back and subdued Ægimurus: and Manilius started for the interior, but upon sustaining injuries at the hands of Himilco, commander of the Carthaginian cavalry, whom they called also Phameas, he returned to Carthage. There, while the outside forces of Hasdrubal troubled him, the people in the city harassed him by excursions both night and day. In fact, the Carthaginians came to despise him and advanced as far as the Roman camp, but being for the most part unarmed they lost a number of men and shut themselves up in their fortifications again. Manilius was particularly anxious to get into close quarters with Hasdrubal, thinking that, if he could vanquish him, he should find it easier to wage war upon the remainder. His wish to get into close quarters with him was eventually realized. He followed Hasdrubal to a small fort whither the latter was retiring, and before he knew it got into a narrow passage over rough ground and there suffered a tremendous reverse. He would have been utterly destroyed, had he not found a most valuable helper in the person of Scipio the descendant of Africanus, Frag. 69who excelled in apprehending and devising beforehand the most advantageous movements, but excelled also in executing them. in bodily frame he was strong; he was amiable, too, and moderate; and for these reasons he escaped envy. he chose to make himself like to his inferiors, not better than his equals (he served as military tribune), and weaker than greater men. Manilius both reported what Scipio had done and sent a letter to the people of Rome concealing nothing, but including among other matters an account of the proceedings of Masinissa and Phameas. These were as follows.

Masinissa on his death-bed was at a loss to know how he should dispose of his kingdom, his dilemma being due to the number of his sons and the variety of their family ties on their mothers' side. Therefore he sent for Scipio to advise him, and the consul let Scipio go. But the demise of Masinissa occurred before Scipio arrived, and he gave his ring to his son Micipsa and delivered and committed all the other interests pertaining to his kingdom to Scipio, so soon as the latter should arrive. Scipio being aware of the preferences of Masinissa's sons assigned the kingdom to no one of them singly; but whereas there were three most distinguished, the eldest Micipsa, the youngest Gulussa, and intermediate in age Mastanabal, he appointed these to have charge of affairs, though separately. To the eldest, who was versed in business and fond of wealth, he entrusted the fiscal administration, to the second son, who possessed the critical faculty, he granted the right to decide disputes, and to Gulussa, who chanced to be of a warlike temperament, he delivered the troops. They had also numerous brothers on whom he bestowed certain cities and districts. He took Gulussa along with him and introduced him to the consul.

Now at the beginning of spring they made a campaign against the allies of the Carthaginians and brought many of them to terms forcibly while inducing many others to capitulate. Scipio was especially active in the work. Frag. 70when phameas, despairing of carthaginian success, went over to the Romans and held a conference with Scipio, then they all set out against Hasdrubal. For several days they assailed his fortress, but as necessaries failed them they retired in good order. During the siege Phameas had attacked them and made a show of fighting, and in the progress of the action he had deserted together with some of the cavalry. Then Manilius went to Utica and remained quiet, while Scipio took Phameas back to Rome, where he himself received commendation and Phameas was honored to the extent of being allowed to sit with the senate in the senate-house.

IX, 28.—It was at this time, too, that the episode occurred in which Prusias figured. The latter being old and of an irritable disposition became possessed by a fear that the Bithynians would expel him from his kingdom, choosing in his stead his son Nicomedes. So on some pretext he sent his son to Rome, with orders to make that his home. But since he plotted against the younger man even during the sojourn in Rome and labored to kill him, some Bithynians made visits to Rome, took Nicomedes away secretly and conveyed him to Bithynia, and after slaying the old man designated him king. This act vexed the Romans, but did not incense them to the point of war.

A certain Andriscus, who was a native of Atramyttium and resembled Perseus in appearance, caused a wide area of Macedonia to revolt by pretending to be his son and calling himself Philip. First he went to Macedonia and tried to upheave the country, but as no one would yield him allegiance he took his way to Demetrius in Syria to obtain from him the aid which relationship might afford. Demetrius arrested him and sent him to Rome, where he met with general contempt, both because he stood convicted of not being the son of Perseus and because he had no other qualities that were worthy of attention. On being released he gathered a band of revolutionists, drew after him a number of cities, and finally, assuming the kingly garb and mustering an army, he reached Thrace. There he added to his army numbers of the independent lands as well as numbers of princes who disliked the Romans, invaded Macedonia (which he occupied), and setting out for Thessaly made not a little of that territory his own.

The Romans at first scorned Andriscus and then they sent Scipio Nasica to effect some peaceful settlement in those parts. On reaching Greece and ascertaining what had occurred he despatched a letter to the Romans explaining the case; then after collecting troops from allies there he gave attention to the business in hand and advanced as far as Macedonia. The people of Rome when informed of the doings of Andriscus sent an army and Publius Juventius, a prætor. Juventius had just reached the vicinity of Macedonia, when Andriscus gave battle, killed the prætor, and would have annihilated his entire force but for its withdrawal by night. Next he invaded Thessaly, damaged a very great extent of it, and ranged Thracian interests on his side. Consequently the people of Rome once more despatched a prætor, Quintus Cæcilius Metellus, with a strong body of troops: he proceeded to Macedonia and enjoyed the assistance of the fleet of Attalus. The fleet inspired Andriscus with some alarm for the coast districts so that he did not venture to advance farther but moved up to a point slightly beyond Pydna. There he had the best of it in a cavalry encounter but out of fear of the infantry turned back. His elation was such that he divided his army into two sections, and with one remained on the watch where he was, while he sent the other to ravage Thessaly. Metellus in derision of the forces confronting him joined battle, and by overpowering those with whom he first came into conflict he got control of the remainder with greater ease; for they made terms with him readily, inasmuch as they had erred. Andriscus fled to Thrace and after assembling a body of fighters gave battle to Metellus as the latter was advancing on his track. His vanguard, however, was routed first; then his contingent of allies was scattered; and Andriscus himself was betrayed by Byzes, a Thracian prince, and executed.

One Alexander, that also declared himself to be a son of Perseus and collected a band of warriors, had occupied the country round about the river which is called the Mestus:[40] but he now took to flight, and Metellus chased him as far as Dardania.

B.C. 148
(a.u. 606)IX, 29.—The Romans put Piso the consul in the field against the Carthaginians. Piso did not try conclusions with Carthage and Hasdrubal, but devoted himself to the coast cities. He was repulsed from Aspis, captured and razed Neapolis, and in his expedition against the town of Hippo merely used up time without accomplishing anything. The Carthaginians took heart both for the reasons indicated and because some allies had joined their cause. Learning this the Romans in army and city alike had recourse to Scipio and created him consul in spite of the fact that his age would not properly let him hold the office. Cp. Frag. 71 own deeds and the excellence of his father Paulus and of his grandfather Africanus implanted in the breasts of all a firm hope that through him they should vanquish their enemies and utterly root out Carthage.

B.C. 147
(a.u. 607)While Scipio was en route to Libya, Mancinus was sailing along the coast of Carthage. He noticed a point called Megalia which was inside the city wall and was located on a cliff having a sheer descent into the sea. This point was a long distance away from the rest of the town and had but few guards because of the natural strength of its position. Suddenly Mancinus applied ladders to it from the ships and ascended. Not till he was safely up did some of the Carthaginians hastily gather, but even so they were unable to repulse him from his vantage ground. He then sent to Piso an account of his exploit and a request for assistance. Piso, however, being far in the interior, proved of no aid to Mancinus, but Scipio happened along at nightfall just after the receipt of the news and immediately sent him help. The Carthaginians would have either captured or destroyed Mancinus, if they had not seen Scipio's vessels skirting the shore: then they grew discouraged, but would not fall back. So Scipio sent them some captives to tell them that he was at hand, upon receipt of which information they no longer stood their ground, but retired to send for Hasdrubal and fortify with trenches and palisades the cross-wall in front of the residences. Scipio now left Mancinus to guard Megalia and himself set out to join Piso and the troops so as to have their support in his conduct of operations. He made a rapid return journey with the lightest equipped portion of the army and found that Hasdrubal had entered Carthage and was attacking Mancinus fiercely. The arrival of Scipio put an end to the attack. When Piso too had come there, Scipio bade him take up his position outside the wall opposite certain gates, and he sent other soldiers around to a little gate a long distance away from the main force, with orders as to what they must do. He himself about midnight took the strongest portion of the army, got inside the circuit (using deserters as guides) and moving quietly to a point inside the little gate he hacked the bar in two, let in the men who were on the watch outside and destroyed the guards. Then he hastened to the gate opposite which Piso had his station, routing the intervening guards (who were only a few in each place), so that Hasdrubal by the time he found out what had happened could see that nearly the entire body of Roman troops was inside. For a while the Carthaginians withstood them: then they abandoned the city, all but the Cotho and Byrsa, in which they took refuge. Next Hasdrubal killed all the Roman captives in order that his people in despair of pardon might show the greater fortitude in resistance. He also made away with many of the natives on the charge that they wanted to betray their own cause. And Scipio encircled them with trench and palisade and intercepted them by a wall, yet it was some time before he took them captive. The walls were strong and the men within being many in number and confined in a small space fought with vehemence. They were well off for food, too, for Bithias from the mainland opposite the city sent merchantmen, amid wind and wave into the harbor to them so often as there was a heavy gale blowing. To overcome this obstacle Scipio conceived and executed a startling operation, namely, the damming of the narrow entrance to the harbor. The work was difficult and toilsome, for the Carthaginians undertook to check them, yet he accomplished it by the number of laborers at his disposal. Many battles took place in the meantime, but the enemy were unable to prevent the filling of the channel.

IX, 30.—So when the mouth of the harbor had been filled up, the Carthaginians were terribly oppressed by the scarcity of food; some of them deserted, others endured it and died, and still others ate the dead bodies. Hasdrubal, accordingly, in dejection sent envoys to Scipio with regard to truce, and would have obtained immunity, had he not desired to secure both preservation and freedom for all the rest as well. After he had failed for this reason to accomplish his purpose he confined his wife in the acropolis because she had made propositions to Scipio for the safety of herself and her children, and behaved in other ways more boldly on account of his despair. He, therefore, and some others, mastered by frenzy, fought both night and day; and sometimes they would be defeated and sometimes gain advantage; and they devised machinery to oppose the Roman engines. Bithias, who held a high-perched fortress and scoured wide stretches of the mainland, did what he could to help the Carthaginians and damage the Romans. Hence Scipio also divided his army, assigning one half of it to invest Carthage while he sent the other half against Bithias, placing at the head of it his lieutenant Gaius Lælius. He himself spent his time in passing from one division to the other for inspection. Then the fortress was taken, and the siege of Carthage was once more conducted by an undivided force.

B.C. 146
(a.u. 608)The Carthaginians despairing consequently of being any longer able to save both walls betook themselves to the enclosure of the Byrsa, since it was higher up, at the same time transferring thither all the objects that they could. By night they burned the dockyard and most of the other structures in order to deprive the enemy of any benefit from them. When the Romans became aware of their action, they occupied the harbor and advanced against Byrsa. Occupying the houses on each side of it some of the besiegers walked straight along on top of the roofs by successively stepping to those immediately adjacent, and others by digging through the walls pushed onward below until they reached the very citadel. When they had got so far, the Carthaginians offered no further opposition, but all except Hasdrubal sued for clemency. He together with the deserters (for Scipio would not grant them a truce) was crowded into the temple of Æsculapius, as were also his wife and children, and there he defended himself against assailants until the deserters set fire to the temple and climbed to the roof to await the last extremity of the flames. Then, beaten, he came to Scipio holding the suppliant branch. His wife, who witnessed his entreaty, after calling him by name and reproaching him for securing safety for himself when he had not allowed her to obtain terms threw her children into the fire and likewise cast herself in.

Thus did Scipio take Carthage, and he forwarded to the senate a letter in these terms: "Carthage is taken. What are your orders?" This being read they held a session to consider what should be done. Cato advanced the opinion that they ought to raze the city and blot out the Carthaginians, whereas Scipio Nasica still advised sparing the Carthaginians. From this beginning the senate became involved in great dispute and contention until some one said that if for no other reason it must be considered necessary to spare them for the Romans' own sake. With this nation for antagonists they would be sure to practice excellence and not turn aside to pleasures and luxury; for if those who were able to compel them to practice warlike pursuits should be removed from the scene, they might become inferior from want of practice, for a lack of worthy competitors. As a result of these words all became unanimous in favor of demolishing Carthage, since they felt sure that that people would never remain entirely at peace. The whole town was therefore overthrown from pinnacle to foundation and it was decreed that for any person to settle upon its site should be an accursed act. The majority of the population captured were thrown into prison and there perished, and some few (still excepting the very foremost men) were sold. These leaders and the hostages and Hasdrubal and Bithias lived to the end of their lives in different parts of Italy as prisoners, yet free from bonds. Scipio secured both glory and honor and was called Africanus not after his grandfather but from his own achievements.

IX, 31.—This year likewise saw the ruin of Corinth. The head men of the Greeks had been deported to Italy by Æmilius Paulus, whereupon their countrymen at first through embassies kept requesting the return of the men, and when their prayers were not granted some of the exiles in despair of ever effecting a return to their homes committed suicide. The Greeks took this situation with a very bad grace and made it a matter of public lamentation, besides evincing anger at any persons dwelling among them that favored the Roman cause; yet they displayed no open symptoms of hostility until they got back the remnants of those hostages. B.C. 149
(a.u. 605)
Frag. 72Then those that had been wronged and those that had obtained a hold upon the goods of others fell into strife and began a real warfare. the quarrel began by the action of the achæans in bringing charges against the lacedæmonians as being responsible for what had happened to them. the mediators whom the romans despatched to them they would not heed: they rather set their faces toward war, acting under the supervision of Critolaus. Metellus was consequently afraid that they might lay hands on Macedonia,—B.C. 148
(a.u. 606)they had already appeared in Thessaly,—and so he went to meet them and routed them.

At the fall of Critolaus the Greek world was split asunder. Some of them had embraced peace and laid down their weapons, whereas others had committed their interests to the care of Diæus and were still involved in factional turmoil. B.C. 146
(a.u. 608)On learning this the people of Rome sent Mummius against them. He got rid of Metellus and gave his personal attention to the war. Part of his army sustained a slight reverse through an ambuscade and Diæus pursued the fugitives up to their own camp, but Mummius made a sortie, routed him, and followed to the Achæan entrenchments. Diæus now gathered a larger force and undertook to give battle to them, but, as the Romans would make no hostile demonstration, he conceived a contempt for them and advanced to a depressed piece of ground lying between the camps. Mummius seeing this secretly sent horsemen to assail them on the flank. After these had attacked and thrown the enemy into confusion, he brought up the phalanx in front and caused considerable slaughter. As a consequence Diæus in despair killed himself, and of the survivors of the battle the Corinthians were scattered over the country, while the rest fled to their homes. Hence the Corinthians within the wall believing that all their citizens had been lost abandoned the city, and it was empty of men when Mummius took it. After that he won over without trouble both that nation and the rest of the Greeks. He now took possession of their arms, all the offerings that were consecrated in their temples, the statues, paintings, and whatever other kind of ornament they had; and as soon as he could send his father and some other men to arrange terms for the vanquished he caused the walls of some of the cities to be taken down and declared them all to be free and independent except the Corinthians. The dwellers in Corinth he sold, and confiscated their land and demolished their walls and all their houses besides, out of fear that some states might again unite with them, since they constituted the greatest state. To prevent any of them from remaining hidden and any of the other Greeks from being sold as Corinthians he assembled everybody present before he had disclosed his determination, and after having his soldiers surround them in such a way as not to attract notice he proclaimed the enslavement of the Corinthians and the liberation of the remainder. Then he instructed them all to take hold of any Corinthians standing beside them. In this way he arrived at an accurate distinction.

Thus was Corinth overthrown. The rest of the Greek world suffered temporarily from murders and levies of money, but afterward came to enjoy such immunity and prosperity that it used to be said: "If they had not been taken captive as early as they were, they could not have been preserved."

So this end simultaneously befell Carthage and Corinth, famous, ancient cities: but at a much later date they received colonies of Romans, became again flourishing, and regained their original position.

The exploits of the Romans up to this point, found by me in ancient books that record these matters, written by men of old time, I have drawn thence in a condensed form and have embodied in the present history. As for what comes next in order,—the transactions of the consuls and dictators, so long as the government of Rome was still conducted by these officials,—let no one censure me as having passed this by through contempt or indolence or antipathy and having left the history as it were incomplete. The gap has not been overlooked by me through sloth, nor have I of my own free will left my task half finished, but through lack of books to describe the events. I have frequently instituted a search for them, yet I have not found them, and I do not know whether the cause is that the passage of time has destroyed them, and so they are not preserved, or whether the persons to whom I entrusted the errand perhaps did not search for them with sufficient diligence; for I was living abroad and passing my life on an islet far from the city. And because it has not been my lot to gain access to these books in this instance, my history turns out to be only half complete for the acts of the consuls and even for those of the dictators. Hence, passing over them, though reluctantly, I will record the deeds of the emperors, with some brief introductory remarks to make clear to those who shall read my history by what steps the Romans passed from aristocracy (or democracy) to the rule of one man, and to impart, in addition, coherence to the narrative.

note.—no summary exists of the missing books twenty-two to thirty-five inclusive, and we are driven to rely on scattered and inconsequential fragments (that have somehow escaped the wreck of seasons) as the basis for whatever mental image we may choose to form of the lost narrative. these bits possess the same value for dio's history as do the unrelated pieces of marble and clay from excavations in enabling us to gain a wider understanding of antique sculpture and pottery. for an account of the sources of these fragments see the introduction, under the caption entitled THE WRITING.