Indignant At These Demands, They Resolved To Sustain A Siege; And,
In A Very Short Time, They Made Immense Preparations For Defending Their
City.
At first they gained some success over the Romans; for their fleet
having come very near the shore, to
Transport the troops, who were
suffering from the vicinity of the marshes, to a healthier spot, the
Carthaginians fitted out a great number of fire ships, filled with tar,
sulphur, bitumen, &c., and taking advantage of a favourable wind, they sent
them among the Roman fleet, great part of which was thus destroyed.
But these and other successes did not ultimately avail them: Scipio who had
been chosen consul, arrived in Africa, and Carthage was immediately
strictly blocked up by sea and land. His exertions were indeed astonishing;
as the new port of Carthage was effectually shut up by the Roman fleet, so
that no assistance or provisions could enter by it; and as lines of
circumvallation were formed on land, the consul's great object was to block
up the old port. The Romans were masters of the western neck of land, which
formed one side of its entrance; from this to the other side they built a
mole, ninety feet broad at bottom, and eighty at top; when this was
completed, the old port was rendered quite inaccessible and useless.
The Carthaginians on their part, imagined and executed works as surprising
as those of the Romans: deprived of both their ports, they dug, in a very
short time, a new harbour, from which they cut a passage to the sea; and
they built and equipped a fleet of fifty ships, which put to sea through
this new harbour.
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