Dusmanul la Poarta!-Partea-45!

 1-Acest articol este copiat !

2-Istoria ramane pasiunea mea nr-1.

“Furthermore, I consider that Carthage must be destroyed.”

As the years ticked down on Carthage’s indemnity payments to Rome, a deputation was sent to Africa to ostensibly arbitrate betwixt the Punic city and King Massinissa of Numidia. Among those leading the mission was the elderly Cato the Censor, who had cut his teeth during the Second Punic War before establishing himself as an advocate of a simple and stoic lifestyle at a time when traditional Roman values were being replaced by Greek hedonism and debauchery as the republic expanded across the Adriatic. Cato was aghast as the growing prosperity of Carthage, and became convinced that the future of Rome was dependent on the annihilation of Carthage. From that point on, all of the Consular’s speeches to the Senate, be they about the price of grain, road repairs, or overflowing sewers, would be finished with the words: “Carthago delanda est” (“Furthermore, I consider that Carthage must be destroyed”). Cato is likely history’s first recorded example of someone being a vocal inciter of genocide.

In 149 BC, the Roman legions under the Consul Manius Manilius and the fleet under his co-Consul Lucius Censorius landed at Utica. Carthaginian attempts to appease Rome continued, and an embassy was sent to Utica. The Consuls demanded that all of the weapons and armoury be handed over, and reluctantly the citizens did, with 20,000 sets of armour and 2,000 catapults forfeited to the legions. All of the Punic warships sailed for Utica, and were burnt in the harbour in an act of psychological warfare that clearly showed Rome’s dominance. Hundreds of the children of the local aristocracy were demanded as Roman hostages, and reluctantly forfeited. Then the obnoxious Romans demanded that the city of Carthage be abandoned, with its citizens relocating ten miles (16km) inland to be cut off from the sea. It was finally abundantly clear that Rome had no intention of being appeased, and that the demands would become increasingly farcical. Finally, Carthage said no, and prepared for war.

Carthage itself was an unusually large city for the time, with an estimated population of 700,000. Its strongly fortified walls were around 20 miles (35km) in circumference, around triple the size, with three lines of defences including a strong, brick-built wall nine metres (30 ft) wide and 20m (70 ft) high, with a 20m wide ditch in front of it. These walls were three times as long as Rome’s Servian Walls, double the height and triple the width. Carthage’s barracks could hold 24,000 soldiers, and although the city had no reliable supply of groundwater, a complex system caught and channelled rainwater into large cisterns for storage.

An initial force to garrison the city was raised from the citizenry and freeing willing slaves, while a 30,000-strong force was placed at Nepheris, 16 miles (25km) south of the city, under the command of Hasdrubal, recently released from his condemned cell. The Roman expeditionary force in Africa had around 50,000 soldiers, plus around 4,000 cavalry. The forces had deployed separately upon landing, Manilius on the isthmus approaching the city, facing the citadel of Byrsa, and Censorinus on the shore of Lake Tunis, opposite the city’s western wall. Manilius planned to fill the ditch facing the southern wall and scale it, while Censorinus would raise ladders against the western wall from the ground and from his ships. Two initial assaults were made, the complacent Consuls thinking the Carthaginians were disarmed, but they were shocked to find out that the city had re-armed, and their attacked were repulsed. Fearing the approach of Hasdrubal’s force on the far side of Lake Tunis, the Consuls fortified their camps.

Censorinus set his men to gathering timber from the far side of Lake Tunis for siege engines, but the Punic cavalry commander Himilco Phameas seized the opportunity to attack. Five hundred Romans were killed in the raid, and their tools and siege works destroyed. Censorinus still managed to gather enough timber for siege towers and ladders, and launched another attack in concert with Manilius, which was again repelled. Manilius decided to launch no further attacks from the isthmus, but Censorinus worked to make two huge battering rams. His assault from the lake breached the walls before being driven back, and the breach hastily repaired. Fearing a second assault, the Carthaginians sallied out to attack the Roman camp, and destroyed more siege engines. The next day Censorinus ordered his men to attempt to breach the wall again, though his military tribune Scipio Aemilianus refused to enter, instead holding his troops in reserve and spacing them at intervals along the wall. Those troops that did enter suffered heavily for it, and had to fall back. It was only Scipio’s men, who had remained calm and collected along the wall, who were able to prevent the Punic counter attack routing their comrades, as his men were now able to defend the retreat.

As the siege dragged on, Censorinius faced an epidemic in his ranks. Many of his troops had been kept on stagnant water with poor airflow from the sea and city walls, and he thus relocated his camp to the sea. Noting the movement of the Roman camp, the Carthaginians launched fire ships from the coastline when the Roman fleet sailed into view. The resulting inferno spread through most of the Roman ships, leaving the fleet devastated. Censorinius would soon after return to Rome to conduct the elections, and Punic attacks on Manilius would be ramped up. Far from being a cowed and broken opponent, the supposedly beaten city of Carthage was proffering stern resistance, and had no intention of meekly surrendering to unprovoked Roman aggression.