to yield, he was assassinated during an armistice by
traitors suborned by the Roman commander. The complete subjugation of the
Lusitanians soon followed.

*The war with Numantia: 143-133 B. C.* Meantime, after an interval of some
years, in 143 the war had broken out afresh in the nearer province where
the struggle centered about the town of Numantia. In 140 the Roman general
Pompeius made peace upon easy terms with the Numantines, but later
repudiated it, and the Senate ignored his arrangements. Again in 138 the
tribunes interfered with the levy, so great was the popular aversion to
service in Spain. The next year witnessed the disgraceful surrender of the
consul Mancinus and his army, comprising 20,000 Romans, to the Numantines.
By concluding a treaty he saved the lives of his army. But the Roman
Senate perfidiously rejected the sworn agreement of the consul, made him
the scapegoat and delivered him bound to the Numantines, who would have
none of him.

At length, weary of defeats, the Romans re-elected to the consulship for
134 B. C. their tried general Scipio Aemilianus, the conqueror of
Carthage, and appointed him as commander in Spain. His first task was to
restore the discipline in his army. Then he opened the blockade of
Numantia. After a siege of fifteen months the city was starved into
submission and completely destroyed. A commission of ten senators
reorganized the country and Spain entered upon a long era of peace.

II. THE DESTRUCTION OF CARTHAGE: 149-146 B. C.

*The Third Punic War: 149-146 B. C. Its causes.* The treaty which ended
the Second Punic War had forbidden the Carthaginians the right to make war
outside of Africa, or within it without the consent of Rome. At the same
time their enemy Masinissa had been established as a powerful prince on
their borders. In such a situation future Roman intervention was
inevitable. But for a generation Carthage was left in peace. A pro-Roman
party was in control there and bent all its energies to the peaceful
revival of Carthaginian commerce. And the Romans, after a period of
suspicion which ended with the exile of Hannibal in 196, regarded
Carthaginian prosperity without enmity. However, this prosperity in the
end led to the ruin of the city, for it awakened the envy of the Senate
and the financial interests of Rome, which became only too ready to seize
upon any excuse for the destruction of their ancient rival.

*Cato and Carthage.* The oppo