ent peace was disastrous to Carthage,
which lost its fleet and all save its African possessions.

After the Second War Carthage soon revived. The population is said still
to have numbered 700,000, and despite its humiliation, the city never
ceased to inspire alarm at Rome. The Numidian prince Massinissa, rival
of Syphax and a Roman protege, took advantage of a clause in the treaty
of 202, which forbade Carthage to make war without the consent of the
Roman senate, to extend his possessions at the expense of Carthage. In
response to a protest from Carthage an embassy including M. Porcius Cato
the Elder was sent to inquire into the matter, and Cato was so impressed
with the city as a whole that on returning to Rome he never made a
speech without concluding with the warning "Delenda est Carthago."

At this time there were three political parties in Carthage: (1) that
which upheld the Roman alliance, (2) hat which advocated the Numidian
alliance, and (3) the popular party. These three were led respectively
by Hanno, Hannibal Passer, Hasdrubal and Carthalo. The popular faction,
which was turbulent and exasperated by the bad faith of the Romans,
expelled the Numidian party and declared war in 149 on Massinissa, who
was victorious at Oroscope. Rome then intervened, determined finally to
destroy her now enfeebled rival. War was declared on the pretext that
Carthage had engaged in war with Massinissa without the sanction of
Rome. The third Punic War lasted three years, and after a heroic
resistance the City fell in 146. The last champions of liberty
entrenched themselves under Hasdrubal in the temple of Eshmun, the site
of which is now occupied by the chapel of St Louis. The Roman troops
were let loose to plunder and burn. The thick bed of cinders, blackened
stones, broken glass, fragments of metal twisted by fire, half-calcined
bones, which is found to-day at a depth of 13 to 16 ft. under the
remains of Roman Carthage between Byrsa and the harbours, bears grim
witness, in accord with the accounts of Polybius and Appian, to the
terrible fate which overtook this part of the city. Before long a
commission arrived from Rome to decide the fate of the province of
Carthage. In the city itself, temples, houses and fortifications were
levelled to the ground, the site was dedicated with solemn imprecations
to the infernal gods, and all human habitation throughout the vast
ruined area was expressly forbidden.

_Constitutional History._