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. [Sidenote: 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.

[Sidenote: 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truce ought to be arranged nor the decree of war rescinded.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 assa