2 – The Battle of Carthage Begins
It initially appeared as if there wouldn’t be a Third Punic War when Manius Manilius landed in Africa with his army in 149 BC. Carthage surrendered and offered hostages and weapons to the invaders. Rome issued a series of demands; it ordered Carthage to surrender unconditionally and agree to disband its army. Next, it was to hand over all weapons and release all prisoners. Finally, the citizens of Carthage were to leave the city and settle in another location that was at least 10 miles from the coast.
Rome was probably shocked when Carthage rejected the terms. The order to leave the city made the Carthaginians realize that no matter what happened, the Romans were determined to destroy them. With nothing to lose, Carthage held firm and recalled its 30,000 man army from the Numidian border and freed slaves to fight in the war. There were as many as 400,000 people in Carthage, and it prepared itself for the lengthy siege that was to come.
Taking Carthage was no easy task since the city had approximately 20 miles of walls to hide behind along with a triple defensive line and further protection from ditches, palisades, and the sea. Crucially, it was impossible for the Romans to cut off supplies to the city completely, so there was no possibility of simply starving the inhabitants out. To make things more complicated for the invaders, the Carthaginians regularly carried out counter-attacks and used fire ships to burn the Roman fleet.
Along with his fellow consul, Marcius Censorinus, Manilius tried to break the siege without much success. His first action was to advance from the mainland and fill up the ditch near the city, bypass the parapet that overlooked the ditch and use it to scale the wall. According to Appian, Manilius expected the enemy to be unarmed and was shocked by the scale of the resistance. Censorinus lost around 500 men in his attempt to get timber for building engines. The Carthaginians set fire to the Roman siege machines and drove the enemy back.
During the long, hot summer of 148 BC, an epidemic broke out in Censorinus’ camp. Further disaster struck when the Carthaginians set a group of small boats on fire and sent them towards the Roman fleet. Appian suggests that the entire fleet was almost destroyed in one stroke. After Censorinus had returned to Rome to conduct an election, the Carthaginians moved more aggressively on Manilius.
Manilius decided to launch an attack on the Carthaginian commander Hasdrubal and led an expedition to Nepheris. By now, Scipio Aemilianus, grandson of Scipio Africanus, was on the scene and he disagreed with Manilius’ strategy. Scipio warned him about the dangers the army faced and pointed out that the enemy held the higher ground. Manilius and other tribunes ignored his advice and suffered a defeat.