Scipio Aemilianus - Carthage

Carthage

In 151 BC, a time of disaster for the Romans in Spain, he voluntarily offered his services in that province and developed influence over the native tribes similar to that which Scipio Africanus, his grandfather by adoption, had acquired nearly 60 years before. Though Carthage had been reduced in power following the Second Punic War, there was still lingering resentment in Rome. Cato the Elder, for example, ended every speech (no matter the subject) by saying, "Also, I think Carthage must be destroyed." In 150 BC an appeal was made to Scipio by the Carthaginians to act as mediator between them and the Numidian prince Massinissa who, supported by a party at Rome, was incessantly encroaching on Carthaginian territory. In 149 BC war was declared by Rome, and a force sent to besiege Carthage.

In the early operations of the war, which went altogether unfavourably for the Romans, Scipio Aemilianus, though a subordinate officer, distinguished himself repeatedly, and in 147 BC he was elected consul, while yet under the minimal age required by law to hold this office, and assigned the province of Africa (the theater of the siege) without drawing lots, so that he might take charge of the military operations there. After a year of desperate fighting and splendid heroism on the part of the defenders he took the city of Carthage, taking about 50,000 survivors (about one-tenth of the city's population) prisoner, and, complying with the mandate of the Senate, ordered the city razed to the ground and plowed over after being evacuated and set on fire, ending the Third Punic War. He is recounted by Polybius to have uttered, after issuing the order: "It is a grand thing; but I shudder to think that one day someone may give the same order for Rome." On his return to Rome he received a Triumph, having also established a personal claim to his adoptive agnomen of Africanus.