future dangers for themselves provide The labours of the Day could not appease Their Cares nor Night their weary Bodies ease (w) Censorinus the Consul had before perswaded the Carthaginians to deliver up all their Arms and Ships with promise that they should enjoy their Laws but this done pronounc'd the destruction of their City and their removal higher into the Countrey that they might be wholly Strangers to the Sea by which they had rats'd their Empire This Sentence drove them to that Despair which made them renew the war more fiercely than when in a better condition Appian ibid. Not long before by Censorinus doom Carthage by fatal Change for Peace with Rome Her Elephants her Arms her Ships with all She or her Glory or Defence could call Had to the Foe given up and every where Was naked left till Ruin and Despair Arm'd her again no weapons now remain'd But such whose matter from their Temples gain'd Or stately Palaces were forg'd by night And sitted e'r the following day for fight By weak and artless hands their Bulwarks are From Ruins rais'd and they maintain the war With all that makes them weak Nothing for Sea Or Land can be suppli'd but by the Prey And Spoil upon themselves Their Cables were (x) Vid. Appian ibid. Compos'd of Mothers or of Virgins hair Who cut the lovely Tresses from their heads And firmly interwove the Curling threads So that their little Navy was suppli'd With Cordage late their Beauty and their Pride Such as ev'n Cytherea had bewail'd Had not the Love of Rome bove all prevail'd All other gods bemoan'd this City's Fate Whose Miseries no Muse can well relate Whose dismal Story do's exceed belief And Cruelty it self afflicts with grief That City which seven hundred years had stood Which with expence of so much wealth and blood Her Walls first measur'd by an Oxe's Hide So high had rais'd and stretcht her Bounds so wide That ev'n Rome fear'd her Yoak in a vast Flame Must lose at once her Empire and her Name But (*) Justice Nemesis that sometimes slow sometimes As swift as thought 's aveng'd on prosp'rous Crimes Their want of Faith by which they did delude The gods so oft their unjust Arms imbru'd So oft in blood of Innocents their dire Excess of Cruelty by sword and fire While they their Arms in Italy employ'd (y) While Hannibal was in Italy he destroyed saith Appian four hundred Cities And twice two hundred Cities had destroy'd Thus to the gods who then in Counsel sate To understand the last resolves of Fate With just Complaint declares If yet ye gods Th' Impieties of Earth to your Abodes Have not arriv'd if their repeated Faults Have not with horror shook Celestial Vaults I against Carthage should not now declaim Above the rest did not her Impious Fame So fill the Vniverse that Men begin To question that you are or that y 'ave bin Your Justice thus deferr'd makes them grow bold And Crimes like Vertues look while uncontroul'd Though Carthage hath been guilty long of all Those Ills for which you let your Thunder fall Vpon the World yet can she not forbear T' excite your Anger even in her despair Not Tygers nor her Libyan Serpents can More Rage and Fury against wretched Man Express than She. See! what Insernal Arts She now in practice puts in all her parts Not (*) Scinis a famous Robber in Thessaly tyed such as he took Captive to Branches of a Pine bowing them to be fastened to their Legs and Arms and then letting them fly back suddenly to their Natural Position tore the Bodies in pieces Scinis Pine nor dire (†) Procrustes another Robber who tortured such as he took on a Bed to the length whereof he fitted all Bodies which if too long he cut shorter if too short he extended by the Rack Procrustes Bed So cruel were as these nor (*) Diomed King of Thrace fed his Horses with the flesh of such strangers as he took in his dominions Horses fed With Humane Flesh See! How around her Walls (z) Hasdrubal to put the Carthaginians past all hopes of mercy from the Romans with several exquisite and most barbarous torments put to death all Captives upon the Walls in view of the Camp Vid. Appian ibid. To the Inhumane Spectacle She calls The Roman Camp while tortur'd Captives lie Kill'd in each limb not suffer'd yet to die But are constrain'd expiring to revive And Nature by fresh torments kept alive 'T is therefore time this City to debell And let them know such Cruelty's for Hell Alone reserv'd and those who practice't there On Earth shall greater Plagues for ever bear This said the Father of the gods the Hour Assigns to Fates to execute their Pow'r Which they to Scipio devolve and He In the pursuit of their severe Decree (a) Cotho was the strongest part of the Haven encompassed by a Wall which Laelius took by assault in the night and this taken there was no possibility of relief by Sea Cotho their best support first takes away And cuts off all Relief by Land and Sea Then Famine from the Libyan Desart comes And greedily their Stores for Food consumes Her gastly looks more dreadful than the Foe A long protracted Death and Ruin show Through the whole City then she raging flies And with nefandous Meats a while supplies The weak remains of Life All that before Sagunthus felt or angry gods could more Inflict poor Carthage suffers till her strength Unable to support her Arms at length (b) The City being reduced to the last extremity by famine forty thousand among whom the Chief was Hasdrubal came out and submitted to Scipio Twice twenty thousand to the Victor yield And treacherous Hasdrubal who long the Field Had kept despairing to afford her aid Himself a vile submissive Captive laid At Scipio's Feet and in the publick view (c) Hasdrubal was placed in Chains at Scipio's Feet sitting on a high Tribunal that he might be seen by his Wife and those with Her in the Temple of Aesculapius Enchain'd for an Inglorious Life doth sue And now the Hour arriv'd and every where Death and Destruction in all Shapes appear Like Ghosts the Famish'd People in the Street Offring their throats to slaughter boldly meet The Conquerour who now amazed stands And do's a while with hold his cruel hands Till Pity the Relief of death affords To those who wanted Blood to stain their Swords Who this their chief Felicity do call That with their ruin'd Countrey they may fall (d) When Scipio saw the City first a fire be considering the instability of Fortune and that the same thing might happen to his Countrey wept Appian And leave even Scipio to bewail them while Carthage in flames is made their Funeral Pile (e) This Temple of Aeculapius the most wealthy in all Carthage with a Tower of great strength by reason of the narrow passage to it was situate on
fill'd a noisome Mist Expir'd and Serpents in each corner hist The Roman General who did abhor What here was done after the former War This Temple with the Grove had quite destroy d But yet they secretly the Cave enjoy'd In midst of which a Marble Altar stood Still to maintain their thirst of Human blood Hither this Impiously Pious Pair Conduct their Son upon whose curling Hair His cruel Mother several Fillets ty'd In each a Charm pleas'd with their Fatal Pride The Pomp of his approaching Death the Child First on his Father then on 's Mother smil'd Who takes Him in her Arms and thrice caress'd With Kisses while He mutually express'd His Joy and 's hands upon her Shoulders throws While the sad Father by his silence shows His inward grief She like Medea round The Altar trots and with the dreadful sound Of words scarce understood the Pow'rs of Hell Implores with all that in those Mansions dwell All that she fondly did believe could lend Their Aid or did of Cadmus Race descend Above the rest She Hannibal invokes And streight at his great Name the Altar smokes A thick and gloomy Flame from neighb'ring Hell Arose and struck the Sense with Sulph'rous smell Pleas'd with the Prodigy she cries See there My Hasdrubal see where the gods appear From her own Throne see Hecate intent In what we offer here her Fire hath sent A friend to Hannibal and all that are Friends to his Name and Carthage in this War The Omen pow'r ful goddess we adore And thy forsaken Rites we thus restore This said the dire distraction of her Face Creates and adds new Terror to the place The Boy snatch'd up She on the Altar flings And horrid Notes in broken Murmurs sings So to delude and to suppress his cryes Till smiling on her Face with doubtful Eyes The Stygian Knife was to his Throat apply'd Which twice the trembling Father put aside Until at length Religion oversway d And Nature Laws which she detests obey'd The Wound thus by the Mother given the Life O' th Child streight follow'd the Retracted Knife Then with redoubled strokes she opens wide His brest where her dire Hands the Lungs divide And a fresh Part at every dreadful Name Of Hecat offers to the Rising Flame Till with the Night consum'd th approaching day Which must not see such deeds them call'd away And now the noise of war all Libya fills And Prodigies denounce approaching Ills. Wild Beasts the Desarts quit in midst of Day Run into Cities and return with prey Serpents from thirsty sands to Rivers fly And poison springs while there they drink and dye Earth in her Womb doth strange Convulsions feel By which the Palaces of Princes reel As drunk with lusts of those who in them dwell And to fore-shew their Masters Ruin fell The Sea unmov'd by Winds is heard to roar And casts up bodies long since wrack'd ashore Prodigious Fires above her Surface flie While Mariners no more explore the Skie For Guides to sail but fool'd by Pannick Fear Forsake their Course and after Meteors steer Comets with points uncertain shine above And threaten all beneath them as they move Or menace as their flatt'ring Prophets say All Nations but their own and so betray To a secure Credulity their Friends Or to presume gainst that which Heav'n intends And such was Hasdrubal's sad Fate who now Assumes the War under a guilty Vow Turns all those threatnings of the gods on those Who Carthage emulate or are her Foes Mong all the Nations that in Libya dwell From whence the Niles eternal Waters swell To Ethiopian Woods or dangerous Sands Of Nasamon none equal Force commands To the Numidian a People blest With Air and Soil more temperate than the rest They Natures Dictate follow every where And promptly whatsoever Earth doth bear Take up for Food without all skill to raise The Appetite the Dews of Nights and Days Intemperate Heats they patiently endure And to Continual Toil themselves enure Ready for War flying the Arts of Court And City-frauds They to the Fields resort Lodge with their Flocks still arm'd expect the Foe No costly Equipage for Camps they know Nor ought that may effeminate the mind Over all these since Carthage first declin'd (f) Massanissa confident of the Friendship he had contracted with the House of Scipio at his death left his Kingdom to be divided among his three Sons as Scipio should determine who so disposed the parts of it as none of them should be intrusted with too much power Appian ibid. Great Massanissa reign'd but soon as Fate Took him away Rome conscious of what weight That Scepter was not to be sway'd by One Alone divides it On his Eldest Son The noblest Part the Charge of Peace at Home (g) Cirta situate in the midst of Numidia the Metropolis of Massanissa and his Successors Kingdom and by them made so potent that it could furnish out 10000 Horse and 20000 Foot Vid. Strab. lib. 17. Bestows with Cirta's Riches but what Rome Did more import upon the Next confers The Charge of all Numidia's Arms and Wars Whither they should pursue Maurusian Horse Or Byrsa's Walls or Hippargeta Force Or following Roman Ensigns Cities aw That doubtfull stood and to Alliance draw The Third the People did to Justice bring And Laws observ'd in this no less a King Which Title by Decree they all did share And equally the Royal Ensigns wear With this * Three Brothers who reign'd in Spain so unanimous in their Government that they gave occasion to Poets to fain them one Monster with three heads and all members trebled c. Gerion Rome a while maintain'd Th'instable pow'r she had in Africk gain'd But when despair again had Carthage arm'd By Hasdrubal's successful I roops alarm'd (h) Hasdrubal had in the Field a flying Army of about 20000 men with which he contiuually infested the Romans then in Africk and upon some successes over Manlius the Consul several Cities declared for him and some joyned with him in the Field The Libyan Cities the attested gods Forget and where they see the present odds To Carthage or to Rome as Friends adhere And lend their Aid induc'd by Hope or Fear Some nobler Souls their Countrey 's Freedom fir'd Some Memory of Ancestors inspir'd Some that their Captiv'd gods might be reslor'd Or Princes whom they next to them ador'd Of these Numidia many yet retain'd Who Syphax Name still honour'd and disdain'd The pride of Rome who no distinction made 'Twixt Kings and Slaves but did alike invade Their Necks with Chains and those of highest Birth The next to Heav'n levell'd with basest Earth And now with Hasdrubal Phamaeas joyns (i) Phamaeas was made General of the Horse to Hasdrubal and so active that he in several conflicts worsted the Romans and in their Marches cut off their Provisions Vid. Appian ibid. Numidian Troops and Rome's Command declines Derides her Fasces and her Consul meets In open Fields and
fears increast while they A Fleet the Burthen of the Libyan Sea Beheld where Scipio as He approach'd the Rode Offer'd warm Entrails to th' Indulgent god Who now with Him conspir'd and drove before The floating Sacrifice to seize the Shore From his Pretorian Ship the General views And to the rest the joyful Omen shews Loud Clamors then o'r all the Ocean ring They ply their Oars to Land and Paeans sing This to the Walls the City strait invites And all against the Common Foe unites None are exempt from Arms each Sex and Age For Universal Liberty engage Now to the Shore the Navy joyns on Land Brave Scipio leaps and seizing in his hand The barren Earth Thus in the name of Rome And all her gods do I said He resume What Africanus did o'r Carthage gain No more shall She with Perjuries profane Those Altars where She due Obedience swore With that He calls the Army all ashore Their Courage makes them hasty to obey And some precipitates into the Sea But all at length the Field in Order crown And shew their threatning Eagles to the Town As thus a while expecting the Command T' advance against the Walls they silent stand Fierce Hasdrubal from an adjoyning Wood That sacred from Eliza's Time had stood With his Maurusian Troops like sudden rain From Hills swell'd to a Torrent fills the Plain And strikes with barbarous Shouts the Marble Sky With which the City from the Walls comply And the still silent Roman to the Fight Vainly exciting their sad Fate invite But Scipio whom nothing could provoke To any thing was rash the Fury broke Of his Impatient Bands with these few words Reserve Companions your Victorious Swords For such a Foe as will with Courage flight Not such as these who in their speedy flight Or those thick Woods where they protected are From your assault seek to maintain the War As you advance they will retire they know 'T is not a Manlitis now but Scipio Who leads you on that now like Souldiers you (r) The Roman Army under Manlius saith Appian was so loose in their Discipline in Africk that they lived rather like Robbers than Souldiers and were alwayes beaten till Scipio restoring the Ancient Discipline made them Conquerors And not like Robbers will the War pursue Then take your Piles and Axes in your hands Possess that ground where now the Libyan stands None there will dare to see a Romans Face And as you them like Beasts to Covert chace The Wood before you fell and still pursue Till Carthage shall stand naked in your view This said with cheerful showts they all advance And as th' approach the Enemy his Lance First Scipio threw which through Himilco's Head Their Standard-Bearer pierc'd and struck him dead The Ensigne with his Body fell and strait As if on Him Alone the Common Fate Of all the Army did depend they fly With that thick Clouds of Piles obscure the Sky And fall upon their backs while to the Wood. They routed hast and various Tracts of Blood Detect their flight the Romans still pursue The Chace as Hunters having lost the view Follow the Slatt till in some open Plain From Covertforc'd the Stagge imbost is slain The Libyans thus dispers'd their Axes all Employ and strait tall Pines and Cedars fall With aged Oakes whose mossy branches wore The Shields of several Nations who that Shore Had fatal found Whether they wrack'd had been Before they did on Land the War begin While the perfidious Syrts ashore had cast Their Ruins to be there as Trophies plac'd Or that they had their way through Libya fought And thither spoils of other Cities brought To boast their Victories while Carthage stood Safe in her Walls alone and sacred Wood Where She at length the Enemy subdu'd And oft with Joy as in a Temple view'd Those boasted Monuments that now appear To give new Matter of Revenge and Fear For Fate to hasten on what she design'd Calls from Atlantick Hills a sudden Wind T' assist the Roman Arms and so conspires To ease their Toils A Pine then Scipio fires Whose unctuous and impetuous Flame soon spreads It self through all the Woods the tallest Heads Of Cedars Oaks and Beeches it invades And turns to Ashes the delightful Shades Where Nymphs did since the birth of time resort And with the wanton Faunes and Satyrs sport Their Ancient Abodes they now forsake And with their dreadful lamentations wake The salvage Beasts that in their Dens still slept Till rouz'd with sudden noise strait forth they leapt But round besieg'd with flames soon back retir'd And roaring in their bloody Beds expir'd Like a rough sea the smoak to Heaven ascends And over all the Town it self extends In Stygian Waves the Walls and Towrs in Clouds Are lost while Scipio his Eagles shrowds Under this ruin and on Megarian Walls With his whole force like a rude Tempest falls The Place Religion had with strength indu'd (s) This Amilcar commanding in Sicily while his Army was engaged in fight with-drew himself either despairing of Victory or superstitious to obtain it by Sacrifice but being never after seen his Army being Conquerors entertained an Opinion of his Sanctity and built a Temple and honoured him with Sacrifice Vid. Herodot in Polymn And in Amilcar's Temple oft renew'd Their superstitious Rites since He in fight Retir'd to sacrifice and from their sight Vanish'd to Heav'n Here nothing could retard The progress of their Arms but the reward Of Valour wealthy spoils which they divide In hast and vanquish'd Deities deride (t) This Image of Apollo of pure Gold and very large the Roman Souldiers took and divided which Sacriledge Scipio after Carthage was taken punished by refusing those that were guilty of it to have any share in the spoil of the City Appian Here not Apollo did himself protect But seem'd his Golden Image to neglect While some his Bow his Shafts and Quiver share Others his Head divide and shining Hair And then to other parts as rich descend And who shall most despoil the God contend All sense of Piety in desires of Gaine Is lost and Avarice doth all profane But Scipio like Janus several wayes The dangers past and what might come survayes Considers that when Victory her Wings Doth slack the Conquer'd oft the Pean sings Delay of the pursuit gives strength and time To turn the Victors Valour to his Crime His men He therefore summons from the Prey Who starting at the Signal soon obey And with their Arms again all Rain'd with gore Threaten a greater slaughter than before While killing they went on till streams of blood (v) At their entrance of Megara the Romans made so great slaughter that the blood of the Carthaginians made the way so slippery that they could not pursue them as they fled into the other retreats of the City Vid. Appian Libyc Choak'd up the way and the pursuit withstood But now the Sun declines and either side Gainst