Third Punic War Begins; Siege of Carthage

The legal fuse lit at Oroscopa reached its powder in 149 BCE. Roman consuls crossed to Africa, landing near Utica to secure a forward base, then marched on Carthage. Demands escalated—from hostages to arms to the destruction of walls—until negotiation gave way to encirclement. The Third Punic War began as a siege [9], [12], [17]. Appian is our fullest guide. He describes a city that, despite decades of legal strangulation, refused to die quietly. Workshops hammered day and night, forging spears and bolts; women cut their hair to make ropes; the creak of cranes and the clack of looms turned into the clang of armor. The blue of the Gulf of Tunis flashed beyond barricades as Carthage rearmed itself from nothing [9]. Rome built camps on the sandy approaches, fortifying lines toward the harbors and the Byrsa. Utica served as the Roman logistical hub, its quays thick with supply ships and scarlet standards. Early probes tested Carthaginian earthworks around the cothon and the commercial harbor. For a city with only ten legal triremes, Carthage improvised, building new hulls and arming them as fast as wood and iron allowed [12], [17]. The opening months were seesaws. Carthaginian sorties burned Roman machines; Roman ballistae smashed towers; bodies fell into the shallow waters near the moles. Appian writes with details that feel like ash—names of quarters, counts of engines, the rhythm of assault and counterassault [9]. By the end of 149, the pattern was set. Rome would try to choke the harbors; Carthage would try to break the choke. Streets that once hummed with trade now echoed with orders, the scrape of shields, and the steady beat of hammers.