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embassy and making a truce with them, but Marcus Cato declared that no truce ought to be arranged nor the decree of war rescinded.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 assassins of their country.  They soon found that they could accomplish nothing and had to face the repeated command either to execute the order or to cast the die of war.  Many of the people then remained there on the Roman side, tacitly admitting their success:  the remainder withdrew, and after killing some of their rulers for not having chosen war in the first place and after murdering such Romans as were discovered within the fortification they turned their attention to war.  Under these circumstances they liberated all the slaves, restored the exiles, chose Hasdrubal once more as