destruction of Carthage. The city was taken by assault, the inhabitants
fighting with desperation from street to street. Scipio Æmilianus, who
commanded in this war, was now called also Africanus, like his ancestor
by adoption.

For years the tranquillity of Spain, which lasted from 179 to 153, had
been disturbed by wars, and it was not until Scipio was sent thither
that peace was restored. That warrior first put his forces into an
effective condition, and then laid siege to the city of Numantia,
situated on an elevation and well fortified. The citizens defended
themselves with the greatest bravery, and showed wonderful endurance,
but were at last obliged to surrender, and the town was levelled to the
ground, most of the inhabitants being sold as slaves.

The great increase in slaves, and the devastation caused by long and
exhaustive wars, had brought about in Sicily a servile insurrection,
before the Numantians had been conquered. It is said that the number of
those combined against their Roman masters reached the sum of two
hundred thousand. In 132, the strongholds of the insurgents were
captured by a consular army, and peace restored. The barbarism of Roman
slavery had nowhere reached such extremes as in Sicily. Freedmen who
had cultivated the fields were there replaced by slaves, who were ill-
fed and poorly cared for. Some worked in chains, and all were treated
with indescribable brutality. They finally became bandits in despair,
and efforts at repression of their disorders led to the open and
fearful war. The same year that this war ended, the last king of
Pergamos died, leaving his kingdom and treasures to the Roman people,
as he had no children, and Pergamos became the "province" of Asia.
Besides this, Rome had the provinces of Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica,
Spain, Gallia Cisalpina, Macedonia, Illyricum, Southern Greece (Achæa),