This
atrocious occurrence horrified the Barbarians, especially the Greeks.
From that time forth the Carthaginians did not attempt to make any
sally; and they had no thought of surrender, certain as they were that
they would perish in tortures.
Nevertheless the provisions, in spite of Hamilcar's carefulness,
diminished frightfully. There was not left per man more than ten
k'hommers of wheat, three hins of millet, and twelve betzas of dried
fruit. No more meat, no more oil, no more salt food, and not a grain of
barley for the horses, which might be seen stretching down their wasted
necks seeking in the dust for blades of trampled straw. Often the
sentries on vedette upon the terrace would see in the moonlight a dog
belonging to the Barbarians coming to prowl beneath the entrenchment
among the heaps of filth; it would be knocked down with a stone, and
then, after a descent had been effected along the palisades by means
of the straps of a shield, it would be eaten without a word. Sometimes
horrible barkings would be heard and the man would not come up again.
Three phalangites, in the fourth dilochia of the twelfth syntagmata,
killed one another with knives in a dispute about a rat.
All regretted their families, and their houses; the poor their
hive-shaped huts, with the shells on the threshold and the hanging net,
and the patricians their large halls filled with bluish shadows, where
at the most indolent hour of the day they used to rest listening to the
vague noise of the streets mingled with the rustling of the leaves as
they stirred in their gardens;--to go deeper into the thought of this,
and to enjoy it more, they would half close their eyelids, only to be
roused by the shock of a wound.
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