The isthmus was now hidden by men; and this long surface, whereon the
tents were like huts amid an inundation, stretched as far as the first
lines of the other Barbarians, which were streaming with steel and were
posted symmetrically upon both sides of the aqueduct.
The Carthaginians had not recovered from the terror caused by their
arrival when they perceived the siege-engines sent by the Tyrian towns
coming straight towards them like monsters and like buildings--with
their masts, arms, ropes, articulations, capitals and carapaces, sixty
carroballistas, eighty onagers, thirty scorpions, fifty tollenos, twelve
rams, and three gigantic catapults which hurled pieces of rock of the
weight of fifteen talents. Masses of men clinging to their bases pushed
them on; at every step a quivering shook them, and in this way they
arrived in front of the walls.
But several days were still needed to finish the preparations for
the siege. The Mercenaries, taught by their defeats, would not risk
themselves in useless engagements; and on both sides there was no haste,
for it was well known that a terrible action was about to open, and that
the result of it would be complete victory or complete extermination.
Carthage might hold out for a long time; her broad walls presented a
series of re-entrant and projecting angles, an advantageous arrangement
for repelling assaults.
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