Tom Holland

I mean, just to emphasize for people, talked about how people are identified with their mother city.

And in a sense, to lose your mother city is to lose your identity.

That city, it's not just about the history, it's also about the temples, the gods, whatever.

You know, you lose everything.

And of course, I mean, you know, on the economic sense, if you no longer have a port, you no longer have really have a way of kind of making a living.

So, as you say, I mean, it would seem impossible for the Carthaginians to accept these terms.

And so it proves because when the ambassadors from the Roman camp returned to Carthage.

The people of the city refuse to accept it, even though they know that in effect, by doing so, they are signing their own death warrant.

And anyone who speaks up saying, actually, I think we should accept these terms.

I mean, you know, we've got no chance of keeping the Romans at bay.

They are lynched, they're stoned, whatever.

And so there is a mass effort to try and steal Carthage for the horrors that are to come.

Because, of course, they've handed over their catapults, their weapons, their armor, all of that.

So what measures do they take?

All the slaves in the city are freed.

To the degree that the Carthaginians still have arms, arms are given to these slaves.

People rush out to quarries outside the city and haul in stones because they're going to try and make more catapults.

We're told all the shrines, the temples and every other public space was turned into workshops where men and women worked day and night without pause, taking turns to eat.

According to a fixed schedule.

So basically, you know, equivalent of munitions factories popping up across the city in their temples.