Tom Holland

And in these workshops, of course, people are busy making swords, spears, shields, anything made of metal in the city is being melted down and women donate their hair so that it can be used as rope for the catapults kind of twine it.

Hasdrubal, their general who'd lost the battle at Oriscopa and is still on death row, he's reprieved and he's given back his old command and he leads out a makeshift army and prepares for a guerrilla war against the Romans.

And it is war.

For the third time, Rome and Carthage are locked in what really is this time a death struggle.

It's not a death struggle for Rome, but it absolutely is for Carthage.

So the Carthaginians do actually manage to hold out for much longer than the Poles do against the Nazis, as it turns out, for several years.

And they're able to do this because even though the Carthaginians have been tricked into handing over so much of their weaponry, the city is still pretty well prepared for a siege.

So it has these kind of great triple walls, and these walls in turn are buttressed with ditches and banks.

And I mentioned the grain silos.

So they have a lot of food inside the city.

And they've also built huge systems for collecting rainwater.

So again, water shouldn't be a problem.

And meanwhile, the Romans, as they advance up to the city, they camp beside a stagnant lake.

And it's summer.

And so predictably, they all start catching various horrible diseases.

And

Actually, Hasdrubal, who, you know, he proved an absolute dud in open combat.

When it comes to guerrilla warfare, he's actually pretty good.

He's very successful at attacking Roman supply lines, masterminding sallies.

And so all that year, 149, the siege carries on.