Justin's account is this[175]:--"Iarbus, king of the Mauritanians, sending for ten of the principal Carthaginians, demanded Dido in marriage, threatening to declare war against her in case of refusal. The ambassadors, being afraid to deliver the message of Iarbus, told her, with punic honesty, that he wanted to have some person sent him, who was capable of civilizing and polishing himself and his Africans; but there was no possibility of finding any Carthaginian, who would be willing to quit his native place and kindred, for the conversation of barbarians, who were as savage as the wildest beasts. Here the queen, with indignation, interrupted them, asking if they were not ashamed to refuse living in any manner which might be beneficial to their country, to which they owed their lives. They then delivered the king's message, and bade her set them a pattern, and sacrifice herself to her country's welfare. Dido, being thus ensnared, called on Sichæus, with tears and lamentations, and answered that she would go where the fate of her city called her. At the expiration of three months she ascended the fatal pile, and with her last breath told the spectators, that she was going to her husband, as they had ordered her." The first war made by the Carthaginians was against the Africans, in order to free themselves from the tribute they had engaged to pay. In this, however, they were foiled. They afterwards carried their arms against the Moors and Numidians, and won conquest from both. They had then a dispute with Cyrene, on account of their respective limits. This quarrel was settled without much trouble. They soon after conquered Sardinia, Majorca, and Minorca. Then they added many cities in Spain to their conquests; though it is not known at what period they entered that country, nor how far they extended their conquests. Their conquests were slow at the first; but in the process of time, they subjugated nearly the whole country. They became soon after masters of nearly all Sicily. This excited the jealousy of the Romans; and Sicily became an arena for the trial of their respective strength. "What a fine field of battle," said Pyrrhus, as he left that island, "do we leave the Carthaginians and Romans!" The wars between Rome and Carthage were three, and they are called, in the history of the former city, "Punic" wars. The first lasted twenty-four years; then there was an interval of peace, but that expired at the end of twenty-four years more. The second Punic war took up seventeen years; and then ensued another interval of forty-nine years; followed by the third Punic war, which terminated, after a contest of four years and some months, in the total destruction of Carthage.