In the mean time, Asdrubal, being desirous of saving his own life, came down privately to Scipio, carrying an olive-branch in his hand, and threw himself at his feet. Scipio showed him immediately to the deserters, who, transported with rage and fury at the sight, vented millions of imprecations against him, and set fire to the temple. Whilst it was lighting, we are told that Asdrubal's wife, dressing herself as splendidly as possible, and placing herself and her two children in sight of Scipio, addressed him with a loud voice:--"I call not down," says she, "curses on thy head, O Roman, for thou only takest the privilege allowed by the laws of war: but may the gods of Carthage, and thou, in concert with them, punish, according to his deserts, the false wretch who has betrayed his country, his gods, his wife, his children!" Then directing herself to Asdrubal, "perfidious wretch!" says she, "thou basest of creatures! this fire will presently consume both me and my children; but as to thee, too shameful general of Carthage,--go,--adorn the gay triumph of thy conqueror,--suffer, in the sight of all Rome, the tortures thou so justly deservest!" She had no sooner pronounced these words, but, seizing her children, she cut their throats, threw them into the flames, and afterwards rushed into them herself; in which she was imitated by all the deserters. With regard to Scipio, when he saw this famous city, which had flourished seven hundred years, and might have been compared to the greatest empires on account of the extent of its dominions both by sea and land, its mighty armies, its fleets, elephants, and riches, and that the Carthaginians were even superior to other nations, by their courage and greatness of soul, as, notwithstanding their being deprived of armies and ships, they had sustained, for three whole years, all the hardships and calamities of a long siege; seeing, I say, this city entirely ruined, historians relate, that he could not refuse his tears to the unhappy fate of Carthage. He reflected that cities, nations, and empires, are liable to revolutions no less than particular men; that the like sad fate had attended Troy, anciently so powerful; and in latter times, the Assyrians, Medes, and Persians, whose dominions were once of so great an extent; and lastly, the Macedonians, whose empire had been so glorious throughout the world. Full of these mournful ideas, he repeated the following verses of Homer:-- The day shall come, that great avenging day, Which Troy's proud glories in the dust shall lay; When Priam's powers, and Priam's self shall fall, And one prodigious ruin follow all.