Fifty thousand men, women, and children, pale and haggard with all that they had gone through during the long drawn out siege, left the castle and were carried off as prisoners. Hasdrubal, who had defended the city so bravely, was still untaken. He, with his wife and children, as well as about nine hundred Romans who had deserted their own camp, now took refuge in the temple of Æsculapius, and set fire to it themselves. But Hasdrubal, feeling, it may be, that he could not help his country by his death, resolved to save his life. He escaped from the burning temple, and, with an olive branch in his hand, threw himself at the feet of Scipio, begging for life. And the Roman commander granted his request. It is told that the wife of Hasdrubal stood on the roof of the temple and cursed her husband as she saw him crouching at the feet of the conqueror. Calling aloud to him that he was a traitor and a coward, she flung first her two sons and then herself into the flames before the eyes of her horror-stricken husband. Meanwhile, with all speed a ship was sent to Rome, laden with the spoils of Carthage. Great was the rejoicing in the city when it was known that her ancient rival was in ruins. Orders were at once sent to Scipio, bidding him complete his work by destroying the town. So Carthage was given to the flames, and for seventeen days the fire blazed untiringly. Scipio, as he watched the doomed city, thought of other great countries that had been destroyed by their enemies--Assyria, Persia, Macedonia. In the unknown future would Rome fall even as these? Thinking thus, Scipio murmured the lines of Homer: ‘The day shall come when holy Troy shall fall, And Priam, lord of spears and Priam’s folk.’ When the flames had at last died out, a plough, drawn by oxen, was driven over the site of the town, and Scipio uttered a solemn curse against any one who should venture to build a new city on the ancient site of Carthage. CHAPTER LXXIX CORNELIA, THE MOTHER OF THE GRACCHI Cornelia and her two sons, Tiberius and Gaius, are famous in the annals of Roman history. The mother of the Gracchi was the daughter of the first Scipio Africanus. With her father’s consent, Cornelia married a young plebeian, named Tiberius Gracchus. Her husband died while her children were still young, and from that time Cornelia lived to train and educate her boys. Princes in foreign countries heard of the wisdom and goodness of the noble matron, and journeyed to Rome to beseech her to bestow her hand upon them. Even King Ptolemy of Egypt wished to make her his queen. But Cornelia steadfastly refused each suitor, that she might be free to watch over her sons. From their childhood she taught them to love their country, telling them tales of those who had served Rome well, and had even given their lives for love of her.