To the question of the Carthaginians, who was in that case to protect them even against their own emigrants-- against the army, which had swelled to 20,000 men, under the command of Husdrubal who had saved himself from the sentence of death by flight--it was replied, that this would be the concern of the Romans.
Accordingly the council of the city obsequiously appeared before the consuls, with all their fleet-material, all the military stores of the public magazines, all the arms that were found in the possession of private persons--to the number of 3000 catapults and 200,000 sets of armour--and inquired whether anything more was desired.

Then the consul Lucius Marcius Censorinus rose and announced to the council, that in accordance with the instructions given by the senate the existing city was to be destroyed, but that the inhabitants were at liberty to settle anew in their territory wherever they chose, provided it were at a distance of at least ten miles from the sea.
Resistance of the Carthaginians This fearful command aroused in the Phoenicians all the--shall we say magnanimous or frenzied ?--enthusiasm, which was displayed previously by the Tyrians against Alexander, and subsequently by the Jews against Vespasian.

Unparalleled as was the patience with which this nation could endure bondage and oppression, as unparalleled was now the furious rising of that mercantile and seafaring population, when the things at stake were not the state and freedom, but the beloved soil of their ancestral city and their venerated and dear home beside the sea.

Hope and deliverance were out of the question; political discretion enjoined even now an unconditional submission.
But the voice of the few who counselled the acceptance of what was inevitable was, like the call of the pilot during a hurricane, drowned amidst the furious yells of the multitude; which, in its frantic rage, laid hands on the magistrates of the city who had counselled the surrender of the hostages and arms, made such of the innocent bearers of the news as had ventured at all to return home expiate their terrible tidings, and tore in pieces the Italians who chanced to be sojourning in the city by way of avenging beforehand, at least on them, the destruction of its native home.

No resolution was passed to defend themselves; unarmed as they were, this was a matter of course.