The gates were closed; stones were carried to the battlements of the walls that had been stripped of the catapults; the chief command was entrusted to Hasdrubal, the grandson of Massinissa; the slaves in a body were declared free.

The army of refugees under the fugitive Hasdrubal--which was in possession of the whole Carthaginian territory with the exception of the towns on the east coast occupied by the Romans, viz.

Hadrumetum, Little Leptis, Thapsus and Achulla, and the city of Utica, and offered an invaluable support for the defence--was entreated not to refuse its aid to the commonwealth in this dire emergency.

At the same time, concealing in true Phoenician style the most unbounded resentment under the cloak of humility, they attempted to deceive the enemy.
A message was sent to the consuls to request a thirty days' armistice for the despatch of an embassy to Rome.

The Carthaginians were well aware that the generals neither would nor could grant this request, which had been refused once already; but the consuls were confirmed by it in the natural supposition that after the first outbreak of despair the utterly defenceless city would submit, and accordingly postponed the attack.