BENEATH THE WALLS OF CARTHAGE Some country people, riding on asses or running on foot, arrived in the town, pale, breathless, and mad with fear.

They were flying before the army.

It had accomplished the journey from Sicca in three days, in order to reach Carthage and wholly exterminate it.
The gates were shut.

The Barbarians appeared almost immediately; but they stopped in the middle of the isthmus, on the edge of the lake.
At first they made no hostile announcement.

Several approached with palm branches in their hands.