The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1898-03-26
So Fall All Nations

Is Spain as a nation about TO go with
Troy and Carthage? In the year he, B.
c., Scipio Africanus, the younger, took
Carthage. ApDian relates:
Now Scipio FASTENED to the attack of
Byrsa, the strongest part OF tie CITY,
where the greater part of the inhabitants
had taken refuge. There were three
streets ascending from the forum 10 this
fortress. along which, on either side, were
houses built closely together and six sto-
ries high, from which the Romans were
assailed with missiles. They were COM
PEELED, therefore, to possess themselves
of the first ones and use those rs a
means of expelliug the occupants Of the
next. When they mastered the first they
threw timbers from one to another over
the narrow passageways. and crossed as
on bridges. While war was raging in
this way on the roofs, another fight was
going on among those who met each OH
er in the streets below. All places were
filled with groans, shrieks, shouts, and
every kind of agony. Some were stabbed,
others were hurled alive from the roofs
70 the pavement, some of them alighting
on the heads of spears. or other pointed
weapons, or swords. No one dared to set
fire to the houses on account of those who
were still on the roofs, until Scipio reach
streets all together, and gave orders 10
keep the passagways clear of burning ma
terial, so that the army might move back
and forth freely.
Then came new scenes of horror. As
the fire spread and carried everything
down, the soldiers did not wait to destroy
the buildings by little, but all in a heap.
So the crashing grew louder, and many
corpses fell with the stones into the
midst. Others were seen still living, es-
pecially old men, women, and young chill
dren, who had hidden in the inmost hooks
Of the houses, some of them wounded,
some more or less burned, and uttering
piteous cries. Still others, thrust out and
falling from such a height with the
stones, timbers and fire, were torn asun-
der, in all shapes of horror, crushed and
mangled. Nor was this the end of their
miseries, for the street-cleaners, who We're
removing the rubbish with axes, mat
tocksi and forks, and making the roads
passable, tossed with these instruments
the dead and the living together into holes
in the ground, dragging them along like
sticks and stones, and turning them over
with their iron tools. Trenches were fill
ed with men. Some who were thrown in
head foremost, with their legs sticking
out Of the ground, writhed a long time.
Others fell with their feet downward and
their heads above the ground. Horses
ran over them, crushing their faces and
skulls, not purposely on the part Of the
riders, but in their headlong haste. Nor
did the street-cleanerS do these things
on purpose; but the tug of war, the glory
of approaching victory, the rush of the
soldiery, the orders of the officers, the
blast of the trumpets, tribunes and CEN
N,,,- ~
forth-al together made everybody frantic
and needless of the awful spectacles IN
der their eyes.
Six days and nights were consumed in
this kind of fighting, the soldiers being
changed so that they might not be worn
out with toll, slaughter, want of sleep
and these horrid sights. Scipio alone toll
ed without rest, hurrying here and there
without sleep, taking food while he was
at work, until utterly fatigued and re-
la xed, he sat down on a high place, where
he could overlook the work
Scipio. behOlding this city, which had
hourished 700 years from its foundation
and had ruled over so many lands, is
lands, and seas, rich with arms and fleets
elephants and money, equal to the might
est monarchies, but far surprising them
in bravery and high spirit (since without
SHIPS OF arms, ana IN tho face OF famine,
1t had sustained continuous war for three
years., now come to its end in total de-
struction-Scipio beholding this spectacle
is said to have shed tears and publicly la
mented the fortune of the enemy. After
meditating himself a long time and re-
fecting on the rise and fall of cities. ma
tons, and empires. as well as of individ-
uals, upon the fate of Troy, that once
proud city, upon that of the Assyrians
the Medes, and the Persians greatest of
all, and later the splendid Macedonian
empire, either voluntarily or otherwise,
the words of the poet escaped his lips:
''The day shall come In which our sacred
Troy
And Priam, and the people over whom
Spear-bearing Priam rules, shall perish
ALL" -Qliad vi. 44s 44el
Being asked by Polybius in familiar con-
versation (for Polybius had been his tu-
tori what he meant by using these words.
he said that he did not hesitate frankly
to name his own country. for whose fate
he feared when he considered the muta-
bility of human affairs. And Polybius
wrote this down just as he heard it,
"Scipio's fears were realized in the year
40, A. D., when Alaric the Visgoth cap
tured Rome and gave it over to slaughter
and piliage for six days.