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Eventually, the legionnaires acclaimed Scipio Aemilianus as their leader, and he changed the course of the siege.<ref> Miles, p 345</ref> He built a mole that cut the besieged city from the sea and soon the defenders' supplies ran low. In desperation, the Carthaginians began to carry out large numbers of human sacrifices to enlist the support of the Gods in their hour of need.
In the Spring of 146 BC, Scipio launched a daring attack on the walls of the city and seized a section of it. This seizure enabled his army to enter Carthage. There was vicious street fighting and no quarter was given by either side.<ref>Appian, 130, 132</ref>. After nearly a week the Romans seized the city, and the Carthaginians surrendered. Many of the city’s inhabitants refused to surrender, and they committed suicide in mass by flinging themselves into the many fires in the devastated city.<ref>Appian, 130, 133</ref> It is estimated nearly all of the surviving population was sold into slavery by Rome. Carthage once the greatest city of the Western Mediterranean was a ruin.
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