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Carthage tried to appease Rome, but the Roman Senate was committed to war. The Romans landed in modern Tunisia and they conquered Carthage’s outposts, and defeated its army and besieged the city. The ever-resourceful Punic population turned their metropolis into a fortress, and they resisted many fierce assaults from the legions. Such was the stubbornness of the defense of the inhabitants that many in Rome feared that they would have to abandon the siege.

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.