a very noble city, the ornament of the Iberian Spain, and celebrated for the long war of twenty years which it maintained against the Romans. The baseness and injustice of the Romans during this war were truly disgraceful to them, and altogether unworthy of a great and powerful people. The inhabitants obtained some advantages over the Roman forces, till Scipio Africanus was empowered to finish the war, and to effect the destruction of Numantia. He began the siege with an army of sixty thousand men, and was bravely opposed by the besieged, who were no more than four thousand men able to bear arms. Both armies behaved with uncommon valour, and the courage of the Numantines was soon changed into the fury of despair. Their provisions began to fail, and they fed upon the flesh of their horses, and afterwards upon that of their dead companions; but at last they were obliged to draw lots to kill and devour one another. The melancholy situation of their affairs obliged them to surrender to the Roman general. Scipio required them to deliver themselves up on the morrow; but they refused, and when a longer time had been granted to their petitions, they retired, and having set fire to their houses, destroyed themselves, so that not even one remained to adorn the triumph of the conqueror. Some historians, however, deny this, asserting that a number of Numantines delivered themselves into Scipio's hands, and that fifty of them were drawn in triumph at Rome, the rest being sold as slaves. The fall of Numantia was more glorious than that of Carthage or Corinth, though the place was much inferior to either. It was taken by the Romans 629 A.D.; and the conqueror obtained the surname of Numanticus.