It was to march to and fro between the mountain of the Hot Springs and Hippo-Zarytus, and so debar the Suffet from approaching the Tyrian towns, and from the possibility of a return to Carthage.

Meanwhile the two other armies were to try to overtake him in the south, Spendius in the east, and Matho in the west, in such a way that all three should unite to surprise and entangle him.  Then they received a reinforcement which they had not looked for:  Narr’ Havas appeared with three hundred camels laden with bitumen, twenty-five elephants, and six thousand horsemen.

To weaken the Mercenaries the Suffet had judged it prudent to occupy his attention at a distance in his own kingdom.  From the heart of Carthage he had come to an understanding with Masgaba, a Gaetulian brigand who was seeking to found an empire.  Strengthened by Punic money, the adventurer had raised the Numidian States with promises of freedom.  But Narr’ Havas, warned by his nurse’s son, had dropped into Cirta, poisoned the conquerors with the water of the cisterns, struck off a few heads, set all right again, and had just arrived against the Suffet more furious than the Barbarians.

The chiefs of the four armies concerted the arrangements for the war.  It would be a long one, and everything must be foreseen.

It was agreed first to entreat the assistance of the Romans, and this mission was offered to Spendius, but as a fugitive he dared not undertake it.  Twelve men from the Greek colonies embarked at Annaba in a sloop belonging to the Numidians.  Then the chiefs exacted an oath of complete obedience from all the Barbarians.  Every day the captains inspected clothes and boots; the sentries were even forbidden to use a shield, for they would often lean it against their lance and fall asleep as they stood; those who had any baggage trailing after them were obliged to get rid of it; everything was to be carried, in Roman fashion, on the back.  As a precaution against the elephants Matho instituted a corps of cataphract cavalry, men and horses being hidden beneath cuirasses of hippopotamus skin bristling with nails; and to protect the horses’ hoofs boots of plaited esparto-grass were made for them.

It was forbidden to pillage the villages, or to tyrannise over the inhabitants who were not of Punic race.  But as the country was becoming exhausted, Matho ordered the provisions to be served out to the soldiers individually, without troubling about the women.  At first the men shared with them.  Many grew weak for lack of food.  It was the occasion of many quarrels and invectives, many drawing away the companions of the rest by the bait or even by the promise of their own portion.  Matho commanded them all to be driven away pitilessly.  They took refuge in the camp of Autaritus; but the Gaulish and Libyan women forced them by their outrageous treatment to depart.

At last they came beneath the walls of Carthage to implore the protection of Ceres and Proserpine, for in Byrsa there was a temple with priests consecrated to these goddesses in expiation of the horrors formerly committed at the siege of Syracuse.  The Syssitia, alleging their right to waifs and strays, claimed the youngest in order to sell them; and some fair Lacedaemonian women were taken by New Carthaginians in marriage.