Editing Battle of Zama (section)

===Third Punic War===
{{more|Third Punic War}}

Masinissa exploited the prohibition on Carthage waging war to repeatedly raid and seize Carthaginian territory with impunity. Carthage appealed to Rome, which always backed its Numidian ally.{{sfn|Kunze|2015|pp=398, 407}} In 149 BC, fifty years after the end of the Second Punic War, Carthage sent an army, under [[Hasdrubal the Boetharch]], against Masinissa,{{efn|Masinissa, now aged 88, was still able to lead his army into battle and father children. He died in 148 BC.{{sfn|Goldsworthy|2006|pp=335, 345}}{{sfn|Bagnall|1999|p=15}}|group=note}} the treaty notwithstanding. The campaign ended in disaster at the [[Battle of Oroscopa]] and anti-Carthaginian factions in Rome used the illicit military action as a pretext to prepare a punitive expedition.{{sfn|Kunze|2015|pp=399, 407}} The [[Third Punic War]] began later in 149 BC when a large Roman army landed in North Africa{{sfn|Purcell|1995|p=134}} and [[Siege of Carthage (Third Punic War)|besieged Carthage]].{{sfn|Goldsworthy|2006|p=341}} In the spring of 146 BC the Romans launched their final assault,{{efn|Led by [[Scipio Aemilianus]], the adopted grandson of Publius Scipio.{{sfn|Goldsworthy|2006|pp=343, 346–347, 351–352}}|group=note}} systematically destroying the city and killing its inhabitants;{{sfn|Le Bohec|2015|p=441}} 50,000 survivors were sold into slavery.{{sfn|Scullard|2002|p=316}} The formerly Carthaginian territories were annexed by Rome and reconstituted to become the [[Africa Province|Roman province of Africa]], with Utica as its capital.{{sfn|Le Bohec|2015|p=443}}{{sfn|Scullard|2002|pp=310, 316}}