The Gates of New Carthage

The city fell in a single day. Now its leaders kneel in the street and offer the young Roman general something stranger than surrender: an oath. Spare the temple. Free the hostages inside it — sons and daughters of local tribes, held there to control their families. Swear it, and the whole city opens to him without another sword drawn.

His officers argue. One says: a general who makes oaths to a defeated enemy looks weak to his own soldiers. Take the city by force, hostages included — Rome can use them. Another says: free the hostages under oath, and every tribe watching this war will remember who kept their word.

The leaders are still kneeling. He has only a moment before his silence becomes the answer.