<P> In 149 BC, in an attempt to draw Carthage into open conflict, Rome made a series of escalating demands, one being the surrender of three hundred children of the nobility as hostages, and finally ending with the near - impossible demand that the city be demolished and rebuilt away from the coast, deeper into Africa . When the Carthaginians refused this last demand, Rome declared the Third Punic War . Having previously relied on mercenaries to fight their wars for them, the Carthaginians were now forced into a more active role in the defense of their city . They made thousands of makeshift weapons in a short time, even using women's hair for catapult strings, and were able to hold off the initial Roman attack . A second offensive under the command of Scipio Aemilianus resulted in a three - year siege before he breached the walls, sacked the city, and systematically burned Carthage to the ground in 146 BC . When the war ended, the remaining 50,000 Carthaginians, a small part of the original pre-war population, were sold into slavery by the victors--the normal fate in antiquity of inhabitants of sacked cities . Carthage was systematically burned for 17 days; the city's walls and buildings were utterly destroyed . The remaining Carthaginian territories were annexed by Rome and reconstituted to become the Roman province of Africa . </P> <P> After Rome emerged as victorious, significant Carthaginian settlements, such as those in Mauretania, were taken over and aggrandized by the Romans . Volubilis, for example, was an important Roman town situated near the westernmost border of the Roman conquests . It was built on the site of the previous Carthaginian settlement that overlies an earlier neolithic habitation . </P>

In what 5 areas did rome gain territory from carthage