Quote Originally Posted by Tellos Athenaios
Recall that a similar well-defended city without much of a garrison held out & repeatedly destroyed an assault for a long time agains the well supplied & highly motivated & numerically faaar superior forces of the Romani (much more than Hannibal ever got) later on.
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Carthage.
I can`t think you can compare that.
In the Third Punic War there was no big battle before the Siege of Carthago. The Citizens where at least theoretically a (Hoplite-)Militia, and the City itself was prepared for siege and hold out for 3 years.
Rome had lost his organized Army and there weren´t any (except the Weapons in temples, etc.) large Numbers of Weapons left to arm the whole population like they did in Carthago.

How to compare a well prepared City with a more or less fully armed Militia and a City which Army was crushed and de-organized, defended by former Criminals?

(Hope my English is good enough )