Now, you might start asking what this book about Romans has to do with this? A very good question, this book is quite old but it has a theme that surprisingly is really modern and surprisingly enough, it still holds up more than it should and it´s:

SUICIDE...AS AN ACT OF PRIDE

What do the Numantines decide to do here? This is the way to solve it for them:

>It is they who recommend a mass suicide, for, in this manner, they will not become enslaved to the Romans. It is the women, then, who impel Theagenes to carry out this fatal action, thus playing a key role in the tragic denouement.
>The city resolves to burn all their valuable property, to put their wives and children to death, and to throw themselves into the flames, lest any of the inhabitants of the town should become the slaves of the Romans.

They decide to throw themselves into the fire that the women set up for all of them. Instead of giving up, they use their pride to be patriotic and admit their destiny before they die out of hunger (three days had passed since they were encompassed). Only a kid remains in the last act but, watch out:

>the last youth left alive, commits suicide by throwing himself from a tower, the Roman general realizes that he cannot go home with slaves and spoil, and that the small city of Numantia has triumphed over the power of the Romans.

He decided to throw himself from a tower in front of the general. The general couldn´t get his moment of glory and good press by using his sword so no Numantines were killed from the Romans, they all committed suicide before they could even begin.

This whole thing sounds crazy and out of place right? Well, hold on a little bit…