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Updated: June 9, 2025
Hasdrubal retreated with his forces to his camp as soon as the battle was over, and intrenched himself there, while Masinissa advanced with his army, surrounded the encampment, and hemmed the imprisoned fugitives in.
During this time, Scipio that is, the Scipio who conquered Hannibal had disappeared from the stage. Masinissa himself was very far advanced in life, being over eighty years of age. He, however, still retained the strength and energy which had characterized him in his prime.
After the destruction of Carthage, the children of Masinissa retained in substance their former territories, but were not allowed to make Carthage their capital. Her territories became a Roman province, whose capital was Utica. But the four small States into which the kingdom was parceled could not live in peace. Neither Roman commissioners nor foreign arbiters could restore order.
Before he passed over with these forces into Spain, which was separated only by a narrow strait, Masinissa came up with his victorious army; and here he acquired great glory in the prosecution of the war with Syphax, in which he acted alone and unsupported by any aid from the Carthaginians.
Having, therefore sent persons to give the young king hopes, that if he put himself under the protection of Masinissa, he would be held in the same honour by him as Oesalces had formerly been by Gala; and to promise Mezetulus, in addition to impunity, a faithful restitution of all his property; as both of them preferred a moderate share of fortune at home to exile, he brought them over to his side, notwithstanding the Carthaginians studiously exerted every means to prevent it.
The land, on which the eyes of the world were soon to be fastened, was the neglected protectorate which had been built up to secure the temporary purpose of the overthrow of Carthage, and had since remained in the undisturbed possession of the peaceful descendants of Masinissa.
Scipio, having summoned an assembly, presented Masinissa, in addition to his paternal dominions, with the town of Cirta, and the other cities and territories which had passed from the kingdom of Syphax into the possession of the Romans.
The envoys of Jugurtha were summarily dismissed, and Scaurus was sent to Africa with an army, but a peace with Rome was purchased by the African prince through the bribery of the generals. The legal validity of the peace was violently assailed in the Senate, and Massiva, a grandson of Masinissa, then in Rome, laid claim to the Numidian throne.
Finding himself in extreme and imminent danger, Hasdrubal sent to Masinissa to open negotiations for peace, and he proposed that Scipio should act as a sort of umpire or mediator between the two parties, to arrange the terms.
These are the circumstances which incline me to the opinion, that afterwards also, when Masinissa came to Scipio, he brought with him a smallish rather than a large body of cavalry to succour him; for the large number would seem to suit only with the condition of a reigning king, while the small number corresponds with the circumstances of an exile.
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