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Updated: May 29, 2025
Nevertheless the troops belonging to Syphax himself, trained and led by Roman officers, excited so serious a ferment among the Libyan subjects of Carthage that the lieutenant-commander of Spain and Africa, Hasdrubal Barcas, went in person to Africa with the flower of his Spanish troops.
That Quintus Fabius, lately deceased, who had foretold how arduous the contest would be, was used to predict, not without good reason, that Hannibal would prove a more formidable enemy in his own country than he had been in a foreign one; and that Scipio would have to encounter, not Syphax, a king of undisciplined barbarians whose armies Statorius, a man little better than a soldier's drudge, was used to lead, nor his father-in-law Hasdrubal, that most fugacious general, nor tumultuary armies hastily collected out of a crowd of half-armed rustics, but Hannibal, born in a manner in the pavilion of his father, that bravest of generals, nurtured and educated in the midst of arms, who served as a soldier formerly, when a boy, and became a general when he had scarcely attained the age of manhood; who, having grown old in victory, had filled Spain, Gaul, and Italy, from the Alps to the strait, with monuments of his vast achievements; who commanded troops who had served as long as he had himself; troops hardened by the endurance of every species of suffering, such as it is scarcely credible that men could have supported; stained a thousand times with Roman blood, and bearing with them the spoils not only of soldiers, but of generals.
While the Romans were thus employed, the Carthaginians, on their part, though they had passed an anxious winter, earnestly inquiring what was going on, and terrified at the arrival of every messenger, with watch-towers placed on every promontory, had gained a point of no small importance for the defence of Africa, in adding to their allies king Syphax, in reliance on whom chiefly they believed the Romans would cross over into Africa.
That Masinissa himself had before come to Laelius, complaining that time was consumed in delays, and that now Syphax sent ambassadors, expressing his astonishment on the same account, namely, what could be the cause of such long delay; and requesting either that the army would now at length be transported into Africa, or, if the plan was changed, that he might be informed so that he might himself take measures for the safety of himself and his dominions.
The state of feeling among the Carthaginians was much the same; for when they turned their eyes on Hannibal, and the greatness of his achievements, they repented having solicited peace; but when again they reflected that they had been twice defeated in a pitched battle, that Syphax had been made prisoner, that they had been driven out of Spain and Italy, and that all this had been effected by the valor and conduct of Scipio alone, they regarded him with horror, as a general marked out by destiny, and born for their destruction.
Toward the close of the winter the Carthaginians, united with Syphax, intended to make a general attack on Scipio's army and fleet, but being informed of their plans, he surprised the camps of Hasdrubal and Syphax in the night, and only a small number of the enemy escaped.
in my opinion the shortest and likeliest way of coming at the lady was by demolishing, instead of putting on an impertinent disguise to circumvent two or three slaves. But Sempronius, it seems, is of another opinion. He extols to the skies the invention of old Syphax: "'SEMP. Heavens! what a thought was there! "Now, I appeal to the reader if I have not been as good as my word.
I say this not because I am ashamed of my country, since even in the time of Syphax we were a township. When he was conquered we were transferred by the gift of the Roman people to the dominion of King Masinissa, and finally as the result of a settlement of veteran soldiers, our second founders, we have become a colony of the highest distinction.
In Spain also the arrival of the king's ambassadors was of the greatest advantage to the Romans, for at the news thereof the Numidians began rapidly to pass over. Thus the Romans and Syphax were united in friendship, which the Carthaginians hearing of, immediately sent ambassadors to Gala, who reigned in another part of Numidia, over a nation called Massylians.
Masinissa, who had been expelled his kingdom by Syphax, joins Scipio with two hundred horsemen; they defeat a large army commanded by Hanno. Hasdrubal and Syphax approach with a most numerous force. Scipio raises the siege of Utica, and fortifies a post for the winter. The consul Sempronius gets the better of Hannibal in a battle near Croton.
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