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[106] Having uttered these words he died. He had been a fortunate man in all respects. By divine favor he regained his ancestral kingdom, that had been snatched from him by Syphax and the Carthaginians, and extended it from Mauritania on the ocean through the continent as far as the government of Cyrene. He brought a good deal of land under cultivation where Numidian tribes had lived on herbs for want of agricultural knowledge. He left a large sum of money in his treasury and a well-disciplined army. Of his enemies he took Syphax prisoner with his own hand, and he was a cause of the destruction of Carthage, having left it a prey to the Romans, completely deprived of strength. He was by nature tall, and very strong to extreme old age, and he participated in battles and could mount a horse without assistance to the day of his death. The strongest testimony to his robust health was, that while many children were born to him and died before him, he never had less than ten living at one time, and when he died, at the age of ninety, he left one only four years old. Such a lifetime and such strength of body had Masinissa, but he died at last. Scipio made gifts to the sons of his concubines in addition to those they had already received. To each of the legitimate sons he gave treasures and revenues and the title of king. The other things he divided as he judged fitting, according to the dispositions of each. To Micipsa, the oldest, a lover of peace, he assigned the city of Cirta and the royal palace there. Gulussa, a man of warlike parts and the next in age, he made the director of matters relating to peace and war. Mastanabal, the youngest, who was learned in the law, was appointed judge to decide causes between their subjects.


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