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When the news arrived that Syphax was being brought into camp, the whole army turned out as though to watch a triumphal procession. [2] The king himself, in chains, was the first to appear, he was followed by a crowd of Numidian nobles. [3] As they passed the soldiers each in turn sought to magnify their victory by exaggerating the greatness of Syphax and the military reputation of his nation. "This is the king," they said, "whose greatness has been so far acknowledged by the most powerful States in the world-Rome and Carthage-that Scipio left his army in Spain and sailed with [4??] [5??] two triremes to Africa to secure his alliance, whilst the Carthaginian Hasdrubal not only visited him in his kingdom, but even gave him his daughter in marriage. He has had the Roman and the Carthaginian commanders both in his power at the same time. [6] As each side has sought peace and friendship from the immortal gods by sacrifices duly offered, so each side alike has sought peace and friendships from him. [7] He was powerful enough to expel Masinissa from his kingdom, and he reduced him to such a condition that he owed his life to the report of his death and to his concealment in the forest, where he lived on what he could catch there like a wild beast." [8] Amidst these remarks of the bystanders, the king was conducted to the headquarters tent. As Scipio compared the earlier fortunes of the man with his present condition and recalled to mind his own hospitable relations with him, the mutually pledged right hands, the political and personal bonds between them, he was greatly moved. [9] Syphax, too, thought of these things, but they gave him courage in addressing his conqueror. Scipio questioned him as to his object in first denouncing his alliance with Rome and then starting an unprovoked war against her. [10] He admitted that he had done wrong and behaved like a madman but his taking up arms against Rome was not the beginning of his madness, it was the last act. [11] He first exhibited his folly, his utter disregard of all private ties and public obligations, when he admitted a Carthaginian bride into his house. [12] The torches which illuminated these nuptials had set his palace in a blaze. That fury of a woman, that scourge, had used every endearment to alienate and warp his feelings, and would not rest till she had with her own impious hands armed him against his host and friend. [13] However, broken and ruined as he was, he had this to console him in his misery-that pestilential fury had entered the household of his bitterest foe. [14] Masinissa was not wiser or more consistent than he had been, his youth made him even less cautious; at all events that marriage proved him to be more foolish and headstrong.

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load focus Summary (English, Frank Gardener Moore, Professor Emeritus in Columbia University, 1949)
load focus Summary (Latin, W. Weissenborn, H. J. Müller, 1884)
load focus Summary (Latin, Frank Gardener Moore, Professor Emeritus in Columbia University, 1949)
load focus Latin (W. Weissenborn, H. J. Müller, 1884)
load focus Latin (Robert Seymour Conway, Stephen Keymer Johnson, 1935)
load focus English (Frank Gardener Moore, Professor Emeritus in Columbia University, 1949)
load focus English (Cyrus Evans, 1850)
load focus Latin (Frank Gardener Moore, Professor Emeritus in Columbia University, 1949)
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  • Commentary references to this page (4):
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 35-38, commentary, 38.8
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 39-40, commentary, 39.11
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 43-44, commentary, 44.31
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, book 45, commentary, 45.7
  • Cross-references to this page (5):
  • Cross-references in general dictionaries to this page (8):
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