40.17
During
the year a commission went from Rome to arbitrate between the
Carthaginian government and King Masinissa on a claim to certain territory.
Masinissa's father, Gala, had taken it from the Carthaginians, Syphax had
expelled Gala from it, and out of complaisance to his father-in-law Hasdrubal
had made a present of it to the Carthaginians, and this year Masinissa had
expelled the Carthaginians. The matter was contested as hotly in argument as
it had been with the sword, and came before the Romans for decision, who
investigated it on the spot. Masinissa said that he had recovered the territory
as part of his ancestral dominions and held it by the universally
acknowledged right of inheritance. His case was the stronger of the two,
both by title and by actual possession. The only thing he feared was that he
might be at a disadvantage should the Romans shrink from appearing to
favour a monarch who was their friend and ally at the cost of a people who
were enemies to him and them alike. The commissioners decided nothing as
to the right of possession and referred the whole question to the senate.
Nothing further took place in Liguria. The Gauls retreated into the pathless
forests and then dispersed to their villages and forts. The consuls also
wanted to disband their army, and consulted the senate about doing so. The
senate ordered one of them to disband his army and proceed to Rome to
elect the magistrates for the next year; the other was to winter with his
legions at Pisae. There were rumours that the transalpine Gauls were arming
and it was uncertain into what part of Italy they might descend, so the
consuls arranged that Cn. Baebius should go to hold the elections, as his
brother Marcus was a candidate.