29.31
.Hasdrubal happened to be on a visit to
Syphax at the time. The Numidian did not consider it a matter of much
importance to him whether the Maesulian throne was occupied by
Lacumazes or Masinissa, but Hasdrubal warned him that he was making a
very great mistake if he supposed that Masinissa would be content with the
same frontiers as his father Gala. "That man," he said, "possessed much more
ability and much more force of character than any one of that nation had
hitherto shown. In Spain he had often exhibited to friends and foes alike
proofs of a courage rare amongst men. Unless Syphax and the Carthaginians
stifled that rising flame, they would soon be involved in a conflagration
which nothing could check. As yet his power was weak and insecure, he was
nursing a realm whose wounds had not yet closed." By continually urging
these considerations, Hasdrubal persuaded him to move his army up to the
frontiers of Maesulia and fix his camp on territory which he claimed as
beyond question forming part of his dominions, a claim which Gala had
contested not only by argument, but by force of arms. He advised him in
case any one offered opposition -and he only wished they would -to be
prepared to fight; if they for fear of him retired he must advance into the
heart of the kingdom. The Maesulii would either submit to him without a
struggle or they would find themselves hopelessly outmatched in arms.
Encouraged by these representations Syphax commenced war with
Masinissa, and in the very first battle defeated and routed the Maesulians.
Masinissa with a few horsemen escaped from the field and fled to a mountain
range called by the natives Bellum. Several households with their
tent-wagons and cattle -their sole wealth -followed the king; the bulk of the
population submitted to Syphax. The mountain district which the fugitives
had taken possession of was grassy and well watered, and as it afforded
excellent pasturage for cattle it provided ample sustenance for men who
lived on flesh and milk. From these heights they harried the whole country
round, at first in stealthy nocturnal incursions, and afterwards in open
brigandage. They ravaged the Carthaginian territory mainly, because it
offered more plunder and depredation was a safer work there than amongst
the Numidians. At last they reached such a pitch of audacity that they carried
their plunder down to the sea and sold it to traders who brought their ships
up for the purpose. More Carthaginians fell or were made prisoners in these
forays than often happens in regular warfare. The authorities at Carthage
complained loudly of all this to Syphax and pressed him to follow up these
remnants of the war. Angry as he was, however, he hardly thought it part of
his duties as a king to hunt down a robber at large on the mountains.
