30.14
This
was the language of a man animated, not only by hatred towards an enemy,
but also by the sting of hopeless love, knowing as he did that the woman he
loved was in the house of his rival. Scipio was deeply distressed at what he
heard. Proof of the charges was found in the hurrying on of the nuptials
almost amid the clash of arms without consulting or even waiting for Laelius.
Masinissa had acted with such precipitancy that the very first day he saw his
prisoner he married her, and the rites were actually performed before the
tutelary deities of his enemy's house. This conduct appeared all the more
shocking to Scipio because when he himself was in Spain, young as he was,
no captive girl had ever moved him by her beauty. Whilst he was thinking all
this over, Laelius and Masinissa appeared. He extended the same gracious
and friendly welcome to both, and in the presence of a large number of his
officers addressed them in most laudatory terms. Then he took Masinissa
quietly aside and spoke to him as follows: "I think, Masinissa, that you must
have seen some good qualities in me when you went to Spain to establish
friendly relations with me, and also when, afterwards, you trusted yourself
and all your fortunes to me in Africa. Now, among all the virtues which
attracted you there is none upon which I pride myself so much as upon my
continence and the control of my passions. I wish, Masinissa, that you would
add these to the other noble features of your own character. At our time of
life we are not, believe me, so much in danger from armed foes as from the
seductive pleasures which tempt us on every side. The man who has curbed
and subjugated these by his self-control has won for himself greater glory
and a greater victory than we have won over Syphax. The courage and
energy you have displayed in my absence I have gladly dwelt upon and
gratefully remember; the rest of your conduct I prefer that you should reflect
upon when alone, rather than that I should make you blush by alluding to it.
Syphax has been defeated and made prisoner under the auspices of the
people of Rome, and this being so, his wife, his kingdom, his territory, his
towns with all their inhabitants, whatever in short Syphax possessed, belong
now to Rome as the spoils of war. Even if his wife were not a Carthaginian,
if we did not know that her father is in command of the enemy's forces, it
would still be our duty to send her with her husband to Rome, and leave it to
the senate and people to decide the fate of one who is alleged to have
estranged our ally and precipitated him in arms against us. Conquer your
feelings and be on your guard against letting one vice mar the many good
qualities you possess and sullying the grace of all your services by a fault
which is out of all proportion to its cause."