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The third century before the common era was a time of empire-making and empire-breaking especially in the western Mediterranean, where a conflict was brewing that would shape the future of the known world. |
Second Punic War (218-201BC)
(- threads, 48 posts)
 Masinissa and Syphax
Historical Thread
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King of Numidia between the Second and Third Punic Wars, Masiniaas succeeded (c.207 BC) his father as king of E Numidia. Brought up in Carthage, he fought in a Carthaginian campaign in Spain in the Second Punic War (see Punic Wars ) but eventually went over (c.206) to the Roman side. After defeating his old rival Syphax, king of W Numidia, he joined Scipio Africanus Major and led his cavalry in a decisive charge at the battle of Zama (202), which ended the war. Rome awarded him the Punic territory E of Carthage. His tragic relationship with Sophonisba at the end of the Second Punic War has been the subject of numerous literary interpretations. During his long reign he extended his power and converted his land of turbulent tribespeople into a formidable and prosperous kingdom. He goaded Carthage into resisting Numidian encroachments; the resistance furnished Rome with a pretext for beginning the Third Punic War.
Syphax was a king of the Masaesyles in western Numidia. Originally he was allied with the Romans against Carthage but his wife Sophonisbe convinced him to do just the opposite. In the Battle of the Great Plains of the Second Punic War, Syphax was defeated and captured by the Roman commander Gaius Laelius. Scipio Africanus, a Roman general, took him as a prisoner and he died in Rome in around 203 or 202 BC
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