14.
The answer was given to the prince that his father Masinissa was acting as was proper for a good and grateful man, in that he attached to payment due [p. 291]for kindness such credit and honour.
[2]
On the one hand1 the Roman People had profited by his brave and loyal aid in the Punic War, and on the other, he had secured his kingdom through the good will of the Roman People; after this balancing of favours, he had performed every possible act of friendship in wars against three kings successively.
[3]
Joy over the victory of the Roman People was not surprising in a king who had linked with the fortunes of the Romans the whole hazard of his personal fortunes and those of his realm.
[4]
As for thanks to the gods for the victory, let him offer them in his own home; his son would serve as his representative at Rome. The son had also offered sufficient congratulations on his own and his father's behalf. That Masinissa himself should leave his kingdom and go outside of Africa, apart from the fact that it was against his own interests, was also contrary to the public welfare of the Roman People, the senate believed.
[5]
When Masgaba requested that Hanno, son of Hamilcar, be demanded as hostage in place of . .., the answer was given that the senate considered it by no means just to exact hostages from the Carthaginians according to the judgment of Masinissa.
[6]
The quaestor was ordered to buy gifts for the prince, in accordance with a resolution of the senate, to the amount of one hundred pounds of silver, and to escort him to Puteoli, to provide for all his expenses while he was in Italy, and to hire two ships to convey
[7??]
him and his suite to Africa. Garments were presented to all his suite, both free and slave.
[8]
Not very much later dispatches were brought from Masinissa's other son Misagenes, stating that he had been sent with his cavalry to Africa by Lucius Paulus [p. 293]after the defeat of Perseus, that on his voyage his2 fleet had been scattered in the Adriatic, and he had arrived in ill heath with three ships at Brundisium.
[9]
Lucius Stertinius the quaestor was sent to him with the same gifts which had been given at Rome to his brother, and was instructed to see to it that a house for entertainment . . .3
1 B.C. 168
2 B.C. 168
3 From Valerius Maximus V. 1. Id, the following matters seem to have been recounted here: the quaestor was to provide for the care of Misagenes, furnish expense-money for him and his suite, and provide ships for the voyage to Africa; also a pound of silver and 500 sesterces apiece were to be given to each cavalryman; Misagenes died. Presumably also the report of the elections, and something about the activity of the censors, prefatory to the following chapter, was included here. Previous activity of the censors was reported in XLIII. xiv-xvi; XLIV. xvi. 8-10. Cf. also the Summary of this book.
Livy. Books XLIII-XLV With An English Translation. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1951: published without copyright notice.
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