itle
had the Carthaginians to call any land in Africa their own: foreigners
and strangers, to whom had been granted precariously, for the purpose
of building a city, as much ground as they could encompass with the
cuttings of a bull's hide? Whatever acquisitions they had made beyond
Byrsa, their original settlement, they held by fraud and violence;
for, in relation to the land in question, so far were they from being
able to prove uninterrupted possession, from the time when it was
first acquired, that they cannot even prove that they ever possessed
it for any considerable time. As occasions offered, sometimes they,
sometimes the kings of Numidia, had held the dominion of it; and
the possession of it had always been held by the party which had the
greatest armed force. They requested the senate to suffer the
matter to remain on the same footing on which it stood before the
Carthaginians became enemies to the Romans, or the king of Numidia
their friend and ally; and not to interfere, so as to hinder whichever
party was able, from keeping possession."--The senate resolved to tell
the ambassadors of both parties, that they would send persons into
Africa to determine the present controversy between the people of
Carthage and the king. They accordingly sent Publius Scipio Africanus,
Caius Cornelius Cethegus, and Marcus Minucius Rufus; who, after
viewing the ground, and hearing what could be said on both sides, left
every thing in suspense, their opinions inclining neither to one
side nor the other. Whether they acted in this manner from their own
judgment, or because they had been so instructed, is by no means so
certain as it is, that as affairs were circumstanced, it was highly
expedient to leave the dispute undecided: for, had the case been
otherwise, Scipio alone, either from his own knowledge of the
business, or the influence which he possessed, and to which he had
a just claim on both parties, could, with a nod, have ended the
controversy.

BOOK XXXV.

_Publius Scipio Africanus sent as ambassador to Antiochus; has
a conversation with Hannibal at Ephesus. Preparations of
the Romans for war with Antiochus. Nabis, the tyrant of
Lacedaemon, instigated by the Aetolians, makes war on the
Achaeans; is put to death by a party of the Aetolians. The
Aetolians, violating the treaty of friendship with the Romans,
invite Antiochus, who comes, with a small force, into Greece,
and, in conjunc