operated in gaining them favour with the people. Pleminius, however, died in prison, before the people had come to a determination respecting him. Clodius Licinius, in the third book of his Roman history, relates, that this Pleminius, during the celebration of the votive games, which Africanus, in his second consulate, exhibited at Rome, made an attempt, by means of certain persons whom he had corrupted by bribes, to set fire to the city in several places, that he might have an opportunity of breaking out of prison, and making his escape; and that afterwards, the wicked plot having been discovered, he was consigned to the Tullian dungeon, according to a decree of the senate. The case of Scipio was considered no where but in the senate; where all the deputies and tribunes, bestowing the highest commendations on the fleet, the army, and the general, induced the senate to vote that he should cross over into Africa as soon as possible; and that permission should be given him to select himself, out of those armies which were in Sicily, those forces which he would carry with him into Africa, and those which he would leave for the protection of the province. 23. While the Romans were thus employed, the Carthaginians, on their part, though they had passed an anxious winter, earnestly inquiring what was going on, and terrified at the arrival of every messenger, with watch-towers placed on every promontory, had gained a point of no small importance for the defence of Africa, in adding to their allies king Syphax, in reliance on whom chiefly they believed the Romans would cross over into Africa. Hasdrubal, son of Gisgo, not only formed a connexion of hospitality with the before-named king, when Scipio and Hasdrubal happened to come to him at the same time out of Spain, but mention had also been slightly made of an affinity to take place between them, by the king's marrying the daughter of Hasdrubal. Hasdrubal, who had gone for the purpose of completing this business, and fixing a time for the nuptials, for the virgin was now marriageable, perceiving that the king was inflamed with desire, for the Numidians are, beyond all the other barbarians, violently addicted to love, sent for the virgin from Carthage, and hastened the nuptials. Among the other proofs of joy felt upon the occasion, and in order that a public connexion might be added to this private one, an oath was taken in confirmation of an alliance between the Carthaginian people and the king, and faith reciprocally pledged that they would have the same friends and enemies. But Hasdrubal, recollecting both the alliance which had been entered into by the king and Scipio, and how inconstant and changeable were the minds of the barbarians, was afraid that, if Scipio were to invade Africa, that marriage would prove but a slight bond of union, he therefore took advantage of the Numidian while under the influence of the first transports of love,