A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country/Sophonisba
SOPHONISBA, Daughter of Asdrubal of Carthage,
Was promised to Massinissa, King of the Massyli; but afterwards, by the decrees of the state, in violation of public faith, given to Syphax, king of another part of Numidia; an affront which the former never forgave, in consequence of which he became the bitter enemy of her country, always siding with the Romans. Syphax, on the contrary, though at first outwardly pretending friendship to them, could not resist the solicitations of his wife to side with Carthage. Sophonisba was the greatest beauty of the age, well versed in various branches of literature, and excellently skilled in music; her voice was thought equally enchanting as her personal charms. When her husband was conquered by the Romans, she fell into the power of Massinissa, who married her; which greatly displeased the Romans; and Scipio warmly reproached him with his conduct, and desired him to separate himself from her. He feared their power; and going with much emotion to her tent, told her, that since he could neither deliver her from captivity, nor the jealousy of the Romans, he counselled her to die as became the daughter of Asdrubal, Sophonisba obeyed, and drank with composure and serenity the cup of poison sent to her by her husband, about 203 B. C.