The aforesaid impostor [Y. R. 604. B. C. 148] assuming the name of
Philip, being about to invade and forcibly possess himself of Thessaly,
was prevented by the Roman ambassadors, with the aid of the Achæans.
Prusias, king of Bithynia, a man abandoned to the practice of every
vice, was murdered by his son Nicomedes, assisted by Attalus, king of
Pergamus. He had another son, who in the place of teeth in his upper
jaw, is said to have had one entire bone. The Romans send an embassy to
negotiate peace between Nicomedes and Prusias; it happening that one of
the ambassadors had his head deformed by scars, from many wounds;
another was lame from gout, and the third was of weak understanding:
Cato said, it was an embassy without head, feet, or heart. The king of
Syria was of the royal race of Perseus; but being, like Prusias,
addicted to every vicious pursuit, and passing his whole time in
tipplinghouses, brothels, and such like places of infamous resort,
Ammonus rules in his stead; and puts to death all the king’s friends,
together with his queen Laodice, and Antigonus, the son of Demetrius.
Masinissa, king of Numidia, a man of a character truly illustrious,
dies, aged upwards of ninety years; he retained the vigour of youth even
to his last years; and begot a son at the age of eighty-six. Publius
Scipio Æmilianus, being authorized by his will so to do divides his
kingdom into three parts, and allots their respective portions of it to
his three sons, Micipsa, Gulussa, and Manastabal. Scipio persuades
Phamæas, general of the Carthaginian cavalry, under Himilco, a man
highly looked up to and relied upon by the Carthaginians, to revolt to
the Romans, with the troops under his command. Claudius Marcellus, one
of the three ambassadors sent to Masinissa, was lost in a storm.
Hasdrubal, nephew of Masinissa, was put to death by the Carthaginians,
who suspected him of treasonable views, on account of his affinity to
Gulussa, now the friend of the Romans. Scipio Æmilianus, when a
candidate for the ædileship was elected consul by the people, though
under age: a violent contest arises from this, the people supporting,
the nobles opposing, his election; which, at length, terminates in his
favour. Manius Manlius takes several citizens in the neighbourhood of
Carthage. The impostor Philip, having slain the prætor, Publius
Juventius, and vanquished his army, was himself afterwards subdued and
taken prisoner by Quintua Cæcilius, who recovered Macedonia.