While he was serving in Spain in the cause of the Carthaginians, his father, named Gala, died.  The kingdom, according to the custom of the Numidians, came to Oesalces, the brother of the late king, who was very aged.  Not long after, Oesalces also dying, the elder of his two sons, named Capusa, the other being quite a boy, succeeded to his father’s kingdom.  But, as he occupied the throne more by right of descent than from the esteem in which he was held among his countrymen, or the power he possessed, there stood forth a person named Mezetulus, not unrelated by blood to the kings, of a family which had always been hostile to them, and had continually contested the right to the throne with those who then occupied it, with various success.  This man, having roused his countrymen to arms, over whom he possessed a great influence, from the hatred felt towards the kings, openly pitched his camp, and compelled the king to come into the field and fight for the throne.  Capusa, with many of his nobles, falling in the action, the whole nation of the Massylians came under the dominion and rule of Mezetulus.  He abstained, however, from assuming the title of king; and, contenting himself with the modest appellation of protector, gave the name of king to the boy Lacumaces, a surviving branch of the royal stock.  In the hope of an alliance with the Carthaginians, he formed a matrimonial connexion with a noble Carthaginian lady, daughter of Hannibal’s sister, who had been lately married to the king Oesalces; and, sending ambassadors for that purpose, renewed an old connexion of hospitality with Syphax, taking all these measures with a view to obtain assistance against Masinissa.

30.  Masinissa, hearing of the death of his uncle, and afterwards that his cousin-german was slain, passed over out of Spain into Mauritania.  Bocchar was king of the Moors at that time.  Applying to him as a suppliant, he succeeded, by means of the most humble entreaties, in obtaining from him four thousand Moors to escort him on his march, since he could not procure his co-operation in the war.  With these, after sending a messenger before him to his own and his father’s friends, he arrived on the frontiers of the kingdom, when about five hundred Numidians came to join him.  Having, therefore, sent back the Moors to their king, as had been agreed, though the numbers which joined him were much less than he had anticipated, not being such as to inspire him with sufficient confidence for so great an attempt, yet, concluding that by action, and by making some effort, he should collect sufficient strength to enable him to effect something, he threw himself in the way of the young king Lacumaces, at Thapsus, as he was going to Syphax.  The troops which attended him having fled back to the town in consternation, Masinissa took it at the first assault.  Of the royal party, some who surrendered themselves he received, others he slew while attempting resistance.  The greater part, with the young king himself, escaped during