IT WAS ONLY A PRETEXT, BUT PREFERRED TO AVOID THE POSSIBILITY OF IT BEING SAID AGAINST HIM THAT HE HAD DETAINED ENVOYS.  AND IN THE CASE OF SYPHAX, WHO WAS STILL ENDEAVORING TO NEGOTIATE A RECONCILIATION ON THE TERMS THAT SCIPIO SHOULD SAIL FROM LIBYA AND HANNIBAL FROM ITALY, HE RECEIVED HIS PROPOSITION NOT IN A TRUSTFUL MOOD, BUT TO THE END THAT HE MIGHT RUIN HIM.  For on the excuse afforded by the postponed truce he sent various bodies of soldiers at various times into the Carthaginian camp and into that of Syphax; and when they had carefully inspected everything on the side of their opponents, he put aside the treaty on a plausible pretext, which was the more readily found because Syphax had been detected in a plot against Masinissa.  And Scipio went by night to where their two camps were located, not very far apart, and secretly set fire to Hasdrubal’s camp at many points at once.  It rapidly blazed up—­for their tents had been made of corn-stalks and leafy branches—­and the Carthaginians fared badly.  The followers of Syphax in attempting to aid them encountered the Romans, who closed in the place, and were themselves destroyed; and their own camp was set on fire in addition, and in it many men and horses perished.  The Romans escaped injury during the rest of the night following the exploit, but just after daylight Spaniards who had lately arrived as an accession to the Carthaginian alliance fell upon them unexpectedly and killed a large number.

[Footnote 37:  Dio probably wrote Caepio here.]

As a result of all this Hasdrubal straightway retired to Carthage and Syphax to his own country.  Scipio set Masinissa and Gaius Laelius to oppose Syphax while he himself marched against the Carthaginians.  The Carthaginians for their part sent ships toward the Roman stronghold, which the enemy were using as winter quarters and as a storehouse for all their goods.  In this way they might either capture it or draw Scipio away from themselves.  Such also was the result.  As soon as he heard of the manoeuvre, he withdrew and hurried to the harbor, which he placed under guard.  And on the first day the Romans easily repulsed their assailants, but on the next they had decidedly the worst of the encounter.  The Carthaginians even went so far as to take away Roman ships by seizing them with grappling irons.  They did not venture, however, to disembark but finally sailed homewards, after which they superseded Hasdrubal and chose a certain Hanno in his place.  From this time Hanno was the general, but his predecessor privately got hold of some slaves and deserters whom he welded together into a fairly strong force; he then quietly persuaded some of the Spaniards who were serving in Scipio’s army to help him and attempted one night to carry out a plot against the Roman’s camp.  Something would have come of it, had not the soothsayers, dismayed by the actions of birds, and the mother of Masinissa, as a result of divinations, caused an investigation