When I came to Africa during the consul of Manius Manilius to serve as the tribune of the fourth legion, nothing was so important to me as that I should meet with the king, Masinissa—who had proved to be a close friend to our family. When I had come to him, the venerable old man embraced me and wept, and—after a little while—he looked up to the heavens and said: "I give thanks to you, Sun of all, and to you as well, you Heavenly Beings, that before I leave this life I may gaze upon P.C. Scipio in my kingdom and in this house, by whose name I renew my own! Therefore, he never departs from my spirit, this man of the greatest and most indomitable memory." Then, after I asked him of his reign and he me of the republic, and after there had been a great many other words on both sides, we had spent our daylight.
Cum in Africam venissem hoc Manilio consule, ad quartam legionem tribunus, ut scitis, militum, nihil mihi fuit potius quam ut Masinissam convenirem, regem familiae nostrae iustis de causis amicissimum. Ad quem ut veni, complexus me senex conlacrimavit, aliquantoque post suspexit ad caelum, et "Grates" inquit "tibi ago, summe Sol, vobisque reliqui caelites, quod antequam ex hac vita migro, conspicio in meo regno et his tectis Publium Cornelium Scipionem, cuius ego nomine ipso recreor: ita numquam ex animo meo discedit illius optimi atque invictissimi viri memoria." Deinde ego illum de suo regno, ille me de nostra re publica percontatus est, multisque verbis ultro citroque habitis, ille nobis est conumptus dies;
When I came to Africa during the consul of Manius Manilius to serve as the tribune of the fourth legion, nothing was so important to me as that I should meet with the king, Masinissa—who had proved to be a close friend to our family. When I had come to him, the venerable old man embraced me and wept, and—after a little while—he looked up to the heavens and said: "I give thanks to you, Sun of all, and to you as well, you Heavenly Beings, that before I leave this life I may gaze upon P.C. Scipio in my kingdom and in this house, by whose name I renew my own! Therefore, he never departs from my spirit, this man of the greatest and most indomitable memory." Then, after I asked him of his reign and he me of the republic, and after there had been a great many other words on both sides, we had spent our daylight.
Cum in Africam venissem hoc Manilio consule, ad quartam legionem tribunus, ut scitis, militum, nihil mihi fuit potius quam ut Masinissam convenirem, regem familiae nostrae iustis de causis amicissimum. Ad quem ut veni, complexus me senex conlacrimavit, aliquantoque post suspexit ad caelum, et "Grates" inquit "tibi ago, summe Sol, vobisque reliqui caelites, quod antequam ex hac vita migro, conspicio in meo regno et his tectis Publium Cornelium Scipionem, cuius ego nomine ipso recreor: ita numquam ex animo meo discedit illius optimi atque invictissimi viri memoria." Deinde ego illum de suo regno, ille me de nostra re publica percontatus est, multisque verbis ultro citroque habitis, ille nobis est conumptus dies;