ersy upon the spot. However, they returned without coming to any
decision, and left the business in the same uncertain state in which they
had found it. Possibly they acted in this manner by order of the senate,
and had received private instructions to favour Masinissa, who was then
possessed of the district in question.

(M138) Ten years after, new commissioners having been appointed to examine
the same affair, they acted as the former had done, and left the whole
undetermined.(854)

(M139) After the like distance of time, the Carthaginians again brought
their complaint before the senate, but with greater importunity than
before.(855) They represented, that besides the lands at first contested,
Masinissa had, during the two preceding years, dispossessed them of
upwards of seventy towns and castles: their hands were bound up by that
article of the last treaty, which forbade their making war upon any of the
allies of the Romans: that they could no longer bear the insolence, the
avarice, and cruelty of that prince: that they were deputed to Rome with
three requests, (one of which they desired might be immediately complied
with,) _viz._ either that the affair might be examined and decided by the
senate; or, secondly, that they might be permitted to repel force by
force, and defend themselves by arms; or, lastly, that, if favour was to
prevail over justice, they then entreated the Romans to specify once for
all, which of the Carthaginian lands they were desirous should be given up
to Masinissa, that they, by this means, might hereafter know what they had
to depend on, and that the Roman people would show some moderation in
their behalf, at a time that this prince set no other bounds to his
pretensions, than his insatiable avarice. The deputies concluded with
beseeching the Romans, that if they had any cause of complaint against the
Carthaginians since the conclusion of the last peace, that they themselves
would punish them; and not to give them up to the wild caprice of a
prince, by whom their liberties were made precarious, and their lives
insupportable. After ending their speech, being pierced with grief,
shedding floods of tears, they fell prostrate upon the earth; a spectacle
that moved all who were present to compassion, and raised a violent hatred
against Masinissa. Gulussa, his son, who was then present, being asked
what he had to reply, he answered, that his father had not given him any
instructions, not knowing tha