d make any further stir now that they were in the king's harbour.
Thus Hasdrubal, who landed first, and Scipio and Laelius, who landed
soon after, proceeded to the king.

18. Syphax considered it highly honourable to him, as it really was,
that generals of the two most powerful people of the age should come
to him on the same day to solicit peace and friendship with him. He
invited them both to become his guests; and, as it was the will of
fortune that they should be under one roof, and under the protection
of the same household gods, he endeavoured to bring them together to
a conference, in order to put an end to the difference between them;
when Scipio declared, that there was no personal enmity between the
Carthaginian and himself which he might do away with by a conference,
and that he could not transact any business relating to the republic
with an enemy without the command of the senate. But the king
being earnest in his endeavours to persuade him to come to the same
entertainment, lest one of his guests should appear to be excluded, he
did not withhold his assent. They supped together at the king's table,
and Scipio and Hasdrubal even sat at meat on the same couch, because
it was the king's pleasure. So courteous was the manner of Scipio, so
naturally happy and universal was his genius, that by his conversation
he gained the esteem not only of Syphax, a barbarian, and unused to
Roman manners, but even of a most inveterate enemy, who openly avowed,
that "he appeared to him more to be admired for the qualities he
displayed on a personal interview with him, than for his exploits in
war, and that he had no doubt that Syphax and his kingdom were already
at the disposal of the Romans, such were the abilities that man
possessed for gaining the esteem of others. That it, therefore, was
incumbent upon the Carthaginians not more to inquire by what means
they had lost Spain, than to consider how they might retain possession
of Africa. That it was not from a desire to visit foreign countries,
or to roam about delightful coasts, that so great a Roman captain,
leaving a recently subdued province, and his armies, had crossed over
into Africa with only two ships, entering an enemy's territory, and
committing himself to the untried honour of the king, but in pursuance
of a hope he had conceived of subduing Africa. That it had been long
the object of his anxious solicitude, and had drawn from him open
expressions of his indignatio