Two french tragedies of sophonisbe

The fascinating story of the Numidian queen Sophonisbe (235-203 BCE) naturally commanded the attention of Roman historians, most notably Livy and Appian, given the strategic importance of her role towards the end of the second Punic war (218-202 BCE). That role, conferred by her position as daughter of the Carthaginian general Hasdrubal, was played out through successive marriages to two rival kings of Numidian factions, Syphax and Massinissa, who were both implicated in shifting intrigues and alliances with the invading Roman forces under the famed general Scipio (later surnamed Africanus). The historians could hardly neglect, moreover, the intensely fraught human dimension of her relations with her husbands, especially Massinissa, who finally fulfilled her wish to facilitate her death rather than face humiliating captivity under Roman rule. The potential for her portrayal as a tragic heroine, whose life and death had much in common with Cleopatra, was further enhanced by the liter