3-002-482 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Scipio Africanus Freeing Massiva, 1719-1721. As described by the Roman historian Livy (1st century BCE), the youthful Massiva was the nephew of Masinissa, king of Numidia in present-day Algeria who had supported Carthage against the romans commanded by Scipio Africanus (a Roman general so known because of his conquests in North Africa). Massiva was captured by the Romans on the battlefied in North Africa in 209 BCE and brought before Scipio. When Scipio learned the youth's identity, he chastized him for not obeying his uncle and staying off the battlefield. Scipio could had had him sold as a slave but instead he sent the youth back to his uncle for punishment but laden with gifts. The Numidian king and general was so impressed by this act of clemency and the moral code behind it that he went over to the side of the Romans and helped turn the tide of history.