Tom Holland

And so Fabius essentially steps down and the conservatives very reluctantly give him the green light.

No, he's followed all the rules.

He has this post as a paymaster.

He's a quaestor, it's called.

So he's responsible for keeping an eye on Scipio's spending.

And that is absolutely the kind of role that someone of his age should have.

You know, he's not swanning around like a console with long hair and talking about snakes.

He is performatively conservative.

That means that he's absolutely not a Scipio soulmate.

But of course, waiting for Scipio in Africa is a guy who absolutely is a Scipio soulmate.

And that is his old mate, Massinissa.

So we met him in the previous episode.

He's a Numidian king.

Yes.

who had fought in Spain, first of all for the Carthaginians, and had then changed sides and become a big ally of Scipio and Rome.

And Massanissa has every reason to welcome Scipio's arrival with open arms, because Massanissa

Just as Rome is engaged in a death struggle with Carthage, Massinissa is engaged in a death struggle of his own.

Because people who listened to our last episode may remember, he is not the only Numidian king.

There is another king who leads his own federation of Numidian tribes, and this is a guy called Syphax.

Massanissa has been fighting him all his life.