Tom Holland

So as a teenager, he had kind of had the beating of Sifax and that was what had then enabled him to travel to Spain and fight for the Carthaginians.

But he's now come back and Sifax is still on the scene and still causing all kinds of trouble.

And the fact that Massinissa has come back to Africa as an ally of the Romans means that Syphax, who previously had been an ally of the Romans, has now obviously swung around and become an ally of the Carthaginians.

I know.

Absolute scenes.

So she is the daughter of a Carthaginian general whose name, it will stun listeners to learn, is Hasdrubal.

Unless you're called Hannibal or Mago, your name is Hasrabel.

And he had been serving in Spain alongside Hasdrubal Barca.

So he was in command of one of those three armies camped out in what was going to become Lisbon when Scipio captured New Carthage.

He's gone back to Carthage and he's become the leading figure in the Carthaginian Senate.

And he's, now that Hasdrubal and Mago are both dead, he's basically the best general the Carthaginians have with the exception of Hannibal.

And this isn't really to say much.

So Fabius Maximus, I mean,

very bitchy, described him as a general who best displayed his speed in retreat.

So not promising.

Anyway, Hasdrubal has this daughter, Sophonisba.

And Sophonisba is very smart, very beautiful, very, very patriotic.

And Hasdrubal says to Sophonisba, look,

It is your duty to go and marry Syphax and to get a meeting out of your hand and to make sure that he remains as a loyal ally of Carthage.

And so Sophonisba does her duty.