The Ephelid painting "Masensen" and the Carthaginian beauty "Sophonisba"
The Ephelid's painting "Massons" and the Carthaginian beauty "Sophonisba" drinking a cup of poison are painted on the walls of the "Palazzo Pitti" palace in Florence, Italy.
Here is the full story that the painting expresses
Two centuries after the birth of Christ, a young man named Masinissa, no more than seventeen years old, was the son of the ruler of a principality in the Numidian region named Gaia. Gaia sent his son Masinissa to Carthage to learn the arts of war. There he will fall in love with Sophonisba Hasdrubel, the most beautiful girl of her time: tenderness, pride, charm, and affection. It belonged to the family of the great Hannibal (Hannibal), the well-known leader of the Carthaginians. Messenisa proposed to Sophonisba, who broke his heart and enchanted his mind.
Although her Carthaginian father, Hasdrubel, hated the Numidians, he accepted the matter in the face of the strength, intelligence, genius, and boldness of the Amazigh young man. Messenisa was a giant, with a strong build, and there was no one like him who was skilled at riding a horse, carrying a sword, and hitting a spear. In addition, he rose up and learned the Latin and Greek languages, in addition to his mother tongue, Amazigh .
The North African region, especially Numidia, benefited from the tense political situation between the Romans and the Carthaginians, as some Amazigh kingdoms allied themselves either with the first party (the Romans) or the second party (the Carthaginians). In the first, Masinissa fought alongside the Carthaginian leader Hasdrubel, with whom he was an ally, and together they defeated the Numidian king of Mazasiliy, Syphax. . After that, Masinissa immigrated to Spain to support General Hannibal, who was then besieging the Roman general Shipon, nicknamed the Archduke, due to his extensive knowledge and culture. During this period in the year 219 BC, Hannibal began crossing the Alps. In a military campaign during which 37 combat elephants were transported. But the elephants died, as did many of his men, and Hannibal remained waiting for military supplies to arrive from Carthage, but they did not arrive. So his campaign failed and he returned to Carthage.
During this absence, the defeated Numidian king Syphax gathered his forces and besieged Carthage. In the face of the siege, the Carthaginians decided to make peace with Syphax and married him off to Messenisa's fiancée, the beautiful Sophonisba, and broke their covenant with Masinissa. As soon as the news arrived of the marriage of his fiancée Sophonisba to his arch enemy Syphax, Messenissa became furious. He frowned and was saddened by the ingratitude and changed his alliance in retaliation from an ally of the Carthaginians to an ally of the Romans.
During 202 BC, the Roman army led by General Cibon and the Numidian army led by Masinissa defeated the Carthaginian army and the Masinissa army. During the attack, they killed thousands of Carthaginian and western Numidian soldiers, and they took thousands of horses and a number of elephants that were used in wars. But Sophonisba became the lover of Masinissa’s heart, and, alas, Among the Roman prisoners. Masinissa flew to her aid and marry her after not seeing her for four years. But the Romans insisted on taking her prisoner to Rome instead of surrendering her to their Amazigh ally. Sophonisba found it easy to die in her country in Africa instead of living in the humiliation and humiliation of captivity, so she decided to commit suicide. Sophonisba drank poison to die, and her love remains a permanent prick in the heart of the leader Messenisa.
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