From Book 49

[49.1] [149] The beginning of the Third Punic War was in the six hundred and second year after the founding of Rome, and came to an end five years after its beginning 

[49.2] Between Marcus Porcius Cato and Scipio Nasica, of which the former was the most intelligent man in the city and the latter considered to be the best man in the Senate, was a debate of opposing opinions, in which Cato argued for and Nasica against war and the removal and sack of Carthage.

[49.3] It was decided to declare war on Carthage, because the Carthaginians had, contrary to the treaty, ships, because they had sent an army outside their territory, because they had waged war against Massinissa, an ally and friend of the Roman people, and because they had refused to receive in their city Massinissa's son Gulussa (who had been with the Roman envoys).

[49.4] Before any troops had boarded their ships, Utican envoys came to Rome, to surrender themselves and everything they owned.

[49.5] This embassy was received as a good omen by the senators, and as a bad omen in Carthage.

[49.6] The games of Dis Pater took place at the Tarentum, in accordance with the [Sibylline] Books. Similar festivities had taken place hundred year before, at the beginning of the First Punic War, in the five hundred and second year since the founding of the city.

[49.7] Thirty envoys came to Rome to surrender Carthage.

[49.8] Cato's opinion prevailed that the declaration of war was to be maintained and that the consuls, as had been agreed, would proceed to the front.

[49.9] When they had crossed into Africa, they received the three hundred hostages they had demanded and all the weapons and war engines that were in Carthage, and demanded on the authority of the Senate that the Carthaginians rebuilt their city on another site, which was to be no less than fifteen kilometers from the sea. These offensive demands forced the Carthaginians to war.

[49.10] The beginning of the siege and the attack of Carthage were organized by consuls Lucius Marcius [Censorinus] and Manius Manilius. 

[49.11] During the siege, two tribunes rashly broke through a carelessly defended wall and suffered greatly from the inhabitants, but were relieved by Scipio Orfitianus [Africanus].

[49.12] With the help of a few cavalry, he also relieved a Roman fort that had been attacked by night, and he received the greatest glory from the liberation of Roman camps which the Carthaginians, sallying in full force from the city, vigorously attacked.

[49.13] Besides, when the consul (his colleague had returned to Rome for the elections) led the army against Hasdrubal (who had occupied with many troops an inaccessible pass), he convinced the consul first not to attack on this inaccessible place.

[49.14] However, the opinions of the others, who were jealous of his intelligence and valor, prevailed, and he entered the pass himself,

[49.15] and when - as he had predicted - the Roman army was defeated and routed and two subunits were besieged by the enemy, he returned with a few cavalry squadrons, relieved them, and brought them back unharmed.

[49.16] In the Senate, his valor was praised by even Cato, a man whose tongue was better suited for criticism, but now said that the others fighting in Africa were mere spirits, whereas Scipio was alive; and the Roman people received him with so much enthusiasm that most districts elected him as consul, although his age did not allow this.

[49.17] When Lucius Scribonius, a tribune of the plebs, proposed a law that the Lusitanians, who had surrendered to the Roman people but had been sold [into slavery] by Servius [Sulpicius] Galba in Gaul, would be liberated, Marcus Porcius Cato supported him energetically.

[49.18] (His speech still exists and is included in his Annals.)

[49.19] Quintus Fulvius Nobilior, who had often been assailed by Cato in the Senate, spoke for Galba; and Galba himself, seeing that he was about to be condemned, embracing his two young sons and the son of Sulpicius Gallus, whose guardian he was, spoke so pitiably in his own defense, that the case was abandoned.

[49.20] (Three of his speeches still exist: two against tribune Libo in the Lusitanian case, and one against Lucius Cornelius Cethegus, in which he admits that during a truce, he had massacred the Lusitanians near his camp because, as he explains, he had found out that they had sacrificed a man and a horse, which according to their custom meant that they were preparing an attack.)

[49.21] A certain Andriscus, a man of the lowest kind, pretending to be a son of king Perseus, changed his name into Philip, and secretly fled from the city of Rome, to which king Demetrius [I Soter] of Syria had sent him, precisely because of this lie; many people were attracted by his false story (as if it were true), he gathered an army and occupied all of Macedonia, whether the people wanted it or not.

[49.22] He told the following story: born as the son of king Perseus and a courtesan, he had been handed over for education to a certain Cretan, so that, in this situation of war against the Romans, some scion of the royal stock would survive.

[49.23] Without knowledge of his family and believing that the man who taught him was his father, he had been educated at Adramyttion until he was twelve years old.

[49.24] When this man fell ill and was close to the end of his life, he finally told Andriscus about his origin and gave his "mother" a writing that had been sealed by king Perseus, which she should give the boy when he reached maturity, and the teacher added that everything had to be kept secret until that moment.

[49.25] When he reached maturity, Andriscus received the writing, from which he learned that his father had left him two treasures.

[49.26] Until then he had only known that he was a foster son and had been unaware about his real ancestry; now his foster mother told him about his lineage and begged him to avoid being assassinated by departing from the country before the news reached [king] Eumenes [II Soter of Pergamon], an enemy of Perseus.

[49.27] Frightened and hoping to obtain assistance from Demetrius, he went to Syria, where he had declared for the first time who he was.