He had been taken and had escaped; he had been retaken, and had worked in the quarries, panted in the vapour-baths, shrieked under torture, passed through the hands of many masters, and experienced every frenzy.

At last, one day, in despair, he had flung himself into the sea from the top of a trireme where he was working at the oar.

Some of Hamilcar's sailors had picked him up when at the point of death, and had brought him to the ergastulum of Megara, at Carthage.

But, as fugitives were to be given back to the Romans, he had taken advantage of the confusion to fly with the soldiers.
During the whole of the march he remained near Matho; he brought him food, assisted him to dismount, and spread a carpet in the evening beneath his head.

Matho at last was touched by these attentions, and by degrees unlocked his lips.
He had been born in the gulf of Syrtis.