[-3-] He was still in this situation when one Publius Sittius (if we ought to call it him, and not the Divine Power) brought at one stroke salvation and victory.  This man had been exiled from Italy, and had taken along some fellow-exiles:  after crossing over into Mauritania he collected a band and was general under Bocchus.  Though he had no benefit from Caesar to start with, and although in general he was not known to him, he undertook to share in the war and to help him to overcome the existing difficulty.  Accordingly he bore no direct aid to Caesar himself, for he heard that the latter was at a distance and thought that his own assistance (for he had no large body of troops) would prove of small value to him.  It was Juba whom he watched start out on his expedition, and then he invaded Numidia, which along with Gaetulia (likewise a part of Juba’s dominion) he harried so completely that the king gave up the project before him and turned back in the midst of his journey with most of his army; some of it he had sent off to Scipio.  This fact made it as evident as one could wish that if Juba had also come up, Caesar would never have withstood the two.  He did not so much as venture to join issue with Scipio alone at once, because he stood in terrible dread of the elephants (among other things), partly on account of their fighting abilities, but still more because they were forever throwing his cavalry into confusion. [-4-] Therefore, while keeping as strict a watch over the camp as he could, Caesar sent to Italy for soldiers and elephants.  He did not count on the latter for any considerable military achievement (since there were not many of them) but intended that the horses, by becoming accustomed to the sight and sound of them, should learn for the future not to fear at all those belonging to the enemy.

Meanwhile, also, the Gaetulians came over to his side, with some others of the neighboring tribes.  The latter’s reasons for this step were, first,—­the persuasion of the Gaetuli, who, they heard, had been greatly honored, and second, the fact that they remembered Marius, who was a relative of Caesar.  When this had occurred, and his auxiliaries from Italy in spite of delay and danger caused by bad weather and hostile agents had nevertheless accomplished the passage, he did not rest a moment.  On the contrary he was eager for the conflict, looking to annihilate Scipio in advance of Juba’s arrival, and moved forward against him in the direction of a city called Uzitta, where he took up his quarters on a certain crest overlooking both the city and the enemy’s camp, having first dislodged those who were holding it.  Soon after this he chased Scipio, who had attacked him, away from this higher ground, and by charging down behind him with his cavalry did some damage.

This position accordingly he held and fortified; and he took another on the other side of the city by dislodging Labienus from it; after which he walled off the entire town.  For Scipio, fearing lest his own power be spent too soon, would no longer risk a battle with Caesar, but sent for Juba.  And when the latter repeatedly failed to obey his summons he (Scipio) promised to relinquish to him all the rights that the Romans had in Africa.  At that, Juba appointed others to have charge of the operations against Sittius, and once more started out himself against Caesar.