She held influence over the Numidian political landscape, convincing king Syphax to change sides during the war, and later, in an act that became legendary, she poisoned herself rather than be humiliated in a Roman triumph.

[3] This interpretation is adopted by later authors, like the playwrights Thomas Nabbes and Nathaniel Lee, who conversely emphasize the North African, Berber origins of Masinissa and Syphax.

However, the Carthaginian Senate prohibited the wedding and ordered Sophonisba to marry Syphax, chieftain of the western Masaesyli, who up to that point had been allied to Rome.

Diodorus Siculus called her "comely in appearance, a woman of many varied moods, and one gifted with the ability to bind men to her service,"[7] while Cassius Dio states she had a high education in music and literature and was "clever, ingratiating, and altogether so charming that the mere sight of her or even the sound of her voice sufficed to vanquish every one, even the most indifferent.

However, after hearing claims (confirmed by Gaius Laelius's inquiries)[10] that Syphax had acted against Rome under the influence of Sophonisba, Scipio refused to agree to this arrangement, fearing she would turn Masinissa against him as well.

[11] On the other hand, Plutarch considers Scipio asked for Sophonisba's delivery for safety reasons, fearing Masinissa could torment her in revenge for her marriage to Syphax.

The first to appear, however, was Gian Giorgio Trissino's play of 1515 which, "in codifying the forms of Italian classical tragedy, helped consign Del Carretto's Sofonisba to oblivion.

The story of Sophonisba also served as subject for dramatic works by John Marston (1606), David Murray (1610), Nathaniel Lee (1676), Daniel Caspar von Lohenstein (1680), James Thomson (1729), François Joseph Lagrange-Chancel, revised by Voltaire (1770), Vittorio Alfieri (1789), Emanuel Geibel (1869), Jeronim de Rada (1892), Giuseppe Brunati [it] (1904), Vasco Graça Moura (1993), and others.

Lastly, she appears as an estranged lover of the East Numidian Prince Masinissa married to Syphax against her will in the manga Ad Astra – Scipio to Hannibal.