Sophonisba (Thomson play)

Sophonisba is a 1730 verse drama tragedy by the British writer James Thomson.^[1] The play is written in blank verse. It is based on the story of the Carthaginian noblewoman Sophonisba who committed suicide rather than be paraded in a Roman triumph at the end of the Second Punic War.^[2] The story has been made into a number of plays including Nathaniel Lee's restoration tragedy Sophonisba and Voltaire's later Sophonisbe.

The original Drury Lane cast included Robert Wilks as Masinissa, John Mills as Syphax, Charles Williams as Scipio, John Roberts as Narva, Roger Bridgewater as Laelius and Anne Oldfield as Sophonisba.