Asbyte is introduced in the poem as a princess of the Marmarica and an ally to Hannibal during the Siege of Saguntum. She is described as a follower of the goddess Diana who enjoyed hunting, riding horses and warring with rival Libyan tribes, who led an entire contingent of Libyan horsewomen and female war charioteers, though not all virgins like her. According to the poem, Asbyte's forces were deployed against a sally of the Saguntines, during which they scored multiple deaths with their javelins. A Cretan mercenary archer named Mopsus tried to kill her from the city, but only hit her Nasamonic lieutenant Harpe, which provoked a response in which Mopsus's sons were killed in the walls, driving him to suicide. Afterwards, the priest of Heracles of the city, Theron, gave Asbyte chase, and eventually killed her when she tried to attack him. Theron was then killed by Hannibal's forces, who recovered Asbyte's beheaded corpse and looted chariot.