I. It is the unfounded complaint of mankind that they are naturally weak and short-lived, and that it is chance, not merit, that rules their destiny. So far is this from the truth, that consideration will show that nothing surpasses or excels our nature, and that it is rather energy that is lacking to it than power or length of days. It is mind that is the guide and commander of life in mortal men. Where this advances to glory along the path of virtue, its powers, resources, and renown are ample without the help of fortune; for uprightness, activity, and other good qualities, fortune can neither give nor take away. Where, on the other hand, it has become the slave of low passions and has succumbed to sloth and bodily pleasures, a short submission to the fatal influence of lust suffices to fritter away strength, opportunities, and intellect, in idleness, and then the weakness of our nature receives the blame, and the doers charge circumstances with the defect that lies in themselves. Were men but as anxious in an honorable cause as they are zealous in the pursuit of matters of no concern or profit, and often even attended with danger [and ill effects], they would be as much the masters as the slaves of destiny, and would attain to such a pitch of greatness as would make them, as far as mortal men may be, undying in their glory.

   II. Men are made up of body and soul; hence all their fortunes and passions follow in some cases the character of their body, in others that of their mind. Beauty of person and greatness of wealth, with bodily strength, and all other blessings of this kind, are soon spent, but the noble achievements of genius are as eternal as the soul itself. Moreover, in the case of blessings of body or of fortune, as is the beginning so is the end. They no sooner are risen then they begin to fall, and decay from the moment of their prime. The mind is pure and eternal; itself ungoverned, as the guide of man, it moves and governs all things. Hence we may be the more astonished at the degradation of those who surrender themselves to bodily pleasures, and spend their life in luxury and sloth, while they allow the intellect, the best and noblest factor in man's nature, to become inert from indolence and neglect; and this, too, when the qualities of mind by which the highest renown may be won, are so many and diverse.
   Of these pursuits, however, magistracies and military commands, or in fact any share in the public administration, seem to me at the present time far from desirable, since the honors of office are refused to merit, while those who attain them either by knavery or force gain nothing in security nor yet in distinction.

   III. To govern country or parents by force, even where such rule is possible, and is used for the correction of crime, is yet a grievous matter, especially when every revolution is the sure forerunner of massacres, banishments, and the other horrors of war. On the other hand, to labor without result, and seek no other reward for toil than unpopularity, is the height of madness, except, perhaps, for those who are mastered by a disgraceful and fatal impulse to sacrifice their own honor and freedom to the power of a clique.

   IV. Among the tasks that occupy the intellect, historical narration holds a prominent and useful place. As its merits have been often extolled, I think it best to leave them unmentioned, and thus escape any imputation of arrogantly exalting myself by praise of my own pursuit. And yet I have no doubt that there will be some who, because I have determined to pass my life at a distance from public affairs, will apply the name of indolence to my long and useful task. At any rate, the men to whom it seems the height of energy to court the mob, and buy favor by their public entertainments, will do so. These I would ask to remember the character of the men who were unsuccessful as candidates at the times when I obtained my several offices, and the class who subsequently gained admittance to the Senate; if they do this they will certainly consider that my change of determination was dictated by sound reason rather than by sloth, and that more profit is likely to accrue to the state from my leisure than from the activity of others. I have often heard that Quintus Maximus, Publius Scipio, and, besides these, other illustrious citizens of our state, were wont to remark that as they gazed upon the effigies of their ancestors their spirits were strongly stirred to the practice of virtue. It was not the wax or outward form, they said, that possess this power, but the memory of gallant deeds that kindled a fire in the breasts of brave men that cannot be quenched until their own merit has rivalled their ancestors' fame and renown. As matters now are, is there a single man who does not prefer to vie with his ancestors in wealth and expenditure rather than in probity and energy? Even the men of no family, who formerly when they won a victory over the nobility, won it by superior merit, now struggle into honors and commands by intrigue and violence, rather than by any honorable qualities, and seem to think that the praetorship, consulship, and other high offices, possess an intrinsic renown and splendor, instead of being only esteemed according to the merits of their occupants. I have wandered, however, too far afield in my sorrow and shame at my country's degradation; I now return to my task.

   V. I am about to write a history of the war which the Roman people carried on with Jugurth, king of the Numidians, in the first place because it was a great and severe contest, waged with varying success; and in the second, because resistance was then for the first time made to the pride of the nobility, and this struggle threw all things, both human and divine, into confusion, and reached such a pitch of fury that admi the passions of her citizens war and devastation made an end of Italy. But, before I set forth how these things began, I will touch on a few points of earlier history, that my whole narrative may be clearer and more open to the view.
   In the second Punic war, in which the Carthaginian general Hannibal had inflicted the severest blow that the resources of Italy had received since the Roman power became supreme, Massinissa, king of the Numidians, was admitted to our friendship by Publius Scipio, whose merits subsequently gained him the title "Africanus." He achieved many brilliant military successes, and after the conquest of the Carthaginians, and the capture of Sufax, whose rule was powerful in Africa, and of wide extent, was rewarded by the Roman people with a gift of all the cities and lands which they had conquered. Thus favored, Massinissa ever remained our loyal and honorable friend, and at last his authority and his life came to a common conclusion.
   After Massinissa's death, his son Micipsa, whose brothers, Mastanabal and Gulussa, had been removed by disease, succeeded to the throne. He had two sons of his own, Adherbal and Hiempsal, and also reared in the palace, on equal terms with his own children, Jugurtha, his brother Mastanabal's natural son, who, on account of his birth, had been left by Massinissa in a private position.

   VI. Powerful in frame, and of handsome appearance, but especially remarkable for mental ability, Jugurtha, on arriving at manhood, did not abandon himself to the seductions of luxury and sloth, but took part in the national pursuits of riding and marksmanship, vied with his fellows in the race, and, while surpassing all in glory, at the same time won every heart. He passed much of his time in hunting, and was the first, or among the first, to wound the lion and other prey; yet, while thus prominent in action, he was the last to talk about himself. Jugurtha's behavior at first delighted Micipsa, who thought that his merit would add lustre to his own rule. When, however, he marked his nephew in the prime of life ever rising in importance, while his own existence was now near its close, and his children were still young, he was greatly disquieted, and turned over in his mind many remedies. He was terrified as he thought of man's innate lust for power and rashness in indulging his heart's desire, and reflected, besides, how his own and his children's age offered the favorable chance which leads even unambitious men astray in the hope of gain. He saw, too, that the affection of the Numidians was kindled towards Jugurtha, and he was distracted by the fear that to make away with a man of such distinction might occasion riots or even war.

   VII. Beset by these difficulties, he saw that a man who had so won the favor of his countrymen could not be crushed either by violence or craft, and since Jugurtha was ready of hand and eager for military renown, he determined to expose him to danger, and in this way to see if fortune would help him.
   In pursuance of this plan, Micipsa, on sending to Spain a contingent of Numidian foot and horse to the help of the Roman people in the Numantine war, placed Jugurtha in command of this force, in the hope he would meet his death, either in some display of his own courage or by the fierceness of the enemy. The issue, however, of his plans was very different to what he had expected. Jugurtha, such was the energy and activity of his nature, had no sooner acquainted himself with the character of Publius Scipio, who was at that time in command of the Roman troops, and with the quality of the enemy, than, by dint of exertion and forethought, by the most unassuming obedience, and by the frequency with which he exposed himself to risk, he had quickly won such distinction as to be the darling of our soldiers and the greatest terror of the Numantines. He achieved, indeed, that most difficult task of uniting vigor in battle with a sound discretion, though the one in its foresight so often breeds terror, and the other in its boldness too rash a hardihood. The general was thus led to employ Jugurtha in nearly every task of difficulty; he ranked him among his friends, and daily became more attached to him as a man whose advice and enterprise were ever attended with success. Jugurtha had also a generous temper, and a tact by which he at once united many of the Romans to himself on terms of intimacy.

   VIII. Just at this time there were in our army many men, some of illustrious, some of undistinguished descent, with whom riches weighed more than virtue and honor. By their intrigues at Rome, and their influence over the allies, they had attained prominence rather than distinction, and now began to incite the aspiring spirit of Jugurtha by promises that, on the death of King Micipsa, he should have sole possession of the kingdom of Numidia. His own merit, they told him, was of the highest order, and at Rome there was nothing that could not be bought. At last Numantia was destroyed, and Publius Scipio determined to dismiss the contingents of the allies and return home. After awarding the most distinguished presents and praises to Jugurtha in a public assembly, he took him apart to his own quarters, and there privately advised him to seek the friendship of the Roman people rather publicly than through individuals, and to avoid the habit of bribing anybody. It was a dangerous matter, he said, to buy from the few the favor which rested with the many. If he would be content to preserve in the exercise of his talents, glory and dominion would come to him of themselves; should he hasten too eagerly to power, his own money would ensure his ruin.

   IX. After this speech Scipio dismissed him with a letter for Micipsa. Its purport was as follows:--"In the Numantine war the merits of Jugurtha have been pre-eminent; at this I am sure you will rejoice. To me his services have so endeared him that I shall use every effort to recommend him as strongly to the Roman Senate and people. Receive my congratulations, as our friendship demands. In Jugurtha you have a kinsman worthy alike of yourself and of his grandfather Massinissa." The king, on finding the reports he had heard thus confirmed by the general's letter, was impressed both by the merits of Jugurtha and the favor which he had won. He now changed his purpose, and endeavored to win him by active kindness, adopted him at once, and in his will appointed him his heir on an equal footing with his own sons.
   A few years passed, and then, worn out by illness and old age, Micipsa perceived that his end was at hand. In the presence of his friends and kinsmen, as well as of his sons Adherbal and Hiempsal, he is said to have addressed Jugurtha somewhat as follows:--

   X. "As a child, Jugurtha, you lost your father and were left without hopes or fortune. I received you into the royal family under the belief that my kindness would make me as dear to you as though you had been my son, and the result has not disappointed me. To pass over your other great and noble exploits, quite lately on your return from Numantia, the glory you had won shed fresh lustre on myself and my kingdom, and your merits drew our ties of friendship with Rome still nearer. You have renewed the fame of our line in Spain; and, lastly, have achieved the hardest of tasks--you have conquered envy by your renown. Nature is bringing my life to an end, and now, by this right hand, by the honor of a king, I warn and adjure you to hold dear these boys who are your kinsmen by descent, your brothers by my favor. Do not choose the novel friendship of strangers instead of maintaining the established alliance of blood. The bulwarks of empire are not armies or treasures, but friends, and friendship can neither be compelled by force nor won by money, but only by service and loyalty. And has friendship a closer than that of brother to brother; can you hope to find loyalty in a stranger if you turn traitor to your kin? My part is done in assigning my kingdom to you and them. If you act uprightly it will be strong, if treacherous, you will find it weak. By harmony, fortunes grow from small to great; by discord the greatest melt to nothing. It becomes you, Jugurtha, rather than these boys, as their superior in years and wisdom, to guard against any ill result; for in every contest the stronger, even when attacked, is made by his greater power to seem the aggressor. For you, Adherbal and Hiempsal, I bid you respect and esteem the great qualities of Jugurtha. Make his virtues your model and strive that I may not seem more fortunate in the son of my adoption than in those I have begotten."

   XI. Jugurtha was aware of the hollowness of the king's words, and the views that occupied his own thoughts were very different. He made, however, a kind reply as the occasion demanded. A few days afterward Micipsa died.
   After burying him with all the splendor of a royal funeral, the princes met together for a discussion among themselves of matters in general. Hiempsal, the youngest, was of a headstrong disposition, and had long looked down on Jugurtha for his low descent on his mother's side. On this occasion he took his seat on the right of Adherbal to prevent Jugurtha holding the middle place, which the Numidians consider the seat of honor. His brother importuned him to give to superior age, and at last, though with great reluctance, he crossed over to the other side. A discussion ensued on many points of administration, and Jugurtha, among other proposals, suggested that it would be well to cancel all the edicts and decrees of the last five years, on the ground that during that period Micipsa had been so weakened by age as to have little mental power. On this Hiempsal replied that he was of the same opinion himself, for it was only within the last three years that Jugurtha, by his adoption, had been admitted to authority. This remark sank deeper into Jugurtha's breast than anyone thought at the time. Thenceforth, distracted by anger and fear, he intrigued, planned, and indeed devoted his whole attention to plots for treacherously seizing Hiempsal. These schemes progressed but slowly; this, however, did nothing to soften his savage spirit, and he determined to carry out his design by any means that offered.

   XII. At that first meeting between the princes which I have mentioned, they had determined, as a safeguard against disputes, to divide the treasures and to settle the limits of their several dominions. A date was fixed for each of these measures, but the division of the money was to be made first. Meanwhile the princes retired to different places in the neighborhood of the treasury, and it so happened that Hiempsal, who was in the town of Thermida, occupied the house of a man who had acted as Jugurtha's nearest attendant, and had always been esteemed and favored by him. Finding this instrument offered him by chance, Jugurtha loaded him with promises, and induced him on pretense of visiting his own property to go to his house and procure copies of the keys to the gates, as the true ones were always delivered to Hiempsal; for the rest, he said, that on a fitting opportunity he woudl come in person with a strong body of followers. The Numidian soon executed his orders, and, according to his instructions, admitted Jugurtha's soldiers by night. They burst into the house and searched for the king in every direction, killing some of his attendants as they slept and others as they ran out to mmet them, ransacking every recess, breaking bars and bolts, and with their noise and tumult causing a general confusion. In the midst of this, Hiempsal was found hiding in the hut of a female slave, whither at the outset he had fled in his fright and ignorance of the place. The Numidians, according to their orders, conveyed his head to Jugurtha.

   XIII. The news of so great an outrage was quickly spread throughout Africa, and fear came upon Adherbal and upon all who had lived under the rule of Micipsa. The Numidians separated into two parties, the larger of which followed Adherbal, while the more warlike joined his rival. Jugurtha armed as large forces as he could, won over the cities to his government, in some cases by force, in others with their own consent, and prepared to assert his rule over all Numidia. Meantime Adherbal had dispatched an embassy to Rome to inform the Senate of his brother's murder and his own position, but, trusting in the numbers of his troops, was also preparing for open war. He was soon defeated in a pitched battle, and fled from the field into the Roman province, and subsequently to Rome itself. Jugurtha had attained his end; and now that he had gained possession of all Numidia, had leisure to reflect on the nature of his conduct. He feared the Roman people, and had no other hope of defense against their anger than was afforded by the cupidity of the nobles and his own wealth. In the course, therefore, of a few days, he dispatched ambassadors to Rome with a large sum in silver and gold, and instructions that after loading his early friends with presents they should proceed to gain him new ones, and, in fine, should be zealous in enlisting every ally whom money could procure. The ambassadors reached Rome, and, in accordance with their instructions, sent large presents to the king's old friends, and to others whose influence was at that time powerful in the Senate, and thus produced such a change of feeling as raised Jugurtha from the greatest unpopularity into the favor and good-will of the nobility. Some of these incited by the hope, others by the actual receipt of a payment, strove by canvassing individual senators to prevent any really serious steps being taken against him. As soon, therefore, as the ambassadors felt sufficiently assured, a day was fixed, and the Senate gave a hearing to both parties. I have been informed that on this occasion Adherbal spoke to the following effect:--

   XIV. "Senators, my father Micipsa charged me on his deathbed to account only the administration of the kingdom of Numidia as my own, the real authority and supremacy as belonging to you. At the same time he bade me strive both in peace and war to serve the Roman people to the utmost of my power, and to regard you in the place of relations and kin. If I did this, your friendship, he told me, would serve instead of armies and treasures as the safeguard of my kingdom. I was acting in obedience to my father's commands when Jugurtha, the blackest villain on the face of the earth, in defiance of your government, drove me, the grandson of Massinissa, and, by my very descent, the friend and ally of the Roman people, from my kingdom and all my possessions."
   "Senators, since I was fated to reach this depth of distress, I could wish that I was able to claim your help on the strength of personal, not of ancestral services; if possible, that the Roman people should have owed me, for benefits received, a requital I had no need to ask; or, at least, that if I needed your services, I might have received them as my due. But unaided innocence is poorly secured from danger; the character of Jugurtha it was not mine to shape; and so, Senators, I fly to you for refuge, to whom it is the bitterest part of my fate that I must be a burden before I can be a help."
   "All other kings were admitted to your friendship after being conquered in war, or sought your alliance when their own fate was in the balance. My familiy formed its friendship with the Roman people in the Carthaginian war, when we could hope to find in you no more than a loyal though luckless ally. Of these old confederates I am the descendant, and I bid you not to allow me, the grandson of Massinissa, to ask your help in vain."
   "Had I no other plea to support my request than my pitiable fortunes, that I, who but yesterday was a king, rich in ancestry, in renown, and in resources, am now overcast with misery and become a needy suppliant for foreign help, it would yet accord with the dignity of the Roman people to prevent the wrong and to refuse to allow any man to increase his kingdom by crime. But the realm from which I am ousted is that which the Roman people granted to my ancestors, that from which my father and grandfather united with you in expelling Sufax and the Carthaginians. It is the gift of the Senate of which I have been robbed; it is you who are contemned in the wrong I suffer."
   "Miserable man that I am! Has your kindness, Micipsa my father, resulted in this, that the man whom you made the equal of your children, and joint heir of your kingdom--that he, of all others, is to be the destroyer of your race? Is our family never to be at peace? Must our lot be always one of blood, of battle, and of flight? While the power of Carthage was unbroken, we suffered every cruelty as our natural due. The enemy was close at hand; you, our allies, were far away; our only hope lay in our swords. That plague-spot was rooted out of Africa, and we were enjoying the delights of peace, as men who had no enemies, except those whom you might haply bid us regard as such, when, of a sudden, Jugurtha came upon us, overweening and reckless. In a burst of insolence and crime he murdered my brother, his own cousin, and then began by seizing kingdom as the reward of his guilt. When he found that the same device failed to put me in his power, he drove me, when prepared for anything rather than violence and war, into exile, as you see, in your dominions, far from country and home. He has heaped want and misery upon me, and has rendered me anywhere safer than in my own kingdom. Senators, I placed my faith in a maxim which I once heard my father deliver, that those who diligently cherished your friendship took to themselves, it was true, many a toil, but enjoyed in return an unequalled safety. That side of the agreement which it lay with our family to perform we have carried out; we have fought by your side in all your wars; it lies with you, Senators, to secure our safety in time of peace."
   "My father left behind him two sons, my brother and myself, and thought that his kindness would unite Jugurtha to us as a third. Of my co-heirs, the one has been murdered, and I myself have hardly escaped the wicked hands of the other. What am I to do? Whither in my misfortune were it best for me to fly? Every support of my family has perished. My father has paid the inevitable debt to nature. My brother, who little deserved such a fate, has been foully slain by his cousin. All my family, connected with me by blood or by marriage, have been overwhelmed by some form of destruction. Of those made prisoners by Jugurtha, some have been sent to the cross, others thrown to wild beasts, and the few who are still allowed to breathe are immured in darkness, and, amid sorrow and lamentation, drag out a life more bitter than death."
   "Had I still all the supporters whom I have lost, or who have deserted me for the enemy, yet, were any sudden calamity to befall me, I should still invoke the aid of your House, for the greatness of your dominion makes right and wrong throughout the earth your care. But being, as I am, an outcast from my country and my home, alone, and lacking every appurtenance of my rank, whither shall I go, to whom shall I take my prayer? To the races and beings whose enmity my family has earned by its friendship for you? Is there any land I can approach where my ancestors have not left memorials in numbers of their hostility? Is there any that can have compassion for me, who has been at any time an enemy of Rome?"
   "Finally, Senators, Massinissa laid down for us this rule, that we should seek the friendship of no people save the Roman, form no fresh alliances or engagements. In your friendship, he said, we should find protection sufficient for every need; and, should the fortunes of your empire change, it was our duty to share your fall. By your valor, and the favor of heaven, you are great and wealthy. All things are favorable, all nations obedient to you, and so it is the easier for you to make the sufferings of your allies your care."
   "One thing and one only do I fear, and this is lest some be led astray by a private friendship for Jugurtha, which they have not yet had time to prove. I hear that his envoys are using every exertion, and are canvassing and importuning you, man by man, to come to no decision against the accused in his absence, and before the case has been investigated, and asserting that I come here with a lying tale, and playing the part of an exile when at liberty to remain in my kingdom. Would that I may see that man whose unhallowed deed has hurled me to this depth of distress playing this part that now is mine. Would that either you or the immortal gods may begin to take some thought for the affairs of men! When that is so, he who is now so confident, so brilliantly successful, in his crimes, will be racked with every ill, and pay the heavy penalty of his disloyalty to my father, his murder of my brother, and the misery that he has occasioned me."
   "Brother, dear to my heart, your life was torn from you before its time by the hand that should have been the last to do the deed, yet I count your lot a cause for gladness rather than for grief. With your life you did not lose a kingdom but flight, exile, beggary, and all the miseries that are crushing me. Less fortunate than you, I have been hurled from my ancestral throne into all these ills, and stand here, to show what human fortune is. I know not what course to take; can I, helpless myself, attempt to avenge your wrongs, or take thought for my kingdom when my power of life and death depends on foreign help? Would that death offered an honorable release from my troubles, and that I could escape well-merited contempt if, wearied out by misfortune, I submitted to wrong. As it is, I have no pleasure in life, and cannot die without disgrace."
   "Senators, by your own selves, by your children and parents, by the dignity of the Roman people, I demand your help in my misery. Take arms against wrong-doing, refuse to allow that kingdom of Numidia, which is your own, to languish amid crime, and the blood of our family."

   XV. After the king had made an end of speaking, the ambassadors of Jugurtha, in reliance rather on their bribes than on the goodness of their cause, made a brief reply. Hiempsal, they said, had been killed by the Numidians for his own cruelty; as for Adherbal, he had made war without provocation, and, now that he was beaten, was complaining because he had failed to inflict a wrong. All that Jugurtha sought from the Senate was that they should think of him as the man he had proved himself at Numantia, and refuse to prefer the words of an enemy to the evidence of his own deeds. Each party then quitted the House, and the Senate proceeded to discuss the question. The patrons of the ambassadors, reinforced by a large section of the Senate, made light of the assertions of Adherbal, extolled Jugurtha's services, and strove by personal influence, by eloquence, and by every means in their power, to shield the crime and wickedness of a stranger as though it were their own honor that was at stake. On the other side a few, who valued right and justice more dearly than wealth, gave as their opinion that help should be rendered to Adherbal, and the death of Hiempsal sternly punished. Of these the most conspicuous was Marcus Aemilius Scaurus, a man of high birth, an energetic partisan, greedy for power, office, and wealth, and an adept in concealing his personal vices. Perceiving the notorious and shameless character of the king's bribery, he feared lest such scandalous excess might arouse indignation, as in such a case often happens, and, therefore, restrained his usual greed.

   XVI. Success, nevertheless, fell to the party in the Senate which let profit and personal influence outweigh the interest of truth. A decree was passed ordering that the kingdom which Micipsa had held should be divided between Jugurtha and Adherbal by ten commissioners. At the head of this commission was Lucius Opimius, a man of distinction, and at that time of great influence in the Senate, owing to the stern use which he had made as consul of the victory of the nobility at the time when Gaius Gracchus and Marcus Fulvius Flaccus were murdered. At Rome, Jugurtha had counted him one of his enemies; nevertheless, he received him with labored respect, and by large gifts and promises succeeded in making him prefer his advantage to reputation and honor, and even to his own true interests. Approaching the other commissioners in the same way, Jugurtha gained the majority of them; it was only a few who held their honor dearer than money. In the divison, the part of Numidia bordering on Mauritania, the richest in soil and population, was assigned to Jugurtha; the remainder, to which its abundance of harbors and public buildings gave the appearance rather than the reality of higher value, Adherbal received as his share.

   XVII. My subject seems to require that I should briefly explain the position of Africa, and touch upon the races with which we have been at war or in alliance. Of the regions and tribes which, on account of the heat, ruggedness, or desert nature of the country, have been less often visited, I could hardly, did I wish it, give any certain account; the rest I shall deal with as briefly as possible.
   In dividing the earth most writers have made Africa a third continent; a few hold that only Asia and Europe can be reckoned as such, and that Africa forms a part of Europe. It is bounded on the west by the strait that unites our sea with the ocean; on the east, by a shelving plain, called by the inhabitants Catabathmos. The sea is stormy and harborless; the soil productive and good for pasture, but wanting in timber, while both rainfall and springs are scanty. The natives are healthy, nimble, and inured to toil; except the victims of wild beasts and the sword, few succumb to any disease but old age. It must be added that the number of dangerous animals is large. As to who were the original inhabitants of Africa, and who subsequently arrived, or how the races intermingled, I know that my account differs from the received opinion. I shall, however, briefly present it as it was interpreted to me from the Punic books said to have belonged to King Hiempsal, and as the inhabitants of the country believe the events to have taken place. For the truth of the version my informants must be responsible.

   XVIII. The original inhabitants of Africa were Gaetulians and Libyans, savage and barbarous peoples, living on the flesh of wild beasts, or, like cattle, on the grass of the field. They were controlled by no customs or laws, nor by any chief; wandering aimlessly about, they occupied such quarters as night compelled. But after Hercules, for so the Africans believe, died in Spain, his leaderless army, which was made up of various races, dispersed itself abroad, as his followers sought to win themselves dominions on this side or that. Of its troops, the Medes, Persians, and Armenians crossed in ships to Africa, and settled on the lands nearest to our own sea. The Persians took up their abode nearest to the ocean; they turned the hulls of their boats upside down, and used them as huts, for there was no timber in their land, and no means of obtaining it by purchase or barter from Spain, as the wide sea and their ignorance of the language made commerce impossible. Gradually the Persians, by intermarriage, absorbed the Gaetulians, and, as in their frequent for suitable lands they had wandered widely from place to place, took the name of Nomads. To this very day the dwellings of the Numidian country people, which they call mupalia, are of an oblong shape and curving roofs while resemble the keels of boats. The Medes and Armenians were reinforced by Libyans, a people who lay closer to the African sea, while the Gaetulians lived more directly beneath the sun, near to the zone of intensest heat. The combined nation early possessed towns, for, as they but divided by a strait from Spain, they had formed the practice of mutual barter. Their name was in course of time perverted by the Libyans, who, in their barbarous speech called them Mauri instead of Medes. The power of the Persians rapidly increased, and subsequently a part of them, under the name of Numidians, separated from the parent stock, on account of their growing numbers, and settled on the territory round Carthage which is now called Numidia. Thenceforth, each in reliance on the others' support, by the terror of their arms they forced their neighbors to submit to their rule, and won for themselves glory and renown. This was more especially the case with those who territory extended to our sea. For the Libyans are less warlike than the Gaetulians. At last the greater part of the coast of Africa was occupied by the Numidians, and the conquered were all merged in the race and name of their lords.

   XIX. At a later date, the Phoenicians, some wishing to win dominions, others to lessen the home-population, urged the commons and such others as were eager for change to emigrate, and founded Hippo, Hadrumetum, Leptis, and other cities along the coast. These quickly rose to importance and served, in some cases as a defense, in others as an ornament to their parent states. As to Carthage, I think it better to be silent than to give an inadequate account, for time warns me to hasten to another subject.
   After the Catabathmos, which divides Egypt from Africa, the first place, as you follow the coast, is Cyrene, a colony of Thera; next to this come the two Syrtes, and between them Leptis; then "the altars of the Philaeni" the boundary of the Carthaginians on the side of Egypt, and after this other Punic cities. The rest of the land, as far as Mauritania, is held by the Numidians; Mauritania lies nearest to Spain. To the south of Numidia I learned that the Gaetuli lived, some in huts, others wandering about in a more barbarous state; beyond these are the Ethiopians, and beyond them again, lands dried up by the burning heat of the sun. In the Jugurthine war most of the Punic towns, and the lands which the Carthaginians had owned just before their fall were governed by the Roman people through magistrates. A great part of the Gaetulians, and the Numidians, as far as the river Mulucha, were under Jugurtha; while the ruler over all the Mauritanians was King Bocchus, who knew nothing of the Roman people save their name, and had hitherto been brought beneath our notice neither in peace nor war. The foregoing account of Africa and its peoples will suffice for our needs.

   XX. When the kingdom had been divided, the commissioners left Africa, and Jugurtha found himself, in spite of his fears, in possession of the reward of his crime. He now took the maxim which he had heard from his friends at Numantia, "that at Rome all things might be bought," for an assured truth, and, excited by the promises of the men whom he had recently glutted with his gifts, turned his thoughts towards the kingdom of Adherbal. He himself was of an active and warlike nature; the man he assailed was quiet and peace-loving, of a gentle disposition, which laid him open to injury, and one who rather felt than inspired fear. He therefore suddenly marched into Adherbal's territory with a large force, seized many prisoners, with cattle and other booty, burnt buildings, made cavalry raids on many places, and then retreated with his whole force into his own kingdom, in the belief that indignation would make his victim avenge his wrongs by arms, and that such a step would give rise to war. Adherbal, however, feeling himself no match for Jugurtha in arms, and placing more reliance on the friendship of the Roman people than on his Numidian subjects, sent ambassadors to Jugurtha to complain of this aggression; and, although the answer they brought back was insulting, determined to endure anything rather than to embark on a war, since his former attempt had ended so unfavorably. This availed nothing to lessen the greed of Jugurtha, for he was already, in imagination, possessor of the whole kingdom. Not as before with a band of marauders, but at the head of an army duly equipped, he began open war, undisguisedly seeking dominion over all Numidia. On his march he laid waste cities and fields, carried off booty, and threw fresh heart into his own men, fresh fear into the enemy.

   XXI. Adherbal now understood that matters had reached such a pass that he must either abandon his kingdom or defend it by arms. Under the pressure of necessity, he mustered his forces, and advanced against Jugurtha. And now the army of either king took up a position near the town of Cirta, not far from the sea; but, as it was late in the day, battle was not given. When, however, the night was far advanced, in the darkness that still prevailed, the soldiers of Jugurtha, at a given signal, fell upon the enemy's camp, and scattered and routed its defenders, who were but half awake or in the act of seizing their arms. Adherbal, with a few horsemen, made his escape to Cirta, and had not there been a number of Roman citizens in the place, who stopped the Numidian pursuers from entering the wall, a single day would have seen the beginning and the end of the war between the two kings. As it was, Jugurtha blockaded the town, and set about reducing it by means of mantlets, towers, and engines of every kind, using the greatest haste in forestalling the ambassadors whom he had heard that Adherbal had sent to Rome before the battle took place.
   When the Senate received news of their war, it dispatched three young men to Africa, to go to both kings and acquaint them, in the name of the Roman Senate and people, that it was their will and determination that they should lay down their arms [and decide their disputes by arbitration instead of war]. Such a course, they were to say, would be worthy both of their advisers and of themselves.

   XXII. The commissioners sped on their journey to Africa, all the more because, while they were making their preparations for departure, news was received in Rome of the battle and the siege of Cirta, though the report dealt lightly with the facts. After listening to their address, Jugurtha replied that nothing carried more weight with or was dearer to him than the authority of the Senate; from his early manhood, he said, he had used every effort to win the approval of the good; it was his merit, and not any cunning devices, that had recommended him to the noble Scipio; these same qualities, and not any lack of children of his own, had caused Micipsa to adopt him into the royal family; for the rest, the more proofs he had given of his devotion and energy, the less was he inclined to submit to wrong; Adherbal had conspired to take his life, and, on discovering the plot, he had taken up arms against his guilt; the Roman people would be acting neither rightly nor for their own interests if they hindered his exercise of the law of nations; lastly, he was intending shortly to send ambassadors to Rome to explain the whole state of affairs. After this, they separated. Adherbal the commissioners had no means of addressing.

   XXIII. Jugurtha, as soon as he judged that they had left Africa, finding it impossible, on account of its situation, to take Cirta by storm, threw a rampart and trench round its walls, raised and garrisoned towers, and, while assailing the town night and day by attacks both open and disguised, held out to the guardians of its walls now promises and now threats, roused his men to courage by his exhortations, and, in fine, showed himself bent on making every possible provision. Meantime Adherbal perceived that his fortunes were desperate, his enemy implacable, himself without hope of help, and that, from lack of the requisite means, the war could not be prolonged. He therefore chose the two most enterprising of his fellow-fugitives to Cirta, and, by large promises and pitiful allusions to his own plight, encouraged them to make their way by night through the enemy's lines to the nearest point on the coast, and thence to Rome.

   XXIV. In a few days the Numidians carried out his orders, and Adherbal's letter was read in the Senate. Its purport was as follows:--
   "It is through no fault of mine, Senators, that I send so often to you to implore your help. I am compelled to do so by the violence of Jugurtha, who has been seized with such a passion for my destruction that, unmindful alike of yourselves and of the immortal gods, he prefers my blood to all else beside. Hence it is that I, the friend and ally of the Roman people, have now been besieged for more than four months, and that neither the services of my father Micipsa, nor your decrees, avail me aught. I am pressed by sword and famine; by which the harder I cannot say. My previous fortune dissuades me from writing more about Jugurtha; I have already discovered how little the wretched are believed. It may be, however, that I am right in my conviction that my foe is aiming at a higher mark than myself, and that he does not expect to retain at once your friendship and my kingdom; which of the two he holds of more importance is obvious enough. He began by murdering Hiempsal, my brother, and then ousted me from my ancestral kingdom. These wrongs, I admit, were personal to myself and did not touch you. But now he is in armed possession of a kingdom which belongs to you, and is keeping me, whom you made ruler over the Numidians, a close prisoner. How little weight he attaches to the words of your commissioners my danger may serve to show. What means, then, of moving him is there, other than the might of Rome? For myself, I could wish that the words I am now writing and those in which I once made my complaint in the Senate, told an idle story rather than that they should be confirmed at the cost of my own misery. But as I was born to give Jugurtha scope for the display of his wickedness, I crave no relief from death or hardship, I only seek to be saved from the tyranny of an enemy and bodily torture. Make what provision you will for the kingdom of Numidia, for it is your own, but rescue me from this unhallowed gasp; this I entreat of you by the dignity of your empire, by the loyalty of your friendship, and by whatever memory of my ancestor, Massinissa, still lingers among you."

   XXV. On the reading of this letter, some proposed the dispatch of an army to Africa for the immediate rescue of Adherbal, and that meanwhile they should discuss Jugurtha's conduct in disobeying the commission. Every effort, however, was used by the king's old partisans to prevent such a decree being passed; and, as generally happens, the public good was overruled by private interest. Commissioners, however, were sent to Africa of a more advanced age, of noble birth, and who had filled high offices of state; among their number was the Marcus Scaurus of whom I spoke above, a man who had been consul and at that time was leader of the Senate. The matter was exciting odium, and the prayers of the Numidians were urgent; the ambassadors, therefore, embarked on the third day, and, after a quick passage to Utica, sent a dispatch to Jugurtha commanding his immediate attendance in the province, and announcing their commission to him from the Senate. Jugurtha, on hearing that men of distinction, whose influence in Rome he knew by report, had come to bar his proceedings, was at first greatly disturbed, and wavered between the impulses of fear and passion. He was afraid of the anger of the Senate should he fail to obey the commissioners, while the vehemence of his desire blindly hurried him along to complete his crime. The result in his covetous nature was the victory of the evil course. Encircling Cirta with his army, he strained every nerve to force his way into the town, and was filled with hope that, could he divide the strength of the enemy by assault or stratagem, victory would fall to his lot. His efforts failed, and he could not attain his object of seizing Adherbal before meeting the commissioners. Fearful, therefore, lest further delay should anger Scaurus (of whom he was most afraid), he entered the province attended by a few horsemen. But though serious threats were uttered in the name of the Senate if he did not raise the seige, after much parleying the commissioners departed without having effected anything.

   XXVI. When this news reached Cirta, the Italians, whose courage was defending its walls, confident that the greatness of the Roman people would secure their safety on a surrender, advised Adherbal to deliver up himself and the town to Jugurtha, only bargaining for his life, and leaving everything else to the care of the Senate. Adherbal judged any course preferable to reliance on the word of Jugurtha, yet saw that, should he resist, his advisers had power to compel, and therefore made the surrender. Jugurtha's first act was to torture and put him to death. Next he made an indiscriminate massacre of all the adult Numidians and the traders, as they came in contact with his troops.

   XXVII. When this was known in Rome, and the matter began to be discussed in the Senate, the old supporters of the king attempted, by wasting time over questions and quarrels, and by the exercise of private influence, to soften the enormity of the offense. Indeed, had not Gaius Memmius--a tribune elect, an active man and an enemy to the power of the nobility--apprised the people that their object was to enable a few partisans to gain Jugurtha pardon for his crime, by the delay of the inquiry, all public feeling against the king would have subsided, such was the power of his wealth and influence. The Senate, however, conscious of its guilt, feared the people, and, in accordance with the Sempronian law, Numidia and Italy were assigned to the consuls of the next year as their provinces. The consuls elected were Publius Scipio Nasica, and Lucius [Calpurnius] Bestia; Calpurnius received Numidia, and Scipio Italy. An army was then levied for service in Africa, and pay and what else was needed for the conduct of the war voted.

   XXVIII. Jugurtha received the news of all this with great surprise, so firmly planted in his mind was the belief that at Rome everything could be bought. He now sent his son and two intimate friends as ambassadors to the Senate, and instructed them, as he had done those sent after the murder of Hiempsal, to attack every soul in Rome with bribes. On their drawing nigh to the city, the Senate was consulted by Bestia as to whether it was their pleasure that the ambassadors of Jugurtha should be received within the walls, and a decree was passed that, unless they had come to surrender his kingdom and person, they should leave Italy within the next ten days. The consul ordered notice to be given to the Numidians pursuant to the decree, and accordingly they departed home with their mission unfulfilled.
   Meanwhile Calpurnius, now that his army was ready, chose for his staff party men of noble birth, whose authority he hoped would shield any misconduct of his own. Among them was the Scaurus, of whose disposition and character I have spoken. As for our consul, he had many good qualities, both of mind and body, but his avarice hampered the exercise of them all; he had great power of endurance, a keen intellect and considerable forethought, was not ignorant of war, and never dismayed by danger or sudden attack. The legions were taken through Italy to Rhegium, thence to Sicily, and from Sicily to Africa. After organizing his commissariat, Calpurnius at first vigorously attacked Numidia, capturing many prisoners and taking several towns by storm.

   XXIX. When, however, Jugurtha began through ambassadors to tempt him with bribes, and to show him the difficulty of the war he was conducting, his resolution, weakened by covetousness, readily succumbed. As colleague and assistant in all his proceedings he adopted Scaurus, who, though at first, when many of his party had already been perverted, he had strenuously resisted the king, was now by the magnitude of the bribe offered seduced from the path of virtue and integrity into that of dishonor. Jugurtha began by purchasing no more than a delay in the war, thinking that in the meanwhile his bribery or influence might effect something at Rome. But the news that Scaurus was taking part in the intrigue led him to form the highest hopes of regaining peace, and he determined to treat with the commissioners personally on all the conditions. Meanwhile, to inspire confidence, the consul sent his quaestor, Sextius, to Vaga, a town of Jugurtha's, ostensibly to receive the corn which Calpurnius had openly demanded of the ambasssadors in return for the grant of a truce till the surrender should be made. On this the king, in pursuance of his plan, came to the camp, and after saying a few words in the presence of the council about the ill-will excited by his deed, and his desire to be allowed to submit, arranged all other points in a secret conference with Bestia and Scaurus. On the following day the opinion of the council was taken amid an irregular discussion, and Jugurtha's submission was received. In accordance with a command given in the presence of the council, thirty elephants, a large number of cattle and horses, together with a small sum in silver, were delivered to the quaestor. Calpurnius then set out for Rome to hold the elections, and peace was observed in Numidia and in our army.

   XXX. When rumor spread the news of the events in Africa, and of the way in which they had been brought about, the conduct of the consul was discussed at every place and in every assemblage in Rome. Among the common people his unpopularity was great, while the senators were anxious and undecided whether they should sanction so serious a crime or annul the consul's ordinance. The chief obstacle to their following the true and upright course was the influence of Scaurus, the reputed adviser and accomplice of Bestia. But while the Senate was hesitating and raising delays, Gaius Memmius, of whose independent character and hatred of the power of the nobility I spoke above, roused the people to vengeance by his addresses, bade them not to betray the republic and their own freedom, exposed many instances of the pride and cruelty of the nobility, and in fine showed great energy in exciting the populace by every possible means.
   As the eloquence of Memmius was at that period renowned and influential in Rome, I have thought it well to set forth one of his numerous speeches, and I shall report by preference one which he delivered at a public meeting after the return of Bestia, somewhat as follows:--

   XXXI. "There is much, Romans, to dissuade me from espousing your cause, were it not that my patriotism is proof against every attack. There is the power of a cabal, your own submissiveness, the absence of justice, and, above all, the fact that political honesty involves more danger than recognition. I refrain, for very shame, from dilating on how for the last fifteen years you have been the sport of an arrogant faction; how your champions have perished shamefully and unavenged; how you have suffered cowardice and sloth to weaken your courage; and even now do not rise against your enemies though they lie at your mercy; even now tremble before men who ought to tremble before you. All this is as I have said, and yet my spirit forces me to oppose the tyranny of the cabal. I, at least, will make use of the freedom which was bequeathed to me by my father, whether in vain or to some purpose it lies with you to determine."
   "I do not advise you to do as your ancestors often did, and take up arms against your wrongs. There is no need for violence, no need for secession; your enemies' own behavior is certain to work their ruin. After the murder of Tiberius Gracchus, whom they accused of aiming at kingly power, they set their commissions to work against the party of the commons in Rome. Again, after the slaughter of Gaius Gracchus and Marcus Fulvius, many men of your station were put to death in prison, and in neither case was it the law but victors' caprice that brought the massacre to an end. Let us grant, however, that to give the people back its own is equivalent to aiming at kingly power, and that deeds that cannot be avenged without bloodshed are constitutionally done. In former years you chafed in silence at the sight of the treasury being rifled, of kings and free people paying tribute to a clique of nobles, of the highest glory and the greatest riches being confined to them. Now, not satisfied with having committed these crimes with impunity, they have even presumed to betray to the enemy the laws, your dignity, things human and things divine, in fine, our all. And the men who have done these things feel neither shame nor repentance; they flaunt their splendor before your eyes, displaying their priesthoods and their consulships, and some their triumphs, as if they held them as honors to which they were entitled, not as spoils they had seized. Slaves that are bought for money rebel at unjust commands of their masters; will you, Romans, who are born to rule, patiently submit to servitude?"
   "But what manner of man are these who have taken possession of the state? They are the most wicked of mortals, men of bloodstained hands and monstrous avarice, the most criminal and arrogant of their kind, men who would sell their word, their loyalty, their affections, and seek a profit alike from honor and from shame. Some of them find their safety in having murdered tribunes of the people, others in having held oppressive trials, many in the slaughter of your class. The worse their crimes the greater their safety; the fears that they should feel for their own guilt they have inspired in you in your cowardice. Common desires, common hatreds, and common fears, have united them together in an alliance which between good men would be friendship, but between bad is a cabal. Were but your anxiety for your freedom equal to their zeal for power, the state would asssuredly not be the prey it now is, and your benefits would be enjoyed by your best men, not by your boldest criminals. To win their rights and establish their dignity your ancestors twice seceded in arms and seized Mount Aventine; will you not strive to the utmost of your power to maintain the liberty which you received from them? Will you not strive for it with a vigor made fiercer by the thought that it is more shameful to lose a possession once won than never to have gained it?"
   "'But what do you propose?' someone will ask me; 'ought we to take vengeance on the men who have betrayed the state to its enemy?' Not, I answer, by force or by violence, which it is more disgraceful for you to use, than for them to suffer, but by legal trial, and the witness of Jugurtha himself. For if he has really surrendered, he will undoubtedly pay obedience to your commands; if he despises them, you will know how to judge of the pace and surrender which has secured to Jugurtha impunity for his crimes, immense sums to a few powerful men, and to the state nothing but loss and dishonor. Perhaps, however, you have not even yet had enough of their tyranny, and llike the present times less than the days of old when kingdoms and provinces, law, justice, and judgment, peace and war, and all things both human and divine were held in the hands of a petty class, while you, you who are the Roman people, conquered by no enemy, the lords of every race, thought it enough if you kept your lives. For who among you dared refuse the yoke of slavery?"
   "But, despite my belief that for one who bears the name of man to sit quiet beneath a wrong is the deepest disgrace, I would yet be content that you should pardon these, the wickedest of their race, since they are your fellow-citizens, were it not that your compassion would turn to your own destruction. So great is these men's shamelessness that it will not be enough that you have forgiven their offenses in the past, you must also, deprive them of the power of offending in the future; if you do not, you will be kept in constant anxiety, for you will discover that you must either submit to slavery or keep your freedom by means of force. Of force, I say; for what hope is there of mutual trust or concord? They wish to rule, you to be free, they to inflict wrong, you to prevent it; while, finally, they treat your allies as enemies, and your enemies as allies. With purposes so different, can there be either friendship or peace?"
   "I, therefore, warn and urge you not to allow so great a crime to go unpunished. This is no case of fraud on the treasury, or of money extorted by force from your allies. Heavy crimes as these are, custom by this time has taught us to count them mere nothings. No; it is the powers of the Senate that have been sold to our bitterest enemy; your sovereign rights have been betrayed, at home and abroad; our country has been bought and sold. If these things be not enquired into, if the guilty go unpunished, what is there left for us but to live in bondage to the men who have done them? For what is the kingship, but the power to work your will with impunity?"
   "I do not, however, exhort you, Quirites, to be glad that fellow-citizens have done the wrong rather than the right. I only exhort you, not to set about destroying the good by pardoning the bad. In matters of state, I must add, it is much better to be forgetful of a service than of an injury. Neglect only makes the good man slower to serve you, it makes the bad worse than he was before. See to it that none do you wrong, and you will not often stand in need of others' help."

   XXXII. By frequent speeches to this and the like effect, Memmius persuaded the people to dispatch Lucius Cassius, then praetor, to bring Jugurtha to Rome, pledging the public word for his safety, in order that by the king's testimony the misconduct of Scaurus and the others who were arraigned for receiving bribes might be more easily exposed.
   While this was going on at Rome, the officers left by Bestia in command of the army in Numidia committed many scandalous crimes in imitation of their general. Some on receipt of bribes restored his elephants to Jugurtha, others sold him his deserters, others, again, plundered friendly lands: so violent was the avarice which had settled like a plague upon their minds.
   Gaius Memmius carried his bill, and amid the dismay of the whole nobility, Cassius set out on his mission to Jugurtha. Finding the king full of fear, and prompted by his guilty conscience to despair, he persuaded him, since he had surrendered to the Roman people, not to prefer to learn their might rather than their clemency. For his safety, moreover, he privately pledged his own word, which, such at that time was Cassius' reputation, the king valued as highly as that of the people.

   XXXIII. Jugurtha therefore came to Rome with Cassius, in a guise so pitiful as to be the very opposite of royal state. He had himself no lack of courage, and was supported by all those whose influence or crimes had enabled him to accomplish all that I have above narrated. Nevertheless, he bought with a great bribe Gaius Baebius, a tribune of the commons, thinking that by his shamelessness he would be protected against both justice and violence. A public meeting was summoned, and the commons showed themselves very hostile to the king, some bidding him be put in chains, others that punishment should be inflicted on him as an enemy, according to ancient custom, unless he revealed who were his accomplices. Gaius Memmius, however, had more regard for their dignity than their wrath, quieted their commotion, softened their passions, and finally protested that, as far as he was concerned, the public word should not be broken. As soon as silence was gained he brought forward Jugurtha and addressed him, reminding him of misdeeds in Rome and Numidia, and laying before him the crimes he had committed against his father and brothers. The Roman people, he continued, were not ignorant as to who were his helpers and agents in all this. They wished, however, to have it somewhat more clearly stated from his own mouth. Should he reveal the truth, there rested a great hope for him in the honor and merciful disposition of the Roman people. Should he withhold the information, he would not save his accomplices, but would ruin himself and his own hopes.

   XXXIV. Memmius finished his speech, and Jugurtha was ordered to make answer, when Gaius Baebius, the tribune of the commons whose corruption I have mentioned, ordered the king to be silent, and although the crowd which was present at the meeting in a frenzy of rage tried to terrify him by shouts, by gestures, by frequent assaults, and by every other ebullition which anger is wont to produce, his shamelessness, nevertheless, won the day. The people quitted the meeting where they had been thus mocked, and Jugurtha, Bestia, and the others whom the investigation was disquieting, felt their courage increase.

   XXXV. There was at this time in Rome a certain Numidian, by name Massiva, a son of Gulassa, and grandson of Massinissa. In the struggle between the kings he had opposed Jugurtha, and, on the surrender of Cirta and murder of Adherbal, had fled from his country into exile. Spurius Albinus, consul with Quintus Minucius Rufus in the year after Bestia, now persuaded him, since he was of the stock of Massinissa, and Jugurtha for his crimes was loaded with odium and fear, to beg the kingdom of Numidia from the Senate. The consul was eager to conduct a war, and so preferred a general agitation to letting the matter lose its interest; for the province of Numidia had fallen to himself; that of Macedonia to Minucius. On Massiva beginning to stir in the matter, Jugurtha, who found no sufficient defense in his friends, some of them were embarrassed by their consciousness of guilt, others by their ill repute or their own fears, ordered Bomilcar, his most intimate and trusty attendant, to employ the bribery by which he had accomplished so much, in hiring assassins to attack Massiva, and to kill the Numidian, secretly if he could, or, failing this, by any means whatever. Bomilcar speedily carried out the king's commands, and, by means of men skilled in such business, gained information as to his victim's journeys and departures, and, in fine, as to all the places he was in the habit of frequenting, and the hours which he observed. He then directed the attack as the circumstances made advisable. One of the band who were hired to commit the murder rushed upon Massiva somewhat hastily, and though he cut him down, was himself seized. At the instance of many advisers, and especially of the Consul Albinus, this man turned informer, and Bomilcar was made to stand a trial, rather on considerations of equity than by the law of nations, since he was in attendance on one who had come to Rome under the public guarantee. Though detected in so great a crime, Jugurtha did not abandon the struggle against facts until he perceived that the odium of his deed was too great for either influence or money to overcome. On the first hearing of the case he had given fifty sureties from his friends, but now, thinking more of his kingdom than his sureties, he privily dispatched Bomilcar to Numidia, in the fear that, should he be punished, the rest of his accomplices might be seized with a dread of obeying him. A few days afterwards he himself set out on the same journey, as he was commanded by the Senate to leave Italy. When he had passed out of Rome, he is said, after often looking back on it in silence, at last to have cried: "A city for sale, soon to fall if once it find a buyer."

   XXXVI. Meanwhile the war had been resumed, and Albinus hastened to convey to Africa provisions, and pay, and other requisites for his soldiers' use. He himself set out immediately, hoping either by arms, a capitulation, or some other means to finish the war before the date of the elections, which was now not far distant. Jugurtha, on the other hand, pursued a policy of delay, assigning now one cause and now another, retreating before Albinus' advance, and a little while after, to keep his followers from despair, himself advancing. Thus, now by warlike, now by peaceful means, he secured delay, and baffled the consul. Some at the time thought that Albinus was privy to the king's design, and refused to believe that a war so vigorously begun was thus easily prolonged by sloth rather than treachery. Anyhow, time slipped away, and the date of the elections drew near at hand. Albinus, therefore, left his brother Aulus as propraetor in the camp, and departed for Rome.

   XXXVII. Just at this time at Rome the state was being violently excited by dissensions among the tribunes, two of whom, Publius Lucullus, and Lucius Annius, were striving, despite their opposition of their colleagues, to extend their term of office. This disagreement prevented the elections being held throughout the year, and Aulus, who, as I said above, had been left as propraetor in the camp, was led by this delay to entertain a hope of either bringing the war to an end, or extorting money from the king by the terror of his army. Summoning the soldiers from their winter quarters for a campaign in the month of January, he arrived by means of forced marches in most inclement weather at the town of Suthul, where the king's treasures were deposited. The bittereness of the season, and the natural advantages of the place, made its storming or blockade impossible. Around its wall, which lay on the edge of a steep cliff, a swampy plain had been turned by the rain into a lake. Yet Aulus, either as a pretense by which to increase the king's alarm, or blinded by his eagerness to gain the town for the sake of the treasures, brought up mantlets, threw up a rampart, and hastily made other provisions such as might forward his undertaking.

   XXXVIII. Aware of the folly and unskillfulness of the legate, Jugurtha craftily fostered his madness, sent a succession of beseeching embassies, and, as if to avoid him, kept leading his army amid forests and bypaths. At last he enticed Aulus by the hope of a secret agreement, to leave Suthul and follow him in his pretended retreat into remote regions. [There his misconduct was to be more screened from observation.] Meanwhile he employed skillful agents to tamper with the praetor's army night and day, and bribed the centurions and squadron-leaders, some to desert, others at a given signal to abandon their post. When everything was arranged to his wish, in the dead of night he suddenly surrounded the camp of Aulus with a host of Numidians. The Roman soldiers were panic-stricken by the unwonted uproar; some seized their arms, others sought concealment, others again tried to encourage their frightened comrades; everywhere there was confusion. The force of the enemy was large, the sky was darkened by night and clouds, their danger was critical, it was doubtful whether to flee or to remain was the safer course. Of those whom I stated to have been recently bribed, one cohort of Ligurians, with two squadrons of Thracians and a few private soldiers, deserted to the king, and the chief centurion of the third legion gave an entrance to the enemy over the rampart of which he had been entrusted with the defense; by this road all the Numidians burst into the camp. Our men, in a disgraceful rout, many of them after throwing away their arms, gained a neighboring hill. Night, and the plunder of the camp, withheld the enemy from making use of their victory. On the next day, Jugurtha, in a conference with Aulus, expressed himself to the effect that, although he held him and his army in the toils of famine and sword, he was yet mindful of human fortunes, and, if Aulus would enter into a treaty, would dismiss his whole force unharmed beneath the yoke; with the further stipulation that he was to leave Numidia within ten days. The terms were grievous and shameful, nevertheless, with the fear of death before their eyes, peace was concluded according to the king's pleasure.