Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/653

Rh JUGURTHA. pretended submission, together with the surrender of 30 elephants and a small sum of money, b. c. 111. As soon as the tidings of this disgraceful transaction reached Rome, the indignation excited was 80 great, that on the proposition of C. Mem- mius, it was agreed to send the praetor, L. Cassius, a man of the higliest integrity, to Numidia, in order to prevail on the king to repair in person to Rome, the popular party hoping to be able to con- vict the leaders of the nobility by means of his evidence. The safe-conduct granted him b}"" the state was religiously observed : but the scheme failed of its etlect, for as soon as Jugurtha was brought forward in the assembly of the people to make his statement, one of the tribunes who had been previously gained over by the friends of Scaurus and Bestia, forbade him to speak. The king, nevertheless, remained at Rome for some time longer, engaged in secret intrigues, which would probably have been ultimately crowned with success, had he not in the mean time ventured on the nefarious act of the assassination of Massiva, whose counter influence he regarded with appre- hension. [Massiva.] It was impossible to over- look so daring a crime, perpetrated under the very eyes of the senate. Bomilcar, by whose agency it had been accomplished, was brought to trial, and Jugurtha himself ordered to quit Italy without de- lay. It was on this occasion that he is said, when leaving Rome, to have uttered the memorable words : " Urbem venalem, et mature perituram, si emptorem invenerit." War was now inevitable; but the incapacity of Sp. Postumius Albinus, who arrived to conduct it (b. c. 110), and still more that of his brother Aulus, whom he left to command in his absence, when called away to hold the comitia at Rome, proved as favourable to Jugurtha as the corruption of their predecessors. Spurius allowed his wily adversary to protract the war by pretended nego- tiations and affected delays, until the season for action was nearly past ; and Aulus, having pene- trated into the heart of Numidia, to attack a city named Suthul, suffered himself to be surpsised in his camp: great part of his army was cut to pieces, and the rest only escaped a similar fate by the ignominy of passing imder the yoke. But Jugurtha had little reason to rejoice in this success, great as it might at first appear, for the disgrace at once roused all the spirit of the Roman people: the treaty concluded by Aulus was instantly annulled, great exertions made to raise troops, to provide anus and other stores, and one of the consuls for the new year (b. c. 109), Q. Caecilius Metellus, hastened to Numidia to retrieve the honour of the Roman arms. As soon as Jugurtha found that the new commander was at once an able general, and a man of the strictest integrity, he began to despair of success, and made overtures in earnest for sub- mission. These were apparently entertained by Metellus, while he sought in fact to gain over the adherents of the king, and induce them to betray him to the Romans, at the same time that he con- tinued to advance into the enemy's territories. Jugurtha, in his turn, detecting his designs, at- tacked him suddenly on his march with a numerous force ; but was, after a severe struggle, repulsed, and his army totally routed. It is unnecessary to follow in detail the remaining operations of the war. Metellus ravaged the greater part of the couniry, but failed in taking the important town of Zama, JUGURTHA. 639 before he withdrew into winter quarters. But he had produced such an effect upon the Numidian king, that Jugurtha was induced, in the course of the ensuing winter, to make offers of unqualified submission, and even actually surrendered all his elephants, with a number of arms and horses, and a large sum of money, to the Roman general ; but when called upon to place himself personally in tlie power of Metellus, his courage failed him, he broke off the negotiation, and once more had recourse to arms. Not long afterwards he detected a con- spiracy formed against his life by Bomilcar (one of his most trusted friends, but who had been secretly gained over by Metellus [Bomilcar]), together with a Numidian named Nabdalsa : the conspirators were put to death ; but from this moment the suspicions of Jugurtha knew no bounds ; his most faithful adherents were either sacrificed to his fears or obliged to seek safety in flight, and he wandered from place to place in a state of unceasing alarm and disquietude. The ensuing campaign (b. c. 108) was not productive of such decisive results as might have been expected. Jugurtha avoided any general action, and eluded the pursuit of Metellus by the rapidity of his movements : even when driven from Thala, a stronghold which he had deemed inacces- sible from its position in the midst of arid deserts, he only retired among the Gaetulians, and quickly succeeded in raising among those wild tribes a fresh army, with which he once more penetrated into the heart of Numidia. A still more important accession was that of Bocchus, king of Mauritania, who was now prevailed upon to raise an army, and advance to the support of Jugurtha. Metellus, however, who had now relaxed his own efforts, from disgust at hearing that C. Marius had been appointed to succeed him in the command, remained on the defensive, while he sought to amuse the Moorish king by negotiations. The arrival of Marius (b. c. 107) infused fresh vigour into the Roman arms : he quickly reduced in succession almost all the strongholds that still remained to Jugurtha, in some of which the king had deposited his principal treasures : and the latter seeing himself thus deprived step by step of all his dominions, at length determined on a desperate attempt to retrieve his fortunes by one grand effort. He with difficulty prevailed on the wavering Boc- chus, by the most extensive promises in case of success, to co-operate with him in this enterprise ; and the two kings, with their united forces, .at- tacked Marius on his march, when he was about to retire into winter quarters ; but though the Roman general was taken by surprise for a moment, his consummate skill and the discipline of his troops proved again triumphant, the Numidians were re- pulsed, and their army, as usual with them in case of a defeat, dispersed in all directions. Jugurtha himself, after displaying the greatest courage in the action, cut his way almost alone through a body of Roman cavalry, and escaped from the field of battle. He quickly again assembled a body of Numidian horse around him ; but his only hope of continuing the war now rested on Bocchus. The latter was for some time uncertain what course to adopt, but was at length gained over by Sulla, the quaestor of Marius, to the Roman cause, and joined in a plan for seizing the person of the Numidian king. Jugurtha fell into the snare: he was in- duced, under pretence of a conference, to repair with only a few followers to meet Bocchus, when he was