Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 13.djvu/801

 J U J J U J 767 Jugurtha was alarmed, but, having plenty of money at his command out of the accumulated treasures of his grand father Masinissa, he again acted on his experience of Roman venality, and he Avas successful in arranging for himself with the Roman general a peace which left him in undisturbed possession of the whole of Numidia. When the facts were known at Rome, the tribune Memmius insisted that Jugurtha should appear in person and be questioned as to the precise nature of the negotiations. Jugurtha indeed appeared under a safe conduct, but -he had partisans who took care that his mouth should be closed. The treaty, however, was set aside, and war was again declared, Spurius Albinus, the new consul, having the command. The Roman army in Africa was thoroughly demoralized, and quite unfit to take the field. An unsuccess ful attempt was made on a fortified town, Suthul, in which the royal treasures were deposited. Worse followed : the army was surprised by the enemy in a night attack, and the camp was taken and plundered. Jugurtha was master of the situation, and every Roman was driven out of Numidia. By this time the feeling at Rome and in Italy against the corruption and incapacity of the nobles had become so strong that prosecutions on a wholesale scale struck down a number of the senators, and Bestia and Albinus were sentenced to exile. The Numidian war was now entrusted to Quintus Metellus, an aristocrat indeed in sentiment, but at the same time an able soldier and a stern disciplinarian. With him was associated the famous Caius Marius, who had risen from the rank of a centurion. The army was soon in a condition to face the enemy, and from the year 109 B.C. to the close of the war in 106 the contest was carried on with credit to the Roman arms. Jugurtha was defeated in an- action on the river Muthal, after an obstinate resistance and a display of much military skill. Once again he even succeeded in surprising the Roman camp and forcing Metellus into winter quarters. There were fresh negotiations, but Metellus insisted on the surrender of the king s person, and this Jugurtha refused. Numidia on the whole seemed disposed to assert its independence, and Rome had before her an indefinite prospect of a long and troublesome guerilla war. The country was a parti cularly trying one for a regular army, and a victory seemed to lead to no substantial result. Nothing could be really accomplished unless Jugurtha himself could be secured; and to this end negotiations, reflecting little credit on the Romans, were set on foot with Bocchus, who for a time, as his interest seemed to dictate, played fast and loose with both parties. The war dragged on till in 106 B.C. Marius was called on by the vote of the Roman people to supersede Metellus. Marius found that he had a difficult work, and his army was once seriously imperilled on the borders of Mauretania, whither he had led them to overawe Bocchus, who had just made a. friendly treaty with Jugurtha. Shortly afterwards this cunning and treacherous prince again offered his friendship to the Romans, and it was through his perfidy and not by Roman skill or valour that tha war with Jugurtha was ended. In the final negotia tions Lucius Sulla, who was Marius s quicstor and com manded the cavalry, had the honour, such as it was, of winning over to the Roman side the king of Mauretania, and prevailing on him to sacrifice Jugurtha. The Numidian fell into an ambush through his father-in-law s treachery, and was conveyed a prisoner to Rome. Two years after wards, in 104 B.C., he figured with his two sons in Marius s triumph, and in the subterranean prison beneath the Capitol, &quot; the bath of ice,&quot; as he called it, he was either strangled or starved to death. The war had been an inglorious one for Rome, and its end with all its attendant circumstances was deplorably disgraceful. Jugurtha, though doubtless for a time regarded by his African and Numidian countrymen as their deliverer from the yoke of Rome, mainly owes his historical importance to the very full and minute account of him which we have from the hand of Sallust, himself afterwards governor of Numidia, The Jugurthine war too happened to coincide with a period of considerable political interest at Rome. The symptoms of revolution were beginning to make them selves visible. The weakness and corruption of the govern ment of the senate was forcing itself on the notice of all men, and popular opinion was becoming too strong to be disregarded. One general after another had been super seded and disgraced, and Marius, a man of the humblest origin, had been summoned by the public voice to put an end to a war in which the incapacity and disloyalty of consuls and senators had been grievously exposed. . The names of both Marius and Sulla became famous for the first time in a struggle with a Numidian chief. The time was clearly at hand when the old system of Rome s govern ment could sustain itself no longer. The best modern account of Jugurtha and the Jugurthine war is to be found in Mommsen, Hist, of Rome, book iv. chap. v. (W. J. B.) JUJUBE. Under this name the fruits of at least two species of Zizyphus are usually described, namely, Z. vulgaris of Lamark and Z. Jujuba of the same author. The species of Zizyphus are for the most part small trees or shrubs, armed with sharp, straight, or hooked spines, having alternate leaves and fruits, which are in most of the species edible, and have an agreeable acid taste; this is especially the case with those of the tw r o species mentioned above. Z. vulgaris is a tree about 20 feet high, extensively cul tivated in many parts of southern Europe, Asia, Spain, the south of France, and Italy, also in western Asia, China, and Japan. In India it extends from the Punjab to the western frontier, ascending in the Punjab Himalaya to a height of 6500 feet, and is found both in the wild and cultivated state. The plant is grown almost exclusively for the sake of its fruit, which both in size and shape resembles a moderate sized plum ; at first the fruits are green, but as they ripen they become of a reddish-brown colour on the outside and yellow within. They ripen in September, when they are gathered and preserved by storing in a dry place ; after a time the pulp becomes much softer and sweeter than when fresh. Jujube fruits when carefully dried will keep for a long time, and retain their agreeable refreshing acid flavour, on account of which they are much valued in the countries of the Mediter ranean region as a winter dessert fruit ; and, besides, they are nutritive and demulcent. At one time a decoction was prepared from them and recommended in pectoral complaints. A kind of thick paste, known as jujube paste, was also made of a composition of gum arabic and sugar dissolved in a decoction of jujube fruit evaporated to the proper consistency. The fruits of the Zizyphus do not enter into the composition of the lozenges now known as jujubes. The second species of Zizyplms referred to above, viz., Z. Jujuba, is a tree averaging from 30 to 50 feet high, found both wild and cultivated in many parts of the tropics, as in China, Australia, the Malay archipelago, Ceylon, throughout India, and in tropical Africa. Many varieties of this tree are known to and cultivated by the Chinese, who distinguish them by the shape and size of their fruits, which are produced in abundance, and are not only much valued as dessert fruit in China, but are also occasionally exported to England. As seen in commerce jujube fruits are about the size of a small filbert, having a reddish-brown, shining, some what wrinkled exterior, and a yellow or gingerbread coloured pulp enclosing a hard elongated stone.