relatives and friends, in whose presence he besought Jugurtha, by all the benefits he had received, to be the friend and protector of his adopted brothers, and exhorted them to look up to him with the respect due to his age and wisdom. Jugurtha promised all that was asked; but he well knew that the confession of his own superiority was the only part of the king's dying speech which expressed either his real feelings or his expectations of the future. The designs of Jugurtha were hastened by the rashness of Hiempsal, who at the very first meeting of the three princes not only assumed the most insolent demeanour towards the concubine's son, but charged him with undue influence over the late king. The scheme of a joint reign was at once found impracticable. The treasure accumulated by Masinissa and Micipsa was divided: a partition of the kingdom was agreed upon; and the princes retired to different parts of Numidia. The vengeance of Jugurtha followed Hiempsal to the town which he had selected for his abode; and his assassination was the signal for a civil war between the partisans of Adherbal and Jugurtha. The greater number of the Numidians remained faithful to the son of their late king; but the flower of the warriors naturally sided with such a leader as Jugurtha. Adherbal, defeated in battle, fled into the province of Africa, whence he carried in person his complaint to Rome. He was followed thither by the envoys of Jugurtha, amply furnished with those means of persuasion of which he had learnt the efficacy from his Roman friends before Numantia. They replied to Adherbal's statement in the Senate, that Hiempsal had been justly slain for his tyranny, and that Adherbal had been the aggressor in the recent war. Ten commissioners were sent to divide Numidia between the rival claimants, but with no instructions to enquire into the murder of Hiempsal. Lucius Opimius, the chief of the commission, the same who had conducted the inquisition against the partisans of Caius Gracchus, and who had taken the part of Adherbal in the recent debates, sold himself to Jugurtha as soon as he reached Numidia; and so did the majority of his colleagues. The commissioners, following the ancient division of the kingdom into the countries of the Massæsylii and the Massylii,† assigned the former or western division, which was much the larger and more fertile, to Jugurtha, the eastern, which

* As Jugurtha was of full military age at the siege of Numantia, in B.C. 134, he was probably not less than 35 at the time of Micipsa's death. The two sons of Micipsa appear to have been ten or fifteen years younger.

The western division corresponded to the later Mauretania Tingitana and Sitifensis, the eastern to the later Numidia.

was for the most part arid, but contained the best ports and chief cities, including the capital Cirta, to Adherbal, who seems to have been mocked with a pretence of fairness in receiving the original dominions of his grandfather. But even these he was not long permitted to possess. Pursuing the ancient policy of Masinissa against Carthage, Jugurtha tried to provoke Adherbal to war by wantonly invading and cruelly ravaging his territory. But when Adherbal's only answer was an embassy of remonstrance, Jugurtha, encouraged by his former impunity from Rome, marched with his whole force against his rival. After sustaining a severe defeat,* Adherbal barely escaped with a few horsemen to Cirta, and that fortress was only saved by the prompt resistance of a body of Italian residents. Even when thus brought into collision with Roman subjects, Jugurtha pressed the siege in the hope of taking Cirta before the arrival of the commissioners appointed by the Senate upon Adherbal's complaint of the invasion.

These commissioners, three inexperienced young men, with no other instructions than to require both kings to desist from war, were content to receive Jugurtha's professions of good will to Rome and his asseverations that he was making war in selfdefence, and they returned home without entering Cirta or seeing Adherbal. Their departure was followed by a close circumvallation of the city, which was almost impregnable to assault. Cirta stands upon a rocky promontory surrounded by the river Ampsaga on all sides except the south-west, where a narrow isthmus connects it with the land on the left bank. Here lies the principal, and in Jugurtha's time the only entrance. The other face of the rock ends in lofty precipices, which the Romans afterwards joined to the right bank of the river by a bridge across the ravine of two stories of arches a hundred cubits high, leading to the eastern gate. Constantineh, as the city was called from the emperor who restored it, is described by the Arabian geographer Edrisi as "one of the strongest places in the world. It towers above extensive plains and vast cultivated tracts sown with wheat and barley. Within the town there is a watering-place for cattle, which might be useful in a siege. There are in all the houses cellars hollowed out in the rock: the temperature, which is always fresh and moderate in these cellars, contributes to the preservation of grain." If these cellars could always have been full, the place would have been equally secure against famine and the enemy. But the place does not seem to have been provisioned for a long siege;

On the locality of this battle, see Long, Decline &c., vol. i. p. 390.

and in the fifth month Adherbal persuaded two of his followers to steal out through the enemy's lines, and to carry a letter to the Senate, reminding them that he had been made king by the Romans, placing Numidia at their disposal, and entreating them by the majesty of the Roman empire, by regard for the friendship between them and himself, if they had not quite forgotten his grandfather Masinissa, to save him from the hands of his cruel enemy. But the appeal to their generosity and the offer of the kingdom were equally fruitless. The proposal of the minority to despatch an army to the relief of Adherbal was overpowered by the hired advocates of Jugurtha, and another commission of three was headed by M. Æmilius Scaurus, a man who very unworthily held the position of Chief of the Senate.* Jugurtha obeyed the summons of these commissioners to meet them at Utica, but the interview ended in talk, and the commission returned to Rome.

The Italians in Cirta, relying for their own safety on the respect due to Roman subjects, now persuaded Adherbal to surrender, stipulating only for his own life, and leaving all else to the future decision of the Senate. The king complied, but with misgivings that were speedily justified. He was tortured to death, and all the men in the garrison were massacred, the Italians not excepted. Their fate roused the indignation of the mercantile class at Rome ; but the partisans of Jugurtha again tried every resource of procrastination. It was now that the case assumed its full importance as bearing upon the contest between the Optimates and Populares; and the threat of the new tribune C. Memmius to call the delinquents to account before the people forced the Senate to declare war with Jugurtha about the close of B.C. 112. Surprised that his success in corruption had found a limit, the king sent his son, with two of his friends, to renew the process; but, on the motion of Bestia, the consul elect, they were commanded to leave Italy, unless they bore a commission to surrender the kingdom. Early in the following year, the consular army of Bestia landed in Africa, and began its march up the Bagradas. Leptis Magna, the chief city of the African Tripolis, offered its submission, and other cities were taken. Bocchus, King of Mauretania, though he was the father-in-law of Jugurtha, proposed an alliance with the Romans, which broke down however because his envoys approached the consul with empty hands. Jugurtha was better acquainted with the customs of the Roman nobles; and his bribes won over

* The Princeps Senatus was the senator on whom the censors conferred the honour of placing his name first on the roll.

The

not only Bestia, who had begun the war with such vigour, but Scaurus, hitherto his chief opponent, who was serving with Bestia as legate. The price, however, was enormous, "and Scaurus had the credit of not doing a dishonest act for a small sum.” quæstor Sextius was sent to Vaga (Beja) in the upper valley of the Bagradas, nominally to collect corn, but really to serve as a hostage for Jugurtha, who repaired to the Roman camp. He made his proposals to a military council, for form's sake; but the whole matter was arranged in private with Bestia and Scaurus. Jugurtha obtained peace by the nominal surrender of his kingdom, which he received back again on payment of a small sum in silver, besides a large number of cattle and horses, and thirty elephants, most of which he afterwards bought back from the Roman officers. The Roman army remained in Africa, while Bestia returned home to hold the consular Comitia rendered necessary by the death of his colleague, P. Scipio Nasica (B.C. 111).

His return to Rome was the signal for the outburst of a storm before which the Senate was again compelled to bow. The tribune Memmius harangued the people in a series of speeches, one of which-in substance at least is preserved by Sallust. He recounted all the offences of the Optimates against the people during the last twenty years, their murder of popular tribunes, their ostentatious exercise of the power which they used for the corrupt betrayal of the state; and, retorting upon them the charge they had made against the Gracchi, of aspiring to royalty, he exclaimed, "This is no case of peculation of the treasury, nor of money forcibly taken from allies, which are indeed grave offences, but we are so used to them that we consider them nothing. To your greatest enemy has been surrendered the authority of the Senate: nay your own imperial power has been betrayed: at Rome and in foreign parts the interests of the state have been sold. we shall not enquire into these matters, if we shall not punish the guilty, what will remain except to live and to obey those who have committed such crimes? For, when men can do with impunity what they like, that is really kingly power." In fine, he carried a bill, to which the Senate dared not refuse their assent, that the prætor L. Cassius should be sent to bring Jugurtha to Rome under a promise of safe conduct, to which Cassius added the pledge of his own word. Sallust says that the engagement of one honest man had as much weight with Jugurtha as the promise of the Roman Senate and People; "perhaps," adds the modern historian, "he might have said more, for Jugurtha knew by

If

experience that the knaves in the Senate had hitherto been a majority."

Jugurtha appeared before the people, not in regal state, but in the sordid garb of a person under prosecution; but even this humiliation was not enough for the popular indignation. Some cried out that he should be put in chains; others called on him to confess the names of his accomplices, or they would do summary justice on him as a public enemy. Memmius only stilled the tumult by declaring that he would not suffer the safe conduct of the Roman people to be broken; and he then proceeded to recount all the crimes of Jugurtha, and finally demanded of him the names of his abettors. The king's silence-he added- would not screen the guilty, for they were well known already, but he could only merit clemency by a full confession. The mode of meeting this demand had been previously arranged. Jugurtha came forward as if to make a clean breast of it; but before he opened his lips, the tribune Caius Babius, whom he had bribed for the purpose, interposed his veto on the king's speaking. After an empty outburst of popular fury, the assembly was dissolved, and time was once more gained, while the discussion on the ratification of the peace was protracted in the Senate. Meanwhile the Comitia had been held, and Spurius Postumius Albinus, one of the consuls elect, eager for the command in Africa, took a new step to bring on war. Gulussa, the second son of Masinissa, had left a son Massiva, who had fled to Rome after the death of Adherbal. This Massiva was now persuaded by Albinus to lay before the Senate his claim to the throne of Numidia. He had no sooner taken this step than Bomilcar, the trusty adherent of Jugurtha, planned Massiva's death. But one of the hired assassins, being caught in the act, was induced to make a full confession. Bomilcar was placed upon his trial; and Jugurtha, after persuading fifty of his Roman friends to become sureties for the man's appearance, sent him home out of the way. It says much for the amount of good faith which had survived the corruption of Roman morals, that Jugurtha's safe conduct was still respected. The treaty of Bestia was of course cancelled, and the king was ordered to depart from Italy. When beyond the walls, he cast many a silent look back upon Rome, and at last exclaimed-" That city is for sale, and will soon perish if it finds a purchsaer "* (B.c. 110).

Albinus had obtained the coveted command so late in the year, that he was now only eager to finish the campaign before he

*Sallust, Jug. c. 35.