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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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:--
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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."
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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.
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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.
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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:--
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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."
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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."
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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:--
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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."
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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."
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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.
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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.
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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.
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