In the year 635 from the founding of the City, in the consulship of Publius Scipio Nasica and Lucius Calpurnius Bestia, the senate, with the consent of the Roman people, declared war on Jugurtha, king of the Numidians.
1 Anno ab urbe condita DCXXXV P. Scipione Nasica et L. Calpurnio Bestia consulibus Iugurthae Numidarum regi bellum consensu populi Romani senatus indixit.
But I will touch on Jugurtha only briefly, for the sake of order and by way of mention, because, both concerning his changeable and intolerable nature and concerning his deeds, done as craftily as they were vigorously, there is knowledge enough and to spare among all, thanks to the rich brilliance of the writers.
2 Sed ego de Iugurtha ordinis tantum loco et causa commemorationis breuiter perstrinxerim, quia ut de natura eius uaria atque intolerabili ita et de rebus tam dolose quam strenue gestis propter opimam scriptorum luculentiam satis sufficiens apud omnes notitia est.
So Jugurtha, the adopted son of Micipsa, king of the Numidians, and made his heir among his natural sons, first did away with his co-heirs: that is, he killed Hiempsal, and drove Adherbal, defeated in war, out of Africa.
3 Igitur Iugurtha, Micipsae Numidarum regis adoptiuus heresque inter naturales eius filios factus, primum coheredes suos, id est Hiempsalem occidit, Adherbalem bello uictum Africa expulit.
Then he corrupted with money the consul Calpurnius, who had been sent against him, and brought him to most shameful terms of peace.
4 Calpurnium deinde consulem aduersum se missum pecunia corrupit atque ad turpissimas condiciones pacis adduxit.
Moreover, when he had come to Rome himself, having either corrupted or tempted everyone with money, he stirred up seditions and dissensions; and as he left the City he branded it with a notorious enough epitaph, saying: “O city for sale, and soon to perish, if it finds a buyer!”
5 praeterea cum Romam ipse uenisset, omnibus pecunia aut corruptis aut adtemptatis seditiones dissensionesque permiscuit; quam cum egrederetur infami satis notauit elogio dicens: O urbem uenalem et mature perituram, si emptorem inuenerit!
In the following year, at the city of Calama, he crushed in battle Aulus Postumius, brother of the consul Postumius, who had put him in command of an army of forty thousand armed men, as he gaped after the royal treasures stored there, and exacted from him in his defeat a most ignominious treaty. He joined to his kingdom almost the whole of Africa, as it fell away from the Romans.1
6 Insequenti anno A. Postumium, Postumii consulis fratrem, quem is quadraginta milium armatorum exercitui praefecerat, apud Calamam urbem thesauris regiis conditis inhiantem bello oppressit adque uicto ignominiosissimum foedus exegit. uniuersam paene Africam a Romanis deficientem regno suo iunxit.
1Sallust (Jugurtha 37–38) names the town where the royal treasure lay as Suthul.
Afterwards, however, held in check by the integrity and discipline of the consul Metellus, and defeated besides in two battles, he saw his Numidia both laid waste before his eyes and incapable of being defended: compelled by him to surrender, he gave three hundred hostages, pledged that he would deliver grain and other supplies, and handed back more than three thousand deserters.
7 postea tamen Metelli consulis integritate et disciplina coercitus, duobus etiam proeliis uictus uidit praesente se et uastari Numidiam suam et non posse defendi: a quo ad deditionem coactus trecentos obsides dedit, frumentum atque alios commeatus persoluturum sese spopondit, tria milia amplius perfugarum reddidit.
Thereafter, since, unsteady in peace, he would not refrain from wicked raids, he was broken by the cunning of the consul Gaius Marius — almost no less than that with which he himself was endowed — and by Roman strength, above all after Marius had by a ruse surrounded and taken the city of Capsa, founded, as they say, by the Phoenician Hercules, and then crammed with royal treasures.
8 exim cum incertus in pace improbos non cohiberet excursus, C. Marii consulis non minore paene, quam ipse praeditus erat, astutia Romanisque uiribus fractus est, maxime postquam Marius urbem Capsam, ab Hercule Phoenice ut ferunt conditam, regiis tunc thesauris confertissimam dolo circumuenit et cepit.
Then, distrusting his own resources and strength, Jugurtha made an alliance with Bocchus, king of the Moors, and, immensely strengthened by his cavalry, wore out the army of Marius with very frequent raids.
9 diffidens deinde propriis rebus et uiribus Iugurtha societatem cum Boccho Maurorum rege fecit, cuius equitatu in immensum auctus Marianum exercitum creberrimis incursionibus fatigauit.
Finally, near Cirta, an ancient city and the royal seat of Masinissa, he went out against the Romans, who were preparing to storm it, equipped with sixty thousand horsemen.
10 postremo apud Cirtam, urbem antiquam, Masinissae regiam, aduersum Romanos expugnationem eius parantes sexaginta milibus equitum instructus occurrit.
Never was any battle more tumultuous and more terrible for the Roman soldier, so much so that the dust raised by the charging and the din of the horsemen riding round and attacking veiled the sky, took away the day, and drew night over it; and so great a cloud of missiles fell upon them that no part of the body was safe from a blow, since they lacked both the sight to look out, because of the hindrance of the darkness, and the freedom of movement to take precautions, because of the press of the multitude.
11 numquam ulla Romano militi tumultuosior pugna et terribilior fuit, adeo ut discursu et fremitu circumcursantium et impetentium equitum suscitatus puluis caelum subtexuerit, diem ademerit noctemque obduxerit, tantus autem telorum nimbus ingruerit, ut nulla pars corporis ab ictu tuta esset, quippe quibus et uisus ad prospiciendum impedimento caliginis et expeditio ad cauendum compressione multitudinis deerat.
Nor did the Moorish and Numidian horseman take pains to search out a well-placed enemy with a well-timed cast of his weapon; rather they hurled their javelins at random, certain that the wounds would not be uncertain. So the Roman foot-soldiers were forced together and packed close. The coming of night gave a respite from so great a danger.
12 nec laborabat eques Maurus ac Numida, ut bene conlocatum hostem opportuno teli impetu rimaretur, sed potius in incertum pila mittebant certi quod uulnera incerta non essent. ita coacti in unum Romani pedites densabantur. intercapedinem tanti periculi nox interueniens dedit.
On the following day the face of both war and danger was the same: the soldier could not break out against the enemy, though his sword was drawn, for he was driven back by javelins from afar; they could not flee, for the horsemen, swifter in pursuit, had shut them in on every side.
13 eadem postera die et belli et periculi facies: erumpere in hostem quamuis stricto miles gladio non ualebat, eminus enim iaculis repellebatur; fugere non poterant, undique enim uelocior ad persequendum eques incluserat.
Now it was the third day and there was no help from any quarter; the dread face of death confronted them everywhere: at last the consul Marius, out of brave despair, made a way for hope; he burst out from the rampart with his whole column at once, and gave himself at once to the open field and to battle.
14 iam tertia dies et nullum undecumque suffragium, dira undique mortis facies obiciebatur: tandem Marius consul forti desperatione spei uiam fecit, uniuerso simul agmine prorupit e uallo campoque sese simul et proelio dedit.
And when the enemy, pouring round them again, were not only mangling the rear of the column but even cutting down its centre with missiles hurled from afar, and when the heat of the sun, unbearable thirst, and death standing all around were wearing out the bewildered Romans to the utmost point of despair, suddenly that well-known help of the Romans against the Africans — storms and rains sent from heaven — brought them unhoped-for deliverance.
15 et cum iterum circumfusi hostes non solum agminis extrema laniarent, uerum etiam media excussis procul telis caederent turbatosque Romanos insuper etiam aestus solis, intolerantia sitis, mortis circumstantia usque ad extremum desperationis defetigaret, subito notum illud Romanorum aduersus Afros tempestatum imbriumque suffragium caelo missum insperatae saluti fuit.
For a sudden rain gave refreshment and drink to the thirsting and sweltering Romans, while for the Numidians it rendered slippery, and thus useless, the shafts of their javelins, which they are accustomed to hurl by hand without throwing-thongs;
16 siquidem repentina pluuia sitientibus Romanis et aestuantibus refrigerium potumque praebuit, porro autem Numidis hastilia telorum, quae manu intorquere sine ammentis solent, lubrica ac per hoc inutilia reddidit;
their shields too, which they carried as handy and safe, made of elephant hide stretched and hardened — whose nature is such that it soaks up any rain it receives like a sponge, and so becomes unmanageable through the sudden weight — they could not use for defence, since they could not be wielded. Thus, the Moors and Numidians being unexpectedly thrown into confusion and left helpless, Bocchus and Jugurtha fled.
17 scuta etiam, quae elephanti corio extento atque durato habilia et tuta gestabant - cuius ea natura est, ut acceptum imbrem tamquam spongia ebibat ac per hoc intractabile repentino pondere fiat - quia circumferri non poterant, defendere nequiuerunt. ita ex insperato conturbatis destitutisque Mauris ac Numidis Bocchus ac Iugurtha fugerunt.
After this ninety thousand armed men were thrown against them by those same kings in a final battle; these too are reported to have been cut down to the point of annihilation by the victorious Romans. Thereupon Bocchus, casting away hope of war, sought peace, and as the price of peace sent Jugurtha, taken by treachery and loaded with chains, to Marius through his legate Sulla.
18 post hoc nonaginta milia armatorum nouissimo bello ab isdem regibus obiecta; haec quoque usque ad internecionem Romanis uincentibus caesa referuntur. ex eo Bocchus spem belli abiciens, pacem petiuit atque in pretium pacis Iugurtham dolo captum catenisque obrutum per Syllam legatum misit ad Marium.
Jugurtha was driven in the triumph before the chariot with his two sons, and soon afterwards strangled in prison.
19 qui in triumpho ante currum cum duobus filiis suis actus et mox in carcere strangulatus est.
In those same days an unseemly and grim prodigy was seen. Lucius Helvius, a Roman knight, returning from Rome to Apulia with his wife and daughter, was caught by a storm; and seeing his daughter terrified, so that they might reach the nearest shelter more quickly, they left their carriages and took to horses, and he took his maiden daughter, mounted on a horse, into the middle of the company.
20 Isdem diebus obscenum prodigium ac triste uisum est. L. Heluius eques Romanus cum uxore et filia de Roma in Apuliam rediens, tempestate correptus cum filiam consternatam uideret, ut citius propioribus tectis succederent, relictis uehiculis arreptisque equis filiam uirginem equo insidentem in medium agmen accepit.
The girl was immediately killed by a stroke of lightning, and yet all her clothes were stripped from her without any tear, the fastenings at her breast and feet loosed, her necklaces and rings too shaken off, while her body itself was unharmed, except that she lay naked in an unseemly manner, with her tongue thrust out a little; the horse too that she was riding lay lifeless some way off, its trappings, bridle, and girths loosed and scattered here and there.
21 puella continuo ictu fulminis exanimata est, sed omnibus sine scissura aliqua uestimentis ademptis ac pectoris pedumque uinculis dissolutis, monilibus etiam anulisque discussis, ipso quoque corpore inlaeso, nisi quod obscenum in modum nuda et lingua paululum exerta iacuit; equus quoque ipse, quo utebatur, straturis frenis et cingulis dissolutis passim ac dispersis exanimis procul iacuit.
A short time after this, Lucius Veturius, a Roman knight, defiled the Vestal virgin Aemilia in a secret act of debauchery. That same Aemilia, moreover, enticed two other Vestal virgins to share in the unchastity, and exposed and handed them over to the companions of her seducer. When information was laid by a slave, punishment was exacted from them all.
22 Paruo post hoc intercessu temporis L. Veturius eques Romanus Aemiliam uirginem Vestalem furtiuo stupro polluit. duas praeterea uirgines Vestales eadem Aemilia ad participationem incesti sollicitatas contubernalibus sui corruptoris exposuit ac tradidit. indicio per seruum facto supplicium de omnibus sumptum est.
Moreover, in the same times of the Jugurthine war, the consul Lucius Cassius pursued the Tigurini in Gaul as far as the Ocean, and in turn, caught in an ambush by them, was killed;
23 Isdem praeterea Iugurthini belli temporibus L. Cassius consul in Gallia Tigurinos usque Oceanum persecutus rursusque ab isdem insidiis circumuentus occisus est;
Lucius Piso too, a man of consular rank, legate of the consul Cassius, was killed. Gaius Publius, the other legate, so that the remaining portion of the army, which had fled into the camp, might not be destroyed, gave hostages and half of all their possessions to the Tigurini in a most shameful treaty; on his return to Rome, when a day had been set for his trial by Caelius, tribune of the plebs, because he had given hostages to the Tigurini, he fled into exile.2
24 Lucius quoque Piso uir consularis, legatus Cassii consulis, interfectus. C. Publius alter legatus, ne residua exercitus portio, quae in castra confugerat, deleretur, obsides et dimidiam partem rerum omnium Tigurinis turpissimo foedere dedit: qui Romam reuersus, a Caelio tribuno plebi die dicta eo quod Tigurinis obsides dederat, in exilium profugit.
2The legate was Gaius Popillius Laenas; Orosius’s “C. Publius” is a corruption of his name.
The proconsul Caepio, having taken a city of the Gauls whose name is Toulouse, carried off from the temple of Apollo 100,000 pounds of gold and 110,000 of silver; and when he had sent this under guard to Marseille, a city friendly to the Roman people, he is said — as some attest — to have secretly killed those to whom he had entrusted its guarding and conveyance, and to have stolen the whole of it by crime. Hence too a great inquiry was afterwards held at Rome.
25 Caepio proconsule capta urbe Gallorum, cui nomen est Tolosae, centum milia pondo auri et argenti centum decem milia e templo Apollinis sustulit: quod cum ad Massiliam, amicam populo Romano urbem, cum praesidiis misisset, interfectis clam - sicut quidam contestantur - quibus ea custodienda et peruehenda commiserat, cuncta per scelus furatus fuisse narratur. unde etiam magna quaestio post Romae acta est.