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THE 
 
 CATILINE AND JUGURTHA 
 
 OF SALLUST 
 
 TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH. 
 
 BY 
 
 ALFRED W. POLLARD, RA 
 
 , jj. .i. , 
 
 ST. John's college, oxfokd. 
 
 Sonic n: 
 MACMILLAN AND CO. 
 
 1882. 
 
 All Rights Reserved. 
 
■/li>-7'^ 
 

 PREFACE. 
 
 The text used in this translation is that of Dietsch's 
 last edition. The system of division into paragraphs 
 is taken from the same source. Wherever possible, 
 the square brackets which Dietsch uses for marking- 
 words which he suspects as interpolations, have been 
 retained in the English version. 
 
 Besides my obligations to the usual works of refer- 
 ence, and to the suggestive essays of Professor Tyrrell 
 in the introduction to his edition of Cicero's Letters, 
 and of Professor Beesly on " Catiline as a Party 
 Leader," there are two heavy debts which I wish 
 specially to acknowledge. The first of these is to the 
 edition of Cicero's Orations, and the Roman history (»f 
 the late Mr. Long. To any one who desires to make 
 a detailed study of any portion of the period on which 
 Mr. Long has written, the latter work cannot be too 
 strongly recommended. By its clear arrangement 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 of the materials to be found in the various ancient 
 authorities, and scholarly discussion of all the points 
 they raise, it has considerably lightened my labour in 
 writing the notes to this volume. My second debt of 
 gratitude is due to my friend, Mr. Watson, of St. 
 John's College, Oxford, for his kindness in revising 
 the whole of the translation, a revision, I may say, by 
 which hardly a page has been left unimproved. 
 
 A. w. p. 
 
■-^^ C-f 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 NOTE ON SALT.USr, . 
 
 HAGK 
 
 ix 
 
 INTRODUCTION TO THE "CATILINE," . 
 TRANSLATION OF THE '"CATILINE," 
 NOTES TO THE " CATILINE," . 
 
 INTRODUCTION TO THE "jUCxURTHINE WAR 
 TRANSLATION OF THE "JUGURTHINE WAR," 
 NOTES TO THE " JUGURTHINE WAR," . 
 
 64 
 
 117 
 
 H7 
 
NOTE ON SALLUST. 
 
 The facts which we know about our author's life are 
 sufficient to prove that he was at no time an important 
 man at Rome. A member of a plebeian family, Gaius 
 Sallustius Crispus was born in the year B.C. 86 in the 
 town of Amiternum. Until B.C. 52, when he was one 
 of the tribunes of the commons, we hear nothing of 
 him, but he then took an active part against Cicero's 
 client, T. Annius Milo. Two years later he was 
 removed from the Senate by the censors, Appius 
 Claudius, and Lucius Calpurnius Piso, but his expul- 
 sion was probably only a party measure, as other 
 Caesarians were similarly treated, and even if the story 
 about his intrigue with the wife of Milo is true, adul- 
 tery was at this time too common at Rome to exclude 
 the offender from the Senate. It is said, without 
 much authority, that immediately after his expulsion 
 Sallust joined the army of Caesar ; anyhow, in B.C. 48, 
 we find him in command of a legion in Illyricum. 
 The following year he was one of the praetors elect 
 (^when he had been quaestor we do not know), and thus 
 regained his place in the Senate. In September he 
 was employed by Caesar to check the mutiny in 
 Campania, but his efforts to do this were unsuccessful. 
 Sallust took part in the African war, and on its con- 
 clusion was appointed the first governor of the newly 
 
X NOTE ON SALLUST. 
 
 formed province of Numidia. In B.C. 45 he returned 
 to Rome, so enormously enriched as to give colour to 
 the charges of extortion which were vaguely, though 
 probably never formally, brought against him. He 
 now laid out the Horti Sallustiani in the valley be- 
 tween the Quirinal and the Pincius, and lived here in 
 retirement until his death in B.C. 35. It is probable 
 that these ten or twelve years comprise the whole 
 period of his literary activity, and that during them he 
 wrote, not only the " Catiline" and "Jugurtha," but the 
 other essays which were joined together into a con- 
 tinuous account of about twenty years of Roman 
 history. On Sallust's death, his property all went to 
 his grand-nephew, who became a man of some note 
 under Augustus and Tiberius. The story that the 
 historian married Terentia, the wife whom Cicero 
 divorced in B.C. 46, is worth mentioning, though the 
 authority for it is not good, and it seems intrinsically 
 improbable. 
 
 The preceding brief sketch of Sallust's life enables 
 us to gather that throughout his career he was a 
 consistent democrat and supporter of Caesar. This") 
 Caesarism is often alluded to as detracting from the 
 value of his work, but it would be much truer to say 
 that it constitutes his first qualification as a historian. 
 There is a wrong and a right side in politics as in 
 everything else, and in the struggle which brought the 
 Roman republic to an end the partisans of Caesar, as 
 we now see, were in the right. It need not greatlyy 
 alter our estimation of Cicero and Cato as men, or 
 even as statesmen, that in that struggle they did 
 battle for a constitution whose continuance would 
 
NOTE ON SALLUST. xi 
 
 have been Rome's ruin. Their position was intelH- 
 gible, consistent, justifiable ; as it appeared in the 
 heat of the contest, even noble, for they were fighting 
 for an idea, and Caesar for his personal gain. But 
 despite Cicero's literary power, and Cato's force of 
 character, a history of Rome for the century which 
 followed the fall of Carthage, if written by either the 
 one or the other, would have been a very lamentable 
 production. They would have misunderstood every- 
 thing, and consequently misexplained everything. 
 The way in which Cicero alludes to the men and 
 events of the period of the Gracchi should be suffi- 
 cient to convince us of this. Sallust, though vastly 
 inferior as a man to either of the optimate leaders, 
 was extraordinarily successful in seizing the thread of 
 events. The chapters on politics in Rome in the year 
 which succeeded the Gracchan revolution, and again 
 after the consulship of Pompey and Crassus in B.C. 70, 
 can hardly be too highly praised, especially Avhen we 
 consider how soon after the events narrated they were 
 written. Sallust, indeed, except when speaking of\ 
 the dictator himself, never allowed his Caesarian j 
 sympathies to carry him away, and it is difficult f 
 to understand how Professor Mommsen could permit 
 himself to speak of the "Catiline" and "Jugurtha" 
 as partisan pamphlets. If Sallust was a party writer, 
 then Defoe himself must yield him the palm for 
 cleverness in concealing his real object, and one 
 could almost wish Mommsen's theory correct, for 
 the ingenuity of the elaborate contrast which Sallust 
 draws between Caesar and Marcus Cato, the one man 
 for whom the dictator entertained an uneasy hate, 
 
Xll NOTE ON SALLUST. 
 
 would then be without a parallel. But the whole tone 
 of Sallust's two essays forbids the idea that he was 
 writing for any immediate purpose. The elaborate 
 care bestowed on the style, the recurring pompousness, 
 the affectation of an extraordinary virtue, all betray 
 the vanity of a man who wrote with Thucydides' " to 
 be an everlasting possession" ringing in his ears, and 
 who probably esteemed his own work little less lightly 
 than that of Caesar. Over passages in the latter's 
 career which he might not care to have revived, 
 Sallust was sufficiently prudent to draw a veil. The 
 different manner in which he alludes to the rumours 
 of the complicity of Caesar and of Crassus in Catiline's 
 conspiracy is an instance of this ; and, certainly, we 
 should never have learnt from our author how close 
 was the political connection of Catiline and Caesar 
 down to the end of 64. But, when not dealing with 
 the dangerous subject of the dictator's conduct, it is 
 difficult to find any trace of partiality in Sallust. 
 Allusion has already been made to his character of 
 Cato, a like impartiality marks his sketches of Metellus, 
 of Marius, and of Sulla : and there is hardly a single 
 passage in the two essays he has left us in which one 
 political party is unjustly exalted at the expense of 
 the other. 
 
 So far we have been dealing with Sallust as a polit- 
 ical historian, and here there is little to do but 
 praise ; there are, however, other aspects of his work 
 in which it appears less satisfactory. Of his defects 
 as a military historian, and of the excuses which 
 may be alleged for such defects, something is said 
 in the introduction to the ^' Jugurtha" ; his contempt 
 
NOTE ON SALLUST. xiii 
 
 for details of chronology and geography forms the 
 subject of many of the notes ; neither of these points 
 therefore need be more than alluded to here. There 
 is, however, another side of his writings on which 
 a few remarks may, perhaps, be profitably made. If 
 by the pains which he takes to link together events 
 and their causes, and to find the key of each period of 
 history in that which preceded it, our author has 
 justly earned himself the title of a philosophic his- 
 torian, it must unhappily be added that by the way 
 in which he draws on his imagination, he exhibits 
 himself as the earliest of historical novelists. It 
 has been remarked that there are often two ways in 
 which the same set of facts may be described : " we 
 may say that we saw a man snatch up a stick and 
 strike a dog ; or, that we knew the man was angry 
 and resolved to punish the dog;" in very simple cases 
 it does not much matter which form of expression we 
 use. Sallust, however, has a perverse propensity for 
 using the second form where it is entirely inapplicable. 
 To speak pedantically, he interprets material in terms 
 of mental phenomena in a most illegitimate manner, 
 and often seems to do this merely to conceal his 
 ignorance of some historical detail. He is constantly 
 supplying motives and reasons, constantly telling us 
 what his characters thought, and describing mental 
 conditions of which he could by no possibility have 
 known anything. In the history of the Jugurthine 
 War the effect of this is chiefly ludicrous. The elabor- 
 ate account of Micipsa's motives in sending Jugurtha 
 to Numantia, the ascription of Hiempsal's murder to 
 the terror he caused Jugurtha by his supposed remark. 
 
XIV NOTE ON SALLUST. 
 
 the mental pictures of the Numidian and his opponents 
 presented to us on each change of tactics on either 
 side — all these we may value as highly or as cheaply 
 as we like. However we rate them, they will not alter 
 our views as to the nature of the war. In the case of 
 the "Catiline" it is different. Here, much depends on 
 the opinion we hold as to the personal character of the 
 conspirator ; and Sallust, in his foolish straining after 
 effect, has perhaps done more even than Cicero to 
 elevate Catiline into the portentous stage villain with 
 whom we are familiar. To trace the conspiracy to 
 the madness which resulted from a guilty conscience, 
 to portray the man whom Caesar and Crassus sup- 
 ported for the consulship as a kind of dissolute maniac, 
 to say that he made his followers commit aimless 
 crimes in order to keep themselves in practice, to alter 
 the date of a speech in order to give the conspirator 
 an effective exit from the Senate-house, to introduce 
 some foolish talk about the Roman women as an ex- 
 cuse for a dashing sketch of Sempronia — all this is 
 characteristic of an historical novelist, not of a philo- 
 sophic historian. It detracts from the value of Sallust's 
 work, it makes us receive his statements with suspicion, 
 and treat his soberer judgments of men and things 
 with less^attention than they deserve. Enough, how- 
 ever, has been said as to Sallust's defects, especially 
 as in the notes, from the nature of the case, it is chiefly 
 to his defects that attention is called. He may not be 
 the equal of Herodotus, Thucydides, and Tacitus, but 
 by his combination of excellence of style and of 
 matter, he is at least worthy to be ranked in the same 
 class with them. 
 
XV 
 
 INTRODUCTION TO THE CONSPIRACY 
 OF CATILINE. 
 
 The history of the years B.C. 66 to B.C. 62, in which 
 the activity of Lucius Sergius CatiHna was chiefly 
 manifested, Hke that of every other period in any 
 nation's existence, can only properly be understood 
 when viewed in connection with the history of the 
 years which preceded and followed them. The cen- 
 tury w^hich elapsed between the final establishment of 
 the provincial system and the battle of Actium was 
 occupied at Rome with the struggles of a people, 
 great in themselves, greater still in virtue of the do- 
 minion over which they ruled, to throw off a system 
 of government which had become antiquated, and to 
 find one which should be capable of satisfying the 
 new wants that had arisen. But the change from the 
 rule of the Senate to that of the Caesars was no easy 
 one for such an unwieldy mass as the Roman empire 
 to accomplish, and from the tribunate of Tiberius 
 Gracchus to the assumption of the tribunician power 
 by Augustus, we have to watch the miserable ex- 
 perience by which, blindly but surely, it was led to 
 accept the government which alone could bring it 
 peace. No mere fluctuations in Roman politics, per- 
 secution of the democrats by the Senate, or persecu- 
 
XVI INTRODUCTION TO THE 
 
 tion of the Senate by the democrats, could bring this 
 change about. These had their place, their necessary 
 place, in the chain of causes, but in themselves were 
 only one element out of many which contributed to 
 the result. Rome was not like Athens, where the 
 eloquence of a Pericles could gain its possessor a 
 practical dictatorship for life ; the voice of an orator 
 in the Forum was insufficient to change the destinies 
 of an empire which stretched from the Straits of 
 Gibraltar to the River Euphrates. Such a change 
 could not be effected without bloodshed, and that on 
 a larger scale than the breaking of a few heads in 
 street riots at Rome. Sulla and Marius had first to 
 battle for dominion in Italy ; Pharsalia, Thapsus, and 
 Munda had first to be fought ; and even so the tale 
 of horrors was not complete till Antony and Octavi- 
 anus had finally wearied the world with war. Then, 
 at last, the empire was firmly established, and Rome 
 had peace for a hundred years. 
 
 Let us look at some of the causes by which this 
 momentous change was brought about. Abroad, the 
 rapid succession with which, in the middle of the 
 second century B.C., nation after nation was reduced 
 to the form of a Roman province, made their govern- 
 ment by the two hundred thousand demoralised men 
 who had the right of attending the comitia in the 
 market place of a single city, an absurdity which 
 could not long continue. The extent of the Roman 
 empire demanded a ruler, who would not only govern 
 his subjects for their own good rather than for the 
 wealth to be gained by their plunder, but who would, 
 in some sense, represent them far more truly than 
 
CONSPIRACY OF CATILINE. XVll 
 
 could be done by any pseudo-representative assembly 
 in which Greeks and Spaniards, Africans and Asiatics 
 should come together in unsympathetic union. At 
 home, on the other hand, there was needed a strong 
 executive government to meet the existing distress 
 with some measures of relief, to keep the disorderly 
 rabble of the capital in check, and to render travelling 
 in Italy and on the high seas at least a little more 
 secure. The government actually in power at this 
 time was composed of the grandsons of the men, who, 
 in Rome's long struggle with Carthage, had been 
 their country's bulwark. With the close of that 
 struggle the Roman aristocracy had lost their excuse 
 for existing, at any rate as a governing body ; and 
 the inevitable conflict had already begun, the end of 
 which was to see the Senate reduced to impotence. 
 The nobility fought for their privileges with unex- 
 ampled pertinacity, and had they only shown a little 
 temperance in their exercise, might have postponed 
 their extinction almost indefinitely. As Professor 
 Gardiner^ remarks of an epoch, not altogether unlike 
 in our own history, " the overthrow of the predomin- 
 ance of the aristocracy would not come from a mere 
 jealousy of their supremacy. It is not in this way 
 that great constitutional changes are effected. There 
 must be some actual sin of omission or of commission 
 on the part of the rulers to stir up the desire for 
 change.'- It is only, indeed, because it supplies the 
 record of such sins and of their effects that the history 
 of Roman politics during this century of transition is 
 really interesting. 
 
 ^ Introduction to the Study of English History, p. 176. 
 
 I 
 
XVlil INTRODUCTION TO THE 
 
 The objects for which the democrats strove against 
 the Senate were sometimes good, sometimes bad, but 
 always, in themselves, comparatively unimportant. 
 To one of the two really great measures of Gaius 
 Gracchus, the enfranchisement of Italy, both parties, 
 alike, were opposed, and the Italians had eventually 
 to win it by their swords ; to the other, the establish- 
 ment, namely, of transmarine colonies, the Senate was 
 opposed, while the people were only lukewarm and 
 half-hearted in its favour. The allotment of land in 
 Italy to the poorer citizens, which formed the great 
 feature in the legislation of the elder Gracchus, was 
 successful as a measure of temporary relief, as we see 
 by the sudden addition of five-and-twenty per cent, to 
 the diminishing muster-roll of Roman burgesses. The 
 very frequency, however, with which such proposals 
 were repeated, shows how little permanent good they 
 effected, and how fruitless was the endeavour to main- 
 tain a system of peasant-proprietorship side by side 
 with the huge farms of the capitalists. This, in fine, 
 in common with every other measure of 'domestic 
 reform, which formed the subject of contention be- 
 tween Senate and Plebs, was ultimately useful only in 
 so far as the struggle it occasioned helped to diminish 
 the power of the aristocracy, and paved the way for 
 the abolition of its rule. Of the effeteness of this 
 aristocracy the provinces, meanwhile, had their experi- 
 ence in the exactions practised upon them by each 
 successive governor, and at home the people were 
 learning to despise it by their success in bringing its 
 members to trial after such disasters to the Roman 
 arms as those which occurred in the Jugurthine, and 
 
CONSPIRACY OF CATILINE. xix 
 
 the early part of the Cimbrian war. Sulla gave the 
 aristocracy one last chance, but this also it threw 
 away ; and its impotence in the face of Spartacus and 
 his gladiators, and of the pirates of Cilicia and Crete, 
 proved to Italy and the whole Roman world its 
 unfitness to rule. 
 
 At the date when Sallust's narrative begins, the 
 end of B.C. 66, this feeling on the part of the people 
 of the utter incapacity of the aristocracy, had just 
 taken decisive effect. The Gabinian and Manilian 
 rogations had been passed ; the generals of the 
 Senate had been superseded ; and the whole forces of 
 Rome were placed at the disposal of Pompey. The 
 object for which the democrats had unwillingly fought 
 was practically attained, and the end was beginning 
 slowly to come into sight. By the immense powers 
 conferred upon him Pompey was placed in a position 
 to enact on his return from Asia Minor the part 
 which Caesar subsequently played on his return from 
 Gaul, and nothing but his own sluggishness and 
 timidity of disposition stood between him and the 
 perpetual dictatorship of Rome. By these two laws a 
 new power was created in the state, a power which, 
 though in the hands of Caesar it became essentially 
 democratic, in the hands of Pompey, as the popular 
 leaders clearly saw, might become a fatal agent of 
 reaction. With the rise of this force the power 
 of the Senate was definitely crushed, and, as a con- 
 sequence, the old democratic battle-cries lost all 
 their meaning. The authority against which they 
 had been useful as levers was overthrown, and to quote 
 the evils against which the Gracchi had striven as the 
 
XX INTRODUCTION TO THE 
 
 object at this period of the popular party's attack, is as 
 idle as it would have been to support the Reform Bill 
 of 1868 with the arguments used for that of 1832. In 
 B.C. 6y the partisans of Pompey had forced the hand 
 of the popular party, and compelled them to support 
 the proposal of Gabinius. The proposal became law, 
 and for the next five years it was not the Senate, but 
 the suspected military dictator, that was the object of 
 the democratic hatred and fear. 
 
 It is at this conjuncture that Catiline appears on 
 the scene. To say, with Professor Beesly, that " he 
 was the successor in direct order of the Gracchi, of 
 Saturninus, of Sulpicius, and of Drusus, of Cinna," is 
 in one sense true, for every great political movement 
 has its temporary side, which ends in a caricature, as 
 well as its lasting side, which does not end, but only 
 merges itself in a higher order. The legitimate suc- 
 cessor of Gains Gracchus in his noble aspiration to- 
 wards Italian unity, and in his clear perception of the 
 necessity for Rome of an absolute ruler, is Caesar or 
 Augustus ; his legitimate successor on his lower side, 
 on which he pandered to the Roman mob, is Cati- 
 line. Nor was it only the leaders of the democratic 
 party who found here their fitting and final carica- 
 ture. Catiline was a Sergius, a member of one of the 
 noblest families in Rome ; and in his selfishness, his 
 incapacity, and his unclean life, he only exaggerated 
 the vices which had been prevalent among the aristoc- 
 racy for the preceding century. Alike in the character 
 of its prime mover, in the blindness and feebleness of 
 aim which it indicates in the democratic party, and in 
 the impotence which the Senate displayed in their 
 
CONSPIRACY OF CATILINE. XXI 
 
 measures for its suppression, the conspiracy of B.C. 63 
 forms a fitting prelude to the new epoch, which dates 
 from Caesar's departure to gain himself an army in 
 Gaul. 
 
 On his return in B.C. 66 from the government of 
 Africa, Catiline, according to Professor Beesly, as- 
 sumed the leadership of the democratic party at 
 Rome. Mr. Beesly is undoubtedly right in pointing 
 out that at this time the leadership was not possessed 
 by Caesar ; but we are not for this reason bound to 
 conclude that it lay with Catiline. If Caesar is men- 
 tioned in no oration or letter of Cicero's before B.C. 63, 
 on the other hand, until the delivery of the election 
 speech before the Senate about June, 64, Catiline's 
 name only occurs in connection with his trial for ex- 
 tortion. If we may argue back from the latter's being 
 engaged in a democratic plot to the likelihood of his 
 being the democratic leader, the same argument would 
 apply equally well to Caesar, and several other mem- 
 bers of the party ; in fact, either Gnaeus Piso, whom 
 the Senate despatched to Spain to get him out of the 
 way, or Publius Autronius, the unseated consul-elect, 
 would have had a better claim to this title of leader 
 than Lucius Catilina, who seems only to have been 
 known hitherto as one of Sulla's assassins, and in con- 
 nection with a charge of intrigue with a Vestal virgin. 
 The truth, however, appears to be that after the de- 
 parture of Pompey for the East, and the extension of 
 his powers by the Manilian rogation, the democratic 
 party at Rome was without any recognised leader 
 whatever. Caesar was coming into notice, and three 
 years later may fairly be said to have been its most 
 
XXll INTRODUCTION TO THE 
 
 important rnember; but in 66 B.C. all was confusion. 
 The democrats had been entrapped into assisting to 
 place an immense force at Pompey's disposal, and 
 they were now in abject terror as to how he might 
 use it. 
 
 It is at this conjuncture that we hear of the plots 
 which are described under the general head of Cati- 
 line's first conspiracy. If we will remember that the 
 real object of terror to all but the aristocratic party at 
 Rome was, not the Senate, but Pompey, that Crassus, 
 a personal enemy of Pompey, was at the head of the 
 knights or capitalists, and that Piso and Autronius, 
 Caesar and Catiline, were all important adherents of 
 a popular party which leaned, oi^ne side on the sup- 
 port of the knights, on the other on that of the rabble, 
 this conspiracy may lose some of the mystery which 
 is generally attached to it. Historians have found a 
 considerable difficulty in the fact that the plots which 
 Sallust and Suetonius respectively assign to this 
 period are puzzlingly alike, and yet differ in impor- 
 tant particulars. Sallust speaks of a conspiracy of 
 Piso, Catiline, and Autronius to murder the consuls 
 for B.C. 65 on the first day of the year, and seize the 
 reins of government. Their designs, he says, were 
 discovered, and they postponed their execution until 
 the fifth of the following month, when the precipitance 
 of Catiline brought about an utter failure. According 
 to Dion Cassius the Senate was aware of the con- 
 spiracy, but was prevented by the veto of one of the 
 tribunes from doing more than grant the consuls a 
 special guard. From Cicero we learn that Torquatus, 
 one of the consuls who were to have been assassinated. 
 
CONSPIRACY OF CATILINE. XXill 
 
 subsequently supported Catiline on his trial for extor- 
 tion, and declared that, although he had heard some- 
 thing about a conspiracy, he did not attach any belief 
 to the report, and this incredulity, real or pretended, 
 on the part of one of the intended victims, has led 
 some writers, including Professor Tyrrell, to doubt 
 Catiline's complicity in any plot prior to that of B.C. 
 63. If we turn now to Suetonius, we find an account 
 of a conspiracy, also planned to take effect about the 
 beginning of the year, in which there is no mention at 
 all of Catiline, but the chief parts are assigned to 
 Caesar, then aedile, Marcus Crassus, and the two un- 
 seated consuls, Sulla and Autronius, the former of 
 whom, if we may trust Cicero, is wrongly included 
 among the conspirators. The objects of this plot were 
 to make away with certain obnoxious members of the 
 Senate, to raise Crassus to the dictatorship, with 
 Caesar as his Master of the Horse, and subsequently to 
 restore the consulship to the unseated candidate ; and 
 the fiasco in this instance was brought about, not by 
 any undue haste in giving the concerted signal, but by 
 the timidity of Crassus, who failed to appear at the 
 appointed time. The discrepancies between these 
 two accounts are obvious, yet for the existence of the 
 plot mentioned by Sallust we have the authority not 
 only of that historian, but of Cicero, who more than 
 once alludes to it, and it is further vouched for by the 
 fact that more than one person was subsequently tried 
 for complicity in it. On the other hand, Suetonius 
 adduces as evidence for his own narrative the edicts 
 of Bibulus, a speech of the elder Curio, and the his- 
 tory of Tanusius Geminus, authorities too weighty to 
 
XXIV INTRODUCTION TO THE 
 
 be disregarded. The obvious conclusion appears to 
 be that there were actually two plots with very similar 
 objects planned to take effect in the beginning of B.C. 
 65 ; and this conclusion is greatly strengthened by 
 the assertion of Curio and Actorius Naso, as reported 
 by Suetonius, that Caesar at this time was engaged 
 in another and distinct conspiracy with the young 
 Gnaeus Piso, whom Sallust and Cicero both repre- 
 sent as one of Catiline's most active associates. We 
 should believe, then, that there were two separate 
 plots formed at this time, in both of which Caesar and 
 7 Antonius were engaged. In the one they united 
 with the head of the equestrian order, Marcus Crassus, 
 and planned a legitimate coup d'etat; in the other 
 they joined their fellow democrats Catiline and 
 Gnaeus Piso, whom we shall probably not wrong by 
 crediting, even in B.C. 66, with some connection with 
 the anarchists, and, if we may believe Sallust, con- 
 templated, besides the establishment of a military 
 power to counterbalance that of Pompey, a more 
 widespread and indiscriminate massacre of the no- 
 bility than Crassus would have thought needful. 
 That two conspiracies with such similar aims should 
 have existed side by side is undoubtedly strange, but, 
 on the one hand, the success of Caesar's assassins 
 shows us that if they could only have exercised 
 secrecy and discretion there was really no need for 
 their promoters to unite their forces ; and, on the 
 other, though the capitalists and the anarchists might 
 each ally themselves, for their own purposes, with 
 Caesar and Antonius, it by no means follows that 
 they would have been equally ready to combine 
 
CONSPIRACY OF CATILINE. xxv 
 
 directly with each other. For the rest, the fear of 
 what Pompey might do on his return was so entirely 
 reasonable, that there is little difficulty in believing 
 that the three non-aristocratical parties at Rome were 
 simply honeycombed at this time with plots, and the 
 Senate and Torquatus had both ample justification 
 for ignoring the existence of intrigues, which, even 
 after they had failed, could not have been punished 
 without the crisis of a revolution. Lastly, all the chief 
 members of the conspiracies had powerful motives for 
 action ; Crassus found his in personal enmity towards 
 Pompey, Caesar in his desire for a military command 
 in Egypt ; Antonius would wish to regain his lost ^ 
 consulship, Piso, his seat in the Senate, Catiline, to 
 be freed from prosecution. With our knowledge of 
 the presence of such incentives to revolution, and of 
 the abundance of material that was ever to be found 
 ready in Rome, we should almost have been justified 
 in postulating the existence of conspiracies at this 
 period, even if no ancient author mentioned them. 
 As it is, in the face of so much contemporary evidence, 
 the attempt to disprove their reality becomes almost 
 absurd. 
 
 The history of the two following years is chiefly 
 remarkable for the great strides made by Caesar in 
 the popular favour. His munificence when aedile, his 
 boldness in reviving the memory of the triumphs of 
 Marius, his success in bringing Sulla's blood-stained 
 instruments to tardy justice, would prepare us for 
 much, but hardly for his astonishing triumph in 
 wresting the pontificate from such a man as O. Luta- 
 tius Catulus in March B.C. 6$. It is well not to make 
 
XXVI INTRODUCTION TO THE 
 
 the mistake of imagining him in the early days of his 
 career to have been as important a personage in the 
 eyes of his countrymen as subsequent events make 
 him in ours ; but, after an achievement Hke this, it is 
 idle to talk of any but Caesar as the champion of the 
 popular party, and of the future dictator having first 
 made his mark by his speech in the Senate at the 
 close of the year. If, when he left his home, over- 
 whelmed with debts, on the morning of that sixth of 
 March, he felt that to fail for the pontificate would 
 involve his ruin, when he returned that evening he 
 must have felt that the advance he had made towards 
 ultimate success was indeed immense. Meanwhile, 
 however, the events of B.C. 66-65 had left him closely 
 connected with Catiline, in whose favour Crassus also 
 was now working. For Catiline these two years had 
 not been so fortunate as for Caesar ; his trial for ex- 
 tortion had been delayed until the end of 63 B.C., and 
 though it resulted in his acquittal, unless Cicero had 
 the power of making mountains out of, not mole- 
 hills, but absolutely nothing, was attended with some 
 loss of credit. He had also been one of those tried 
 for the part they had taken in Sulla's murders, and, 
 though here also, possibly through Caesar's influence, 
 he was acquitted, the reminiscences revived must have 
 been of a character highly inconvenient to a member 
 of the democratic party. He was now a candidate 
 with M. Antonius for the consulship of 63 B.C., and 
 the pair were supported with all the influence, and, 
 apparently, the money of Crassus and Caesar. Had 
 they been elected, we may suppose that an agrarian 
 law similar to that of RuUus would have been carried. 
 
CONSPIRACY OF CATILINE. xxvii 
 
 and the sons of Sulla's victims restored to their polit- 
 ical privileges, these two measures being probably 
 foremost on their ostensible programme. We may 
 conjecture, too, that even as late as this, when 
 Pompey's return could not be much longer delayed, a 
 despairing effort would have been made to organize 
 a rival military power. Catiline, however, was re- 
 jected, and the influence of Marcus TuUius Cicero, 
 the senior of the two new consuls, was sufficient to 
 prevent the democratic measures from passing. The 
 men who were subsequently implicated in the attempt 
 at the end of the year, whether we like to call them 
 conspirators or regard them simply as " members of 
 a large and influential party at Rome," had began to 
 send emissaries to the various districts in Italy to 
 rouse their old partisans and to gain new ones, and it 
 is important here to enquire what objects they could 
 have had in view. 
 
 Professor Beesly, in his interesting and suggestive, 
 though very one-sided essay, on " Catiline as a Party 
 Leader,"^ enumerates among the evils of the Senat- 
 orial rule, its misgovernment of the provinces, the ex- 
 clusion of " new men " from office, and the abolition of 
 the system of peasant proprietorship ; and his readers 
 would certainly gather that these were the evils 
 against which the democrats were now nobly con- 
 tending. A moment's consideration, however, will 
 show how incongruous with all we know of Catiline 
 are the aims here attributed to him. Was the man 
 who had been morally convicted of extortion while 
 
 ^ First published in \\\^ Fortnightly Review, vol. i., afterwards reprinted 
 in "Catiline, Clodius, and Tiberius." Chapman & Hall, 1876. 
 
XXVIU INTRODUCTION TO THE 
 
 governor of Africa, to take up the cause of the dis- 
 tressed provinces ? Was the sneerer at Cicero as " a 
 mere citizen-at-will," to advocate the more frequent 
 admission to office of men whose families had hitherto 
 been undistinguished ? Was the leader who subse- 
 quently found his best soldiers in the discontented 
 colonists of Sulla to advocate a fresh partition of the 
 soil of Italy, for the new proprietors to barter away 
 their farms as their predecessors had done before 
 them ? Mr. Beesly has surely been singularly un- 
 fortunate in the evils which he has selected for a 
 Catiline to redress. Moreover, we may fairly ask, are 
 the evils he mentions of a kind which the Italians, 
 whom the conspirators tried to rouse, were likely to 
 be interested in reforming ? They may possibly have 
 been anxious to share in the honours of office ; if so, 
 Cicero, the aspirate, was surely a better advocate of 
 the " novi homines " than Lucius Sergius Catilina ; at 
 all events, for the provincials the Italians had no 
 fellow-feeling, and a proposal for a repartition of the 
 soil could only have filled them with alarm. There 
 had been a time when Professor Beesly's comparison 
 of the relations of Pym, or Hampden, and the Scotch 
 insurgents would have aptly illustrated the connection 
 of a Roman reformer with the Italians of whose cause 
 he was the champion, the time when Drusus made 
 himself the mouthpiece of the men who afterwards 
 fought Rome in the social war. Now there was but 
 one bond of union between the conspirators at Rome 
 and their correspondents throughout the country dis- 
 tricts, and this was the general indebtedness. To an 
 Italian municipality it could make little difference 
 
CONSPIRACY OF CATILINE. xxix 
 
 whether Crassus or Pompey were dictator at Rome, 
 but it was everything to them if they could free them- 
 selves from the omnipresent money-lender. The more 
 we study the history of the second conspiracy the 
 plainer does it appear that it was not, as some have 
 thought, a political revolution to overthrow the 
 Senate, nor yet, as in B.C. 66, an attempt at a co?ip 
 d'etat to obtain a force capable of opposing Pompey. 
 In October 63 B.C., the Senate was too weak for the 
 democrats as a party to fear, and the time for a coup 
 d'etat was past, even if the country districts would 
 have taken part in such a movement. What we have 
 here to deal with is a purely social revolution, which 
 had as its object neither more nor less than '* tabulae 
 novae" or, in plain English, the extinction of debt. 
 Lentulus and Cethegus have been blamed for their 
 overtures to the Allobroges, and circumstances cer- 
 tainly made this intrigue dangerous, but they were 
 only doing then under the eyes of the consul what 
 Catiline's agents for the preceding half-year had been 
 doing in every district in Italy. The motive to which 
 they appealed in asking the help of the Allobroges, 
 was the only motive to which they could have ap- 
 pealed with any success when they were tampering 
 with the inhabitants of the different country districts. 
 The demand for the abolition of debts is the key-note 
 of the manifesto of Manlius, which Sallust could not 
 have invented entirely out of his own head. We may 
 distrust Cicero when in a public speech he makes four 
 out of six classes of Catiline's adherents to have been 
 driven to join his conspiracy by the pressure of their 
 obligations ; we have no reason whatever to distrust 
 
XXX INTRODUCTION TO CONSPIRACY OF CATILINE. 
 
 him when in a private letter to Atticus he alludes to 
 his suppression of this insurrection as having given 
 him a claim to the title of ** champion of the public 
 credit." 
 
 To justify the view here taken of the different char- 
 acter of the movements of 65 and 63 B.C. it remains to 
 be pointed out that it harmonizes with all our evi- 
 dence as to the behaviour throughout this period of 
 Caesar and Crassus. We have good authority for 
 asserting their complicity in the earlier conspiracies, 
 which had for their object the establishment of a 
 military counterpoise to Pompey ; we see them after- 
 wards in close political connection with Catiline and 
 Gnaeus Piso ; and we know that they were both 
 strongly suspected of complicity in the conspiracy of 
 63 B.C., but that all proof of their guilt was wanting. 
 For this suspicion, their previous intimacy with Cati- 
 line, and the rumours current about the earlier plot, 
 provided ample grounds ; the fact that no proof was 
 forthcoming we may ascribe not only to the danger 
 there would, now as before, have been in provoking 
 powerful men by a prosecution, but also to the proba- 
 bility that they were really innocent. Caesar, it is 
 true, was heavily indebted, but his election to the 
 pontificate must have filled him with hope, and the 
 veriest gambler will at least see the game on which he 
 has staked a fortune to a conclusion before he begins 
 another. That Crassus, the greatest money-lender in 
 Rome, would for a moment ally himself with the men 
 who rallied to the manifesto of Manlius is simply 
 incredible. 
 
THE 
 
 CONSPIRACY OF CATILINE. 
 
 Every man who is anxious to excel the lower animals chap. i. 
 should strive with all his power not to pass his life in 
 obscurity like the brute beasts, whom nature has made 
 the grovelling slaves of their belly. Now our whole 
 ability resides jointly in our mind and body. In the 
 case of the mind it is its power of guidance, in the 
 case of the body its obedient service that we rather 
 use, sharing the former faculty with the gods, the 
 latter with the brute creation. This being so, I think 
 right to seek repute by my powers rather of intellect 
 than of strength, and since the very life which we 
 enjoy is short, to make the memory of us as abiding 
 as may be. / The glory of wealth and beauty is fleet- 
 ing and frail, but personal merit is held in eternal 
 honour. / 
 
 Now it was long hotly contested among men 
 whether military success was more advanced by men- 
 tal ability or by bodily strength, for what we need is 
 deliberation before we begin, and after deliberation, 
 then well-timed action ; either of itself is deficient 
 and lacks the other's help. Thus, at the outset, chap. ii. 
 those who were called " kings " — for that was the first 
 title of dominion known on earth — differed from each 
 
II. 
 
 THE CONSPIRACY OF CATILINE. 
 
 CHAP, other, some using their intellect, others their bodily 
 powers, for even as late as this men's lives were passed 
 in freedom from avarice, and each was contented with 
 his own possessions. After Cyrus, however, in Asia, 
 and the Lacedaemonians and Athenians in Greece, 
 began the subjugation of towns and nations, and, con- 
 vinced that the greatest glory was to be found in the 
 greatest empire, held their lust for dominion a fair 
 pretext for war, then at last, by the actual test of 
 results it was proved that it was intellect which was 
 most effective in war.. Were then the genius of kings 
 and commanders as potent in peace as in war, there 
 would be more smoothness and consistency in human 
 affairs, nor would you see power tossed from hand to 
 hancj, and the whole world subject to change and con- 
 fusion. For empire is easily retained by the very 
 devices by which it is originally acquired. When dili- 
 gence, however, has been superseded by sloth, arid 
 self-restraint and moderation by lustfulness and pride, 
 a change of fortune accompanies that of character, 
 and thus empire is continually being transferred to 
 the most capable from those who are less so. 
 
 Whether they be farmers, sailors, or builders, men 
 find that everything is obedient to merit. Many, how- 
 ever, the slaves of gluttony and sloth, without learning 
 or cultivation, have passed through life as though it 
 were a journey in a foreign land, and thus, in defiance of - 
 nature, have actually found their body a pleasure and. 
 their real vital powers a burden. Of these, for my 
 own part, I hold the life and death to be alike, since 
 of neither is there any record. To me, indeed, the 
 only man who really seems to live and enjoy his vital 
 
 w- 
 
THE CONSPIRACY OF CATILINE. 3 
 
 powers is he who, in devotion to some task, seeks the chap. 
 fame of a brilliant exploit or virtuous accomplishment. 
 Where the field is so wide, nature points out different 
 paths to different persons. 
 
 It is a fine thing to serve the state by action, nor\ chap. 
 is eloquence without its glory. Men may become 
 illustrious alike in peace and war, and many by their 
 own acts, many by their record of the acts of others, 
 win applause. The glory which attends the doer 
 and the recorder of brave deeds is certainly by no 
 means equal. For my own part, however, I count 
 historical narration as one of the hardest of tasks. 
 In the first place, a full equivalent has to be found 
 in words for the deeds narrated, and in the second 
 the historian's censures of crimes are by many thought 
 to be the utterances of ill-will and envy, while his 
 record of the high virtue and glory of the good, tran- 
 quilly accepted so long as it deals with what the 
 reader deems to be easily performable, so soon as it 
 passes beyond this is disbelieved as mere invention.^ 
 
 As regards myself, my inclination originally led me, 
 like many others, while still a youth, into public life. 
 There I found many things against me. Modesty, 
 temperance, and virtue had departed, and hardihood, 
 ^corruption, and avarice were flourishing in their stead. 
 My mind, a stranger to bad acquirements, contemned 
 these qualities ; nevertheless, with the weakness of my 
 age, I was kept amid this sea of vice by perverse 
 ambition. I presented a contrast to the evil charac- 
 ters of my fellows, none the less I was tormented by 
 the same craving for the honours of office, and the 
 same sensitiveness to popularity and unpopularity as 
 
4 THE CONSPIRACY OF CATILINE. 
 
 CHAP. IV. the rest. At last, after many miseries and perils, my 
 mind was at peace, and I determined to pass the re- 
 mainder of my days at a distance from public affairs. 
 It was not, however, my plan to waste this honourable 
 leisure in idleness and sloth, nor yet to spend my life 
 in devotion to such slavish tastes as agriculture or 
 ^ hunting-. I returned to the studies I had once begun, 
 ' from which my unhappy ambition had held me back, 
 and determined to narrate the history of the Roman 
 people in separate essays, wherever it seemed worthy 
 of record. I was the more inclined to this by the fact 
 that my mind was free alike from the hopes and fears 
 of the political partisan. 
 
 I am about, therefore, with the utmost truth I can, 
 briefly to relate the history of the conspiracy of 
 Catiline, for I account this affair as in the highest 
 degree memorable for the novelty both of the crime 
 .itself and of the danger it involved. Before I begin 
 my history, a few points concerning this man's char- 
 acter must be made clear. 
 CHAP. V. Lucius Catilina was of noble birth, of great mental 
 and bodily vigour, but of an evil and depraved dis- 
 position. From his youth he had delighted in 
 domestic war, murder, rapine, and civil discord, and 
 among these he had passed his early manhood. 
 His body could bear privation, cold, and sleepless- 
 ness, to an incredible extent. His mind was bold, 
 crafty, and versatile, skilful alike to feign or con- 
 ceal whatever he chose. As covetous as prodigal, 
 his desires knew no bounds. Not deficient in elo- 
 quence, he had little solid wisdom. The aims of his 
 monstrous mind were always immoderate, incredible. 
 
THE CONSPIRACY OF CATILINE. 5 
 
 and placed too high. This man, after the tyranny chap. v. 
 of Lucius Sulla, had been possessed by an overwhelm- 
 ing passion to control the state, nor so long as he 
 gained supreme power for himself did he attach any 
 weight to the means by which he should attain it. 
 His headstrong spirit was daily spurred more and 
 more by his want of means and his consciousness of 
 his crimes, each increased by the qualities I have 
 named. Besides this, he was urged on by the corrup- 
 tion of a society, plagued at once by those worst and 
 opposite evils, luxury and avarice. 
 
 Since occasion has reminded me of the public 
 morality, I seemed called upon by my subject to go 
 back and briefly explain the civil and military customs 
 of our ancestors, their mode of administering the 
 state, the size at which they left it, and how its 
 beauty and nobility were gradually exchanged for^..^ 
 vileness and crime. 
 
 The city of Rome, according to tradition, was chap. vi. 
 originally founded and inhabited by Trojans, who, 
 with ^neas, their leader, were wandering about 
 as exiles with no settled home. These were aided 
 by Aborigines, a wild race who lived free and un- 
 shackled, without laws and without government. It 
 passes belief to tell with what ease these two peoples of 
 unlike racfe and different language, and each with their 
 own way of life, coalesced after they came within one 
 stronghold. After, however, their state, improved in 
 population, customs, and territor>'', seemed to have 
 gained some degree of strength and prosperity, as is 
 usual in mortal affairs, their wealth gave rise to ill-will. 
 The neighbouring kings and peoples assailed them, 
 
6 THE CONSPIRACY OF CATILINE. 
 
 CHAP, few of their friends came to their aid, the rest, panic- 
 stricken, held aloof from the danger. The Romans, 
 however, alike active at home and in the field, made 
 their preparations in all haste. With mutual exhorta- 
 tions they advanced against the enemy, and shielded 
 with their arms their freedom, country, and kin. 
 When their courage had repelled their own danger, 
 they brought help to their friends and allies, and won 
 themselves friendships by their greater readiness to 
 give than to receive a service. 
 
 Their government was according to law, and with 
 the name of "royalty." Chosen men, of bodies en- 
 feebled by age, but of characters strong in wisdom, 
 formed the council of the state. These, either from 
 their age or from a resemblance in their duties, were 
 called " Fathers." The royal power, which had origin- 
 ally conduced to the maintenance of liberty and the 
 increase of the state, was turned at last into mere 
 arrogance and tyranny. They then changed their 
 constitutions, and instituted- yearly magistracies and 
 pairs of magistrates, thinking that by this way men's 
 minds would be least able to wax wanton by license. 
 
 CHAP. It was at this conjuncture that individuals began more 
 to distinguish themselves, and to display their talents 
 with greater readiness. By kings the good are more 
 liable to be suspected than the bad, and cause for 
 alarm is always found in the merit of others. As soon, 
 then, as the state had gained its freedom, it is incred- 
 ible to relate what progress it quickly made ; so great 
 was the thirst for glory that had ensued. Now, for 
 the first time, the young men, as soon as they were of 
 age for service, learnt warfare by the experience of 
 
 VII. 
 
THE CONSPIRACY OF CATILINE. J 
 
 hard labour in camp. Handsome arms and warlike chap. 
 
 VII. 
 
 steeds now formed their pleasures in preference to 
 women and wine. To men like these no toil was 
 unwonted, no ground rugged or steep, no foe in arms 
 an object of fear ; their courage had subdued all things. 
 But their greatest contests for glory were with one 
 another. Each was eager to strike the foe, to scale 
 the wall, and to be seen so engaged; this they counted 
 wealth, this as good repute and the highest birth. 
 Greedy for fame, they were liberal of money, and 
 wished that their glory might be unbounded, and their 
 wealth honourably won. I could tell of places in 
 which a small Roman force routed huge bodies of 
 the enemy, and of towns naturally strong taken by 
 assault, were it not that this would be too wide a 
 digression. 
 
 Fortune, however, is truly everywhere paramount, chap. 
 and she makes known or obscures every event accord- 
 ing to her own whim rather than its real value. The 
 performances of the Athenians, as I esteem them, were 
 sufficiently noble and magnificent, and yet some- 
 what less than fame reports. At Athens, however, 
 there flourished historians of genius, and, consequently, 
 throughout the world the exploits of the Athenians 
 are esteemed as of the highest order. Thus the merits 
 of men of action are valued in proportion to the 
 capabilities of men of genius to extol them in words. 
 Of these the Roman people have never had any great 
 abundance ; among them the most capable men were 
 always the most occupied, no one exercised his mind 
 apart from his body, and the best men preferred action 
 to narration, and to have their own services praised 
 
 VIII. 
 
8 THE CONSPIRACY OF CATILINE. 
 
 CHAP, by others rather than themselves to be another's 
 
 VIII. -" 
 
 historian. 
 
 CHAP. IX. Thus, as I have said, virtue was practised both at 
 home and on the field. There was the utmost con- 
 cord and the least possible avarice ; the right and the 
 good obtained among them not so much by law as by 
 nature ; strife, discord, and enmity, they carried on 
 with their foes; citizens contended with citizens only 
 in virtue. In their offerings to the gods they were 
 magnificent, in their domestic expenses sparing, to 
 their friends loyal. Their own and their country's 
 interests they guarded by these two devices — hardi- 
 hood in war, and generous treatment when peace had 
 ensued. " Of this I can adduce a striking proof; in 
 war, punishment was more often inflicted on those 
 who had fought the enemy contrary to orders, or who 
 had too slowly obeyed the signal of recall from battle, 
 than on those who had dared to desert the stand- 
 ard or give way when hard pressed ; in peace, they 
 governed rather by kindness than by fear, and when 
 they had received an injury, preferred rather to pardon 
 than adjudge it. 
 
 CHAP. X. Thus by diligence and fair dealing the state was 
 advanced ; great kings were conquered in war, wild 
 races and vast peoples subdued by force ; Carthage, 
 .the rival of the Roman Empire, perished root and 
 branch, sea and land everywhere lay open before us, 
 when at last fortune began to turn cruel, and throw 
 everything into confusion. Those who had lightly 
 borne toils and dangers, doubtful fortunes and des- 
 perate straits, found the leisure and wealth elsewhere 
 so coveted a pitiable burden. At first the lust of 
 
THE CONSPIRACY OF CATILINE. 9 
 
 money increased, then that of power, and these, it chap. x. 
 may be said, were the sources of every evil. Avarice 
 subverted loyalty, uprightness, and every other good 
 quality, and in their stead taught men to be proud 
 and cruel, to neglect the gods, and to hold all things 
 venal. Ambition compelled many to become deceit- 
 ful ; they had one thought buried in their breast, 
 another ready on their tongue ; their friendships and 
 enmities they valued not at their real worth, but at, 
 the advantage they could bring, and they maintained 
 the look rather than the nature of honest men. These 
 evils at first grew gradually, and were occasionally 
 punished ; later, when the contagion advanced like 
 some plague, the state was revolutionized, ""and the 
 government, from being one of the justest and best, 
 became cruel and unbearable. At first it was not so chap. xi. 
 much avarice as ambition which spurred men's minds, 
 a vice, indeed, but one akin to virtue. For glory, 
 distinction, and power in the state are equally desired 
 by good and bad, though the first strives to reach his 
 goal by the path of honour, the second, in the lack of 
 honest arts, uses the weapons of falsehood and deceit. 
 Avarice, on the other hand, implies a zeal for money, 
 an object for which no philosopher ever yearned. 
 Tainting the body and mind of the strong, it weakens 
 them as by some deadly poison ; it is always bound- 
 less, always insatiable ; plenty and want alike fail to 
 lessen it. After Lucius Sulla had seized the govern- 
 ment by force of arms, and made a bad end to a good 
 beginning, robbery and plunder became universal ; one 
 coveted a hou.se, another an estate, the victors knew 
 neither limit nor sobriety, and citizens became the 
 
lO THE CONSPIRACY OF CATILINE. 
 
 CHAP. objectVf vile and cruel outrage. To make matters 
 worse, Sulla, to secure the loyalty of the army he had 
 led in Asia, -had treated it, in defiance of ancient 
 usage, in a lavish and far too liberal manner. Pleasant 
 and voluptuous quarters while at peace, had easily 
 enervated the hardy spirit of his men. It was in Asia 
 that a Roman army first gained habits of lustfulness 
 and intemperance, learned to admire statues, paint- 
 ings, and plate, stole them from their private or 
 public owners, plundered shrines, and polluted every- 
 thing whether sacred or common. Soldiers like these, 
 when they gained a victory, stripped their victims 
 bare, for, since even the wise have their temper tried 
 by prosperity, much less could men of this abandoned 
 
 CHAP, character use their success with moderation. Riches 
 
 XII. 
 
 became a means of distinction and glory, power and 
 influence followed their possession. As a result the 
 edge of virtue was dulled, poverty was accounted a 
 disgrace, and uprightness a kind of ill-nature. Riches 
 made the youth a prey to luxury, avarice, and pride ; 
 at once grasping and prodigal, they valued lightly 
 their own property, while they coveted that of others ; 
 all modesty and purity, alike things human and things 
 divine, everything, in short, was despised and disre- 
 garded. To one acquainted with mansions and villas 
 built on the scale of towns, it is worth while to visit 
 the temples erected by our ancestors, the most god- 
 fearing of men. They, indeed, decorated the shrines 
 of the gods with piety, and their own homes with 
 glory, while they deprived their conquered enemies of 
 nothing save the power of doing them harm ; but in 
 this generation the most worthless of men in the depth 
 
XIII. 
 
 THE CONSPIRACY OF CATILINE. II 
 
 of their wickedness have deprived our allies c^ every- chap. 
 thing which those brave men in the hour of victory 
 had left them, as if the one and only use of empire 
 were to inflict harm. Why should I tell of things chap. 
 which no one who has not seen them could believe, of 
 how often private individuals have levelled mountains 
 and built over seas ? Such men seem to me to have 
 trifled with their riches in the haste with which they 
 ignobly abused what they might honourably have 
 enjoyed. But the passion for defilement, gluttony, 
 and all other kinds of indulgence, had kept pace with 
 that for wealth. Each sex alike trampled on their 
 modesty. Sea and land were ransacked to supply the 
 table. Men went to rest before they felt a desire for 
 sleep ; they did not wait for hunger or thirst, cold, or 
 weariness, but anticipated them all by luxurious 
 expedients. Such a life, when means had failed, 
 spurred youth into crime. Their minds, tainted with 
 bad accomplishments, could not endure to be deprived 
 of their sensual pleasures, and they abandoned them- 
 selves with all the more recklessness to every kind 
 both of gain and expense. 
 
 It was in a state of this magnitude and corruption chap. 
 that Catiline, as was indeed easily done, gathered 
 round him, to serve as body-guard, troops of men^ 
 stained by every vice and crime. Every gambler, 
 adulterer, and glutton, who, by the gratification of his 
 passion, had cruelly impaired his patrimony, every 
 one whose debts had been swollen to buy indemnity 
 for some shameless deed, all parricides from every 
 quarter, all who had committed sacrilege, who had 
 been tried and condemned, or whose deeds made them 
 
 XIV. 
 
 V. 
 
 \ B R A 
 
 
12 THE CONSPIRACY OF CATILINE. 
 
 CHAP, fear a trial, all who gained a living by polluting their ^ 
 tongues with perjury, or their hands with their coun- 
 trymen's blood, in fine, all who were harassed by 
 ^rime, by need, or by the pangs of conscience — it was 
 these who were Catiline's intimate associates ; while, 
 did anyone as yet free from guilt chance to become 
 his friend, by daily intercourse and allurement, he was 
 easily made a fit fellow to the rest. It was especially, 
 however, the intimacy of young men that Catiline 
 affected ; and their pliable and unformed minds fell 
 an easy prey to his wiles. Complying with the 
 several forms of youthful passion, he helped some to 
 mistresses, bought hounds and horses for others, and,, 
 in fine, spared neither his purse nor his honour to make 
 them his faithful creatures. I am aware that there 
 were some who held the belief that the young men- 
 who made Catiline's house their resort, behaved with 
 too little regard for decency, but the report obtained 
 credence rather from other considerations than from- 
 
 CHAP, any direct testimony. At the very outset of his youth 
 Catiline had engaged in many scandalous intrigues ;: 
 one with a high-born maiden, another with a priestess 
 of Vesta, and others which in like manner set law and 
 morality at defiance. Finally he was seized with a 
 passion for Aurelia Orestilla (a lady in whom no res- 
 pectable man ever found anything to praise except 
 her beauty), and, on her hesitating to marry him in* 
 her dislike of a grown-up stepson, killed the youth, — 
 so it is positively believed, — and thus cleared his house 
 for the unhallowed union. In this deed I trace one 
 of the chief causes of Catiline's bringing his attempt 
 to a point. His impure mind, hateful alike to gods- 
 
THE CONSPIRACY OF CATILINE. 1 3 
 
 and men, could find rest neither awake nor asleep, so chap. 
 terribly was his frenzied soul ravaged by the pangs 
 of conscience. His countenance grew bloodless, his 
 eyes haggard, his pace now hurried and now slow. 
 Madness was plainly stamped upon his face and ex- 
 pression. The young men whom, as narrated above, chap 
 he had enticed, he kept instructing in many varieties 
 of crime. It was from their ranks that he provided 
 false witnesses to facts and documents ; he bade them 
 think cheaply alike of honour, fortune, and danger, 
 and then, when he had crushed their sense of fame 
 and decency, his yoke became heavier. If motives 
 for crime were for the moment wanting, they had to 
 ensnare or assassinate the inoffensive as though they 
 had offended ; he would rather, forsooth, indulge his 
 wickedness and cruelty without a cause than allow 
 hand or brain to become sluggish by disuse. In re- 
 liance on friends and associates such as these, and 
 encouraged by the enormous prevalence of debt 
 throughout the world, and by the number of Sulla's 
 soldiers who had squandered their fortunes, and were 
 now dwelling on the memory of plunder and ancient 
 victories, and hoping for civil war, Catiline formed a 
 plan for destroying the constitution. There was no 
 army in Italy ; Gnaeus Pompeius was engaged in a 
 war in far distant lands ; he had great hopes of success 
 in his own candidature for the consulship ; the Senate 
 was unprepared for any emergency ; everything was 
 in peace and quietness, and here Catiline saw his 
 opportunity. 
 
 It was about the first of June in the year when chap. 
 Lucius Caesar and Gaius Figulus were consuls that he 
 
14 THE CONSPIRACY OF CATILINE. 
 
 CHAP, begg^n making overtures to single individuals, en- 
 couraging some and sounding others, and expatiating 
 on his own resources, on the lack of preparation in 
 the government, and on the great prizes a conspiracy- 
 would gain. When he had satisfied himself on the 
 points he desired, he summoned a meeting of all whose 
 needs were the most pressing, and spirit the most 
 daring. To the meeting came Publius Lentulus Sura, 
 Publius Autronius, Lucius Cassius Longinus, Gains 
 Cethegus, Publius and Servius the two sons of Servius 
 Sulla, Lucius Vargunteius, Quintus Annius, Marcus 
 Porcius Laeca, Lucius Bestia, Quintus Curius ; all of 
 senatorial rank ; with them were Marcus Fulvius 
 Nobilior, Lucius Statilius, Publius Gabinius Capito, 
 and Gains Cornelius, from the equestrian order; 
 besides many persons from the military colonies and 
 borougii towns, men of rank in their own neighbour- 
 hood. Many, moreover, of the nobility were associated 
 in this plot, though they kept more in the background. 
 These were spurred on rather by the hope of power 
 than by want or any other necessity. Indeed, great 
 numbers of young men, especially those of noble 
 birth, were favourable to Catiline's attempt, and 
 though, while tranquillity lasted, they had every means 
 of living in splendour and luxury, preferred the doubt- 
 ful to the certain, and war to peace. There were, too, 
 at that crisis, some who believed that Marcus Licinius 
 Crassus was no stranger to the conspiracy. Gains 
 Pompeius, his personal enemy, was at the head of a 
 large army, and Crassus was thought to be favourable 
 to the growth of any influence that might balance his 
 power, in the confident belief that, should the plot 
 
THE CONSPIRACY OF CATILINE. 
 
 15 
 
 succeed, he would easily secure the chief place among chap 
 
 its leaders. 
 
 XVII. 
 
 A few conspirators, it must be remarked, of whom chap. 
 
 XVI 11. 
 
 Catiline was one, had before this formed a plot against 
 the state, of which I will give the most accurate ac- 
 count I can. In the consulship of Lucius Tullus and 
 Marcus Lepidus, Publius Autronius, and Publius 
 Sulla, the consuls elect, were put on their trial and 
 punished under the bribery laws. A little after this, 
 Catiline was charged with extortion, and so disquali- 
 fied as a candidate for the consulship [sinte he could 
 not give in his name within the legal time]. At the 
 same time a certain Gnaeus Piso, a young man of 
 good birth but needy, ill-affected and of desperate 
 daring, was being urged by his poverty and evil dis- 
 position to embroil the State. With this man, Catiline 
 and Autronius discussed their plot about thb first 
 week in December, and planned to murder the consuls, 
 Lucius Cotta and Lucius Torquatus, in the Capitol on 
 January ist, to seize the insignia of office for them- 
 selves, and to send Piso with an army to hold the two 
 Spanish provinces. The plot was discovered, and 
 they again postponed their plans of murder to Feb- 
 ruary 5th. On this occasion they were to contrive the 
 destruction not only of the consuls, but of many of 
 the senators, and had not Catiline, who was stationed 
 in front of the Senate-house, been too hasty in giving 
 the signal to his confederates, on that day would have 
 been accomplished the worst outrage of any since the 
 foundation of Rome. As it was, their armed sup- 
 porters had not yet mustered in force, and this circum- 
 stance ruined the plot. Piso was subsequently sent as xix' 
 
 CHAF. 
 
l6 THE CONSPIRACY OF CATILINE. 
 
 CHAP, quaestor, with the powers of a praetor, to Hither-Spain. 
 This appointment Crassus supported, as he knew Piso 
 for a bitter enemy of Gnaeus Pompeius ; nor was the 
 Senate unwilling to grant him a province in their 
 eagerness to remove so abandoned a man from the 
 sphere of politics, while many of the aristocracy 
 looked on him in the light of a bulwark, and were 
 already panic-stricken at the power of Pompeius. 
 Piso, however, was murdered in his province by a 
 troop of Spanish horse at whose head he had placed 
 himself on a march without any other force. Some 
 would make out that the barbarians could not submit 
 to the injustice, arrogance, and cruelty, that marked 
 his rule ; others, that the horsemen were old and 
 faithful dependents of Gnaeus Pompeius, and attacked 
 Piso with his consent. The Spaniards, they remarked, 
 had never committed such an outrage on other oc- 
 casions, but had patiently submitted to much previous 
 tyranny. I shall leave this point as an open 
 question, and have now said enough about the earlier 
 conspiracy. 
 
 CHAP. When Catiline saw assembled the men whom I 
 
 XX. 
 
 named a little above, although he had held many com- 
 munications with each of them separately, he yet 
 thought it would serve his purpose to address and 
 encourage them collectively. He conducted them, 
 therefore, to a secluded part of his house, and then, 
 having secured the absence of any witness, spoke 
 somewhat as follows : — 
 
 "Had I not myself tested your courage and loyalty 
 this favourable conjuncture would have offered itself 
 in vain. Our hopes might have been' high, and power 
 
THE CONSPIRACY OF CATILINE. I7 
 
 have lain ready to our hands, but it would have chap. 
 
 XX 
 
 availed nothing. I should not now be abandoning 
 the certain to pursue the doubtful had I only cowardly 
 or frivolous supporters to depend on. As it is, I 
 have learnt your valour and devotion to myself on 
 many important occasions, and my mind has there- 
 fore dared to embark on this greatest and noblest of 
 attempts. I am encouraged, too, by my clear per- 
 ception that, whether in good or evil fortune, your 
 interests are identical with mine ; for in this iden- 
 tity of hopes and fears lies the true bond of friend- 
 ship. 
 
 " The plans which I have been revolving in my 
 mind you have all separately heard ere now. For my 
 own part, however, I find my spirit daily more on fire 
 at the thought of what will be our lot if we fail to 
 assert our claim to freedom. Ever since the govern- 
 ment of the state was merged in the prerogatives and 
 authority of a few influential men, it is to these that 
 kings and princes have been tributary, and peoples 
 and races have paid their dues. We, the remainder 
 of the nation, however energetic and virtuous, what- 
 ever our birth, whether noble or base, have formed an 
 undistmguished crowd without interest or influence, 
 and lie at the mercy of a party to whom, were the 
 state in a sound condition, we should be a terror. 
 Thus all influence and power, distinction and wealth 
 remain in their own, or their favourites' hand ; to us 
 they have left danger and rejections, prosecutions and 
 want. Bravest of men, what is the limit of your en- 
 durance ? Is it not better to die once for all a brave 
 man's death than to drag out a life of misery and dis- 
 
1 8 THE CONSPIRACY OF CATILINE. 
 
 CHAP honour, as the butts of your enemies' insolence, and 
 lose it shamefully at the end ? 
 
 " But why speak of this ? I call Gods and men to 
 witness that victory is within our grasp. Our age is 
 in its prime and our minds at their strongest, our ene- 
 mies are enfeebled by years and riches. We have 
 only to make a beginning, the course of events will 
 - /--do the rest. And what man, with a temper worthy 
 of that name, can brook their possession of a surplus of 
 wealth to squander on driving back the sea and level- 
 ling mountains, while we lack the means to procure even 
 the necessaries of life ? That they should join house 
 to house and houses to houses, while we have nowhere 
 a hearth to call our own ? They are buying pictures 
 and statuary and plate ; are pulling down the work of 
 yesterday to build it anew ; in a word, are squander- 
 ing and abusing their wealth in all possible ways ; and 
 yet, though they indulge every passion to the full, 
 they cannot exhaust their riches. We are met by 
 poverty at home and creditors abroad. Our fortunes 
 are bad, our expectations still more forbidding. In 
 fine, what have we left except the breath we draw in 
 misery ^ 
 
 " Must I not then bid you awake ? Before you 
 there dawns the freedom for which you have often 
 yearned, and now freedom, wealth, splendour, and 
 ^^glory rise before your eyes. Such, to the full, are the 
 rewards which fortune has decreed to the conquerors. 
 Your dangers and your beggary, the rich spoils which 
 war offers, plead more powerfully with you than any 
 words of mine. Use me as your general or your 
 fellow-soldier ; my mind and my body shall ever be 
 
THE CONSPIRACY OF CATILINE. 
 
 '9 
 
 at your service. These very plans I hope, with your chap.xx 
 aid, to carry into execution as consul, unless, haply, 
 my mind deceives me, and you are more ready to 
 serve than to command." 
 
 These words were listened to by men who had every chap 
 evil in abundance, but no good fortune, nor any hope ^^' 
 of it. Great, however, as the wages of revolution 
 appeared to them, many yet asked Catiline to explain 
 what would be the nature of the war, what the prizes 
 their arms were to seek, what help he counted on or 
 hoped for, and from what quarter. He proceeded to 
 promise them an abolition of debts, a proscription of 
 the rich, magistracies and priestly offices, together with 
 plunder, and all the gratifications enjoyed by the 
 victors in a war. In Hither-Spain, he continued, was 
 Piso ; in Mauritania, at the head of an army, Publius 
 Sittius Nucerinus ; both of them partners in their con- 
 spiracy. Gaius Antonius, too, was a candidate for the 
 consulship, and he hoped to have him as his colleague, 
 as a man at once intimate with himself and entangled 
 in the greatest difficulties. When himself consul he 
 should join Antonius in making the first move. He 
 then railed and inveighed against the whole aristo- 
 cratic party ; made laudatory mention of each of his 
 own followers ; and reminded one of his poverty^ 
 another of his desires, many of the danger they stood 
 in or the shame they had undergone, and many more 
 of the triumph of Sulla, in which they had found an 
 opportunity for plunder. At last, seeing every mind 
 thoroughly aroused, he bade them be zealous in sup- 
 port of his candidature, and dismissed the meeting. 
 
 (.'HAP 
 
 It was asserted by some at the time that Catiline, xxii.' 
 
 B 
 
20 THE CONSPIRACY OF CATILINE. 
 
 CHAP, when, after making a speech, he was preparing to ad- 
 minister an oath to his accompHces, carried round in 
 bowls a mixture of human blood and wine, and only- 
 revealed his design after all had tasted of it with such 
 an imprecation as was customary in solemn rites. 
 This [they maintained] he did that their mutual con- 
 sciousness of such an abomination might make them 
 more loyal to each other. Some, however, were of 
 opinion that this story, together with many others, 
 was invented by people who thought that the unpopu- 
 larity which Cicero subsequently incurred would be 
 diminished if the crime of his victims were recognised 
 as peculiarly hideous. The evidence I have found ^ 
 for the incident is too slight to support so monstrous 
 a charge. 
 
 CHAP. Among the conspirators was a certain Quintus 
 Curius, a man of no mean station ; he was covered, 
 however, with shame and crime, and his infamy had 
 caused the censors to expel him from the Senate. 
 The man was as frivolous as bold, and could neither 
 keep a secret nor conceal his own crimes ; in short, 
 he was heedless alike of his words and deeds. Be- 
 tween him and a certain Fulvia, a woman of birth, 
 there was a long-standing intrigue. He had lately 
 fallen in her good graces owing to his poverty making 
 him less lavish in his presents, when suddenly he 
 began to boast, made her outrageous promises, and 
 threw out at times threats of violence should she fail 
 to be compliant ; in fine, his whole behaviour became 
 more haughty than was his wont. On discovering the 
 cause of Curius' strange conduct, Fulvia did not keep 
 secret a danger so threatening to the state, but, while 
 
THE CONSPIRACY OF CATILINE. . 21 
 
 suppressing the name of her informant, told several < hap. 
 persons what, and how, she had heard of CatiHne's 
 plot. This, more than anything else, roused men's 
 zeal to confer the consulship on Marcus TuUius 
 Cicero. Till that time many of the nobility had been 
 in a ferment of jealousy, and had thought the consul- 
 ship would be in a manner polluted if obtained by a 
 man of no family, however distinguished. When, 
 however, danger was imminent, jealousy and crime 
 fell into the background. 
 
 On the poll being taken, Marcus Tullius and Gaius chap. 
 
 XXIV. 
 
 Antonius were declared elected. This, as was after- 
 wards seen, was the first blow that confounded the 
 conspirators. It did not, however, lessen the frenzy"~~ 
 of Catiline ; on the contrary, his activity increased 
 daily, he stored arms in suitable places throughout 
 Italy, and conveyed money, borrowed on his own or 
 his friends' security, to a certain Manlius at Faesulae, 
 who afterwards took the first step in beginning the 
 war. He is said also at this period to have gained 
 over many men of every rank, with a number of 
 women, who, though at the outset their beauty had 
 provided them means to support their extravagance, 
 now found their gains, but not their luxury, limited 
 by advancing age, and consequently had contracted 
 huge debts. Through them Catiline hoped to tamper 
 with the slaves of Rome, to fire the city, and either to 
 win over or murder their husbands. 
 
 Among these women was a certain Sempronia, who chap. 
 had perpetrated many crimes, often worthy of a man's 
 daring. She was well endowed with birth and beauty 
 and fortunate in her husband and children ; was well 
 
22 THE CONSPIRACY OF CATILINE. 
 
 CHAP, read in Greek and Latin literature, could sing, play, 
 and dance more gracefully than an honest woman 
 need, and had many of the other accomplishments of 
 a riotous life. There was nothing she held less dear 
 than purity and honour ; indeed, it would be hard to 
 determine if she were more careless of her wealth 
 or her repute ; so destitute was she of all modesty 
 that more often than not, she was the first to begin an 
 intrigue. Often ere this she had broken her engage- 
 ments, forsworn her trust, and been an accomplice in 
 murder ; an extravagance which outran her resources 
 had hurried her downwards. Her talents, however, 
 were by no means despicable ; she could write verses, 
 bandy jests, and talk modestly, voluptuously, or 
 pertly at will ; in short, she was a woman of much 
 pleasantry and wit. 
 
 CHAP. Catiline, though he had made these preparations, 
 was yet a candidate for the next year's consulship, 
 hoping, should he be elected, easily to make a tool of 
 Antonius. In the meantime he was not inactive, but 
 was using every method of intrigue against Cicero. 
 The latter, however, had no lack of craft and adroit- 
 ness for his own protection. At the very beginning 
 of his consulship, by dint of great promises, he had, 
 through Fulvia, prevailed on the Quintus Curius 
 described above to betray to him Catiline's designs. 
 By an agreement about the provinces he had con- 
 strained his colleague, Antonius, to desist from all 
 disloyalty, while he secretly surrounded his own 
 person with a body-guard of friends and dependents. 
 The day of election came, and Catiline failed alike 
 in his candidature and in the secret attack he had 
 
 XXVI. 
 
THE CONSPIRACY OF CATILINE. 
 
 23 
 
 planned against the consuls in the Campus. He de- 
 termined, therefore, to make open war and to go to 
 every length, since his secret attempt had had so 
 adverse and disgraceful an issue. .J^^ 
 
 Accordingly he despatched Gaiuls Manlius to Faesu- 
 lae and that part of Etruria, a certain Septimius of 
 Camerinum to Picenum, Gaius Julius to Apulia, and 
 to other quarters such persons as he thought would in 
 each place be able to advance his ends. Meanwhile 
 at Rome he was working at many plans at the same 
 time, directing secret attacks on the consuls, making 
 arrangements for a conflagration, and occupying suit- 
 able points with armed men. He himself went about 
 armed, and bade others do the same, exhorting them 
 always to be ready and on the watch. By day and 
 by night he was active and wakeful, and neither 
 sleeplessness , or toil could wear him out, When 
 nothing came of all his activity, at dead of night he 
 again summoned the chiefs of the conspiracy to meet, 
 this time at the house of Marcus Porcius Laeca, and 
 there, after many complaints of their cowardice, in- 
 formed them that he had despatched Manlius to head 
 the force which he had collected for taking up arms, 
 as well as other agents to other favourable points to 
 begin the war. He was anxious, he said, himself to 
 set out to the army if he could first work the destruc- 
 tion of Cicero, who was a great obstacle to his plans. 
 While all the rest showed fear and hesitation, a 
 Roman knight, named Gaius Cornelius, offered his 
 help, and was joined by a senator, named Lucius 
 Vargunteius. The two determined to proceed, a 
 little later on in the same night, with an armed force 
 
 CHAP. 
 XXVI. 
 
 CHAP. 
 XXVII. 
 
 CHAP. 
 XXV HI. 
 
24 THE CONSPIRACY OF CATILINE. 
 
 CHAP, to gain entrance to Cicero's house^ as though to attend 
 his levee, and then suddenly to take him unprepared 
 and assassinate him in his own home. Curius, on 
 hearing the greatness of the peril which threatened 
 the consul, lost no time in acquainting Cicero, through 
 Fulvia, with the plot laid against him. The assassins 
 were turned away from the gate, and found they had 
 planned their atrocious crime in vain. 
 
 Meanwhile, in Etruria, Manlius was tampering with 
 a populace whose poverty, combined with their indig- 
 nation at the wrong they had suffered in losing, under 
 the tyranny of Sulla, their lands and all their property, 
 now made them eager for revolution. With them 
 were joined robbers of every description who greatly 
 abounded in those parts, besides some veterans from 
 the Sullan colonies, whose lavish indulgence of their 
 passions had left them with nothing out of all their 
 immense booty. 
 
 CHAP. Cicero, when informed of this, was distracted by the 
 double nature of his difficulty. On the one hand, he 
 was unable any longer to protect the city from the 
 conspirators' attack by such measures as he could take 
 on his own authority ; on the other, he had no certain 
 information as to either the numbers or the designs of 
 the army of Manlius. Under these circumstances he 
 laid the matter before the Senate, which had now for 
 some time been disquieted by the reports prevalent 
 "among the people. Following the course usual in 
 dealing with any threatening emergency, the Senate 
 made the decree : " The consuls are to take measures 
 to protect the state from harm." This is the great- 
 est power which the Roman constitution allows the 
 
 XXIX 
 
THE CONSPIRACY OF CATILINE. 
 
 25 
 
 Senate to confer on a magistrate. It authorises him to 
 raise an army, wage war, control in every possible way 
 both citizens and allies,and exercise thehighest military 
 and judicial authority at home and in the field. Without 
 this decree the consul has no powers in any of these 
 matters except by command of the people. A few- 
 days afterwards, Lucius Saenius, a senator, read before 
 the House a letter- which he said he had received from 
 Faesulae. It contained the news that Gains Manlius, 
 with a large force, had taken up arms on October 
 23rd. As usual in such cases, some at once began to 
 report signs, and wonders ; others, to assert that meet- 
 ings had been held and weapons conveyed, and that 
 at Capua and in Apulia the slaves were rising. By a 
 decree of the Senate, Quintus Marcus Rex was des- 
 patched to Faesulae, and Quintus Metellus Creticus 
 to Apulia and its neighbourhood. Both these officers 
 were waiting near the city, still retaining their 
 commission as generals. The celebration of their 
 triumphs had been obstructed by the underhand 
 tactics of a clique who were accustomed to set a price 
 on everything whether honourable or the reverse. 
 Besides these, two praetors, Quintus Pompeius Rufus, 
 and Quintus Metellus Celer, were sent to Capua and 
 Picenum respectively, with powers to raise an army 
 adequate to the needs of the time and the danger of 
 the state. Rewards were also offered for any infor- 
 mation as to the conspiracy against the state. These 
 rewards were, in the case of a slave, his freedom and 
 one hundred thousand sesterces {£Sso), and for a free 
 man, a pardon for any share he might have had in the 
 plot and double that sum. A decree was at the same 
 
 CHAP. 
 XXIX. 
 
 CHAP. 
 XXX. 
 
XXXI. 
 
 26 thp: conspiracy of catiline. 
 
 OTAP. time passed that the gladiatorial schools should be 
 quartered on Capua and the other borough towns 
 according to their means, and that, at Rome, watches 
 should be set throughout the city under the charge 
 
 CHAP, of the minor magistrates. By these measures the 
 state was violently excited, and the appearance 
 of the capital quite changed. The life of unre- 
 strained pleasure and indulgence begotten of a 
 long period of peace was suddenly replaced by 
 universal gloom. A state of feverish anxiety ensued. 
 No person or place was thoroughly trusted. There 
 was neither ©pen war nor secured peace, and each 
 man measured the danger only by the terror in his 
 own breast. The women, too, to whom the fear of 
 war, now that the limits of the empire were so vast, had 
 come as an unwonted feeling, were in great distress. 
 They raised their hands in prayer to heaven; wept over 
 their little children ; were full of questions ; and saw 
 danger in everything ; throwing aside pride and fri- 
 volity, they despaired of themselves and their country. 
 Despite these preparations for defence, the ruthless 
 mind of Catiline was busy with all its former plans, 
 and he was accused by Lucius Paulus under the 
 Plautian law. At last, Either by way of dissembling 
 or to clear himself should he be denounced, he 
 attended the Senat-e. Thereupon, the consul, Marcus 
 TuUius, either from fear of his presence or in a burst 
 of anger, did good service to his country by delivering 
 a noble speech, which he afterwards wrote out and 
 published. On his resuming his seat, Catiline, follow- 
 ing out his determination to dissemble everything, 
 with downcast look and in tones of entreaty began to 
 
THE CONSPIRACY OF CATILINK 
 
 27 
 
 beg the senators to form no hasty opinion of him. chap. 
 His birth and his conduct from his youth up justified 
 him in cherishing the highest hopes ; it would be 
 wrong of them to imagine that he, a patrician born, 
 whose own and whose ancestors' pubHc services had 
 been so numerous, could find it his interest to destroy 
 the state, while Marcius Tullius, a mere crtizcn-at-will. 
 was engaged in its preservation. He was proceeding 
 to further abuse when a storm of shouts and cries of 
 "Enemy" and " Traitor " interrupted him. Furious 
 with rage, he exclaimed/' Since I am beset and driven \ 
 to destruction by my foes, I will quench in a general j 
 ruin the fire that surrounds me." 
 
 With these words he dashed out of the Senate- chap. 
 
 XXXIl. 
 
 house and hurried to his home. There his brain was 
 soon busy. His treacherous attack on the consul was 
 a failure, and he sav/ that the city was protected from 
 incendiaries by the watches set. He thought it best, 
 therefore, to increase his army, and to employ the 
 time before the legions could be levied in seizing 
 the numerous positions that might be useful for the 
 war. At dead of night he set out with a few com- 
 panions for the camp of Manlius, leaving instructions 
 to Cethegus, Lentulus, and the others whose readiness 
 and daring he had tested, to use every possible means 
 of increasing the strength of their party, of pushing 
 forward the plots against the consul, and of arranging 
 for a massacre, a conflagration, and the other horrors 
 of war. He promised shortly to march against the 
 city in person, with a large army. 
 
 While these events were taking place at Rome, ^"^^j^-, 
 Gains Manlius sent deputies from his force to Marcius 
 
2S THE CONSPIRACY OF CATILINE. 
 
 CHAP- Rex with a message to this effect, — " We call gods 
 and men to witness, general, that we have taken up 
 arms with no designs against our country nor with 
 any wish to bring others into danger. To ensure the 
 safety of our own persons is our only motive ; for, 
 needy wretches as we are, the violence and cruelty of 
 usurers has robbed most of us of our country, and all 
 of fame and fortune. Not one of us was allowed, 
 according to ancient custom, to avail himself of that 
 law, by which, on sacrificing his property, his person 
 would have remained free; so pitiless were the usurers 
 and the judge. Your ancestors often, in compassion 
 for the commons of Rome, relieved their destitution 
 by the decrees they proposed ; and, quite recently,, 
 within our own recollection, owing to the prevalence 
 of debt, bronze was raised for purposes of repayment 
 to the value of silver, and this with the approval of 
 all honest men. Often, again, the commons them- 
 selves, roused either by a lust for power, or by the 
 insolence of magistrates, took up arms, and revolted 
 from the Senate. We, however, ask for neither rule 
 nor riches, though these are the cause of every war 
 and struggle among men ; we ask only for that free- 
 dom which no brave man ever abandoned while life 
 remained. We adjure you and the Senate to take 
 measures to relieve us, your fellow-citizens, to restore 
 to us the protection of the law, wrested from us by 
 judicial corruption, and not to force us to seek a 
 course, by which, while perishing ourselves, we may 
 wreak the completest vengeance for our blood." 
 
 XXXIV ^^ ^^^^' Q'Ji^tus Marcius replied, " If you have any- 
 thing to ask of the Senate, throw down your arms, and 
 
THE CONSPIRACY OF CATILINE. 29 
 
 go to Rome with your petition. Such has ever been the chap.^ 
 clemency and compassion of the Senate of the Roman 
 people that no one ever asked their help in vain." 
 
 To return to Catiline ; on his way to join ManHus 
 he sent letters to many men of consular rank, and, 
 besides these, to all persons of any mark, informing 
 them that beset by false accusations, and unable 
 to make head against the cabal of his enemies, 
 he was resigning himself to fortune, and was now on 
 his way to exile at Massilia. This course he was 
 taking, not because his conscience reproached him 
 with the crimes with which he was charged, but to 
 secure the peace of the State and to prevent any 
 dispute about himself giving rise to sedition. To a 
 very different effect was a letter read before the House 
 by Ouintus Catulus, which he said had been delivered 
 to him in Catiline's name : of this letter the following 
 is a copy, — " Lucius Catilina to Quintus Catulus — ^^^f. 
 Your honour, at once so eminent and so practically 
 proved, on which amid my great dangers it pleases 
 me to think, encourages me to commit my affairs into 
 your hands. I have determined, therefore, to enter 
 on no defence as regards the fresh step I have taken, 
 but have made up my mind, since! am conscious of 
 no fault, to lay before you an explanation, of which, 
 I profess, you can easily recognise the truth. Roused 
 by the wrongs and insults I have endured, finding 
 myself robbed of all reward for my toil and energy, 
 and unable to gain any official position, I followed 
 my usual bent and undertook the championship of 
 the wretched. This I did, not because my property 
 was insufficient to discharge my personal debts ; on 
 
 XXXV. 
 
30 TPIE CONSPIRACY OF CATILINE. 
 
 XXXV. ^^^ contrary, the generosity of Orestilla was ready to 
 pay off, from her own and her daughter's funds, those 
 contracted as surety for others. No, it was the sight 
 of unworthy men raised to the honours of office that 
 impelled me, and the feeling that I myself was ex- 
 cluded on false suspicions. For these reasons I have 
 embraced the hope, honourable in my present 
 fortunes, of preserving what position I yet hold. I 
 would write more, but news has just been brought 
 that I am threatened with attack. For the present I 
 commend Orestilla to you, and entrust her to your 
 honour. I implore you, as you love your own chil- 
 dren, shield her from harm. Farewell." 
 
 CHAP. Catiline himself abode a few days with Gains 
 
 XXXVI. ^ 
 
 Flammius at Arretium, and supplied the neighbour- 
 hood, which he had previously aroused, with arms. 
 He then assumed the fasces and other marks of a 
 consular commission, and marched to the camp of 
 Manlius. When this was known at Rome, the Senate 
 pronounced Catiline and Manlius public enemies, and 
 fixed a day, up to which the rest of the conspirators, 
 except those condemned on capital charges, would be 
 held guiltless on throwing down their arms. A de- 
 cree was also passed, ordering the' consuls to hold a 
 levy. Antonius was to put himself at the head of an 
 army, and pursue Catiline with all haste; Cicero, to 
 remain to protect the capital. 
 
 It was at this crisis that the empire of the 
 Roman people, in my opinion, reached its most 
 pitiable condition. From the setting to the rising 
 sun its arms had subdued every land to obedi- 
 ence; at home there was peace and wealth, the 
 
THE CONSPIRACY OF CATILINE. 
 
 31 
 
 XXXVIF. 
 
 first of blessings, as men esteem them, in abund- chap. 
 
 XXX\ 1 
 
 ance ; and yet there were found citizens with minds 
 hardened, to undertake their own and their country's 
 destruction. Two decrees of the Senate had been 
 passed, but of all that host not one was enticed by 
 the reward offered to betray the conspiracy, not one 
 deserted the camp of Catiline, so virulent was the dis- 
 ease which had settled like a plague on the minds of 
 many citizens. Nor was disloyalty confined to those ,chap-, 
 who had been admitted to the conspiracy ; it may be 
 said that the whole of the common people, in their 
 eagerness for revolution, approved the designs of 
 Catiline. And this seemed but natural, for it always 
 happens in states that the penniless envy the re- 
 spectable and praise the disaffected, hate the old 
 order and long for the new, and in their disgust at 
 their own fortunes are eager for a general change. 
 Careless of everything, they find in riot and sedition 
 their meat and drink, for it is easy for the poor to 
 escape loss. The populace of the capital, however, 
 was especially impetuous, and that for many reasons. 
 In the first place Rome had become a sink into which 
 there poured all who were in any place notorious for 
 crime or vice, others who had shamefully squandered 
 their estates, and, in fine, every one whose disgraceful 
 conduct and actions had made him an exile from his 
 home. Again, there were many whose thoughts 
 dwelt on the triumph of Sulla ; they saw some, who 
 had been common soldiers, now senators, and others 
 so rich as to live in a style of regal magnificence; each 
 hoped that, should he take up arms, victory would 
 bring him no less rewards. Besides these, many 
 
32 
 
 THE CONSPIRACY OF CATILINE. 
 
 CHAP, voune men who had starved in the country on the 
 
 XXXVII. •' c> •' 
 
 wages of their hands, had been attracted to Rome by 
 public or private bounties, and had learnt to prefer 
 the ease of the capital to such thankless toil. These, 
 and all like them, found their profit in disaster to the 
 state, so that we need wonder the less that penniless 
 men of bad character were filled with high hopes, 
 and measured their country's interests by their own. 
 Again, all those whose parents had been proscribed 
 during Sulla's triumph, whose property had been con- 
 fiscated, and their political rights impaired, were 
 awaiting the issue of the struggle with like feelings. 
 To these might be added all who, as being in opposi- 
 tion to the senatorial party, preferred a convulsion in 
 the state to their own exclusion from power. In fine, 
 after many years, just the old disorders had returned 
 CHAP, to threaten the state. The tribunitian power had 
 
 XXXVIII. 
 
 been restored in the consulship of Pompey and 
 Crassus, and henceforth young men, made headstrong 
 by their age and character, possessed themselves of 
 this important office and began to rouse the mob by 
 attacks on the Senate, next by bribery and promises 
 to kindle their passions, and thus, finally, to attain to 
 distinction and influence. They were strenuously^ 
 opposed by many of the nobility, who made the de- 
 fence of the Senate a pretext for advancing theit* own 
 importance. To put the truth shortly, from the time 
 of Sulla forward, though those who busied themselves 
 with state affairs might allege honourable excuses, in 
 some cases the defence of the people's rights, in others 
 the extension of the authority of the Senate, beneath 
 all this pretext of the public good each was secretly 
 
THE CONSPIRACY OF CATILINE. 33 
 
 Striving to gain power for himself. They showed chap 
 no moderation, pushed hostiHty to an extreme, and 
 made a bloody use of victory when won. After chap. 
 the despatch of Pompey to conduct the wars against 
 the Pirates and Mithradates, the power of the com- 
 mons was broken, and the influence of the oligarchy 
 increased. They held the magistracies, the provin- 
 cial appointments, and all other patronage, in their 
 own hands ; they passed their days in prosperity, free 
 from trouble and anxiety, and by their control of 
 the courts terrified all who while in office treated the 
 populace with greater mildness. As soon, however, 
 as, amid their perilous condition, a hope of revolution 
 was offered to the commons, the old battle-cry raised 
 their spirits. Had Catiline come off victor, or even 
 on equal terms, from the first battle-field, the state 
 would, no doubt, have been prostrated by massacre 
 and disaster, while the victorious party would only 
 have enjoyed their success till some stronger champion 
 snatched power and freedom from their tired and 
 enfeebled hands. Even as it wa,s, many persons not 
 connected with the conspiracy at the outbreak of the 
 war set out tp join Catiline. Among these was a 
 certain Aulus Fulvius, a senator's son, who was 
 dragged back when already on the way, and put to 
 death by his father's order. At Rome, meantime, 
 Lentulus was following out the injunction of Catiline, 
 and tampering in person, or through his agents, with 
 all whose character or fortunes made them, he thought, 
 fit instruments of revolution, not confining himself to 
 citizens, but enlisting men of every class, so long as they 
 would be useful in war. In pursuance of this policy, ^xl. ' 
 
34 THE CONSPIRACY OF CATILINE. 
 
 CHAP, he entrusted a certain Publius Umbrenus with the task 
 of seeking out the ambassadors from the Allobroges, 
 and inducing them, if possible, to join in the war. 
 Their great pubHc and private indebtedness, and the 
 warhke temperament of the Gallic race, led him to 
 hope that they would readily join in such an enter- 
 prise. Umbrenus had previously been employed in 
 Gaul, and was acquainted with many of the chief 
 men in the different states. He went to work there- 
 fore at once, and on the first occasion of his seeing the 
 ambassadors in the Forum, asked a few questions as 
 to their public affairs, and, as if grieved for their mis- 
 fortunes, began to enquire what issue they hoped for 
 to such evils. They complained of the greed of the 
 magistrates, accused the Senate for its failure to help 
 them, and foreboded death as the one cure for their 
 ills. On hearing this, he told them that if they v/ould 
 be men, he would show them a way of escape from 
 the great evils they spoke of Inspired with extrava- 
 gant hopes by his words, the Allobroges implored 
 Umbrenus to take pity on them. There was no task 
 so hard or repellent that they would not be most 
 eager to perform it, if it would but free their state 
 from debt. Thereupon Umbrenus took them to the 
 house of Decimus Brutus, which was near the Forum, 
 and was thrown open to the conspirators by the influ- 
 ence of Sempronia, for Brutus at the time was absent 
 from Rome. To lend greater weight to his words, he 
 also summoned Gabinius, and in his presence dis- 
 closed the conspiracy, and named his accomplices, 
 including among them, in order to inspire the ambas- 
 sadors with greater courage, many persons of every 
 
THE CONSPIRACY OF CATILINE. 35 
 
 rank who were perfectly innocent At last he pro- chai'. 
 cured from the ambassadors a promise of their 
 services, and dismissed them home. The Allobroe^es, chap. 
 
 XII 
 
 however, wavered for a long time as to what course 
 they should adopt. On the one side was their debt, 
 their love of war, and the great rewards they might 
 expect if victorious ; on the other, greater resources, 
 an absence of risk, and a certain and immediate 
 reward instead of uncertain hope. Thus they ex- 
 amined both sides of the question ; but the fortune of 
 the republic at last prevailed. They betrayed the 
 whole affair, just as they had heard it, to Quintus 
 Fabius Sanga, whose patronage their state mostly 
 employed. Cicero, informed by Sanga of the plot, 
 instructed the ambassadors to make a great show of 
 zeal for the conspiracy, to visit the rest of the in- 
 triguers, make them ample promises, and use every 
 exertion for their complete exposure. 
 
 Almost simultaneously, there were risings in Hither 
 and Farther Gaul, as also in Picenum, Bruttium, and 
 Apuha. The agents whom Catiline had previously 
 despatched on every side were, with a rashness that 
 approached insanity, pushing on all their plans at 
 once. Their midnight councils, their transport of 
 arms and weapons, their general hurry and bustle had 
 caused more fear than actual danger. Many of these 
 agents had been brought to trial by the praetor, 
 Quintus Metellus Celer, in accordance with a resolu- 
 tion of the Senate, and by him thrown into prison, 
 and Gains Murena had pursued the same course in 
 Farther Gaul, where he held command as a legate. 
 
 Meanwhile at Rome, Lentulus, with the other heads xLm 
 c 
 
 CHAP. 
 
36 THE CONSPIRACY OF CATILINE. 
 
 CHAP, of the conspiracy, had equipped what seemed to them a 
 large force, and determined that, on the arrival of Cati- 
 line and his army at Faesulae, Lucius Bestia, a tribune 
 of the commons, should hold a public meeting, complain 
 of the steps taken by Cicero, and throw the odium of 
 having caused a most terrible war on that excellent 
 consul. Taking this as their signal, the rank and file 
 of their supporters were on the following night to 
 carry out their respective tasks. Report said that 
 these were distributed in the following manner : — 
 Statilius and Gabinius, with a large force, were to set 
 fire simultaneously to twelve suitable points in the 
 town ; the confusion thus caused would gain them 
 easier access to the consul, and to the others at whom 
 they aimed ; Cethegus was to beset Cicero's door and 
 attack him by force ; others of the conspirators had other 
 victims ; and the young men, most of thern of noble 
 birth, were to murder their parents, and in the general 
 panic that the simultaneous massacre and fire would oc- 
 casion, a sally was to be made to join Catiline. -While 
 these preparations and arrangements were being 
 made, Cethegus was continually complaining of the 
 cowardice of his associates. He declared that by 
 their hesitation and delay they had wasted splendid 
 chances ; in such a crisis it was action that was 
 needed, not deliberation, and he himself, he protested, 
 were he joined by only a few others, would attack the 
 Senate house, while the rest played the coward. 
 Naturally bold and impetuous, he was ever ready to 
 strike a blow, and was convinced that prompt action 
 offered the highest advantages. 
 
 xuv.' To return to the Allobroges ; in obedience to Cicero's 
 
THE CONSPIRACY OF CATILINE. 
 
 37 
 
 injunction, they procured a meeting through Gabinius chap 
 with the rest of the conspirators, and demanded from ^"^''^ 
 Lentulus, Cethegus, Statilius, and also Cassius, an 
 oath which they might bear, duly attested, to their 
 countrymen. Without this it would be a difficult 
 task to make them join in so serious an attempt. The 
 rest did as they were asked without any suspicion, but 
 Cassius promised to go shortly to Gaul in person, and, 
 indeed, left the city on that journey some little time 
 before the ambassadors. On the departure of the 
 latter, Lentulus sent with them a certain Titus Vol- 
 turcius of Crotona, so that previous to their return 
 home they might strengthen the bonds of their alliance 
 by exchanging assurances with Catiline. He further 
 entrusted Volturcius with a letter to Catiline, of which 
 I give a copy : — " Who I am you will learn from the 
 bearer. Consider the danger of your position, and 
 remember that you are a brave man. Think what 
 your plans demand ; seek help from all, even from 
 the lowest." Besides this letter he sent a verbal 
 message asking, now that he had been declared a 
 public enemy by the Senate, what he had to gain by 
 refusing the help of slaves ? The preparation he had 
 ordered in the capital had been made ; there must be 
 no delay on his part in advancing nearer to Rome. 
 When matters had gone thus far, on the night agreed chap. 
 on for their departure, Cicero, whose emissaries had 
 informed him of everything, gave orders to the prae- 
 tors, Lucius Valerius Flaccus, and Gaius Pomptinus, 
 to plant an ambush by the Mulvian bridge, and seize 
 the Allobroges, with their retinue. He explained 
 clearly the object on which they were sent, and em- 
 
^S THE CONSPIRACY OF CATILINE. 
 
 CHAP, powered them to manage the details as need might 
 arise. The praetors, men used to war, quietly sta- 
 tioned their guards, and secretly occupied the bridge, 
 according to their instructions. The ambassadors, 
 with Volturcius, had no sooner arrived at the place 
 than a simultaneous shout arose from either side. 
 The Gauls quickly recognised the design, and promptly 
 surrendered to the praetors. Volturcius at first en- 
 couraged the rest to resistance, and defended himself 
 with his sword against his numerous assailants ; find- 
 ing, however, that he was deserted by the ambassa- 
 dors, after many entreaties to Pomptinus on the score 
 of their acquaintance to secure his safety, he at last, 
 in great fear and trembling for his life, surrendered to 
 \ the praetors as though to declared enemies. 
 
 CHAP. On the successful execution of the design a full 
 account was quickly conveyed to the consul, whose 
 mind was filled at once with anxiety and rejoicing, 
 with joy at the news that by the disclosure of the plot, 
 the state was saved from its danger ; but with deep 
 anxiety, in his hesitation as to what must be done 
 with citizens of such rank detected in so great a crime. 
 To punish them, he thought, would bring trouble on 
 himself, while to allow them to escape might ruin the 
 state. Summoning all his resolution, he ordered 
 Lentulus, Cethegus, Statilius, and Gabinius, to be 
 called before him, and with them a certain Caeparius 
 of Tarracina, who was preparing to set out for Apulia, 
 there to rouse the slaves. The rest appeared without 
 delay ; Caeparius, who had left his house a little be- 
 fore, had learnt the discovery of the plot, and escaped 
 from the city. Lentulus, as praetor, the consul him- 
 
 XLVI. 
 
THE CONSPIRACY OF CATILINE. 
 
 39 
 
 self conducted, holding him by the hand, the rest chap. 
 
 XLVI 
 
 under guard he ordered to come to the temple of 
 Concord. Thither he had summoned the Senate, and 
 in a crowded assembly of its members he now intro- 
 duced Volturcius with the ambassadors, while he 
 ordered the praetor Flaccus to bring the despatch 
 box, with the letters which he had received from tne 
 ambassadors. Volturcius was then examined on the chap. 
 
 XLVI I 
 
 subject of his journey, the letter, and finally as to his 
 purpose and motive. At first he made pretences, and 
 tried to conceal all knowledge of the conspiracy; 
 afterwards, when bidden to speak with a guarantee 
 from the state of his safety, he betrayed everything 
 just as it had taken place, and informed the Senate 
 that, as he Himself had only been admitted to the con- 
 spiracy by Gabinius and Caeparius a few days before, 
 he knew no more than the ambassadors. He could 
 only say that he had been used to hear from Gabinius 
 that Publius Autronius, wServius Sulla, Lucius Var- 
 
 guntius, and many others were among its members._^ 
 
 The confession of the Gauls was to the same effect, 
 and when Lentulus pretended ignorance, they con- 
 victed him not only by the letter but by the words he 
 had often used. *' The Sibyllin^ books," he had said, 
 " prophesied that three Cornelii should rule Rome ; 
 Cinna and Sulla had already done so, and he himself 
 was the third to whom fate assigned the government 
 of the city ; moreover, this was the twentieth year 
 from that in which the Capitol had been burnt, and 
 augurs had frequently declared on the strength of 
 prodigies that it should be rendered bloody by a civil 
 war." All the prisoners had previously acknowledged 
 
40 THE CONSPIRACY OF CATILINE. 
 
 CHAP their seals ; and, accordingly, after the letters had 
 been read, the Senate made a decree that Lentulus on 
 laying down his office, as well as the rest, should be 
 kept in " free " or private custody. Accordingly they 
 were delivered to the following guardians : — Lentulus, 
 to Publius Lentulus Spinther, at that time an aedile ; 
 Cethegus, to Quintus Cornificius ; Statilius, to Gaius 
 Caesar ; Gabinius, to Marcus Crassus ; and Caeparius 
 (who had been pursued and ju^t brought back), to a 
 senator named Gnaeus Terentius. 
 
 CHA]'. Meanwhile the commons, who, at first, in their 
 eagerness for a revolution, were too favourable to the 
 idea of war, now that the nature of the conspiracy 
 was laid bare, experienced a revulsion of feeling. 
 They cursed the designs of Catiline, exalted Cicero to 
 heaven, and were as full of joy and gladness as though 
 they had escaped from slavery. Any other outrage 
 of war would rather have given them plunder than 
 have done them harm, but a conflagration they 
 thought a ruthless and extravagant measure, and one 
 fraught with misery to themselves, whose whole 
 wealth consisted in articles of daily use and personal 
 clothing. 
 
 On the following day there was brought before the 
 Senate a certain Lucius Tarquinius, who was said to 
 have been pursued and captured on his way to join 
 Catiline. He offered, if granted a public guarantee, to 
 give information about the plot, and was ordered by 
 the consul to make a full confession of all he knew. 
 He told the Senate a tale very similar to that of Vol- 
 turcius, about preparations for firing the city, a 
 massacre of the respectable classes, and the approach 
 
THE CONSPIRACY OF CATILINE. 4 1 
 
 of the enemy, but added that he himself had been ctiai'. 
 
 XI V'lII 
 
 sent by Marcus Crassus with a message to Catiline 
 ''not to let the seizure of Lentulus, Cethegus, and 
 others of the conspirators alarm him, but to make it 
 an additional reason for a rapid advance on Rome, by 
 which the spirits of the rest would be revived and the 
 prisoners more easily rescued from danger." On the 
 mention, however, of Crassus, a man of birth, of enor- 
 mous wealth, and the very greatest influence, some 
 thought the story unworthy of belief, others again 
 deemed it true, yet were of the opinion that at such a 
 crisis a man of his importance should rather be con- 
 ciliated than provoked, and as most of the senators 
 were, in their private affairs, at the mercy of Crassus, 
 all united in a cry that the witness was no honest one, 
 and demanded that a motion should be made on the 
 subjech4* On the motion therefore of Cicero, and in a 
 crowded house, the Senate resolved that, "Whereas 
 the witness of Tarquinius appears dishonest, he is to 
 be kept in custody, and to be granted no further privi- 
 lege of audience until such time as he confess at 
 whose instigation he fabricated so grievous a charge." 
 It was thought at the time by some that the informa- 
 tion was contrived by Publius Autronius, in order 
 that Crassus by the accusation might be made to 
 share the peril of the rest, and these then gain the 
 protection of his power. Others asserted that Tar- 
 quinius was set on by Cicero to prevent Crassus, 
 according to his wont, taking the sedition under his 
 patronage, and so embroiling the state. At a later 
 period I personally heard Crassus declare that Cicero 
 had actually put this insult upon him. 
 
42 THE CONSPIRACY OF CATILINE. 
 
 CHAP. At the same conjuncture Quintus Catulus and Gaius 
 Piso failed, either by bribery or influence, to induce 
 Cicero to have Gaius Caesar dishonestly accused by 
 means of the Allobroges or some other informer. 
 Both these nobles were at bitter enmity with Caesar ; 
 Piso he had assailed when on his trial for malversa- 
 tion, on the score of having unjustly punished a cer- 
 tain Transpadane ; Catulus hated him on account of 
 their contest for the Pontificate, in that, at the close 
 of his life and after filling the highest offices, he had 
 been beaten by such a mere youth as Caesar. The 
 state of the latter's affairs also favoured the accusa- 
 tion, as his extraordinary profusion and the splendour 
 of his public entertainments had sunk him heavily in 
 debt. Unable to induce the consul to commit such a 
 crime, they applied themselves to individual intrigues, 
 and, by coining falsehoods, which they declared they 
 had heard from Volturcius or the Allobroges, raised 
 much odium against Caesar. So successful, indeed, 
 were they, that some Roman knights, who were on 
 guard under arms round the Temple of Concord, were 
 carried away either by the greatness of the danger, or 
 their own excitable character, and, on Caesar's leaving 
 the Senate, threatened him with their swords, in order 
 to show their zeal for the constitution, 
 
 CHAP. While the Senate was engaged with this business, 
 and in decreeing rewards to the ambassadors of the 
 Allobroges, and to Titus Volturcius, as informers 
 whose witness had been verified, the freedmen and a 
 few of the dependents of Lentulus went different ways 
 about the city, trying to rouse the artisans and slaves 
 in the streets to rescue him ; while others sought out 
 
 L. 
 
THE CONSPIRACY OF CATILINE. 43 
 
 the popular mob captains, who had been wont to sell chap. 
 their services in disturbing the state. Cethegus, more- 
 over, employed messengers to entreat the slaves and 
 freedmen of his household, men picked and trained 
 [in the school of audacity], to come in an armed body 
 and break into the house where he lay. The consul, 
 on learning of these designs, posted guards wherever 
 occasion demanded, and having summoned the Senate, 
 put the question how they would deal with the men 
 in custody. It should be mentioned that, shortly 
 before this, the Senate in a crowded house had pro- 
 nounced their conduct treasonable. On the present 
 occasion, Decimus Junius Silanus, who as consul elect 
 was the first called upon to give his opinion as to what 
 was to be done with the actual prisoners, and besides 
 them with Lucius Cassius, Publius Furius, Publius 
 Umbrenus, and Quintus Annius, in the event of their 
 capture, at first gave his vote for their punishment ; 
 afterwards, however, he was so influenced by the 
 speech of Gaius Caesar that he declared that on a 
 division he would side with Tiberius Nero, who had 
 proposed that the question should be adjourned till 
 the guards round the Senate house had been increased. 
 The speech of Caesar, when it came to him to be 
 asked his opinion by the consul, was to the following 
 effect : — 
 
 "All men. Senators, who deliberate on doubtful chap, 
 matters should be equally free from hate and friend- 
 ship, from anger and compassion. When these ob- 
 struct the view, the mind does not easily discern the , 
 truth ; nor has any one ever harmonized the dictates 
 of passion and interest. When the intellect is alert 
 
 
44 THE CONSPIRACY OF CATILINE. 
 
 CHAP, it is strong" ; but if passion gains a footing it becomes 
 a tyrant, and the reason is reduced to impotence. I 
 have no lack of examples of kings and peoples who, 
 under the sway of anger or compassion have erred in 
 their counsels. I prefer, however, to remind you of 
 sorne occasions on which our own ancestors preserved 
 a duefend orderly course of action though it conflicted 
 with their passions.'^'In the Macedonian war, which 
 we carried on with King Perseus, the great and 
 splendid State of Rhodes, which had prospered by the 
 help of the Roman people, proved disloyal and hostile 
 to us. When the war was finished and the conduct 
 of the Rhodians came to be considered, our ancestors, 
 to avoid giving any pretext for an assertion that they 
 went to war not to avenge an injury, but for the sake 
 of wealth, allowed them to go unpunished. ' Similarly 
 in all our Punic wars, though the Carthaginians 
 often committed many outrages in times both of 
 peace and of truce, our ancestors availed themselves 
 of no opportunity to do the like, but took in considera- 
 tion rather what was worthy of themselves than what 
 might fairly be inflicted on their enemy. 
 
 A like occasion has now arisen, and you, Senators, 
 must be on your guard lest the crime of Publius Lent- 
 ulus and his fellows weigh heavier with you than your 
 own dignity, and lead you to a resolution that will 
 better satisfy your wrath than your repute. If, indeed, 
 the object of our search is some penalty adequate to 
 the offence, then I approve of our abandoning all pre- 
 cedent in our measures ; but if the enormity of the 
 crime taxes our ingenuity too heavily for this, I am 
 of opinion that we should confine ourselves to such 
 
THE CONSPIRACY OF CATILINE. 45 
 
 punishments as are by law provided. Most of those chap. 
 who have spoken before me.have in studied and nqj^le 
 language bewailed the misfortune of the repAlic, have 
 dilated on the horrors of war and the fate of the 
 vanquished, and have reminded you of how maids 
 are ravished, children torn from their parents' 'arms, 
 matrons placed at the mercy of the conquerors' pas- 
 sions, temples and houses plundered, fire and slaughter 
 carried everywhere, and whole towns filled with arms 
 and corpses, blood and mourning. But at what, I ask, 
 was all this eloquence aimed ? To stir you to detes- 
 tation of the conspiracy .? As if the man whom the 
 horrible reality has not moved could be roused by any 
 eloquence ! That is not human nature, nor are men 
 ever wont to underestimate their own injuries ; rather, 
 in many cases they have been known to take too 
 serious a view of them. Extravagance of behaviour, 
 Senators, takes a different hue in different stations. 
 Men of low rank pass their life in obscurity, and their^ 
 faults of passion are known to few, for their notoriety 
 never rises above their fortunes. Those, on the other 
 hand, who are the heirs of a great sovereignty, and 
 live in a high position, have their doings known to all 
 the world. The higher their fortunes the greater the 
 restrictions upon them ; they must know nothing of 
 favour or disfavour, and least of all of anger ; for 
 what in others is called anger, in rulers receives the 
 name of pride and cruelty. And, though, for my own 
 part, I think any and every punishment inadequate to 
 the crimes of the prisoners, yet most people only 
 remember the end of an incident, and, in the case of 
 the wicked, often forget their misdeeds in talking of 
 
46 THE CONSPIRACY OF CATILINE. 
 
 CHAP, their punishment, if that has been somewhat unusually- 
 severe. 
 
 " I feel sure that the proposal of that brave and 
 active citizen, Decimus Silanus, was made in all zeal 
 for the state, and that in a matter of such importance 
 he would allow himself to be influenced neither by 
 hatred nor partiality. My knowledge of his character 
 and self-restraint convinces me of this. But his mo- 
 tion strikes me, I will not say as cruel — for what 
 proposal could be cruel when aimed at men like 
 these ? — but as foreign to the spirit of our state. It 
 must certainly have been either panic or a strong 
 sense of wrong that moved you, Silanus, a consul 
 elect, to propose an unprecedented form of punish- 
 ment. To speak of terror were needless, especially 
 when, by the activity of our illustrious consul, we have 
 such numerous guards under arms. As to the actual 
 punishment you propose, I might observe, what is 
 indeed the case, that to men in grief and misery 
 death comes as a relief, not as a pain, that it annuls all 
 the ills that flesh is heir to, and that beyond it neither 
 trouble nor joy find place. But what I wish to ask 
 you is. Why did you not add to your motion that the 
 condemned should first be punished with the scourge ? 
 Was it because it is forbidden by the Porcian law .'' 
 If so, there are other laws which forbid condemned 
 citizens to be deprived of life, and ofler the alternative 
 of exile. Did you omit it, then, because scourging is 
 a heavier punishment than death ? Yet what sentence 
 can be harsh or too severe for men convicted of so 
 atrocious a crime ? Again, if you thought scourg- 
 ing the lighter punishment, how can it be proper to 
 
THE CONSPIRACY OF CATILINE. 
 
 47 
 
 fear the law in the smaller matter after neglectinj^ it chap. 
 in the greater ? 
 
 " It may be asked, Who will take exception to any 
 decree against traitors ? I answer, time, the events of a 
 day, and fortune whose caprice rules the world. What- 
 ever the prisoners' fate, it will have been well de- 
 served ; but you, Senators, must considei" the prece- 
 dent which you are establishing. Every bad precedent 
 has arisen out of a measure in itself good ; but, when 
 power has fallen to unskilful or less worthy hands, the 
 precedent is no longer applied to fit and deserving 
 subjects, but to unfit and undeserving. The Lace- 
 daemonians, when they had crushed the Athenians, 
 imposed on them an oligarchy of thirty members. 
 This government began by executing, without trial, 
 those whose guilt or unpopularity was greatest ; the 
 people rejoiced, and justified their action. As the 
 spirit of license gradually increased, they killed good 
 and bad alike in mere wantonness, while they filled 
 the rest of the citizens with terror. Thus the state 
 pdid for its fooHsh rejoicing the heavy price of slavery. 
 In our own times the victorious Sulla, amid universal 
 approval, ordered the execution of Damasippus and 
 his fellows, who had fattened on the public disasters. 
 The men were stained with crime and treason, their 
 seditious spirit had embroiled the state, and it was 
 agreed that their death was richly deserved. Never- 
 theless, that action was the inauguration of a great 
 massacre. Did a man covet a house or villa, nay, 
 even a piece of pottery or of raiment, he used all his 
 exertions to include its owner in the list of the pro- 
 scribed. Those who had rejoiced at the death of 
 
4^ THE CONSPIRACY OF CATILINE. 
 
 CHAP. Damasippus were soon themselves dragged to execu- 
 tion, and the massacre only ceased when Sulla had 
 glutted all his followers with wealth. I do not fear 
 any such conduct on the part of Marcus Tullius, nor 
 at the present crisis ; but a large state contains many 
 and diverse characters. At a future time, and under 
 another consul, entrusted, in his turn, with an army, 
 some false charge may be believed true, and when the 
 consul has followed this precedent, and, at the decree 
 of the Senate, drawn his sword, who will there be to 
 1 check or restrain him ^ 
 
 ^ "Senators, our ancestors never showed themselves 
 wanting in either wisdom or courage, nor did they 
 allow their pride to prevent them imitating the cus- 
 toms of foreign nations, so long as they were good. 
 Most of their armour and weapons of warfare they 
 adopted from the Samnites, and the emblems of their 
 magistracies from the Etrus(^ans ; in fine, they zeal- 
 ously copied in their own administration all that" 
 seemed serviceable among their allies or enemies. 
 Theyj)referred, I may say, to imitate rather than to 
 envy the good. Now, it was at this period of imita- 
 tion that they adopted the [Greek] custom of scourg- 
 ing citizens and inflicting capital punishment on 
 convicted criminals. With the growth, however, of 
 the state, and the greater violence of party strife, 
 which resulted from the increase of population, it was 
 found that innocent persons were made victims and 
 that other like abuses were becoming common. To 
 meet this danger, the Porcian and other laws were 
 provided, by which convicted persons were allowed to 
 retire into exile. This, Senators, I think a most 
 
THE CONSPIRACY OF CATILINE. 49 
 
 weighty reason against our adopting any resolution chap. 
 for which there is no precedent. I cannot but think 
 that the men, -who, with the small resources at their 
 command, won so great an empire, were endowed 
 with greater courage and wisdom than are we who 
 find a difficulty even in keeping what they so nobly 
 won. 
 
 " Am I then in favour of dismissing our prisoners, to 
 swell the army of Catiline ? Far from it. My pro- 
 posal is that their goods be confiscated, and that their 
 persons be imprisoned in such borough towns as are 
 best able to support the charge, and that no one here- 
 after make any motion with reference to them in the 
 Senate, or bring their case before the people, on pain 
 of the Senate's adjudging his action treasonable and 
 prejudicial to the State." 
 
 On the close of Caesar's speech, all the senators chap. 
 merely gave their votes for the difi"erent motions, some 
 for the one, some for the other, until it came to Marcus 
 Porcius Cato. He, when asked his opinion, delivered 
 himself as follows : — 
 
 " When I turn, Senators, from surveying the dangers 
 of our position, and reflect on the opinions of certain 
 previous speakers, the impression I receive is very 
 different. These speakers appear to have discussed 
 the punishment of the men who have raised war 
 against their country and parents, their altars and 
 hearths. Our position warns us rather to guard 
 against their attack than to consider their sentence. 
 •Other crimes you may be content to avenge when 
 they have actually been committed ; against this, if 
 you fail to prevent it, you will in vain invoke the law, 
 
 LII. 
 
5*0 THE CONSPIRACY OF CATILINE. 
 
 CHAP, for when a city is once stormed the conquered have no 
 further resources. M profess, though, I should remem- 
 ber that' in you I am appealing to men who ever 
 valued their houses and villas, their statues and paint- 
 ings more highly than they did the state. If you 
 would keep thftse cherished possessions, of whatever 
 kind — if you would have leisure to indulge in your 
 pleasures — now at last awake and take an active part 
 in the work of government. This is no question of 
 tribute or of the wrongs done to our allies ; it is our 
 liberty and our lives that are at stake. 
 
 " Many a time, Senators, have I spoken at length in 
 this house. Often have I complained of the self- 
 indulgence and avarice of our citizens. By so doing I 
 have made many enemies ; but as I never had to ex- 
 cuse any such sin to my own conscience, I could 
 scarcely be so tender to another's vices as to pardon 
 his ill deeds. You made slight account of this advice, 
 but the stability of the state was not shaken ; its 
 resources could bear the strain of your neglect. The 
 question, however, now at stake is not whether our 
 lives shall be moral or immoral, nor as to the size or 
 splendour of the empire of the Roman people ; it is 
 whether this empire, just as it is, shall remain our own, 
 or fall, with ourselves, a prey to our enemies. Here 
 some one reminds me of clemency and compassion. 
 Why, long ere this we have ceased to call things by 
 their right names. To be lavish of the goods of others 
 is now called generosity, and to be daring in the com- 
 mission of crime courage. This fashion has brought 
 the state to the brink of ruin ; but even granting, 
 since morality is come to this, that men may be gener- 
 
THE CONSPIRACY OF CATILINE. 5*1 
 
 ous with the fortunes of our allies, and compassionate chap. 
 in dealing with plunderers of the exchequer, at least 
 let them hesitate to squander our blood, and, in spar- 
 ing a few villains, work the ruin of all honest men. 
 
 " Gaius Caesar has just addressed to you an eloquent 
 and polished disquisition on life and death. He dis- 
 believes, I suppose, those traditions about the dead 
 which assign to the bad a path different from that of 
 the good, and lead them to noisome and savage abodes 
 full of horrors and terrors. Holding this opinion, he 
 lias moved that the property of the prisoners be con- 
 fiscated, and they themselves kept in confinement in 
 the borough towns. He evidently fears that, should 
 they remain at Rome, they may be rescued either by 
 their accomplices or by a hired mob. As if bad and 
 abandoned men were to be found only in the capital, 
 and not throughout Italy, or boldness were not more 
 powerful where the means of repelling it are lessjjr^ 
 His proposal is thus plainly idle, if he really appre- 
 hends danger from the prisoners, while if, amid such 
 general alarm, he alone is fearless, there is the more 
 reason why we others should be cautious. In making 
 your decision, then, on Publius Lentulus and his asso- 
 ciates, be assured that you are at the same time 
 deciding the fate of the army of Catiline and of all 
 the conspirators. The more vigorous your measures, 
 the more will their courage be shaken. If they see 
 you hes'::aiing, but for a moment, you will have the 
 whole p:!ck marching valiantly against you. 
 
 "Thin : not that it was by arms that our ancestors 
 raised tl -- state from insignificance to grandeur. If 
 that wer so, it would now be at its noblest beneath 
 
52 THE CONSPIRACY OF CATILINE. 
 
 CHAP, our sway, for our force of allies and citizens, not to 
 mention that of arms and horses, is far greater than 
 / was theirs. The sources, however, of their greatness 
 ' were very different from these, and we have none of 
 them. Such were their energy at home, the justice of 
 their rule abroad, and the unbiassed mind, the slave 
 neither of sin nor of lust, which they brought to their 
 councils. For these we have substituted self-indul- 
 gence and avarice, a bankrupt state and private mil- 
 lionaires. Our praise is of riches; idleness our pursuit. 
 Good and bad can no longer be distinguished ; intrigue 
 wins all the prizes which merit deserves, and who can 
 wonder at it ? Each of you frames his policy to serve 
 his individual ends ; in your homes you worship plea- 
 sure, in the Senate money or influence ; and so, when 
 an attack comes, the state is found with none to 
 \ defend her. 
 
 " However, I will say no more of this. Citizens of 
 the highest rank have conspired to destroy their coun- 
 try ; to aid them in the war they summon the Gauls, 
 a people most hostile to the name -of Rome; the leader 
 of our enemies with his army is at our doors. Can 
 you still be hesitating how to treat enemies caught 
 within your walls ? You are to pity them, I suppose. 
 The young men have been led into a mistake, and 
 you are to dismiss them, armed though they be. 
 Look to it that this clemency and mercy do not turn 
 to your own misery, if once they take up arms. The 
 state of affairs is indeed unpromising, but perhaps you 
 do not fear it ? Say rather that you are in the greatest 
 terror, but that in your sloth and irresolution you hesi- 
 tate and wait one for another, full, of course, of a pious 
 
THE CONSPIRACY OF CATILINE. 53 
 
 trust in the eternal gods who have so often upheld chap. 
 
 this state amid the greatest dangers. I tell you that 
 the help of heaven is not won by vows and womanish 
 prayers ; but that by vigilance, by action, by wise 
 counsels, a happy issue is attained. Abandon yourself 
 to sloth and cowardice, and you may invoke the gods, 
 but it will be in vain ; they are angered and adverse. 
 In the days of our forefathers, Titus Manlius Torqua- 
 tus, during the Gallic war, ordered his son to be exe- 
 cuted for having fought the enemy against orders. 
 That noble youth atoned by his death for his untem- 
 pered valour, and are you hesitating as to your sen- 
 tence on these ruthless traitors .'' Of course the rest 
 of their lives stand in contrast to this one crime! 
 Respect then the rank of Lentulus, if ever he respected 
 his modesty, his honour, or any god or man. Pardon 
 the youth of Cethegus, if this be not the second time 
 he has made war on his country. What am I to say 
 of Gabinius, of Statilius, of Caeparius } If it had not 
 been for their utter heedlessness they could never, I 
 suppose, have entertained such designs upon the state! 
 To conclude, Senators, I profess that, if we could 
 safely make a mistake, I would readily suffer you to 
 be convinced of your error by the course of events, 
 since you despise my words. We arc, however, actu- 
 ally beset on every side. Catiline, with his army, is 
 at our throats; we have other enemies within the walls 
 and in the very heart of the city ; we can make no 
 preparation and come to no determination without its 
 being known; all these are so many reasons for greater 
 despatch. 
 
 "I therefore move that ' inasmuch as the criminal 
 
 LII. 
 
54 THE CONSPIRACY OF CATILINE. 
 
 CHAP, designs of traitorous citizens have placed the state in 
 the greatest danger, and inasmuch as the prisoners by 
 the information of Titus Volturcius and the ambassa- 
 dors of the Allobroges, stand convicted of having 
 planned a massacre, a conflagration, and other dis- 
 graceful and cruel atrocities, against their fellow- 
 citizens and their country; that, therefore, punishment 
 be inflicted according to ancient custom, on those who 
 have confessed their guilt, as though they had been 
 convicted of capital offences.' " 
 
 CHAP. On Cato resuming- his seat, all the men of consular 
 
 LIII 
 
 rank, together with many other members of the 
 Senate, commended his proposal, and praised his 
 courage to the skies. Reproaching each other for 
 what they now called their timidity, they accounted* 
 Cato a great and brilliant statesman, and a decree of 
 the Senate was passed in the words of his resolution. 
 
 I have read and heard much of the noble deeds of 
 the Roman people in peace and in war, on land and 
 on sea ; and chance has disposed me to consider what 
 circumstance it was that had done most to support it 
 in its gigantic task. I was aware that on many occa- 
 sions it had confronted large bodies of the enemy with 
 but a handful of troops. I knew of the wars which 
 Rome, with her scanty resources, had waged against 
 wealthy kings. I knew, too, that she had often had to 
 bear the rude attack of fortune ; and that in eloquence 
 the Greek, in warlike renown the Gaul, had outstripped 
 her children. After much reflection, however, I 
 arrived at the conclusion that it was the pre-eminent 
 merit of a few of our citizens that had accomplished 
 all ; that this was the power that had enabled poverty 
 
tup: conspiracy of catiline. 55 
 
 to subdue wealth, a handful to rout a host. When, chap. 
 however, the state was corrupted by luxury and in- 
 dolence, the republic, in its turn, by its very greatness, 
 lent strength to its blundering generals and magis- 
 trates ; while, as if the vigour of their fathers had 
 perished, at many periods there was not a single man 
 in Rome of conspicuous merit. In my own time, 
 however, there have been two men of surpassing 
 merit, though different character — Marcus Cato and 
 Gaius Caesar. As my subject has brought them into 
 notice, it is not my design to pass them, over without 
 disclosing their respective natures and characters, so 
 far as my ability will allow me. 
 
 In birth, age, and eloquence, Caesar and Cato chap. 
 were nearly equal ; and they were well matched 
 in the loftiness of their aims, and in the renown 
 which, each in his own way, they attained. Caesar 
 was esteemed for his kind offices and munificence ; 
 Cato for the strict uprightness of his life. The for- 
 mer was distinguished by his clemency and compa.s- 
 sion ; sternness added dignity to the latter. Caesar 
 won renown by his readiness to give, to help, and to 
 pardon; Cato by never offering a bribe. The one 
 was the refuge of the wretched ; the other, the de- 
 struction of the bad. The former was praised for 
 his affability; the latter for his consistency. In fine 
 Caesar had formed the resolve to work, to be ever 
 on the watch, to promote his friends' interest even to 
 the detriment of his own, and to refuse nothing which 
 was worth the giving. He aimed at a high command, 
 an army, a war in some new field where his talents 
 might be displayed. Cato, on the other hand, made 
 
56 THE CONSPIRACY OF CATILINE. 
 
 CHAP, temperance, dignity, and, above all, austerity of beha- 
 viour, his pursuit. He did not vie in wealth with the 
 wealthy, nor in intrigue with the intriguer, but in 
 courage with the man of action, in honour with the 
 scrupulous, in self-restraint with the upright. He 
 preferred to be good rather than to seem so; and thus, 
 V the less he pursued renown, the more it attended him. 
 
 CHAP. When, as I related, the Senate had passed Cato's 
 resolution, the consul, thinking it better to forestall 
 the coming night, lest the interval should be used for 
 any revolutionary movement, ordered the officers to 
 make the necessary preparations for the execution. 
 After posting guards at various points he personally 
 conducted Lentulus to the prison, while the praetors did 
 the same to the rest. In the prison there is a place, 
 called the Tullianum, which, after a slight ascent to 
 the left, you find sunk about twelve feet in the ground. 
 It is guarded on every side by walls, and above it is 
 an arched roof of stone ; desolation, darkness, and 
 stench give it a loathsome and dreadful appearance. 
 To this place Lentulus was conducted, and there 
 strangled by the appointed executioners. A patrician 
 of the illustrious house of the Cornelii, and a man who 
 had held the office of consul at Rome, he met an end 
 worthy of his character and his crimes. On Cethegus, 
 Statilius, Gabinius, and Caeparius, the same punish- 
 ment was inflicted. 
 
 CHAP- While this was happening at Rome, Catiline, from 
 the whole force made up of his own contingent and of 
 the original army of Manlius, organized two legions, 
 and filled up the cohorts in proportion to the number 
 of his men. , Afterwards, as volunteers or members of 
 
 LVI. 
 
THE CONSPIRACY OF CATILINE. jj 
 
 the conspiracy arrived in the camp they were drafted chap. 
 in equal numbers into the several divisions ; and in a ^^'' 
 short time he had raised his legions to their proper 
 strength, although at first he had not more than two 
 thousand men. Not more than a quarter, however, 
 of his whole force was equipped with weapons of war. 
 The rest, as chance had armed them, carried hunting 
 spears or javelins, and, in some cases, pointed stakes. 
 On the approach of Antonius with his army, Catiline 
 moved to and fro among the mountains, frequently 
 changed his quarters, turning now towards Rome, now 
 towards Gaul, and offered the enemy no chance of 
 fighting; for he hoped, should his accomplices at 
 Rome succeed in their plans, soon to be at the head 
 of large forces. Meanwhile he rejected the slave 
 bands, which at the outset rallied round him in large 
 numbers. He trusted to the strength of the con- 
 spiracy, and at the same time thought it prejudicial 
 to his designs to appear to have made the cause of 
 citizens one with that of runaway slaves. On the chap. 
 arrival at the camp of the news that at Rome the plot 
 was discovered, and that Lentulus, Cethegus, and the 
 others whom I have named above, had been executed, 
 many, who had been attracted by the hope of plunder 
 or desire for revolution, now deserted. The rest Cati- 
 line led by forced marches over rugged mountains to 
 the district of Pistoria, intending to retreat secretly 
 by cross roads into Transalpine Gaul. Quintus Me- 
 tellus Celer, however, was stationed in Piccnum with 
 three legions, and surmised that Catiline, in his present 
 difficulty, would be adopting the very course I have 
 described. Learning the latter's route from deserters, 
 
58 THE CONSPIRACY OF CATILINE. 
 
 CHAP, he hastily advanced and pitched his camp at the very 
 foot of the mountains which Catiline would have to 
 descend on his hasty march towards Gaul. Antonius 
 also was close upon him ; his army was large, but it 
 was aided by the more level character of its road, and 
 he could thus follow in pursuit. Catilihe now saw 
 himself hemmed in between the mountains and the 
 forces of the enemy ; in the capital he had been de- 
 feated ; and he had no hope either of escape or refuge. 
 He thought best, therefore, in so perilous a case, to try 
 the fortune of war, and determined to come to an 
 instant engagement with Antonius. Accordingly, he 
 called his troops around him, and spoke as follows : — 
 
 CHAP. " Soldiers, I have long discovered that words cannot 
 inspire courage, and that no speech of a general can 
 give a flagging army energy, or the timid courage. 
 Just so much daring, natural or acquired, as resides in 
 each man's breast, does he display in war. The man 
 insensible to the call of glory and danger you will 
 harangue in vain ; his cowardice stops his ears. 
 Nevertheless I have called you together to give you a 
 few words of advice and at the same time to disclose 
 the motive of my resolution. 
 
 " I make certain, soldiers, that you know of the disas- 
 trous consequences, to himself and to us, of the 
 cowardice and indolence of Lentulus, and how, while 
 awaiting reinforcements from the capital, I have been 
 prevented from marching towards Gaul. You know, 
 too, as well as I do, our present position. Two hostile 
 armies close our path, the one on the side of Rome, 
 the other of Gaul. Want of corn and other neces- 
 saries forbid us to remain longer in our present quar- 
 
THE CONSPIRACY OF CATTLTNE. 
 
 59 
 
 ters, desire it though we may. In whatever direction chap. 
 we determine to march, we must cut our way with our ^^"^* 
 swords. I exhort you, therefore, to keep a brave and 
 ready heart, and, when you enter battle, to remember 
 that in your own right hands He wealth, honour, and 
 fame, as well as your freedom and the possession of 
 your country. If we conquer, our safety will be se- 
 cured ; we shall have provisions in plenty, and the 
 gates of boroughs and colonies will be thrown open to 
 us. If we give way in fear, we shall have all these 
 against us. No place nor friend will protect the man 
 who has failed to protect himself with his own arms. 
 Moreover, soldiers, we and our enemies will be fight- 
 ing under motives of very different force. For us the 
 contest is for country, for freedom and for life, while 
 our enemies can have little interest in fighting to main- 
 tain the supremacy of a narrow class. 
 
 " Let these thoughts inspire you with hardihood ; 
 advance to the fight, mindful of your ancient valour. 
 You might, though to your deep disgrace, have passed 
 your lives in exile. Some of you might, after the con- 
 fiscation of your goods, have lingered in Rome, on the 
 watch for a stranger's bounty. Such courses seemed 
 shameful and unbearable to men of spirit, and so you 
 have chosen to follow the one that has led you here. 
 If you would now quit it you must use your daring, 
 for it is at the discretion of the victor that war is 
 changed for peace. To hope for safety in flight,hvhen 
 your backs, unprotected by armour,, are turned to the 
 enemy, is indeed folly. In a battle it is always the 
 greatest cowards who run the greatest risks, while 
 courage is as a wall of defence. 
 
LIX. 
 
 60 THE CONSPIRACY OF CATILINE. 
 
 CHAP. *' When I look on you, soldiers, and count up your 
 achievements, I am possessed with high hope of vic- 
 tory. Your resolution, your age, and your courage,, 
 and above all the inevitable nature of the encounter, 
 which often makes even the timid brave, exhort me 
 to this ; and the narrowness of the position prevents 
 our being surrounded by the host of the enemy. If,, 
 however, fortune shows herself jealous of your valour, 
 see that you do not fall unavenged, nor prefer by a 
 surrender to be butchered like sheep rather than to- 
 fight like men, and leave your enemies a bloody vic- 
 tory that shall cost them dear." 
 CHAP. At the end of this speech, after a trifling delay, he 
 ordered the signal to sound, and led his troops, in 
 orderly array, down to the level ground. He then 
 sent away the horses of all who owned them, in 
 order that the soldiers might be encouraged by the 
 sense that their danger was shared by all alike. He 
 himself, on foot, then drew up his army with due re- 
 gard to the nature of the ground and his own numbers. 
 The plain lay between mountains on the left, and a 
 rugged line of rocks on the right ; here he posted 
 eight cohorts to form the front, while the other divi- 
 sions, with their standards, were stationed in closer 
 order as a reserve. From these cohorts he withdrew 
 all the picked and veteran centurions, with the bravest 
 and best armed of the common soldiers, and added 
 them to the front. He ordered Gains Manlius to 
 take the command on the right, and a certain 
 man of Faesulae on the left. He himself, with 
 his own freed-men and some soldiers' servants,, 
 took up his station by his eagle ; one, it was said,. 
 
THE CONSPIRACY OF CATILINE. 6 1 
 
 which Gaius Marius used in his army in the Cim- chap. 
 
 LIX 
 
 brian war. 
 
 On the other side Gaius Antonius was prevented by 
 lameness from taking part in the battle, and entrusted 
 his army to his lieutenant, Marcus Petreius. By him 
 the veteran cohorts which he had levied to suppress 
 the revolt were posted in front, and the rest of the 
 army behind them as a reserve. Petreius him- 
 self reviewed his army on horseback, accosting the 
 soldiers by name, encouraging them, and entreating 
 them to remember that they were fighting against 
 half-armed brigands for their country and children, 
 their altars and homes. He was an experienced 
 soldier, and, during a career of more than thirty years 
 in the army, in which he filled the offices of tribune, 
 praefect, legate, and praetor with great distinction, had 
 gained a knowledge of many of his men and their 
 brave deeds ; and by reference to these he now kin- 
 dled their spirits. 
 
 When he had satisfied himself on every point, chai> 
 Petreius sounded the signal and ordered the cohorts 
 to advance slowly, and the same movement was made 
 by the enemy. On reaching a distance at which the 
 light troops could engage, the two armies raised a 
 great shout and charged each other, standard to stan- 
 dard. Dropping their javelins, they fought with 
 swords. The veterans, remembering their ancient 
 valour, pressed on to engage at close quarters ; their 
 opponents fiercely withstood them, and the conflict 
 raged with the greatest fury. Meanwhile Catiline, 
 with his light troops, was busy in the front. He 
 relieved the hard-pressed, called up fresh men to fill 
 
 LX. 
 
62 THE CONSPIRACY OF CATILINE. 
 
 CHAP, the places of the wounded, had an eye for every need, 
 often fought himself, and often struck down his man. 
 In fine, he played the part at once of an active soldier 
 and a skilful general. Petreius, on seeing Catiline 
 making such vigorous and unexpected exertions, led 
 the cohort of his guards against the enemies' centre. 
 Their ranks were now in confusion, and they could 
 only offer a straggling resistance ; he cut them down 
 and proceeded to attack the survivors on either flank. 
 Manlius and the Faesulan fell fighting in the front 
 rank, and Catiline saw that his troops were routed, 
 and only himself and a few others left. He remem-"^ 
 bered his race and the rank he had once held, and, ' 
 rushing into the thickest of the foe, fought on till ho 
 was pierced with wounds. 
 
 CHAP. It was only after the battle was decided, that it 
 could be fully seen with what daring and resolution 
 Catiline's army had been inspired. Almost the exact 
 position which each had taken up while living he now 
 in death covered with his body. A few of those in the 
 centre, who had been dislodged by the praetor's body 
 guard, had fallen less closely together in the different 
 places where they had made a stand ; but all bore 
 their wounds in front. Catiline, however, was found 
 at a distance from his own men among the enemy's 
 dead. He continued to breathe for a short time, and 
 retained on his countenance that savage courage which 
 /■ had marked him in life. I should not forget to men- 
 tion that out of all that host not a single free-born 
 man was made prisoner, either in the battle or the 
 rout ; so unsparing had all been alike of their own 
 and their enemies' lives. Nor was the victory of the 
 
 LXI. 
 
THE CONSPIRACY OF CATILINK. 63 
 
 national army either happy or bloodless ; its bravest chap. 
 soldiers had perished in the fight, or came out of it 
 badly wounded. Many, too, who had come from the 
 camp out of curiosity, or for the sake of plunder, in 
 turning over the bodies of the enemy, found some 
 a friend, others those bound to them by the ties of 
 hospitality or blood, while others recognised the 
 features of an enemy. Thus throughout the whole 
 army grief and gladness, sorrow and rejoicing, held 
 divided sway. 
 
 { 
 
64 
 
 NOTES TO CATILINE. 
 
 CHAP. / detennined to narrate the history of the Roman 
 people in separate essays wherever it seemed worthy of 
 record {statin res gestas popnli Romani carptim, ut 
 qiiaeqiie memoria digna videbantur perscribere). 
 
 Besides the " Catiline" and " Jugurtha," we have 
 fragments of a history, written by Sallust, in five books. 
 This work is usually supposed to have embraced the 
 period from B.C. 78 to B.C. 66. Mr. Long, however, 
 thinks that there is evidence of the treatment by 
 Sallust of an earlier period, and considers it a probable 
 conjecture that he wrote, in all, four other essays 
 besides the "Catiline" and "Jugurtha": the first on the 
 twelve years which preceded the death of Sulla, the 
 second on the attempt of Lepidus, the third on the 
 war of Sertorius, and the last on that against Mithri- 
 dates, and that these were subsequently, though at a 
 very early period, arranged by some grammarian 
 into the form of a connected history in five books. 
 This theory is certainly more conformable to the 
 determination expressed in the text, than that which 
 would make the "Jugurtha" and " Catiline" the only 
 two works which Sallust published in the form of 
 essays. 
 
NOTES TO CATILINE. 6$ 
 
 Lticitls Catilina zvas of noble birth, of great ruental chap. 
 ^nd bodily vigour^ but of an evil and depraved disposi- 
 tion. {Luci?is Catilina, nobili genere natus^fuit magna 
 ^i et animi et corporis, sed ingenio malo pravoqtie) 
 
 Lucius Sergius Catilina was praetor in B.C. 6^, and 
 was, therefore, born in, or a little before, the year 
 B.C. 1 08, for forty was the lowest age at which the 
 praetorship could be held, and most men of any mark 
 obtained the office as soon as they were eligible for it. 
 The Sergii, of whom his family was a branch, were 
 one of the oldest houses in Rome; and his grandfather, 
 M. Sergius Silus, had served as a legatus in the 
 Macedonian war, while his great-grandfather of the 
 same name held the praetorship in B.C. 167. His 
 birth was, therefore, decidedly noble ; his bodily 
 vigour was allowed, even by Cicero, to be extraordin- 
 ary ; the opinions of historians as to his mental 
 capacity differ according to the view which they take 
 of his enterprise. As to his disposition, it may be 
 well here to contrast with the uniformly lurid descrip- 
 tion of Sallust, the less monotonous portrait of him 
 which Cicero drew when he wished to justify his client, 
 Caelius, for at one time associating with the conspira- 
 tor. " Catiline," he says, " as I think you must 
 remember, showed in very many ways, not indeed the 
 certain marks, but the form and outline of the high- 
 est virtue. He was the friend of many worthless 
 creatures, and, withal, professed himself devoted to 
 men of the highest character. While in his nature 
 dwelt many lustful passions, he had also certain 
 qualities which spurred him to exertion and persever- 
 
66 NOTES TO CATILINE. 
 
 CHAP. ance. If the vices of a sensual temper burnt within 
 him, his zeal was also great for military service. 
 Indeed, I do not think that there ever existed on 
 earth so strange a being, such a fusion of natural 
 longings and desires, so different, so opposite, so 
 inconsistent. Who, at one period, could have been 
 happier in the friendships of more illustrious men ? 
 Who more closely intimate with baser objects ? At 
 one time what citizen could have been a member of a 
 nobler party ? Who a more bitter foe to this state ? 
 In sensuality, who deeper stained ? In toils, who 
 more enduring .^ Who in greed more covetous.? In 
 generosity more lavish ? These, judges, were the 
 wonderful qualities united in this man ; he bound 
 many to him in the bonds of friendship, and gave his 
 services in their cause ; he would share his possessions 
 with all men, and would assist any of his friends in 
 their difficulties with his money, his influence, his 
 personal exertions, and, if need were, with reckless 
 crime. He could turn and guide his own nature as 
 occasion required, twisting it and bending it this way 
 and that. With the stern he could bear himself 
 soberly, with the lax gaily, seriously among the aged, 
 pleasantly among the young, with the vicious reck- 
 lessly, with the libertine riotously. And so this 
 changeable and versatile spirit, at the very time when 
 he had gathered round him every wicked and aband- 
 oned person from every land, still held fast many good 
 men and true by a certain show of virtue that was not 
 his. Never, indeed, could the man have conceived 
 that unholy desire of destroying this government had 
 not so monstrous a tale of vices had some basis of 
 
NOTES TO CATILINE. 67 
 
 good nature and forbearance on which to rest. Even chap. 
 
 VI. 
 
 I myself was at one time almost deceived by him. I 
 took him for a loyal citizen, eager for the acquaintance 
 of all good men, and for a true and trusty friend. My 
 eyes detected his misdoings before I had a thought 
 of them ; the proof was in my hands before my 
 suspicions were aroused." — (" Pro Caelio," chap. 5 
 and 6.) 
 
 As soon as the state had gained its freedom, it is chap 
 incredible to relate what progress it quickly made. {Sed 
 civitas incredibile vicmoratii est adepta libertate quan- 
 tum brevi creverit.) 
 
 In three places in this book Sallust undoubtedly 
 quotes from Thucydides : in chap. 3, as to envy as a 
 cause of incredulity (Thuc. ii. 35) ; in chap. 20, as to 
 community of interests being the true bond of friend- 
 ship ; and in chap. 52, as to the exchange of names 
 between the virtues and vices in a low state of public 
 morality (Thuc. iii. 82). In the present passage I 
 think there can be little doubt that he had in his mind 
 the chapter in Herodotus (v. 7S), when that historian 
 traces the sudden rise of Athens into greatness to the 
 successful establishment of the democracy. If this is 
 so, we have here a striking instance of the thoroughly 
 artificial character of Sallust's introduction, which 
 takes up, it may be noted, a sixth part of the whole 
 book. The remark in Herodotus is a sound histori- 
 cal criticism ; Sallust saw that there was a general 
 resemblance between the expulsion of the Peisistra- 
 tidae and of Tarquinius Superbus, and at once made 
 the remark apply to Roman history. The establish- 
 
6S NOTES TO CATILINE. 
 
 CHAP, ment, however, of the repubHc at Rome (B.C. 509) was 
 followed by no such outburst as at Athens ; on the 
 contrary, the succeeding two centuries of its history 
 are chiefly memorable for the struggle between the 
 patricians and plebeians, and during that time Rome 
 was once, if not twice, captured by its enemies, and 
 was only one among the many Italian states. The 
 remark of Herodotus thus becomes meaningless 
 when transferred from Athenian to Roman history, 
 and that Sallust did so transfer it is a proof that all 
 he aimed at in this introduction was to produce a 
 piece of " fine writing." 
 
 CHAP. /;/ Ji;ie, all iv/io were harassed by crime, by need, or by 
 the pangs of conscience, it was these who were Catiline s 
 intimate associates {postremo omnes, quos Jlagitium, 
 egestas, consciits animus cxagitabat, hi Catilinae proxumi 
 familiarcsque eranf). 
 
 In the speech which Cicero addressed to the people 
 on the day after Catiline's departure from Rome, he 
 enumerated six classes of Catiline's fellow-conspirators. 
 The first of these classes he represented as made up 
 of rich spendthrifts who simply wanted to avoid pay- 
 ing their debts ; the second of ambitious politicians 
 whose pecuniary embarrassments at present shut them 
 out of any official career ; the third of ruined Sullan 
 colonists ; the fourth of the hopelessly insolvent ; the 
 fifth of parricides and criminals of every description ; 
 and the last of the bodyguard of dissolute dandies 
 who were especially closely attached to Catiline, and 
 who, for all their elegance and delicacy, had learnt 
 not only how to sing, and dance, and play the lover, 
 
NOTES TO CATILINE. Cg 
 
 but to poison and assassinate as well (Cat. ii. 8-10). chap. 
 On the previous day, in the Senate, quite in the spirit 
 of this chapter of Sallust, he had asserted that for 
 many years there had been no crime committed in 
 Rome for which Catiline was not responsible (Cat. i. 7). 
 Cicero himself, however, in the passage from the "Pro 
 Caelio," quoted in a previous note, shows that Catiline 
 had other and more respectable associates than these 
 desperadoes, and we know that Caesar and Crassus 
 supported him in his canvass in 64. As regards this 
 chapter, as Mr. Long remarks (Hist. iii. p. 227), 
 Sallust's absurd assertion that Catiline forced his 
 wretched instruments still to cheat and murder for 
 sake of practice though all other motives were 
 absent, shows how largely the historian's account 
 of the character of the conspirators was drawn 
 from his imagination. 
 
 At the very outset of Ids youths Catiline had engaged chap. 
 in many scandalous intrigues^ one with a Jdgh-borJi 
 maiden, another with a priestess of Vesta, and others 
 which in like manner set law ajid morality at defiance. 
 Finally, he zvas seized with a passion for Aurelia 
 Orestilla, and by killing his own son, so it is positively 
 believed, cleared his house for the nnhallozved union. 
 {Jam primum adolescens Catilina multa ncfanda stupra 
 fecerat, cicin virgine nobili, cum saccrdotc Vcstae, alia 
 Jiujuscemodi contra jus fasque. Postrenio c apt us amore 
 Aureliae Orestillae,pro certo creditur necato filio vacuavi 
 doimun scelestis nuptiis fecisse) 
 
 Unsavoury as the subject is, it is necessary briefly 
 to examine the charges which have been brought 
 
XV 
 
 70 NOTES TO CATILINE. 
 
 CHAP, against the private character of Catiline, because, even 
 with the low state of morality at this time prevalent 
 in Rome, there must have been some line drawn be- 
 tween the respectable statesman and the political 
 adventurer, and Catiline's private life is important as 
 helping us to decide in which of these two classes 
 he himself ought to be ranked. The accusations which 
 are brought against him may be summarized as 
 follows : — 
 
 (i) That during the tyranny of Sulla he had been 
 placed at the head of some Gallic auxiliaries, and 
 had murdered a number of Roman knights, among 
 others his brother-in-law Quintus Caecilius, an inof- 
 fensive man who had never taken any part in politics. 
 To this story, which comes to us on the authority of 
 the two Ciccros, Plutarch adds that his victim's name 
 was not on the list of the proscribed, and was only 
 placed there by Catiline's influence after the murder 
 had been committed. 
 
 (2) That during the same period he had publicly, 
 and amid circumstances of the greatest atrocity, 
 murdered Marcus Marius Gratidianus, a praetor much 
 beloved by the people, and had carried his bleeding 
 head to Sulla, through the streets of Rome. This 
 charge also is made by Quintus, and reiterated by 
 Marcus Cicero. 
 
 (3) That he had committed adultery with a Vestal 
 virgin (Sallust xv. 2), who is identified by the com- 
 mentator Asconius with Cicero's sister-in-law, Fabia. 
 
 (4) That when his manifest guilt had caused him 
 to be charged with extortion in his province of Africa, 
 he had procured his acquittal by bribery so profuse as 
 
NOTES TO CATILINE. 7 1 
 
 to render him as needy at the end of the trial as some chap. 
 
 XV 
 
 of the jurymen had been at the beginning. 
 
 Besides these definite accusations, there are a host 
 of vague charges which need not be examined at any 
 length. Plutarch and the two Ciceros between them 
 make him guilty of several varieties of incest, and, as 
 a matter of course, in the case of one whose name had 
 been mentioned in such connections, the Ciceros accuse 
 him of the nameless vice, at this time so prevalent at 
 Rome, but with which Sallust refuses distinctly to 
 charge him. Cicero does not mention the accusation 
 of murdering his own son which Sallust brings against 
 Catiline in the present passages ; he speaks, however, 
 in the first Invective of his murder of some woman, 
 and some commentators have thought that this crime, 
 as well as that in connection with his son, was com- 
 mitted in order to pave the way for the marriage with 
 Aurelia Orestilla, and that they both occurred in the 
 interval between the speech In Toga Candida and the 
 first Invective. That Catiline should have busied 
 himself in these ghastly love affairs at such a time, or 
 that his enemies should have allowed the two murders 
 to pass unnoticed, is highly improbable. The whole 
 of these vague charges, indeed, may safely be dis- 
 missed as the outcome of party malice; they only 
 serve to furnish us with evidence that Catiline was 
 thought a man at whom the filthiest mud might be 
 thrown with some chance of its sticking. 
 
 When we come to examine the other charges, the 
 result is not very different. Cicero in one place speaks 
 of Catiline as having been brought to trial on two oc- 
 casions, by which he has been thought to mean on two 
 
72 NOTES TO CATILINE. 
 
 CH^p. only ; but our other authorities make it probable that, 
 besides the accusation on the charge of sedition in 
 B.C. 63, of which nothing came, he was formally accused 
 three times ; and these three trials cover the whole of 
 the definite charges which we possess against him. 
 The earliest of these trials is placed by Orosius in the 
 year B.C. 73, when Catiline and the Vestal Fabia were 
 accused of unlawful intercourse. They were both 
 acquitted, and the Ciceros, who had their family reason 
 for not challenging the verdict in this case, simply 
 point to the charge as a proof of the taint which in- 
 variably attended Catiline's presence. The next trial 
 took place when Caesar was the head of the commis- 
 sion " de sicariis',' and was bringing many of the Sullan 
 murderers to justice. Lucius Lucceius accused Cati- 
 line, whether of the exact offences recorded under the 
 first and second head or not we cannot tell ; anyhow, 
 the verdict was again for his acquittal. The fact that 
 Caesar was the judge may be taken to account for 
 this, but, as both Professor Beesly and Mr. Long 
 remark, the innocence of a man who has been tried 
 and acquitted ought at least to be held an open ques- 
 tion. The charge against Catiline of murdering 
 Marius Gratidianus does indeed involve a most extra- 
 ordinary dilemma ; if he was guilty, we cannot under- 
 stand how he could ever have gained the favour of the 
 Roman mob ; if innocent, how Cicero could have 
 dared to bring such a charge against him. The stu- 
 dent must take his choice of difficulties. As regards 
 the last of the definite accusations, the prevalence of 
 the crime of extortion among the governors of pro- 
 vinces, at once makes it likely that Catiline was guilty 
 
NOTES TO CATILINE. 
 
 73 
 
 XV. 
 
 of it, and that, whether guilty or innocent, his enemies chap. 
 would bring it against him on his return to Rome. 
 The fact, however, that the Africans had previously 
 complained of his conduct to the Senate, and the 
 references to the trial in Cicero's letters, at a time 
 when he was quite unprejudiced against Catiline, and 
 actually thought of undertaking his defence, makes it 
 almost certain that he was guilty. Neither this, nor 
 the fact of his having procured his acquittal by bribes, 
 the profuseness of which is startling in the case of a 
 man always represented as overwhelmed with debts, 
 would lower his estimation with the Roman political 
 world. We have thus against him nothing but a 
 number of vague accusations, together with three or 
 four more serious charges of which he was formally 
 acquitted, though by no very respectable tribunals. 
 Evidently we have here no sufficient materials for 
 evoking the bloodthirsty and lascivious stage villain 
 which Catiline has so often been made to appear. On 
 the other hand, we cannot help feeling that the accu- 
 sations which were brought against him were some- 
 thing very different from the fifty charges on which 
 Cato Major was tried during the course of his 
 life. There is only too much truth in Professor 
 Beesly's remark, that '* if Cicero had been their con- 
 temporary, with his theories on ' McndaciiDiciila^ the 
 Gracchi would have been handed down to us stained 
 with every vice that humanity most shudders at ! " Let 
 us struggle, however, to avoid prejudice and exaggera- 
 tion as much as we may, it is hard to rid ourselves of 
 the impression, which even Mr. Beesly seems in some 
 measure to share, that Catiline ranked among the dis- 
 
74 NOTES TO CATILINE. 
 
 CHAP, reputable and not among the respectable politicians 
 of Rome. This is the minimum value to which the 
 consistent assertions of all our authorities can be 
 reduced ; and this, it may be added, is quite enough 
 to decide the aspect in which we should regard the 
 conspiracy. If Catiline had come down to us with the 
 character of a Drusus, it might be possible to credit 
 him with lofty aims, even though it were difficult to 
 see what those aims could have been, and there were 
 not a single remarkable action recorded in his life. 
 As it is, there is nothing in history to make us alter 
 the verdict which the conspirator pronounced upon 
 himself when he declared that he was one who would 
 bring about his country's ruin in order to avoid his 
 own. 
 
 CHAP. To this meeting came Publitis and Servitis Sulla. 
 
 XVII. 
 
 {Eo convenere P. et Servitis Sullae.) 
 
 This Publius Sulla is not the same as the Publius 
 Cornelius Sulla, the consul-elect for B.C. 66, as is 
 proved by a passage in Cicero's defence of the latter, 
 in which he speaks of this Publius as a man whose 
 cause no one would undertake. Cicero's speech, how- 
 ever, was actually in defence of his client^s innocence 
 of the very charge which some have thought that 
 Sallust here brings against him. Cornelius Sulla had 
 shared the fate of Publius Autrbnius in being unseated 
 on petition, and it was thought likely that he had 
 shared his colleague's guilt in connection with both the 
 first and second conspiracy. Hortensius defended him 
 on the former charge, Cicero on the latter ; and by 
 their efforts he was acquitted. 
 
NOTES TO CATILINE. 
 
 75 
 
 Gnaetts Pompeius, his personal enemy, zvas at the head chap. 
 of a large army. {Gn. Pompeins invisics ipsi magtmin 
 exercitiim diictabat) 
 
 The question of the compHcity of Crassus in the 
 conspiracy is dealt with in the Introduction. There can 
 be no doubt that Sallust has here touched on the one 
 motive which could induce him to mix himself in such 
 concerns. His enmity towards Pompey dated from 
 the close of the Servile War, B.C. 71, when the latter, 
 as he was returning from Spain, cut to pieces some 
 straggling companies of the main body which Crassus 
 had defeated, and on the score of this achievement, 
 arrogated to himself the credit of having finished the 
 war. Cicero's subsequent support of Pompey in this 
 unjust claim was one cause of the ill-feeling which 
 Crassus till shortly before his departure for Syria 
 entertained towards him. 
 
 A few conspirators, of whom Catiline was one, had chap. 
 before this formed a plot against the state. (Sed antea 
 item conjuravere pauci contra rempublicam, in qiiibus 
 Catilina fuit,} 
 
 It may be well here to quote some of our other 
 authorities as to the mysterious conspiracy of B.C. 65, 
 the nature of which is discussed in the Introduction to 
 this book. The account given by Dion Cassius is sub- 
 stantially the same as Sallust's ; he adds, however, 
 some important details. '^ Publius Paetus," he says, 
 " and Cornelius Sulla (a nephew of the Dictator), on 
 being convicted of bribery after their election as con- 
 
76 NOTES TO CATILINE. 
 
 CHAP, suls, made a conspiracy to murder their accusers, 
 
 XVIII ' J. ^ 
 
 Lucius Cotta and Lucius Torquatus, finding an addi- 
 tional incentive in the fact that these had been chosen 
 ^to supersede them. In this attempt they were joined, 
 among others, by Gnaeus Piso and Lucius Catilina, 
 the latter a desperate man who had himself stood for 
 the consulship, and was hence a malcontent. Their 
 efforts, however, came to nothing, as the plot was pre- 
 maturely betrayed, and a guard was granted by the 
 Senate to Cotta and Torquatus."^ A resolution also 
 would have been passed against the conspirators, had 
 not one of the tribunes vetoed it. Piso's spirit, how- 
 ever, was not quelled, and the Senate, alarmed lest he 
 should disturb the state, despatched him to Spain 
 under the pretext of assigning him a command. 
 There he committed some injustice, and was murdered 
 by the Spaniards." (Hist, xxxvi. 27.) In the sentence 
 asterisked, it should be mentioned, the reading is very 
 doubtful. 
 
 The references to the plot in Cicero are as follows : 
 — In the speech " In Toga Candida," delivered in 
 B.C. 64, he says, " I pass over that impious attempt of 
 yours, that day which so nearly brought bitterness and 
 sorrow to the Roman people, when, with Gnaeus Piso, 
 and none other, as your accomplice, you designed to 
 massacre the Optimates." Again, in the first Invec- 
 tive, delivered November 8th, B.C. 63, he says, " Can 
 this light give you pleasure, Catiline ; the air of this 
 clime be sweet to breathe, when you know that there 
 is no one here present who is ignorant that on the last 
 day of the consulship of Lepidus and Tullus (Decem- 
 ber 31st, B.C. 66), you stood in the Comitium with your 
 
NOTES TO CATILINE. 77 
 
 weapons about you, and that you had hired a band of chap. 
 men to murder the consuls and the leading men in 
 the state ? " (Chap. 6.) In the " Pro Murena," spoken 
 in the early part of 62, the first conspiracy is again 
 briefly alluded to — " Everything which has been agi- 
 tated throughout these three years, from the time 
 when, as you know, Lucius Catilina and Gnaeus Piso 
 formed their plot to massacre the Senate, is now 
 breaking out." (Chap, 38.) Lastly there are two 
 passages in the " Pro Sulla," which may be quoted. 
 In the first of these Cicero says, " You make fre- 
 quent extracts from the letter which I wrote to Gnaeus 
 Pompeius on the subject of my own performances and 
 of public afiairs in general. From this letter you seek 
 to find some accusation against Publius Sulla, and 
 when I write that the incredible frenzy which had 
 been plotted two years before had broken out in m)- 
 consulship, you cite me as thus proving that Sulla had 
 a share in the former conspiracy. As if I, of all 
 people, imagined that Piso, Catiline, Varguntius, 
 and Autronius could have done no deed of impious 
 daring without the help of Publius Sulla!" ("Pro 
 Sulla," chap. 24.) Finally, we come to the second 
 passage, in which Cicero is defending himself and 
 others of his party from the charge of inconsis- 
 tency in pleading for anyone accused of complicity 
 with Catiline. One of Sulla's prosecutors was a son 
 of the consul Torquatus, v/ho had returned at the 
 second election for B.C. 65 ; Cicero thus retorts on 
 him " Even your own father, Torquatus, when Cati- 
 line, a bad man, but then his suppliant, and who, what- 
 ever his recklessness, had once been his friend, was 
 
78 NOTES TO CATILINE. 
 
 cHxVP. accused of extortion, appeared to plead for him. This 
 he did after information had been laid before him as 
 to that first conspiracy, but he declared that though 
 he had heard something about it, he did not believe 
 the report. If you remind me that your father did 
 not support Catiline on his second trial, while the 
 others did, I answer that, if he subsequently learnt 
 anything of which during his consulship he was igno- 
 rant, you certainly cannot blame those who heard 
 nothing more. If, on the other hand, it was the 
 original information which weighed with him, I may 
 fairly ask why it should have been more worthy of 
 attention when stale than when fresh ? " (" Pro Sulla," 
 chap. 29.) 
 
 If the quotations above given, joined with the chap- 
 ter in Sallust, had been our only authorities for the 
 conspiracy of B.C. 65, no difficulty could have arisen. 
 Suetonius, however, in his life of Julius Caesar, gives 
 another history which is at once so like and so 
 unlike that of Sallust as to cause considerable con- 
 fusion. The translation here given is that of Thomson 
 with a few alterations. Caesar, it should be premised, 
 while acting as Quaestor in Farther Spain, is supposed 
 to have been excited by a dream. "Quitting the 
 province, therefore, before the usual time, he visited 
 the Latin colonies, then taken up with petitioning 
 for the franchise, and would have excited them to 
 some bold step, had not the consul met his intrigues 
 by detaining for some time the legions levied for 
 Cilicia. Nothing daunted, he soon after engaged in 
 a greater attempt in the capital itself. For a few 
 days before he entered upon the aedileship he incurred 
 
NOTES TO CATILINE. 
 
 79 
 
 the suspicion of engaging in a conspiracy with Marcus chap. 
 Crassus, a man of consular rank, and Publius Sulla ^^ '"' 
 and Lucius Autronius, who had been convicted of 
 bribery after being chosen consuls. The plan of tlie 
 conspirators was to fall upon the Senate in the begin- 
 ning of the year, and murder such persons as they 
 should have agreed on. Crassus was then to assume 
 the dictatorship, Caesar to be appointed master of the 
 horse, and when the state had been ordered at their 
 pleasure, the consulship was to be restored to Sulla 
 and Autronius. Mention is made of this plot by 
 Tanusius Geminus in his history, by Marcus Bibulus 
 in his edicts, and by Curio the elder in his orations. 
 Cicero likewise seems to hint at it in a letter to Axius, 
 when he says that Caesar had in his consulship secured 
 to himself that arbitrary power to which he had aspired 
 when aedile. Tanusius adds that Crassus, from re- 
 morse or fear, did not appear upon the day appointed 
 for the massacre, and that therefore Caesar on his part 
 withheld the signal which he was to have given. The 
 agreement, according to Curio, was that he should 
 slip his toga from his shoulder. We have the authorit}- 
 of the same Curio and of M. Actorius Naso for 
 Caesar's having been likewise concerned in another 
 conspiracy with young Gnaeus Piso, to whom, upon a 
 suspicion of some mischief being meditated in the 
 city, the province of Spain was decreed out of course. 
 The arrangement was that Piso abroad and Caesar in 
 Rome should unite in a revolutionary rising with the 
 help of the Ambiani and Transpadanus. The death 
 of Piso made the execution of either part of the plot 
 impossible."— (Suetonius, "Julius Caesar," 8-9). 
 
80 NOTES TO CATILINE. 
 
 CHAP. For an attempt to reconcile these accounts, 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 the reader is referred to the Introduction to this 
 book. 
 
 CHAP. A little while after this, Catiline was charged zvith 
 extortion, and so disqualified as a candidate for the con- 
 snlsJiip [since he coidd not give in his name within the 
 legal time\ Post paiUlo Catilina, peciiniarnm repetiin- 
 darjim reus, prohibitus erat constdatum petere [quod 
 intra legitunios dies profitcri ncqiuverat\ 
 
 Sallust, as a rule, is very careless in his chronology; 
 if he is accurate here we must suppose that Catiline 
 wished to offer himself as a candidate for one of the 
 consulships vacated by Autronius and Sulla, and was 
 thus the rival, not of them, but of Cotta and Torquatus. 
 His coalition with Autronius in the intrigues of 65, 
 renders this all the more probable. The way in which 
 he was prevented from going to the poll is further 
 explained by Cicero, according to whom the consul, 
 L. Volcatius, after consultation with the leading men 
 of the state, refused to receive his name on the ground 
 of the accusation under which he was lying. The 
 " legal time " referred to in the bracketed passage was 
 the seventeen days previous to the election, and Pro- 
 fessor Beesly conjectures that the charge of extortion 
 was trumped up by the aristocrats on purpose to dis- 
 qualify Catiline. Unfortunately, however, for this 
 view, the Provincials had previously sent a deputation 
 to complain to the Senate of their governor's conduct. 
 The trial did not come on till after the consular elec- 
 tion for the next year also, and thus Catiline was pre- 
 vented, even if he had wished to do so, from standing 
 
NOTES TO CATILINE. 8 1 
 
 for the consulship for B.C. 64. When it at length took chap. 
 place, by the collusion of the prosecutor, Publius 
 Clodius, and the corruption of the jury, Catiline was 
 acquitted. Cicero at one time had thought of defend- 
 ing him to secure his help in the consular election for 
 63 ; the speech, " In Toga Candida," however, makes 
 it almost certain that he did not carry out his 
 intention. 
 
 TJie horsemen were old and faithfid dependents of chap. 
 Gnaeus Pompeius, and attacked Piso ivitJi Jus consent. 
 {Alii autem equites illos Gn. Pompeii veteres fidosqne 
 clientis voluntate ejus Pisonem aggressos.) 
 
 Pompey had held command in Spain from yG to 71, 
 during which time he was engaged against Sertorius. 
 Throughout his Kfe Spain continued one of the chief 
 strongholds of his power, and after his death his sons 
 were able to raise an army there with which they 
 fought Caesar at the battle of Munda, B.C. 45. 
 
 In Mauritania, at the head of an army, Publius chap. 
 Sittius Nucerhms. {hi Mauritania cum exercitu P. 
 Sittium Nucerinum.) 
 
 P. Sittius Nucerinus was a Roman soldier of fortune 
 who had gone to Spain B.C. 64, and in the following 
 year crossed over to Mauritania, and took service in 
 the armies of the different African kings. In B.C. 62 
 Cicero defended him in his absence on a charge of 
 complicity with Catiline, but in the following year his 
 possessions in Italy were sold to pay his creditors, 
 and he never returned to Rome. In B.C. 46, when 
 Caesar landed in Africa, Nucerinus rendered him 
 
82 . NOTES TO CATILINE. 
 
 CHAP, material assistance by invading the kingdom of Juba. 
 
 XXI 
 
 At the end of the war he was rewarded by Caesar 
 with a grant of territory in Western Numidia, but 
 was shortly afterward assassinated. 
 
 CHAP. Gains Antonius, too, zvas a candidate for the consul- 
 ship, a7id he hoped to have him as his colleague^ as a 
 man at once intimate with himself, and entangled i7i the 
 greatest difficulties. {Peter e consulatum G. Antonium, 
 quem sibi col legam fore speraret, hominem et familiarem 
 et oniJiibns necessitudinibns circiimventnm) 
 
 Gains Antonius had served under Sulla in Greece 
 in B.C. 83, and, at the head of some squadrons of 
 cavalry, plundered the people of Achaia. For this, in 
 B.C. j6, he was accused by Caesar and condemned, and 
 it was on this occasion that he complained to the 
 tribunes of having, before a jury of his fellow-country- 
 men, " no fair play against the Greeks." In B.C. 70 
 he was removed from the Senate by the censors 
 Gellius and Lentulus on the score of his condemna- 
 tion and of his generally lawless behaviour. He was 
 soon afterwards readmitted to the Senate, and was 
 praetor in B.C. 66, and in this office as well as the con- 
 sulship had Cicero for his colleague. As to his 
 behaviour during the year B.C. 63, our evidence is 
 doubtful. Dion Cassius represents him as ill-affected 
 up to time of Catiline's flight from Rome, and the 
 conspirator, as Sallust says, very likely had reason 
 to trust him until his own rejection for the consulship 
 in 62. On the other hand, Cicero would hardly have 
 entrusted him with the command of one of the armies 
 against Catiline had he suspected his loyalty, and 
 
NOTES TO CATILINE. 83 
 
 Antonlus, when tried on this and other chan:res in 
 B.C. 59, was acquitted. 
 
 j^es m CHAR 
 
 // was asserted by some that Catiline carried round 
 in bozvls a mixticre of hnman blood and ivine. (Fnerc 
 qui dicer ent, Catilinarn hinnani corporis sanguincni 
 vino permixtnm in pater is circnmtidisse). 
 
 This foolish story appears in a grosser form in 
 Plutarch and Dion Cassius, both of whom probabl}- 
 obtained it from Cicero's last account of his consulship 
 in Greece, the irepl virardaq. According to these 
 writers, a boy was slain at the meeting, and the con- 
 spirators all partook of his flesh. 
 
 Some, however, zuere of opinion that this story, together 
 tvith many others, was invented by people who thought 
 that the unpopidarity ivJiicJi Cicero subsequently incurred 
 woidd be diminished if the crime of Ids victims were 
 recognised as peculiarly hideous. {Nonjiullificta et Jiacc 
 et mtdta praeterea existumabant ab iis, qui Ciceronis 
 invidiam quae postea orta est, leniri credebant atrocitatc 
 sceleris eoricm qidpoenas dederant) 
 
 This is one of the shrewd remarks in which Sallust 
 shows himself as a practical statesman instead of, as 
 in his introductory chapters, as a pedant, anxious to 
 drag in a sermon on some literary text. There can 
 be no doubt that both during and after the conspiracy 
 it was Cicero's interest to exaggerate the atrocity of 
 its aims, and it is equally certain that he did so 
 exaggerate, and with all the power of a great orator. 
 Dion Cassius informs us that until the news that 
 Manlius had taken up arms in Etruria reached Rome. 
 
 XXI. 
 
 CIIAI', 
 
 xxn. 
 
 CHAP. 
 XX II. 
 
84 NOTES TO CATILINE. 
 
 CHAP. Cicero's story was generally thought to be a malicious 
 accusation, and both the first and second Invectives 
 make it abundantly clear that, as late as November 
 8th and 9th, there were still many people who refused 
 to believe in the existence of any conspiracy at all. 
 Before any measures could be taken against the 
 partisans of Catiline, Cicero had first to rouse popular 
 indignation against them. After the suppression of 
 the revolt, his motives to blacken the characters of its 
 leaders were even greater. Cato and Catulus might 
 declare that he had saved their country, and the 
 
 . Senate and respectable classes might echo their cry, 
 ^ut with the democratic party and all the rabble 
 of Kome Cicero was distinctly unpopular, and even 
 his frmrids were gradually alienated from him by his 
 intolerable self-laudation. When he laid down office, 
 a^Jrfbune, Metellus Neps, forbade him, as a man 
 who had murdered his countrymen, to make the usual 
 address to the people. When he defended Sulla, he' 
 had to defend himself as well against the insinuations 
 of Torquatus, that he was aiming at " kingly power." 
 In giving Atticus an account of the trial of Clodius 
 (February B.C. 61), he uses the phrase, " My swelling 
 unpopularity has been reduced by bleeding " (Att. 
 I. 16, II.), and years afterwards (February 49) he 
 expresses a dread that Caesar may attack him more 
 fiercely than others, hoping thereby to gain popularity 
 
 ' (Att. VIII. 3-5). Undoubtedly by his conduct in his 
 consulship Cicero lost the favour of the lower classes 
 of the city, and in Rome at this time the power of the 
 mob was greater, probably, than at any other. 
 
NOTES TO CATITJNE. 85 
 
 This, more than anything else, had roused inen^s zeal chap. 
 to eojifer the eonsulship on Mareus Tullins Cicero. Till 
 that time mafiy of the nobility had been in a ferment of 
 jealousy. {Ea res in primis stiidia hominum aecendit ad 
 consulatiini 7nandandiim M. Ttdlio Ciceroni. Nanique 
 antea pleraqtie nobilitas invidia aestnabat) 
 
 Professor Tyrrell, in his excellent introduction to 
 " The Correspondence of Cicero," has rendered a most 
 important service to English historical scholarship by 
 his vigorous protest against the aspersions which have 
 been cast on the great orator's political consistency. 
 Dion Cassius, that most malignant of historians, seems 
 to have been the first to make the accusation, and in 
 our own times Professor Mommsen almost adopts his 
 language when he introduces the '' pater patriae" to his 
 readers as the " notorious political trimmer, M. Tullius 
 Cicero." Mr. Beesly goes even farther, and plainly 
 asserts " up to this time" {i.e. his canvass for the con- 
 sulship), *' Cicero had courted the revolutionary party. 
 But he now sold himself to the nobles and began to earn 
 his wages by denouncing revolutionary measures, and 
 the leader of that party, Catiline," and proceeds to talk 
 of "the earliest efforts of his venal tongue." Now 
 this language is simply unjustifiable. As Professor 
 Tyrrell shows, and as, in any other connection, every his- 
 torical writer is ready to admit, for an enterprising young 
 man at Rome the surest road to office lay through suc- 
 cess at the bar. To obtain reputation as an advocate, 
 Cicero was ready to beard Sulla in his defence of 
 Roscius, to rouse popular indignation against Verres, 
 and to defend Fonteius, who was probably equally 
 
86 NOTES TO CATILINE. 
 
 CHAP, guilty, on a precisely similar charge. His speech 
 in favour of the Lex Manilla may be explained 
 partly by his devotion to Pompey, and partly by his 
 intimate connection with the Roman knights who 
 were eager for Pompey's appointment. It is not true 
 to say that down to the time of his consulship Cicero 
 had courted the democrats ; he had simply accepted 
 every brief which he thought might win him distinc- 
 tion, and so help to smoothe away the difficulties 
 which the fact of his being a " noviis Jiomo " placed in 
 his career. Cicero's political life really begins with 
 his consulship, and from that time forward, except for 
 a moment when embittered by the conduct of the 
 nobility after his return from exile, he devoted himself 
 to the vain but not dishonourable attempt of maintain- 
 ing the authority of the Senate by inducing the 
 moneyed classes to throw in their cause with that 
 of the nobility. 
 
 CHAP. By an agreement about the provinces he had con- 
 strained his colleague Antonius to desist from all 
 disloyalty. {Ad Jioc collegam sn?im Antoninm pactione 
 provinciae perpidej^at, ne contra rempnblicam sentiret^ 
 
 Cicero, in his speech " In Toga Candida," had 
 thundered against Antonius with almost as much 
 vehemence as against Catiline. He now, however, 
 tried to win him over by agreeing that Antoniu.s, at 
 the expiration of the consulship, should have the 
 governorship of Macedonia, the province which he 
 wished. Cicero always represents himself as actuated 
 in this bargain by an unselfish spirit of patriotism ; it 
 is not certain, however, that his conduct was so disin- 
 
NOTES TO CATILINE. 87 
 
 terested as he would make out There arc mysterious char 
 
 XXVI. 
 
 references in his letter to an advance of money which 
 he expected from a certain Teucris, and this Teucris 
 seems to have been none other than Antonius. The 
 latter, while plundering- the Macedonians, openly gave 
 out that he was earning money for Cicero; but such 
 evidence as this is not worth much. We are equally 
 unable to draw any conclusion from the fact that 
 Cicero defended and procured the acquittal of An- 
 tonius in his trial for extortion in B.C. 59 ; he would 
 have been expected to have done as much for his 
 colleague in any case. On the whole the evidence is 
 not conclusive, but there is not much in Cicero's char- 
 acter that need make us think he would scorn the 
 Themistoclean policy of making his own profit, while 
 advancing the public good. 
 
 Besides some veterans from the Sulla?t colonies {non- chap. 
 niillos ex Siillanis eolonis). 
 
 In fulfilment of promises to his soldiers and to 
 provide his new constitution with a standing garrison 
 in Italy, Sulla had assigned as many as 120,000 
 allotments of land to his veterans, chiefly in Etruria. 
 Instead, however, of giving stability to his arrange- 
 ments, these colonists, who had lost all taste for 
 ^ricultural pursuits, proved a constant source of dan- 
 ger to the state, and it was of them that the army of 
 Manlius was now chiefly composed. 
 
 The Senate made the decree " The consuls are to take chap. 
 measures to protect the Senate from harm!' {Itaque 
 Senatus decrevit, darent operant consules, ne qnid rcspub- 
 lica detrimenti caper et) 
 
88 NOTES TO CATILINE. 
 
 CHAP. Sallust shows here more than his usual carelessness 
 
 XXIX. 
 
 with regard to chronology. The meeting at Laeca's 
 house took place on November 6th, and Cicero, speak- 
 ing on the 8th, refers to the decree as having been 
 passed for twenty days. In the same speech he prides 
 himself on a prophecy, made on October 2ist, that 
 Manlius would take up arms on the 27th of the same 
 month. Asconius, therefore, is probably right when* 
 he says that Cicero used twenty as a round number 
 for eighteen, and the decree was most likely passed 
 on the day of his prophecy, on October 21st. Any- 
 how Sallust is wrong in placing it after the meeting 
 in Laeca's house and the receipt of the message from 
 Etruria announcing Manlius' revolt. 
 
 CHAP. TJie cclcbi'atioii of their trmmpJis had been obstructed 
 
 XXX -^ . ^ 
 
 by the tinder Jiajid taetics of a eliqne {iinpediti, ne triiivi- 
 pJiarent, calumnia paucoruiu). 
 
 Q. Marcius Rex had earned his triumph in Cilicia, 
 Q. Metellus in Crete. Both generals had been placed 
 under Pompey by the provisions of the Manilian law, 
 and their right to a triumph for their previous services 
 could now be disputed on the ground that they were 
 not in possession of an independent command. 
 
 CHAP. A decree was at the same time passed that the gladia- 
 torial schools should be qtiartered on Captia and the 
 other borough tozuns. iyltemqne deer ever e, uti gladiatoriae 
 faniiliae Capiiam et in cetera miinicipia distribuerejitur.) 
 
 The popularity of the gladiatorial games had led 
 to the formation oi hugQ familiae or training schools 
 throughout Italy, and a great many of these were 
 
NOTES TO CATILINE. 89 
 
 established in or near Capua. The revolt of Spartacus chap. 
 had demonstrated the fighting power of these wretched 
 men, and they were now frequently employed by the 
 party leaders to raise or suppress riots in the streets 
 of Rome. After the murder of Caesar a force of 
 gladiators owned by Decimus Brutus was very useful 
 as a protection to the assassins. At the present crisis, 
 according to Cicero, the gladiators were all on the side 
 of Catiline. 
 
 He was accused by Lucms Pauhis under the Plaiitian chap. 
 law {ipse lege Plautia interrogattis ei^at ab L. Patdld). 
 
 The Lex Plautia de Vi is supposed to have been 
 passed in B.C. 89, and to have been aimed against all 
 plotters against the public peace. When thus accused 
 Catiline offered to place himself under the surveillance 
 of several of the chief men of Rome, including Cicero. 
 On their all declining to receive him, he took up his 
 abode with a certain M. Marcellus or M. Metellus, 
 whom Dion Cassius confuses with the praetor, Q. 
 Metellus Celer, who was one of those who had refused 
 to receive Catiline, and by this time was acting against 
 him in Picenum. 
 
 Thereupon the consul^ Maj'cus Tullius, did good ^^^^ 
 service to the state by delivering a noble speech which he 
 afterwards wrote 07it and published. (Tuni M. Tullius 
 consul oratio7tem habtiit lucidentani atque utilem rei- 
 publicae quam postea scriptam edidit.) 
 
 This speech has been handed down to us as Cicero's 
 first " Invective " against Catiline. The consul had 
 probably no evidence against Catiline such as would 
 
go NOTES TO CATILINE. 
 
 CHAP, have ensured his condemnation by a Roman jury, and 
 
 XXXI. J y ' 
 
 even if he had he could not in this way have procured 
 his capital punishment. Public feeling was not as yet 
 ripe for such measures as he afterwards took against 
 the other conspirators, and his object in this speech 
 was to drive Catiline to the camp of Manlius, and so 
 to open rebellion. This object he effected by disclos- 
 ing his acquaintance with the details of the conspiracy, 
 while he endeavoured to frighten Catiline by his claim 
 to be able to put him to death on his own authority. 
 On the next day, November ist, he addressed to the 
 people the second "Invective," in which he rejoiced over 
 Catiline's flight, and further roused popular indignation 
 against him and his fellow-conspirators. The words, 
 (j?ia7U postca scriptam cdidit, point to the extensive 
 alterations which Cicero made in his speeches prior to 
 their publication, the alterations which so detract from 
 their value as historical documents. 
 
 CHAP. Marcus Ttillius, a mere citizen-at-will. (AT. TiiUius 
 XXXI. ...... 
 
 inqiiiliniis civis iirbis Roifjae) 
 
 Inqtdlimis, literally translated, is a "lodger." Cicero 
 was a native, not of Rome, but of Arpinum ; and his 
 family did not remove to the capital until he was at 
 least four or five years of age. 
 
 xxx^' I "(-^ill queneh in a general ruin the fire that surrounds 
 me. {Incendimn meiun rnina restinguam^ 
 
 Sallust's melodramatic picture of Catihne's last exit 
 from the Senate is rather spoilt by the fact that Cicero 
 ("Pro Muraena," c. 25) reports these words as spoken 
 some time before the twenty-first of October. It is 
 
NOTES TO CATILINE. 9I 
 
 possible that the orator made a slip as to the date, but chap. 
 
 XXXI 
 
 it is more likely that Sallust thought the sentence a 
 good one to put into Catiline's mouth at such a 
 moment. If this is so, those who think that Catiline 
 left Rome on November 8th, simply because it 
 was convenient to him, have their case materially 
 strengthened. Dion Cassius (xxxvii. 33), it may be 
 mentioned, represents him as glad of such an excuse 
 for departure. 
 
 Your ancestors often, in compassion for the commons chap. 
 of Rome, relieved their destitution by tJie decrees they 
 proposed ; and qjiite recently bronze was raised for 
 purposes of repayment to the value of silver. {Saepe 
 majores vestrum miseriti plebis Romanae, decretis suis 
 inopiae ejus opittdati stmt, ac novissinne .... argen- 
 tum aere soluttcm est.) 
 
 By the Lex Poetilia Papiria, passed B.C. 326, im- 
 prisonment for debt had been abolished. Towards 
 the close, however, of the republic, economic difficulties 
 assumed proportions such as they had never attained 
 before. In B.C. 89, a crisis was brought about by the 
 occurrence of the social war, and the troubles in Asia. 
 The debtors raked up an obsolete law against usury, 
 and claimed from their creditors fourfold the amount 
 of the illegal interest which they had exacted from 
 them. This claim was allowed by the praetor, Asellio, 
 but his compliance cost him his life, as he was torn to 
 pieces by a mob of creditors in front of the Temple of 
 Concord. The measure to which Manlius here refers 
 was the result of a compromise between the contending 
 parties. 
 
 f nNIVF,PSIa"Y \ 
 
92 
 
 CHAP. 
 XXXIV. 
 
 NOTES TO CATILINE. 
 
 Of tJiis letter tJie folhnving is a copy {earum exemplwn 
 infra scriptimi est). 
 
 The following chapter contains, according to Pro- 
 fessor Beesly, ** a simple and dignified letter, which, 
 as the Emperor Napoleon says, offers a striking con- 
 trast to the passion of Cicero." In his introduction 
 to Cicero's speeches Mr. Long writes, " The historian 
 says that the letter is genuine, and it looks like the 
 genuine production of a villain and hypocrite who 
 does not know what to say ;" and again in his history 
 (iii. 295), " This foolish, incoherent epistle, if it is genu- 
 ine, .shows that the man had little sense." Mr. Long 
 is the most impartial of historians, and Professor 
 Beesly rejects by anticipation the charge of maintain- 
 ing a paradox ; it shows with what difficulties this 
 chapter of history is beset when such widely different 
 judgments can be formed on a single letter. 
 
 CHAP. Yoim^ men who had starved in the eoimtry on the 
 
 XXXVII. 
 
 labour of their hands, had been attraeted to Rome by 
 public or private bonnties. {Jtiventns, quae in agris 
 manuum mereede inopiain toleraverat, privatis atque 
 publicis largitionibus excita.) 
 
 Since the time of the last Carthaginian war, the free 
 cultivators of the soil had been replaced, all over 
 Italy, by the slaves of large proprietors. The Gracchi 
 had for a time stayed this tendency by granting allot- 
 ments of public land to the poorer burgesses, and 
 these efforts were continued down to the time of 
 Catiline's conspiracy. They were never, however, 
 really successful for any length of time, as the small 
 
NOTES TO CATILIN] 
 
 93 
 
 farms were always gradually absorbed by the estates chap. 
 
 XXXVI I 
 
 of the capitalists. Their owners then flocked to * " ' 
 Rome to swell the rich man's train of clients, and to 
 get their share at the public distributions of corn, in 
 which only residents in the capital were allowed to 
 participate. 
 
 All those whose parents had been proscribed during- chap. 
 Siillds triumph, whose property had been confiscated and 
 their political rights impaired. {Qiiornm victoria Sullae 
 pare7ttes proscripti, bona ereptajus libei'tatis imminutnm 
 erat.) 
 
 According to Valerius Maximus, the number of 
 Sulla's victims was no less than 4700, and by a lex 
 Cornelia the children of these, in addition to the loss 
 of their patrimony, were excluded from all offices of 
 the state. The young men were now agitating to be 
 restored to their full political rights, and a bill with 
 this object was brought forward during the year 63. 
 It was defeated, however, and mainly by Cicero's 
 exertions. The consul did not deny its substantial 
 justice, but he contended that, at so disturbed a 
 period, it w^as inexpedient to put power into the hands 
 of men who would naturally be eager for revenge. 
 
 Others so rich as to live in a style of regal magnifi- ^^^^^^ 
 cence. {Alios ita divites, nt regio victu at que cultu 
 aetatem agerent^ 
 
 When the estates of the proscribed were put up for 
 sale, no one dared to bid against the favourites of 
 Sulla ; thus one of his freedmen purchased a property 
 worth i^6o,ooo iox £20, and another became possessed 
 
94 NOTES TO CATILINE. 
 
 CHAP, of an estate worth ;^QO,ooo. It was in this way that 
 
 XXXVII. 
 
 Marcus Crassus laid the foundations of his enormous 
 wealth. 
 
 CHAP J lie tribiinician power had been restored in the constd- 
 
 sJiip of Ponipey and Crassus. {Postquam Gn. Pompeio 
 et M. Crasso consulibns tribnnicia potestas rcstitnta 
 est) 
 
 Sulla, during his dictatorship, had diminished the 
 importance of the tribunate in three ways. He 
 fettered the right of intercession by the imposition 
 of a heavy fine in all cases of its abuse, made the 
 exercise of the right of access to the people dependent 
 on the pleasure of the Senate, though as to this point 
 there are some doubts, and lastly made the holding of 
 the tribunate a disqualification for any higher office. 
 Efforts to repeal his legislation on this subject were 
 made in ^6 and 74, but unsuccessfully, and it con- 
 tinued unaltered down to the consulship of Pompey 
 and Crassus, when the tribunes were restored to all 
 their former power. There can be no doubt that 
 Sallust is right in what he says as to the dangerous 
 character of this office when in the hands of ambitious 
 men. Whatever a tribune proposed to a so-called 
 public meeting was sure to be carried unanimously, 
 and the safety of the state was dependent on such 
 .check as the ten holders of this office might exercise 
 upon each other. 
 
 CHAP. After the despatch of Pompey to conduct the wars 
 against the pirates and Mithridates, the power of the 
 commons was broken and the influence of the oligarchy 
 
NOTES TO CATir.lNE. 
 
 95 
 
 increased. (Postquam Gn. Pompcius ad bcllinn viariti- chap. 
 viuni atque Mithridaticitm missjis est, plebis opes im- 
 minntae, paticoriini potentia crevat) 
 
 This is a most extraordinary statement of Sallust 
 and is very difficult to account for. The bill of 
 Gabinius by which Pompey had been given such large 
 powers against the pirates had been passed in Gy, and 
 that of Manilius, by which these powers were further 
 extended for the war against Mithridates, in the 
 following year. Since then the democrats had been 
 harassing the Senate in every possible way. Caesar, 
 for instance, in the year 65 had revived the memory 
 of Marius, and in 64, as president of the commission 
 regarding murder, caused many of Sulla's executioners 
 to be brought before him and condemned. The bills 
 of Gabinius and Manilius did not increase, but crushed 
 the power of the Senate ; they were, however, a real 
 blow to the democrats, notwithstanding that their 
 temporary alliance with Pompey compelled them to 
 give them an unwilling support. They distrusted 
 their too powerful ally, and dreaded lest on his return 
 from the East he should imitate the behaviour of 
 Sulla. Hence their desire to obtain for one of their 
 leaders a counterbalancing command in Egypt, and 
 hence, also, the mysterious intrigues of January and 
 P'ebruary, 65. 
 
 lyieir great public and private indebtedness led him to chap 
 hope that they would readily join in his enterprise. 
 {Existunians publiee privatimque acre alieiio oppresses, 
 facile COS ad tale consilium adduei posse.) 
 
 The Roman " negotiatores " employed such capital 
 
 XI. 
 
96 NOTES TO CATILINE. 
 
 CHAP, as could not be invested in Italy in loans to foreign 
 princes and provincial towns, at the most usurious rates 
 of interest, sometimes as much as 48 per cent. The 
 towns had to borrow from them to comply with the 
 exactions of the governors and tax-farmers, and from 
 the moment that the loan was completed, the town was 
 wholly at the mercy of its creditor. In a case which 
 happens to be mentioned in a letter of Cicero, the 
 agent of the philosophic assassin, Marcus Brutus, 
 starved to death five of the municipal senators of the 
 town of Salamis in Cyprus, in order to obtain payment 
 of one of these loans at 48 per cent. A I.ex Gabinia 
 was passed to make such loans illegal, but its provi- 
 sions were never enforced, and the scandal continued 
 until the reorganization of the provincial system under 
 the empire. 
 
 CHAP. They betrayed the whole affair to Quintus Fabius 
 Sanga, whose patronage their state mostly employed. 
 {Itaque Q. Fabio Sangae, cujus patrocinio civitas pluri' 
 micm tctebatur, rem oumetn aperiunt.) 
 
 It was customary for the different provinces to 
 place themselves under the protection of some influ- 
 ential Roman, who stood to them in the same relation 
 in which, in the earlier days of Rome, the patron had 
 stood to his client. Provincials who were under the 
 protection of a powerful patron — the Spaniards, for in- 
 stance, under that of the elder Cato — felt themselves 
 sure of redress for any ill-treatment they might suffer 
 from Roman officials ; and a member of a provincial 
 town would look to its patron for assistance in any 
 business he might have at Rome. The patronate was 
 
NOTES TO CATILINE. 
 
 97 
 
 in some cases hereditary, and often the first patron chap 
 was the general who had completed the subjugation 
 of the province. 
 
 Many of these agents had been brought to trial by the chap. 
 praetor Q. Metellus Celer, and by him tJirown into prison, ''^^"* 
 ajid Gaitcs Muretia had pnrsncd the same course in 
 FnrtJier Gaid. {Ex eo nnmero compluris Q. Metellus 
 Celer praetor^ causa cognita, in vinctda co7ijecerat; item 
 in tdteriore Gallia G. Murena) 
 
 This is one of the passages which should be noted 
 as showing how widely the ramification of the con- 
 spiracy extended. Q. Metellus Celer was one of the 
 bulwarks of the aristocratic party ; it was he who 
 saved the life of Rabirius by striking the flag on the 
 Janiculum, and as consul elect in 6i, and consul the 
 following year, he was foremost in opposition to both 
 Caesar and Pompey. In spite of Cicero's having 
 secured the province of Cisalpine Gaul to Metellus in 
 IJ.C. 62, a coolness arose between them owing to the 
 attitude which the latter assumed when his brother 
 Nepes attacked Cicero on his laying down his office. 
 The breach however was subsequently healed, and 
 Metellus did his best to frustrate the designs of Cicero's 
 enemy Clodius, although the latter was his own brother- 
 in-law. His death occurred suddenly in B.C. 59. Gaius 
 Licinius Murena, who was now pro-praetor in Gallia 
 Transalpina, was elected to the consulship for B.C. 62, 
 and was successfully defended by Cicero and Horten- 
 sius when charged with bribery. He was one of those 
 who voted for the sentence of death on December 5th, 
 B.C. 63 ; after his consulship nothing further is known 
 of him. 
 
98 NOTES TO CATILINE. 
 
 XLm' Taking this as their signal, the rank and file of their 
 supporters were on tJie following nigJit to carry ont their 
 respective tasks. {Eo signo proxmna nocte cetera mnltitndo 
 conjiirationis siinm qnisqne negotiuin exseqneretur^ 
 
 According to Cicero, the plot was to be carried out 
 at the beginning of the Saturnalia, on December 19th. 
 There is considerable room, however, for doubt whether 
 any such extraordinary programme was ever really 
 framed. 
 
 XL?v' ^^^^^^ Allohroges demanded from Lent 11 his, Cethegns, 
 
 and Statilins, an oath which they might bear duly 
 attested to their countrymen. {Allohroges ah Lentnlo, 
 Cethego, Statilio . . . postiilajit jiisjnrandnm, qiiod 
 sign at um ad civis perferant.) 
 
 Cicero, in his third speech against Catiline, gives an 
 account of the scene in the Senate when the letters of 
 the conspirators were opened. " First," he says, *' we 
 showed his seal to Cethegus ; he acknowledged it. 
 We then broke the thread, and read it. It was 
 written in his own hand to the Senate and people of 
 the Allohroges, and its purport was that he, on his 
 part, would perform what he had promised their am- 
 bassadors, and that he begged that they, on theirs, 
 would carry out the assurance which their ambas- 
 sadors had given him." The letter of Lentulus seems 
 to have been to the same effect. The particular 
 service which the conspirators asked from the Allo- 
 hroges, according to Cicero, was the supply of a body 
 of cavalry. 
 
NOTES TO CATILINE. 
 
 99 
 
 CHAP. 
 XLV. 
 
 On the night agreed on for their departure, Cicero 
 gave orders to the praetoi^s Luciits Valeriiis Flacciis 
 and Gains Pomptinus to plant an ambush by the Mul- 
 viaji bridge and seize the Allobroges ivith their retinue. 
 {Constituta node, qua proficiscerentur, Cicero L. Valeria 
 Flacco et G. Pomptinio praetoribus iniperat^ ut in ponte 
 Mulvio per insidias Allobroguni coniitatus dcprehcn- 
 dant) 
 
 From Cicero we learn that the two praetors posted 
 their men in the villas on each side of the river, and sal- 
 lied out thence to attack the Allobroges. Flaccus was 
 governor of Asia in the succeeding year, and on his 
 return was successfully defended by Cicero and Hor- 
 tensius on his trial for extortion. Pomptinus was 
 assigned the province of Gallia Narbonensis, and in 
 B.C. 6 1 inflicted a defeat on the Allobroges, who, in 
 spite of the rewards voted to their ambassadors, had 
 apparently obtained from the Senate no redress of 
 their grievances, and were at this time in revolt. For 
 this victory Pomptinus demanded a triumph, for which 
 he had to wait till B.C. 54. In B.C. 51 he accompanied 
 Cicero as legate to Cilicia, and remained with him for 
 a year. 
 
 The Senate made a decree that Lentidus on laying ch^ap, 
 down his office, as well as the rest, shoidd be kept in 
 ''free " or private custody. {Senatus decernit, uti abdi- 
 cato magistraiu Lentulus, itemque cetcri in liber is cus- 
 todiis habeantur.) 
 
 The Senate had no power of depriving a magistrate 
 of office, and though the people twice claimed the 
 right to depose a refractory tribune, such a claim was 
 
 XLVII. 
 
lOO NOTES TO CATILINE. 
 
 CHAP, distinctly unconstitutional. On the other hand, a 
 magistrate could not be tried for any offence during 
 his term of office, and Lentulus could thus, if he had 
 chosen, have increased Cicero's difficulties by refusing 
 to resign.. The free custody in which the conspirators 
 were kept would allow them to do what they pleased 
 so long as they remained under their guardian's watch. 
 To leave the guardian's house, like Dion Cassius sup- 
 poses Catiline to have done, when he placed himself 
 under '■^libera ctistodia'' on being accused under the 
 Plautian law, would be a serious breach of faith on 
 the part of the prisoner, and would only be possible 
 if allowed by the carelessness or complicity of the 
 custodian. In the present case, historians have noticed 
 that for fear of such connivance on their part, Caesar 
 and Crassus were only entrusted with the two least 
 important prisoners. 
 
 xLvin Others asserted that Tarqiiiniiis was set on by Cicero 
 
 to prevent Crassus, according to his zvont^ takifig the 
 seditions under his patronage, and so embroiling the 
 state. {Alii Tarqttiniuni a Ciceroni immisstim aiebant, 
 ne Crassus more suo suscepto malorum patrocinio rcvi- 
 publicam conturbaret.) 
 
 Whatever Cicero's real opinion as to the complicity 
 of Caesar and Crassus in Catiline's designs, he took 
 care to conceal it. Caesar, when accused by Vettius, 
 appealed to him for confirmation of his statement 
 that he had voluntarily informed him of some particu- 
 lars of the conspiracy (Suetonius, "Julius Caesar," 14), 
 and apparently the confirmation was given. Ac- 
 cording to Plutarch, the orator, in his irepl vTrarclag, ac- 
 
NOTES TO CATILTXE. 10 1 
 
 knowledgcd a similar service on tlie part of Crassus, ohap. 
 but nevertheless Crassus suspected his conduct. I'lu- 
 tarch also informs us that in a speech published after the 
 deaths of Caesar and Crassus Cicero openly accused 
 them both of complicity in the plot, but he does not 
 name the speech, and there is no such passage in any 
 extant oration. In a letter to Atticus, written in li.C. 
 49 (Ad Att. X. 8, 8), Cicero .says that he must not give 
 way to those against whom the Senate gave him 
 powers to preserve the state from harm, and Mr. 
 Tyrrell refers this to the decree passed October 2ist, 
 K.C. 6^, and finds in it a distinct assertion of Caesar's 
 guilt Mr. Watson, however, and I think rightly, 
 makes the passage allude to the extraordinary powers 
 conferred on all who held the imperium, of whom 
 Cicero was one, on January ist, B.C. 49. There is 
 also a sentence quoted by vSuetonius from a letter of 
 Cicero to Axius, in which he speaks of Caesar's 
 "attaining in his consulship the kingly power at 
 which he had aimed when aedile," but this may well 
 refer not to any complicity in the first plot, but to the 
 efforts Caesar made to gain popularity by the extra- 
 vagance of his entertainments. 
 
 A^ the same conjuncture Quintus Catiihis and Gains chap. 
 Piso failed, either by bribery or influence, to induce 
 Cicero to have Gains Caesar dishonestly accused by 
 means of the Alloh^oges or some other informer. {Sed 
 eisdem temporibus Q. Catulus et G. Piso neque pretio 
 neque gratia Cieeronem impellere quie^wre uti per Alio- 
 broges aut alium indieem G. Caesar f also nominaretur) 
 
 It is rather characteristic of Professor Beesly's 
 
102 NOTES TO CATIIJNE. 
 
 CHAP, method of dealing with the history of the conspiracy 
 that he quotes this sentence without giving his readers 
 any warning of Sallust's Caesarian sympathies. Catulus 
 and Piso would doubtless have been glad to have had 
 Caesar accused, if there had been any chance of a 
 conviction, which, to all appearance, there was not ; 
 but even if they had made any dishonourable pro- 
 posals to Cicero, Sallust could by no possibility 
 have known of them. I cannot but think that this is 
 another instance of our author assuming the func- 
 tions of the historical novelist, just as he does else- 
 where in his account of the motives of Catiline for 
 entering on the conspiracy. The following is a 
 translation (Thomson's) of the chapter in Suetonius 
 which narrates the fate of two subsequent accusers 
 of Caesar : — 
 
 *' Caesar now fell into a fresh danger, being named 
 among the accomplices of Catiline, both before Novius 
 the quaestor by the informer Lucius Vettius, and in 
 the Senate by Quintus Curius, to whom a reward had 
 been voted for having been the first to disclose the 
 designs of the conspirators. Curius affirmed that he 
 had received his information from Catiline ; Vettius 
 even engaged to produce against him a document 
 which he had given to the latter in his own hand- 
 writing. Thinking this to be past bearing, Caesar, 
 with an appeal to Cicero for confirmation, declared 
 that he had voluntarily disclosed some particulars of 
 the conspiracy, prevented Curius from receiving his 
 expected reward, and obliged Vettius to give pledges 
 for his behaviour. He also caused the goods of the 
 latter to be distrained, and, after seeing him roughly 
 
NOTES T(3 CATILINE. IO3 
 
 used, and almost torn to pieces in an assembly of the ^J^^^- 
 people at the Rostra, threw him into prison. Thither, 
 too, he sent Novius the quaestor for having presumed 
 to take an information against a magistrate of higher 
 authority." (Suetonius, "Julius Caesar," 17.) 
 
 Bol/i these nobles were at bitter enmity zuith Caesar chap. 
 {uterque cum illo gravis inimicitias exereebant). 
 
 Ouintus Lutatius Catulus was the leader of the 
 aristocratic party at Rome. As consul B.C. yS, he op- 
 posed his colleague Lepidus in his attempt to subvert 
 the Sullan constitution, and as censor in B.C. 65 he 
 prevented Marcus Crassus from making Egypt tribu- 
 tary to Rome. In the debate in the Senate on the 
 punishment of the conspirators Catulus threw his 
 influence on the side of those who voted for the 
 penalty of death, and he was the first to hail Cicero 
 by the title of " parens patriae." His enmity with 
 Caesar was a long-standing one, as in B.C. 65 he had 
 accused him in the Senate for his restoration of the 
 statues of Marius. His defeat by Caesar in the elec- 
 tion for the Pontificate took place on March 6th, B.C. 
 6^), and the first proposition which the latter brought 
 forward in his praetorship the following year was one 
 to deprive him of the honour of completing the 
 restoration of the Capitol. Catulus, however, suc- 
 ceeded in repelling this attack, and died in B.C. 60, 
 before Caesar had acquired further power of annoy- 
 ance. 
 
 Gaius Calpurnius Piso, Caesar's other enemy, was 
 of the same political party as Catulus, and, as consul 
 in B.C. 67, had joined the latter in his endeavour 
 
104 NOTES TO CATILINE. 
 
 CHAP, to defeat the Gabinian law. Durins^ the two fol- 
 
 XLIX 
 
 lowing years he acted as governor of Gallia Nar- 
 bonensis, and on his return was defended by Cicero 
 in B.C. 63, when accused of extortion and of the 
 unjust execution of a Transpadane Gaul. This latter 
 charge was promoted by Caesar, who had taken 
 the Transpadanes under his protection. According 
 to Suetonius, he had recently visited them for the sake 
 of extending his influence, though we can hardly 
 follow the historian in believing that his intrigues 
 were so dangerous as to necessitate the detention of a 
 force intended for Cilicia to restrain them. Caesar 
 subsequently founded a colony at Comum, for which 
 he procured the Latin citizenship, and the conduct of 
 G. Marcellus, consul for B.C. 50, in scourging one of its 
 magistrates;" -was regarded as an insult to him per- 
 sonally. The full citizenship was subsequently con- 
 ferred upon the Transpadanes by their patron by one 
 of the laws which he passed during his first dictator- 
 ship of eleven days in B.C. 49. Of Piso after his trial, 
 nothing further is known ; he must have died before 
 the beginning of the civil war. 
 
 CHAP, So successful, indeed, zvere tJiey that some Roman 
 knights who were on guard, tinder arms, i^ound the 
 temple of Concord, on Caesar s leaving the Senate, 
 threatened him zvith their swords. {Usque eo nt non- 
 nulli equites Romani qui praesidi caussa cum telis erant 
 circiwi aedem Concordiae, egredienti ex Senatu Caesari 
 gladio minitarentur}) 
 
 According to Suetonius, Caesar persisted in his 
 opposition after the speech of Cato, and the knights 
 
NOTES TO CATILINE. 10 
 
 threatened him while still in the house. Plutarch, chai' 
 
 XlilX. 
 
 however, gives the same account of the incident as 
 Sallust, and adds that Caesar was only protected by 
 the devotion of Curio, who sheltered him with his 
 toga, and that the knights, when minded to^kill him, 
 looked to Cicero for a nod of consent, which the latter 
 was afterwards blamed for withholding. Plutarch 
 also contradicts the improbable statement of Sue- 
 tonius that Caesar was so frightened by the attack of 
 the knights that "he not only gave up his opposition, 
 but absented himself from the House for the remainder 
 of the year." He informs us, on the contrary, that 
 "a few days afterwards Caesar entered the Senate 
 and endeavoured to clear himself of the suspicions 
 under which he lay. His defence, however, was re- 
 ceived with indignation and reproaches ; and, as the 
 sitting was unusually prolonged, the people beset the 
 House, and with violent outcries demanded Caesar, 
 absolutely insisting on his being dismissed." (Plut. 
 "Julius Caesar," Langhorne's translation.) 
 
 While the Senate zvas engaged zvith this business . . . chap. 
 tJie freedmen of Leitttihis went different ways abotit the 
 city, trying to rouse the artizans ajid slaves in the streets 
 to reseue him, {Duin haec in Se?iatu aguntur .... 
 liber ti Lentuli divorsis itineribus opifices atqiie servitia 
 in vicis ad eum eripiundum sollieitabant) 
 
 The business here referred to was transacted on 
 December 4th, and Cicero on the following day, in his 
 speech to the Senate, referred to the attempt of 
 Lentulus' freedmen with great contempt. Appian, 
 however, (ii. 5,) represents the dependants of the 
 
 L. 
 
I06 NOTES TO CATILINE. 
 
 CHAP, accused as raising a riot while Cicero was delivering this 
 very speech, so great as to- cause him to leave the 
 temple in order to quell it. On his return, according 
 to Appian, he pressed his resolution more vigorously, 
 a phrase which is unfortunate for those who fix on the 
 exact place in the speech where the interruption took 
 place, and make its occurrence account for the resigned 
 tone of the conclusion. Cicero either himself thought 
 sufficiently seriously of the power of the rioters, or was 
 anxious enough to make others do so, to take elaborate 
 precautions against them. Besides posting the guard 
 of knights round the temple of Concord, and watches 
 at other points in the city, he required all the citizens 
 on the morning of December 5th, to take an oath 
 before the praetor, and give in their names for service 
 if need should arise. It is important to note this, be- 
 cause the large means at the disposal of the Govern- 
 ment, and the loyalty shown by all the respectable 
 classes, tend to weaken the argument that the execu- 
 tion of the prisoners was justified by the urgent 
 necessity for their removal beyond the reach of rescue. 
 
 CHAP. On the present occasion Dccinius Jujiius Silanus, zvJlo, 
 as consul elect, zvas the first called upon to give his opinion 
 .... at first, gave Jiis vote for tJieir punishment. {Turn 
 D. Jiuiius Silanus, primis sententiani rogatus, quod eo 
 tempore consul designatus erat .... stipplicium sumun- 
 dum decreverat.) 
 
 In a letter to Atticus, written B.C. 45, on the ocpasion 
 of the publication by Marcus Brutus of a treatise in 
 honour of Cato, Cicero gives the following list of men 
 of consular rank who spoke in favour of the severer 
 
NOTES TO CATILINE. 
 
 107 
 
 penalty on this occasion — Catulus, Scrvilius, the chap. 
 LucuUi, Curio, Torquatus, Lepidus, GelHus, Volcatius, 
 Figulus, Cotta, Lucius Caesar, Gaius Piso, ManHus 
 Glabrio, and Silanus and Murena, the consuls elect. 
 Consuls elect were not, strictly speaking, consulars, 
 and this alone would account for the position of 
 the names of Silanus and Murena, even if we could 
 suppose that Cicero after the lapse of so many years, 
 was trying to give the speakers in the order in which 
 they spoke. There is thus no need to see here, as some 
 have done, a contradiction between our two author- 
 ities. 
 
 As regards the subsequent change of opinion on the 
 part of Silanus, Sallust's narrative conveys the impres- 
 sion that Tiberius Nero brought forward a distinct 
 motion, and that Silanus thereupon abandoned his own 
 in its favour. Suetonius, however, tells us that "Silanus 
 thought proper to qualify his decision (because it was 
 not very honourable to change it), by a softening 
 interpretation, as if his opinion had been understood in 
 a harsher sense than he had intended." It is noticeable 
 that in Silanus' motion, the words ''More majoriunl' do 
 not occur, and that thus it would easily lend itself to 
 be explained away; and the theory that he did not 
 withdraw, but emasculated his motion, also furnishes 
 a reason why Cato proposed a fresh resolution about 
 which there could be no mistake, instead of simply 
 declaring his support of that previously moved. The 
 proposal credited to Tiberius Nero, it maybe remarked, 
 and not that of Caesar himself, was the legitimate 
 outcome of the latter's speech. If the conspirators 
 could be suffered to live without detriment to the state, 
 
I08 NOTES TO CATILINE. 
 
 CHAP, there was no justification whatever for asking the 
 Senate to violate the law by sentencing them to per- 
 petual imprisonment, when the delay of a few months, 
 at most, would enable them to be legally tried. This, 
 however, is what Caesar actually proposed to do. 
 
 ^^t^" Now it was at this period of imitation that they 
 adopted the [Greek'] custom of seoiirgiiig citizens and 
 inflicting capital piuiisJiment on convicted crimi?zals. 
 {Sed eodem illo tempore, [Graeciac morem imitati\ ver- 
 beribus ajiimadvortebant in civis, de condemnatis sum- 
 mum supplicium sumebant.) 
 
 Punishment by scourging was a genuine Roman 
 custom, and Caesar is certainly wrong in attributing it 
 to a Greek source. If we accept Dietsch's proposal to 
 expunge the words " Graeciae morem imitati," we must 
 suppose Caesar to mean that the Romans were slower 
 in abolishing capital punishment than in adopting 
 other reforms, and that they were finally convinced of 
 the evil at the time of the Porcian lavv^ 
 
 ^LL ^' ^'^^^ ^^ because it is forbidden by the Porcian law ? 
 If so, tJiere are other laws which forbid condemned 
 citizens to be deprived of life, and offer the alternative of 
 exile. {An, quia lex Porcia vetat? At aliae leges item 
 condemnatis civibus non animam eripi, sed exilium per- 
 mitti jubent) 
 
 The Porcian law, enacted B.C. 97, deprived the 
 magistrates of the power of inflicting the punishment 
 by death or scourging upon any Roman citizen, and a 
 subsequent law of Gains Gracchus forbade the ap- 
 pointment by the Senate of extraordinary commissions 
 
NOTES TO CATILINE. IO9 
 
 of high treason, such as that which, under Pubhus Popil- chap. 
 HuSjhad inflicted such bloody sentences on his brother's 
 adherents. In the present year, the trial of Rabirius, 
 who was accused of having committed murder while 
 suppressing the insurrection of Saturninus under the 
 Senate's order, had. practically decided in the negative 
 the question whether that body could invest the 
 consuls with absolute power of life and death. The 
 circumstances of the two cases were, indeed, very 
 similar. If Saturninus had been killed while fighting 
 in the streets, his slayer would have been able to claim 
 the protection of the Senate's decree ; his death, how- 
 ever, took place after all resistance had ceased, and 
 after he himself had personally surrendered to Marius. 
 The emergency, it was contended, had thus ceased, and 
 the ordinary law had resumed its reign. In the same 
 way in the present case, if the conspirators had met their 
 death while trying to fire the city, the slayers would 
 doubtless have been held guiltless ; but after they had 
 been apprehended and securely lodged, there was no 
 need, it may be said, for any but the ordinary provisions 
 of the law to be enforced. If Cicero, indeed, had been 
 a courageous man, he might have contended that the 
 existence of Catiline at the head of an armed force in 
 Etruria, and of the bands of Lentulus within the city, 
 constituted a continued danger to the state, and thus 
 distinguished the case altogether from that of Rabirius 
 and Saturninus. Had he put the conspirators to death 
 on his own authority, his unpopularity might have 
 come all the same, but he would at least have had 
 something to plead in his favour. As it was, by putting 
 to the Senate,and executing an illegal vote, he incurred 
 
no NOTES TO CATILINE. 
 
 CHAP, the very responsibility which he was anxious to shun. 
 The solitary plea which he could allege in his defence, 
 that the conspirators as accomplices of Catiline and 
 Manlius who had been declared ' hostes ' by the 
 Senate, were ' hostes ' themselves, and not citizens at 
 all, is a paltry quibble which could not even be sus- 
 tained in law, as neither the Senate, nor apparently 
 the people itself, had the power of disfranchising a 
 Roman citizen. 
 
 CHAP. j/^ proposal is that their goods he confiscated and their 
 persons imprisoned in such borough towns as are best able 
 to support the charge. {Sed ita censeo, publicandas 
 eoruin pecunias, ipsos in vinculis habendos per municipia 
 quae maxuvie opibus valcnt.) 
 
 According to Cicero, Caesar's resolution made the 
 towns responsible in heavy fines for the safe keeping 
 of the prisoners, and this the consul regarded as a dis- 
 tinct hardship. Some historians have interpreted 
 Caesar's proposal as though it were similar in effect 
 to that of Nero, and would have allowed the prisoners 
 ultimately to be brought to trial. The latter half of 
 the resolution, however, leaves no room for doubt that 
 Caesar, sincerely or insincerely, proposed to the Senate 
 to inflict life-long imprisonment on these men who 
 had never been properly tried ; a punishment which 
 would have been to the full as illegal as that which 
 was actually carried out, while it was impossible to 
 plead the necessity of the time as an excuse for such 
 illegality long after the crisis was past. Caesar's pro- 
 posal for confiscating the conspirators' goods was at 
 first accepted, but afterwards allowed to drop on his 
 
NOTES TO CATILINE. Ill 
 
 representing that it would be unfair to adopt the chap. 
 severe, while they rejected the merciful part of his 
 resolution. 
 
 On the dose of Caesar's speech, all the senators merely ^^l^^^- 
 gave their votes for the different motions, some for one, 
 some for a?iother, until it came to Marcus Porcius Cato. 
 He, when asked his opinion, delivered himself as follows. 
 (Postqtiam Caesar dicendi finem fecit, ceteri verbo alins 
 alii varie assentiebantur : at M. Porcitcs Cato, rogatus 
 sente7itiaui, Jinjiisccmodi orationem Jiabuit) 
 
 It is remarkable that Sallust in his account of this 
 debate omits all mention of the speech which Cicero, 
 whether we possess it in the fourth oration against 
 Catiline or not, certainly delivered on this occasion. 
 In that speech Cicero alludes only to the motions of 
 Silanus and Caesar, and it is therefore probable that 
 he spoke not only before Cato, but before Tiberius 
 Nero also. His speech is described by Plutarch as 
 adding no small weight to the proposition of Caesar, 
 but, as we have it, it rather shows a desire for the con- 
 spirators' death, which the speaker was too timid to 
 distinctly urge. Cicero, however, (ad Att. xii. 21) 
 claims the credit of not only putting the motion for 
 capital punishment to the vote, but for having himself 
 supported it. The resolution, he says, was only passed 
 in the terms which Cato proposed, because the speech 
 of the latter was marked by more vigour than those 
 of the previous speakers. It should be noticed, too, 
 that Plutarch makes Catulus and not Cato the first 
 senator to have spoken in favour of the punishment 
 of death after Caesar's speech. This statement, how- 
 
 / 
 
LII 
 
 112 NOTES TO CATILINE. 
 
 CHAP, ever, he contradicts in his Hfe of Cato, and it seems 
 unHkely that a man of Catulus' weight should have 
 postponed the expression of his opinion for so long. 
 The fact that Cicero in his letters to Atticus places 
 Catulus first among the men of consular rank who 
 voted for the extreme penalty, does not help us to 
 decide at what period of the debate he actually spoke, 
 for, as above remarked, we have no reason to suppose 
 that Cicero adhered to any particular order in his list 
 of names. Anyhow, the impression conveyed by the 
 text that all the senators from Caesar to Cato simply 
 gave their vote without making any formal address, is 
 certainly a wrong one. 
 
 As regards the speech which Sallust puts into the 
 mouth of Cato, Mr. Long accepts it as giving the sub- 
 stance of what Cato really said. Plutarch, however, 
 writes as if he had Cato's speech, which was taken 
 down at the time by shorthand writers, actually before 
 him ; and his version agrees much better with the 
 account given by Suetonius and with what we know of 
 Cato's character, than does that of Sallust. According 
 to Plutarch, Cato, after reproaching Silanus for his 
 timidity, made a straightforward attack on Caesar for 
 trying to subvert the government in the name of 
 humanity, and broadly hinted his belief in his com- 
 plicity in the plot. Of this attack there is no trace in 
 the speech as recorded by Sallust, and it is not difficult 
 to suppose that the vanity which made Roman his- 
 torians firmly believe that they could improve on any 
 speech actually delivered, was in this case reinforced 
 by the Caesarian sympathies of our author. 
 
NOTES TO CATILINE. II3 
 
 He himself took up his station by his eagle, one, it was chap 
 
 said, which Gains Mariiis tised iji his army in the 
 Cimbrian War. {Ipse propter aquilam assistit, quam 
 bello Cimbrico C. Marius i?i exercitu habnisse dicebatur.) 
 
 Gaius Marius was the first to introduce the eagle 
 into the Roman army. The possession by Catiline of 
 this particular standard seems to have been well 
 known in Rome before his departure. Cicero alludes 
 to it more than once in his speeches ; he charges 
 Catiline with erecting a kind of altar to it in his house, 
 and mentions his taking it with him at the time of his 
 quitting the city. 
 
 LIX. 
 
THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 
 
ii; 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 TO THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 
 
 Sallust has himself informed us of the reasons 
 which induced him to write the history of a period 
 so painful in many respects to a patriotic Roman as 
 that of the war with Jugurtha. It attracted him, he 
 tells us, in the first place, " as a great and severe 
 contest waged with varying success ; " and, in the 
 second, as " the occasion of resistance being for the 
 first time made to the pride of the nobility," which 
 resistance he regards as the prelude to all the civil 
 wars which afterwards exhausted Italy and the whole 
 Roman world. The interest of his narration is, there- 
 fore, twofold, both military and political, and his 
 success in bringing it home to his readers is by no 
 means equal in the different parts of his work. In its 
 military aspect the war with Jugurtha is really of little 
 importance. Some hundred and twenty or thirty 
 years later, in the reign of Tiberius, another Numidian 
 arose, who gave the Romans almost as much trouble 
 as Jugurtha. Tacfarinas, like Jugurtha, had become 
 acquainted with the Roman discipline ; like him, he 
 was always (with one trifling exception) defeated in 
 pitched battles ; like him, by surprises and petty 
 skirmishes he wore out the enemy whom he could 
 
Il8 INTRODUCTION TO THE JUGURTIIINK WAR. 
 
 not meet with success in the field. Two Roman 
 generals triumphed for bringing the war to a supposed 
 conclusion, but each time, after an interval, Tacfarinas 
 renewed it with as much and as little success as before; 
 and, as in the case of Jugurtha, it was only brought to 
 a final end by his death, after the contest had been 
 carried on for seven years (a.d. 17-24). Tacitus 
 gives us the history of this war in some seven chapters 
 (Annals ii. 52 ; iii. 21, 73, 74 ; iv. 23-25), and it may 
 fairly be said that the knowledge we receive from 
 these is quite as satisfactory as that which Sallust's 
 prolix narration affords us of the conflict with 
 Jugurtha. The materials, indeed, for writing a good 
 military history of any war in Africa did not exist, 
 and we, therefore, cannot blame Sallust for his failure. 
 If he had had an accurate map of Numidia to refer 
 to as he wrote, and the accounts of eye-witnesses to 
 supply him with details of the several campaigns, there 
 is no reason to doubt that he would have produced an 
 excellent and thoroughly intelligible history of the 
 war. The vivid description which he gives of the 
 battle of the Muthul, where he had the account of one 
 of the Roman officers, Publius Rutilius Rufus, to guide 
 him, is a sufficient proof of his ability to deal with 
 good materials when he possessed them. As it is, in 
 the absence of all information as to the geography of 
 the country, and with a chronology which seldom ex- 
 tends beyond such references as ■' after a few days," or 
 " in the course of the same campaign," it is impossible 
 to extract from the account of Sallust any clear idea 
 of the details of the war. We have, indeed, certain 
 sieges and battles assigned to the several campaigns, 
 
INTRODUCTION TO TIIK JUGURTIIINK WAR. I I9 
 
 but the links connecting them are mostly wanting, and 
 their place is inadequately supplied by repeated asser- 
 tions that each new tactic of Metellus or Marius 
 reduced Jugurtha to frenzy and despair, and then, 
 after a while, had to be abandoned by the Roman 
 general as ineffectual. Even in the case of the opera- 
 tions which he describes at length, it is often impossible 
 to help feeling that the historian is drawing largely on 
 his imagination, or, which comes to the same thing, is 
 filling in some bare outline of fact, which he found in 
 his authorities, from the commonplace book of Roman 
 military description. 
 
 If we turn now to the chapters in which he deals 
 with the politics of the capital, we shall find much 
 more reason to be grateful to Sallust for his history 
 of this period. It is true that his love of fine writing 
 and his pompous affectation of a virtue which he did 
 not possess, seriously detract from the value of his 
 work ; the recurrence, too, of tags like " pauci quis 
 omnia, honesta atque inhonesta, vendere mos erat," 
 gives an annoying impression of pedantry and unreal- 
 ity to much that he says. Despite these drawbacks, 
 however, Sallust often speaks of the relation of parties 
 in Rome with all the weight of a practical and clear- 
 headed politician, and, for one who lived in the thick 
 of the very struggle of which he narrates the beginning, 
 is singularly broad and comprehensive in his views. 
 The period with which he deals is full of instruction. 
 Gains Gracchus had been murdered in Jj.C. 121, and 
 from that time down to the end of the Jugurthine war 
 Senate and democrats alike did nothing but demon- 
 strate at once their power and their impotence. The 
 
I20 INTRODUCTION TO THK JUGURTHINE WAR. 
 
 Senate could recall Popilius, uphold Opimius, at least 
 for a time, and prevent any further divisions of the 
 domain land by converting as much of it as still 
 remained in private hands at first into perpetual lease- 
 holds, and afterwards into full freeholds. As was 
 shown, however, by the prosecutions of B.C. no, and 
 again in B.C. 105, and by the election of Marius to 
 the consulship, it became utterly powerless as soon 
 as the mob asserted its will. It could not even de- 
 fend its successful general, Metellus, from a most 
 unjust attack, or prevent the whole credit of terminat- 
 ing the war, which was really due to Metellus and 
 Sulla, falling to the democratic leader, Marius. 
 It is significant, indeed, that at this crisis of their fate 
 the aristocracy of Rome could find no better com- 
 mander than M. Aemilius Scaurus, a man who, except 
 by some village triumphs in the Alps, had never in 
 his life distinguished himself, whose morality was no 
 higher than that of his fellows, and who, when the 
 storm came, was quite ready to surrender his party so 
 long as he could save himself On the other hand, the 
 democrats were not much better ; they could assert 
 their power by persecuting the nobility on the occasion 
 of any disaster to the state, but they were destitute of 
 any worthy policy which they could unite to pursue. 
 Their narrowness of view and anarchist tendencies 
 alienated from them the two allies by whose help they 
 might have obtained a peaceful triumph over the 
 Senate. The Italians they had made their enemies by 
 threatening to encroach on the domain lands held by 
 the allied towns, and by the disfavour with which they 
 regarded any proposals for a liberal concession of the 
 
INTRODUCTION TO Till-: JUGURTIITNE WAR. 121 
 
 full Roman franchise. As for the equitcs or capitalists, 
 the disturbances in the streets of Rome had sufficed 
 to estrange them from the party by whose help they 
 had secured the control of the law courts. These two 
 great powers were content to stand aside and allow 
 the nobles and democrats to decide their battles by 
 themselves, and, as a result, the nobles were enabled 
 to maintain their monopoly of all the chief offices and 
 prizes of the state, while the mob continued supreme 
 in the streets of Rome. Such a condition of affairs 
 could not continue for ever, and the Jugurthine war 
 ushered in the military regime by which it was to be 
 superseded. Not only was it in this war that both 
 Sulla and Marius made their name, but the change 
 was effected by which the future generals in the civil 
 war were provided with armies suitable to their pur- 
 poses. Hitherto, levies had always been made from 
 the respectable class of citizens, men who had some 
 interest in the welfare of the state, and who looked on 
 war as an evil to be brought to an end as soon as 
 possible. Marius, when starting for Numidia, recruited 
 his army from among the " capite censi," who had no 
 stake in the country, but now adopted arms as their 
 profession, and looked to their general for reward. 
 Armies composed of men like these murdered their 
 commandersif they had become unpopular; if popular, 
 they would follow them to death, but, henceforth, 
 obedience was neither rendered nor refused out of 
 any consideration of duty towards the state. This 
 was the kind of force of which a Caesar could make 
 use. 
 
122 
 
 THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 
 
 CHAP. 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 re- 
 ceives the blame, and the doers charge circumstances 
 with the defect that lies in themselves. Were men 
 but as anxious in an honourable 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 
 
THE JUGURTHINE WAR. I23 
 
 greatness as would make them, as far as mortal men chap. 
 may be, undying in their glory. 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 than they begin to fall, and decay from the 
 moment of their prime. The mind is pure and eter- 
 nal ; 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 mili- 
 tary commands, or in fact any share in the public ad- 
 ministration, seem to me at the present time far from 
 desirable, since the honours of office arc refused to 
 merit, while those who attain them either by knavery chap. 
 or force gain nothing in security nor yet in distinction. 
 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, bani.sh- 
 ments, and the other horrors of war. On the other 
 
 III. 
 
IV. 
 
 124 THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 
 
 CHAP, hand, to labour without result and seek no other re- 
 in. . 
 
 ward for toil than unpopularity, is the height of mad- 
 ness, except, perhaps, for those who are mastered by a 
 disgraceful and fatal impulse to sacrifice their own 
 honour and freedom to the power of a clique. 
 CHAP. / 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 imputa- 
 tion of arrogantly exalting myself by praise of my 
 -^wn 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 favour by their 
 public entertainments, will do so. These I would ask. 
 to remember the character of the men who were un- 
 successful 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 determina- 
 tion 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 possessed 
 this power, but the memory of gallant deeds that 
 
THE JUGURTIIINE WAR. 1 25 
 
 kindled a fire in the breasts of brave men that cannot chap. 
 
 IV. 
 
 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 honours 
 and commands by intrigue and violence, rather than 
 by any honourable qualities, and seem to think that the 
 praetorship, consulship, and other high offices, possess 
 an intrinsic renown and splendour, instead of being 
 only esteemed according to the merits of their occu- 
 pants. I have wandered, however, too far afield in 
 my sorrow and shame at my country's degradation ; 
 I now return to my task. 
 
 I am about to write a history of the war which the 
 
 ;> 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 Roman people carried on with Jugurtha, 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 amid 
 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 
 ^reneral Hannibal had inflicted the severest blow that 
 the resources of Italy had received since the Roman 
 
126 THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 
 
 CHAP, power became supreme, Massinissa, king of the Nu- 
 midians, was admitted to our friendship by Publius 
 Scipio, whose merits subsequently gained him the 
 title "Africanus." He achieved many brilliant mili- 
 tary successes, and after the conquest of the Car- 
 thaginians, 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 
 favoured, Massinissa ever remained our loyal and 
 honourable 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. 
 
 ^^J\^- 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 behaviour at first 
 delighted Micipsa, who thought that his merit would 
 
VII. 
 
 THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 12; 
 
 add lustre to his own rule. When, however, he marked chap. 
 his nephew in the prime of life ever rising in import- 
 ance, 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 reme- 
 dies. 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 favourable chance which 
 leads even unambitious men astray in the hope of 
 gain. He saw, too, that the affection of the Numid- 
 ians 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. 
 Beset by these difficulties, he saw that a man who chap. 
 had so won the favour of his countrymen could not be 
 crushed either by violence or craft, and since Jugur- 
 tha 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 him- 
 self 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 exer- 
 
 rjF 
 
1.28 THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 
 
 CHAP, tion and forethought, by the most unassuming obedi- 
 ence, 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 vigour 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 Ju- 
 gurtha 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. 
 
 CHAP. 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 honour. 
 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 dis- 
 miss 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 
 
 VIII. 
 
THE JUGURTIIINE WAR. 1 29 
 
 publicly than through individuals, and to avoid the chap. 
 habit of bribing anybody. It was a dangerous matter, 
 he said, to buy from the few the favour which rested 
 with the many. If he would be content to persevere 
 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. After this speech Scipio dismissed him with chap. 
 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 congratula- 
 tions, 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 favour which he had won. He now changed 
 |his purpose, and endeavoured to win him by active 
 /kindness, adpjyted . hirn 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 : — I 
 
 *' As a child, Jugurtha, you lost your father and were chap. 
 left without hopes or fortune. I received you into the 
 royal family under the belief that my kindness would 
 
I30 THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 
 
 CHAP, 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 honour of a king, I warn and adjure you 
 to hold dear these boys who are your kinsmen by de- 
 -^scent, your brothers by my favour. 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 tie 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 
 
XI. 
 
 THE JUGURTHINE WAR. I31 
 
 more fortunate in the son of my adoption than in chap. 
 those I have begotten." 
 
 Jugurtha was aware of the hoUowness of the chap. 
 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 
 afterwards Micipsa died. 
 
 After burying him with all the splendour of a 
 royal funeral, the princes met together for a dis- 
 cussion among themselves of matters in general. 
 Hiempsal, the youngest, was of a headstrong dis- 
 position, 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 honour. His brother 
 importuned him to give way 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 previous 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 pro- 
 
XII. 
 
 132 THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 
 
 CHAP, gressed but slowly; this, however, did nothing to 
 soften his savage spirit, and he determined to carry 
 out his design by any means that offered. 
 
 ^^/^^- At that first meeting between the princes which 
 I have mentioned, they had determined, as a safe- 
 guard 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 neighbourhood 
 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 attend- 
 ant, and had always been esteemed and favoured by 
 him. Finding this instrument offered him by chance, 
 Jugurtha loaded him with promises, and induced him 
 on pretence 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 
 would come in person with a strong body of followers. 
 The Numidian soon executed his orders, and, accord- 
 ing 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 meet them, 
 ransacking every recess, breaking bars and bolts, and 
 with their noise and tumult causing a general confu- 
 sion. 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 
 
XIII. 
 
 THE JUGURTIITXE WAR. 1 33 
 
 Numidians, according to their orders, conveyed his ^]IY' 
 head to Jugurtha. 
 f\.. The news of so great an outrage was quickly spread ciiap. 
 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. Mean- 
 time Adherbal had despatched 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 de- 
 feated 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 defence 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 despatched 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 pre- 
 sents to the king's old friends, and to others whose 
 influence was at that time powerful in the Senate, and 
 
134 THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 
 
 CHAP, 'thus produced such a change of feeHng as raised 
 Jugurtha from the greatest unpopularity into the favour 
 and good-will of the nobility. Some of these incited 
 by the hope, others by the actual receipt of a pay- 
 ment, 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 :— 
 
 CHAP. " 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 govern- 
 ment, 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 
 
THE JUGURTHINK WAR. 1 35 
 
 services, I might have received them as my due. But chap. 
 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 family 
 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 king- 
 dom by crime. But the realm from which I am ousted 
 is that which the Roman people granted to my an- 
 cestors, that from which my father and grandfather 
 united with you in expelling Sufax and the Cartha- 
 ginians. 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 
 
136 THE JUGURTIIINE WAR. 
 
 CHAP, joint heir of your kingdom — that he, of all others, is 
 to be the destroyer of your race ? Is our family never 
 to be in peace ? Must our lot be always one of blood, 
 of battle, and of flight J 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 the 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 }'ou 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 ones 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 agree- 
 ment 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 
 
THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 1 37 
 
 has been murdered, and I myself have hardly escaped chap. 
 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 v/ho 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, w^hither 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 upon 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 engage- 
 ments. In your friendship, he said, we should find 
 
138 THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 
 
 CHAP, protection sufficient for every need ; and, should the 
 fortunes of your empire change, it was our duty to 
 share your fall. By your valour, and the favour of 
 heaven, you are great and wealthy. All things are 
 favourable, 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 
 
THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 1 39 
 
 than you, I have been hurled from my ancestral throne chap. 
 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 honourable 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." 
 
 After the king had made an end of speaking, the chap. 
 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 
 
 XV. 
 
I40 THE JUGURTIIINE WAR. 
 
 CHAP. 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 honour 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 Adhcrbal, 
 /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 rouse indignation, 
 as in such a case often happens, and, therefore, 
 
 CHAP. - restrained his usual greed. Success, nevertheless, 
 fell to the party in the Senate which let profit 
 and personal influence outweigh the interests of 
 truth. A decree was passed ordering that the king- 
 dom which Micipsa had held should be divided 
 between Jugurtha and Adherbal by ten commis- 
 sioners. 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 Gains Gracchus and 
 Marcus Fulvius Flaccus were murdered. At Rome, 
 Jugurtha had counted him as one of his enemies ; 
 nevertheless, he received him with laboured respect, 
 and by large gifts and promises succeeded in making 
 him prefer his advantage to reputation and honour, 
 and even to his own true interests. Approaching the 
 
 XVI. 
 
XVII. 
 
 THE JUGURTIIINE WAR. I41 
 
 other commissioners in the same way, J ugurtha gained chac. 
 the majority of them : it was only a few who held their 
 honour dearer than money. In the division, the part 
 of Numidia bordering on Mauritania, the richest in 
 soil and population, was assigned to Jugurtha ; the 
 remainder, to which its abundance of harbours and 
 public buildings gave the appearance rather than the 
 reality of higher value, Adherbal received as his share. 
 
 My subject seems to require that I should briefly chap. 
 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 harbourless ; 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 sub- 
 sequently arrived, or how the races intermingled, I 
 know that mv account differs from the received opin- 
 
142 THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 
 
 CHAP. ion. 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. 
 
 CHAP. The original inhabitants of Africa were Gaetulians 
 
 XVIII 
 
 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 obtain- 
 ing it by purchase or barter from Spain, as the wide 
 sea and their ignorance of the language made com- 
 merce impossible. Gradually the Persians, by inter- 
 marriage, absorbed the Gaetulians, and, as in their 
 frequent search for suitable lands they had Avandered 
 widely from place to place, took the name of Nomads. 
 To this very day the dwellings of the Numidian coun- 
 try people, which they call mapalia,, are of an oblong 
 shape and curving roofs which resemble the keels of 
 boats. The Medes and Armenians were reinforced by 
 
THE JUGURTHINE WAR. I43 
 
 Libyans, a people who lay closer to the African sea, chap. 
 while the Gaetulians lived more directly beneath the ^^^^^• 
 sun, near to the zone of intensest heat. The com- 
 bined nation early possessed towns, for, as they were 
 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 Nu- 
 midians, separated from the parent stock, on account 
 of their growing numbers, and settled on the terri- 
 tory round Carthage which is now called Numidia. 
 Thenceforth, each in reliance on the others' support, 
 by the terror of their arms they forced their neigh- 
 bours to submit to their rule, and won for themselves 
 glory and renown. This was more especially the case 
 with those whose 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 occu- 
 pied by the Numidians, and the conquered were all 
 merged in the race and name of their lords. 
 
 At a later date, the Phoenicians, some wishing to chap. 
 
 XIX 
 
 win dominions, others to lessen the home-population, 
 urged the commons and such others as were eager 
 for change to emigrate, and founded Hippo, Hadru- 
 metum, Leptis, and other cities along the coast. 
 These quickly rose to importance and served, in some 
 cases as a defence, 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. 
 
144 'I'HE JUGURTHTNE WAR. 
 
 CHAP. 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 Phil- 
 aeni " 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 bar- 
 barous 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 noth- 
 ing of the Roman people save their name, and had 
 hitherto been brought beneath our notice neither in 
 peace or war. The foregoing account of Africa and 
 its peoples will suffice for our needs. 
 
 CHAP. When the kinj^dom had been divided, the com- 
 
 XX. 
 
 missioners 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 kingrdom of Adherbal. He himself was 
 
THE jugurthinp: war. 145 
 
 -of an active and warlike nature ; the man he assailed chap. 
 
 XX. 
 
 ".vas 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 re- 
 treated 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, deter- 
 mined to endure anything rather than embark on a 
 war, since his former attempt had ended so unfavour- 
 .ably. This availed nothing to lessen the greed of 
 Jugurtha, for he was already, in imagination, possessor 
 of the w4iole 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. Adherbal chap 
 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 mus- 
 tered 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 
 
 XXI. 
 
146 ' THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 
 
 CHAP, 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 
 
 despatched 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 deter- 
 mination 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 
 
 CHAP, of their advisers and of themselves. The commis- 
 sioners speeded on their journey to Africa, all the 
 more because, while they were making their prepara- 
 tions 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 
 
THE JUGURTHINL WAR. " 147 
 
 every effort to win the approval of the good ; it was chap. 
 his merit, and not an)^ cunning devices, that had re- 
 commended 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 devo- 
 tion 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 intend- 
 ing shortly to send ambassadors to Rome to explain 
 the whole state of affairs. After this, they separated. 
 Adherbal the commissioners had no means of ad- 
 dressing. 
 
 Jugurtha, as soon as he judged that they had left chap 
 Africa, finding it impossible, on account of its situa- 
 tion, 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 provi- 
 sion. 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 there- 
 fore 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 
 
 K 
 
 XXIII. 
 
148 THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 
 
 CHAP, their way by night through the enemy's lines to the 
 nearest point on the coast, and thence to Rome. 
 
 (HAP. 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, 
 
THE JUGURTHINP: WAR; I49 
 
 other than the might of Rome ? For myself, I could cn.\i». 
 
 ^ XXIV. 
 
 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 wicked- 
 ness, 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 grasp ; 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." 
 
 On the reading of this letter, some proposed the chap 
 despatch of an army to Africa for the immediate 
 rescue of Adherbal, and that meanwhile they should 
 discuss Jugurtha's conduct in disobeying the commis- 
 sion. 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 over- 
 ruled 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 ex- 
 citing 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 
 despatch to Jugurtha commanding his immediate 
 attendance in the province, and announcing their 
 
 XXV 
 
I50 THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 
 
 CHAP, commission to him from the Senate. Jusfurtha, on 
 
 XXV. 
 
 hearing that men of distinction, whose influence in 
 Rome he knew by report, had come to bar his pro- 
 ceedings, 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 vehem- 
 ence of his desire blindly hurried him along to 
 complete his crime. The result in his covetous 
 nature was the victory of the evil course. En- 
 circling 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 
 I if he did not raise the siege, after much parleying the 
 I commissioners departed without having effected any- 
 ^ thing. 
 CHAP. 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 
 
THE JUGURTHINP: WAR. I5I 
 
 therefore made the surrender. Jur^urtha's first act/ chap. 
 
 f XXVI. 
 
 was to torture and put him to death. Next he mad^ 
 an indiscriminate massacre of all the adult Numidians 
 and the traders, as they came in contact with his 
 troops. 
 
 When this was known in Rome, and the matter chap. 
 
 XXVII. 
 
 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 offence. 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 Nu-! 
 midia, 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. 
 
 Tueurtha received the news of all this with great chap. 
 
 . XXVIII. 
 
 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 
 
XXIX. 
 
 152 THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 
 
 CHAP, nigh to the city, the Senate was consulted by Bestia 
 as to whether it was their pleasure that the ambassa- 
 dors 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 organising 
 his commissariat, Calpurnius at first vigorously attacked 
 Numidia, capturing many prisoners and taking several 
 
 CHAP, towns by storm. When, however, Jugurtha began 
 through ambassadors to tempt him with bribes, and 
 to shew him the difificulty of the war he was conduct- 
 ing, 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 
 
THE TUCiURTIIINE WAR. IS 
 
 !>.^ 
 
 of virtue and integrity into that of dishonour. Jugur- chap. 
 
 XXIX. 
 
 tha 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 person- 
 ally on all the conditions. Meanwhile, to inspire con- 
 fidence, 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 am- 
 bassadors in return for the grant of a truce till the 
 surrender should be made. On this the king, in pur- 
 suance 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 con- 
 ference 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. Calpur- 
 nius then set out for Rome to hold the elections, and 
 peace was observed in Numidia and in our army. 
 
 When rumour spread the news of the events in chap. 
 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 
 
 XXX. 
 
154 THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 
 
 CHAP, should sanction so serious a crime or annul the con- 
 
 XXX. 
 
 sul'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, 
 Gains 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 free- 
 dom, exposed many instances of the pride and cruelty 
 of the nobility, and in fine shewed great energy in ex- 
 citing 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 de- 
 livered at a public meeting after the return of Bestia, 
 somewhat as follows : — 
 CHAP. "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 
 
 XXXI. 
 
THE JUGURTIIINE WAR. 1 55 
 
 yet my spirit forces me to oppose the tyranny of the chap. 
 
 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 behaviour is certain to work their ruin. 
 After the murder of Tiberius Gracchus, whom they 
 accused of aiming at kingly power, they set their com- 
 missions to work against the party of the commons in 
 Rome. Again, after the slaughter of Gains Gracchus 
 and Marcus Fulvius, many men of your station were 
 put to death in prison, and in neither case was it the 
 law but the 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 splendour before your eyes, displaying their 
 priesthoods and their consulships, and some their 
 triumphs, as if they held them as honours to which 
 they were entitled, not as spoils they had seized. 
 
 XXXI. 
 
156 THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 
 
 CHAP. Slaves that are bought for money rebel at unjust com- 
 mands of their masters : will you, Romans, who are 
 born to rule, patiently submit to servitude? 
 / "But what manner of men are these who have 
 taken possession of the state? They are the mcst 
 wicked of mortals, men of bloodstained hands and 
 monstrous avarice, the most criminal and arroo^ant 
 of their kind, men who would sell their word, their 
 loyalty, their affections, and seek a profit alike 
 from honour and from shame. Some of them find 
 their safety in having murdered tribunes of the peo- 
 ple, others in having held oppressive trials, man\^ 
 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 assuredly 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 vigour 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 ? ' some one will 
 ask me ; * ought we to take vengeance on the men . 
 
THE JUGURTHINE WAR. I5- 
 
 who have betrayed the state to its enemy?' Not, chai>. 
 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 
 peace 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 
 dishonour. Perhaps, however, you have not even yet 
 had enough of their tyranny, and like 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 to 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 deep- 
 est disgrace, I would yet be content that you should 
 pardon these, the wickedest of their race, since the\- 
 are your fellow-citizens, were it not that your com- 
 passion would turn to your own destruction. So great 
 is these men's shamelessness that it will not be enough 
 that you have forgiven their offences 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 
 
158 THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 
 
 CHAP, trust or concord ? They wish to rule, you to be free, 
 
 XXXT 
 
 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 kingship, but the power to work 
 your will with impunity ? 
 
 " I do not, however, exhort you, Ouirites, to be glad 
 that fellow-citizens have done the wrong rather than 
 the right. I only exhort you, not to set about destroy- 
 ing 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." 
 CHAP. By frequent speeches to this and the like effect, 
 Memmius persuaded the people to despatch 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 JUGURTHINE WAR. 1 59 
 
 the others who were arraic^ned for receiving: bribes chap. 
 
 XXXII 
 
 might be more easily exposed. 
 
 While this was going on at Rome, the officers left 
 by Bestia in command of the army in Numidia com- 
 mitted 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. 
 Jugurtha therefore came to Rome with Cassius, in chap. 
 k 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 nar- 
 rated. 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 
 
 XXXIII. 
 
l60 THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 
 
 CHAP, he revealed who were his accomplices. Gaius Mem- 
 xxxiri. 
 
 mius, 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 his 
 
 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 honour and merciful disposition of the Roman 
 
 people. Should he withhold the information, he 
 
 would not save his accomplices, but would ruin him- 
 
 CHAp. self and his own hopes. 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, neverthe- 
 less, won the day. The people quitted the meeting 
 where they had been thus mocked, and Jugurtha, 
 Bestia, and the others whom the investigation was dis- 
 quieting, felt their courage increase. 
 
 CHAP. There was at this time in Rome a certain Numidian, 
 by name Massiva, a son of Gulussa, and grandson of 
 
THE JUGURTHINE WAR. l6l 
 
 Massinissa. In the strugf^le between the king^s he had chap. 
 
 XXXV 
 
 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 
 defence in his friends, some of whom 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 cir- 
 cumstances made advisable. One of the band who 
 were hired to commit the murder rushed upon Mas- 
 siva 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. 
 
l62 THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 
 
 CHAP, rather on considerations of equity than by the law of 
 
 XXXV, T. ^ -' 
 
 nations, since he was in attendance on one who had 
 come to Rome under the public guarantee. Though 
 detected in so great a crime, Jugurthadid 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 among his 
 friends, but now, thinking more of his kingdom than 
 his sureties,he privily despatched 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 
 I 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." 
 vvv.?; 1 Meanwhile the war had been resumed, and Albinus 
 
 XXXV 1. I 
 
 / 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, assign- 
 ing now one cause and now another, promising to 
 surrender and then pretending distrust, 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 
 
. / 
 
 
 THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 163 
 
 desiVn, and refused to believe that a war so visforouslv chap. 
 
 XXXVI 
 
 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, there- 
 fore, left his brother Aulas as pro-praetor in the camp, 
 and departed for Rome. 
 
 Just at this time at Rome the state was being: vio- chap. 
 
 XXXVII 
 
 lently excited by dissensions among the tribunes, two 
 of whom, Publius Lucullus, and Lucius Annius, were 
 striving, despite the opposition of their colleagues, to 
 extend their term of office. This disagreement pre- 
 vented the elections being held throughout the year, 
 and Aulus, who, as I said above, had been left as pro- 
 praetor in the camp, was led by this delay to entertain 
 a hope of either bringing the war to an end, or extort- 
 ing 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 bitterness of the season, and the 
 natural advantages of the place, made its storm 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 pretence 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 
 miffht forward his undertakinq;. Aware of the folly chap. 
 
 . XXXVIII. 
 
 and unskilfulness of the legate, Jugurtha craftily 
 fostered his madness, sent a succession of beseech- 
 
 L 
 
1 64 THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 
 
 CHAP. Ing 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.] Mean- 
 while he employed skilful agents to tamper with the 
 praetor's army night and day, and bribed the centur- 
 ions 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 sud- 
 denly 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 en- 
 courage 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 defence ; 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 neigh- 
 bouring hill. Night, and the plunder of the camp, 
 withheld the enemy from making use of their victory. 
 j On the next day, Jugurtha, in a conference with Aulus, 
 ( expressed himself to the effect that, although he held 
 
THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 165 
 
 him and his army in the toils of famine and sword, he c:hap. 
 
 xxx\ HI. 
 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, never- V 
 
 theless, with the fear of death before their eyes, peace \ 
 
 was concluded according to the king's pleasure. 
 
 When information of this was received at Rome, chap. 
 
 XXXIX. 
 
 fear and grief fell upon the state. Some sorrowed 
 for the glory of their empire, others, in their ignorance 
 of the affairs of war, feared for their freedom. Every 
 one, and especially those who had often gained dis- 
 tinction in war, was bitter against Aulus for having, 
 though possessed of arms, sought safety in dishonour 
 rather than the sword. The consul Albinus, in his j 
 fear of odium and consequent danger from his 
 brother's misconduct, consulted the Senate as to the 
 peace. Meanwhile, he levied reinforcements for the 
 army, summoned contingents from the allies and the 
 Latin citizens, and in fact showed energy in every 
 j)ossible way. The Senate, as was their duty from 
 the first, decreed that without the consent of itself 
 and the people no agreement could have had the 
 force of a treaty. The consul was prevented by the 
 tribunes of the people from taking the forces which 
 he had levied with him, but started himself in a few 
 days to Africa, for his entire army in accordance with 
 the agreement had evacuated Numidia and was now 
 in winter quarters in the province. He arrived there, 
 burning to pursue J ugurtha and so relieve his brother's 
 unpopularity, but the sight of his soldiers, disorganised 
 
l66 THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 
 
 CHAP, not only by their route but by the disorder and 
 
 XXXIX. , r ^ , -,..,. . , 
 
 luxury of a relaxed state of discipline, convinced 
 him that with the means at his disposal nothing was 
 to be done. 
 CHAP, j Meanwhile at Rome Gaius Manilius Limetanus, a tri- 
 bune of the commons, proposed to the people that an 
 ^ enquiry should be held as to all persons by whose advice 
 Jugurtha had disregarded the decrees of the Senate, 
 who had received bribes from him when on embassies 
 or military commands, or who had restored to him 
 his elephants and deserters, and also as to all who 
 had made agreements with an enemy either for peace 
 or war. Some in their consciousness of their guilt, 
 others in their fear of danger from party hatred, 
 finding themselves unable to openly resist the bill 
 without arousing their favour for these and similar 
 malpractices, prepared secretly to obstruct it by means 
 of their friends, and particularly by the help of men 
 from the Latin towns and the Italian allies. It is 
 impossible, however, to relate with what determina- 
 tion and violence the commons supported the bill, 
 and this, such was the passion that possessed the 
 contending parties, rather from hatred of the nobility, 
 against whom these penalties were aimed, than from 
 any patriotic feeling. While all others were stricken 
 with dismay Marcus Scaurus who, as I related above, 
 had been Bestia's lieutenant, amid the triumph of the 
 commons and the rout of his own party, in the confu- 
 sion which still prevailed in the state, managed to 
 have himself appointed one of the three judges created 
 in accordance with the bill of Manilius. The enquiry, 
 however, was conducted with harshness and violence 
 
THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 1 6/ 
 
 according to the reports and caprices which prevailed chap. 
 among the commons, who at this crisis were possessed 
 by the same insolence in their good fortune as had so 
 often governed the nobility in theirs. 
 
 A few years before this, party divisions and cabals, chap. 
 with all the bad qualities they bring with them, had 
 become common at Rome in a period of peace and of 
 the abundance of such things as men esteem the first 
 of blessings. Down to the destruction of Carthage, 
 the people and Senate of Rome between them admin- 
 istered the state peacefully and soberly ; there was no 
 strife among the citizens for glory or supremacy, and 
 fear of its enemies kept the state to the exercise of 
 honourable qualities. When, however, men's minds 
 were relieved of this fear, as a natural consequence, 
 wantonness and arrogance, the favourite vices of 
 prosperity, made their appearance. Thus the repose, 
 for which amid their calamities they had longed, 
 proved, when they had obtained it, more troublesome 
 and bitter than calamity itself. The nobility now 
 made dignity, the people freedom, the objects of party 
 passion, and every one seized, plundered, and robbed, 
 for his own hand. Thus everything was drawn to one 
 or other side, and the state, which had stood between 
 them, was torn asunder. Of the two parties the 
 nobility were the stronger, owing to their power of 
 common action ; the force of the commons, weakened 
 and scattered in a multitude of hands, was less effec- 
 tive. All action, both in war and in home affairs, was 
 taken at the discretion of a clique. The same party 
 controlled the treasury, the provinces, and civil offices 
 and the awards of reputation and triumph. The people 
 
1 68 THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 
 
 CHAP, were ground down by military service and want ; the 
 spoils of war were seized by the generals and shared 
 with a few accomplices, and meanwhile the parents 
 and little children of the soldiers were thrust from 
 their homesteads by their more powerful neighbours. 
 Hand in hand with power, avarice, unlimited and un- 
 restrained, spread abroad, and, while it caused general 
 pollution and devastation, held nothing as estimable, 
 nothing as sacred until it worked its own ruin. As 
 soon as members of the nobility were found to prefer 
 true glory to unjust dominion, the state was shaken 
 and civil strife sprang into being like some convulsion 
 
 CHAP. ; of the earth. Tiberius and Gains Gracchus — men 
 whose ancestors had done much to advance the state 
 in the Punic and other wars — first asserted the liberty 
 of the commons and exposed the crimes of the clique. 
 The nobility, in guilty terror, opposed their proceedings 
 at one time by means of the allies and the Latin 
 citizens, at another by the Roman knights who had 
 been drawn from the side of the commons by the hope 
 of an alliance with themselves. First they cut off 
 Tiberius, and then, a few years afterwards, his brother 
 Gains, who was entering on the same course — the one 
 a tribune, the other a commissioner for establishing 
 colonies ; and besides these they killed Marcus Fulvius 
 Flaccus. The Gracchi, in their desire for victory, had 
 certainly shown a too intemperate disposition. It is 
 better, however, to be defeated by a good precedent 
 than to crush a wrong by means of a bad one. As it 
 was, the nobility used their victory to indulge their 
 own passion, made away with many persons by sword 
 or banishment, and for the future gained in the terror 
 
XLIII. 
 
 THE JUGURTHINE WAR. I69 
 
 they inspired rather than in real power. Such conduct chap. 
 has often proved the ruin of great states. Each 
 party is ready to use any means to defeat the other, 
 and to punish the defeated too severely. But were I 
 to set about treating of party passions and the condi- 
 tion of public morals in any detail; or in proportion to 
 the importance of the question, my time would fail me 
 sooner than my material. I therefore return to my 
 task. 
 
 After the treaty of Aulus and the disgraceful flight ^hap. 
 of our army, the consuls Quintus Metellus and Marcus 
 Silanus, in accordance with a resolution of the Senate, 
 had settled on their respective provinces, and that of 
 Numidia had fallen to Metellus, a man of energy, 
 whose reputation, though he was an opponent of the 
 popular party, was unshaken and unblemished. No 
 sooner had he entered ofhce than, while accounting 
 everything else as duties to be shared with his col- 
 league, he concentrated his attention on the war which 
 he was about to conduct. Placing little confidence in 
 the old army, he levied soldiers and summoned troops 
 from all quarters; made ready armour, weapons, horses, 
 and the other instruments of warfare, with an abun- 
 dance of provisions, and everything in fact which in a 
 war of variable character and of many requirements, 
 is wont to be of service. The Senate by its influence, 
 the allies, Latin citizens, and dependent kings, by 
 freely sending contingents, and above all, the whole 
 state by the earnestness of its zeal, used every exertion 
 to complete these measures. When everything was 
 prepared and arranged to his wish, the consul set out 
 for Numidia amid the high hopes of the citizens. 
 
XLIV. 
 
 170 THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 
 
 CHAP, which were roused not only by his talents but espb^ 
 cially by the unswerving resolution with which he 
 resisted the temptations of wealth, and by the fact 
 that it was by the greed of our officers in Numidia 
 that our strength had hitherto been crushed and that 
 of our enemies augmented. 
 
 CHAP. On the arrival of Metellus in Africa, he received 
 from Spurius Albinus, the proconsul, an indolent and 
 cowardly army, unable to bear either danger or toil, 
 readier of tongue than of hand, the spoiler of its 
 allies and the spoil of its enemies, without government 
 and without discipline. Thus more anxiety fell to the 
 new general from the bad character of his soldiers 
 than reinforcement or hope from their numbers. The 
 delay of the elections had shortened his time for a 
 campaign, and he suspected that the minds of the 
 citizens were strained with expectation of some deci- 
 sive action. Nevertheless, he determined not to 
 engage in active war before he had forced his men to 
 endure toil by reviving the ancient discipline. Stunned 
 by the defeat of his brother Aulus and his army, 
 Albinus, after coming to the determination not to ad- 
 vance beyond the province, for the part of the usual 
 campaigning time during which he was in command, 
 kept his soldiers, as a rule, in fixed camps, except 
 when the effluvium or a scarcity of food compelled 
 him to change his position. These camps were not 
 entrenched, nor were watches set according to mili- 
 tary custom. The men left the standards at their 
 own pleasure ; camp followers mingled with the sol- 
 diers and roamed about with them by day and 
 night. In their excursions they wasted the land, 
 
THE JUGURTHINE WAR. I/I 
 
 plundered the country houses, vied with each other in chap 
 
 XLIV 
 
 carrying off cattle and slaves, and bartered them away 
 to traders for foreign wine and the like. The corn with 
 which the state supplied them they sold, and bought 
 their bread from day to day. In fine, there is no 
 shameful outcome of wantonness and sloth that words 
 can express or imagination figure that was not to be 
 found in that army, and more besides. I find, how- chap 
 ever, that Metellus showed his greatness and wisdom 
 no less in this difiiculty than in dealing with an 
 enemy ; with such self-command did he keep the 
 mean between popularity-seeking and severity. As 
 his first step, he abolished by edict all the appliances 
 of sloth, forbidding the sale in the camp of bread or 
 any other cooked food, the presence of camp-followers 
 in the track of the army, or the possession by a com- 
 mon soldier of any slave or beast of burden either in 
 camp or on the march. On all other points he laid 
 down strict rules. Moving along cross roads, he 
 shifted his camp from day to day, fortified it with 
 rampart and trench, as if in presence of the enemy, 
 set numerous watches, and went the rounds in person 
 with his officers. On the march he was now in the 
 van, now in the rear, often, too, with the main body ; 
 and saw that no one left the ranks, that the soldiers 
 marched in close order with the standards, and that 
 each man carried his own food and arms. By this 
 course of restraining rather than punishing offences, 
 he soon gave stability to his army. 
 
 Meanwhile Jugurtha, on hearing the report of what I chap. 
 Metellus was doing, and being assured from Rome of \ ' 
 his integrity, despaired of his fortunes, and now at « 
 
1^2 THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 
 
 CHAP.^ last tried to make a real surrender. With this object 
 he sent an entreating embassy to the consul to beg 
 only life for himself and his children ; everything else 
 they were to surrender to the Roman people. 
 
 Experience, however, had long ago convinced Metel- 
 ] lus that the Numidians were a faithless and unstable 
 / race, ever eager for change. He therefore approached 
 the ambassadors independently of each other, and 
 tampered with them by degrees. , Finding them 
 favourable to his purpose, he persuaded them, by 
 large promises, to surrender Jugurtha to him, if pos- 
 sible alive, but, failing that, dead. Publicly, he bade 
 them take back an answer such as might satisfy the 
 king. A few days later he invaded Numidia with an 
 army prepared for fighting, and in hostile array. No 
 signs of war were apparent ; the cottages were occu- 
 pied, cattle and husbandmen in the fields. The 
 king's officers advanced from their towns and dwell- 
 ings to meet him, ready to provide corn, convey pro- 
 visions, and in fact to do whatever they were ordered. 
 None the less Metellus advanced guardedly as if in the 
 presence of an enemy, sent his scouts far and wide in 
 every direction, and believed these marks of submis- 
 sion to be a mere show, and that an opportunity was 
 being sought for a sudden attack. He himself, with 
 the light cohorts, and a chosen body of slingers and 
 ' bowmen, was in the front. In the rear his lieutenant. 
 Gains Marius, was in command Avith the cavalry. 
 , The auxiliary cavalry Metellus had divided between 
 ' the two flanks under the several tribunes of the 
 legions and officers of the cohorts, in such a manner 
 that skirmishers were mingled with it to repulse the 
 
THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 
 
 173 
 
 cavalry of the enemy at whatever point it might 
 attack. Such was the treachery of Jugurtha and such 
 his acquaintance both with the country and with the 
 art of war, that it was a question whether he were more 
 dangerous absent or present, in peace or in war. 
 
 Not far from the road along which Metellus was 
 marching was a Numidian town named Vaga, the 
 most frequented market of the whole kingdom ; and 
 here many Italians had been wont to settle and trade. 
 On this town the consul imposed a garrison, partly for 
 the sake of seeing whether the inhabitants would submit 
 to it, partly on account of the advantage of the place. 
 He further demanded that they should bring in corn 
 and other stores useful for the war, thinking, as he had 
 reason, that the number of traders would both aid the 
 army with provisions, and would help to secure what 
 he had already won. 
 
 While Metellus was busied with this, Jugurtha, 
 with increasing earnestness, was sending submissive 
 embassies, entreating for peace and offering to 
 surrender everything except the lives of himself 
 and his children. As he had done to their prede- 
 cessors, the consul before dismissing the ambassadors 
 suborned them to betray their master, neither refused 
 nor promised the king the peace he asked, and amid 
 these delays awaited the fulfilment of the ambassa- 
 dors' promises. Jugurtha, when he came to compare 
 the words of Metellus with his actions, perceived that 
 he was being assailed with his own devices. As far 
 as words went peace was offered him, as a matter of 
 fact the war was being hotly pressed ; an important 
 city had been won from him, the enemy had learnt 
 
 CHAP. 
 XLVl. 
 
 CHAP. 
 XLVU. 
 
 CHAP. 
 XLVIIl 
 
 7 T--^:^ c 
 
 ■\ 
 
174 THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 
 
 CHAP, the nature of the land, and the loyalty of his country- 
 
 XLVIII ' 
 
 men had been tampered with. Forced by necessity, 
 he determined on a struggle. A knowledge of the 
 enemy's route led him to hope for victory from the 
 favourable nature of the ground, and, raising as great 
 forces of every kind as he could, by means of little 
 known paths he got the start of the army of Metellus. 
 In the part of Numidia of which Adherbal had 
 gained possession at the time of the partition there 
 was a river named the Muthul, which took its rise 
 from the south. Some twenty miles from this stream, 
 and following the same direction, lay a barren and un- 
 cultivated mountain ridge. Almost in its midst there 
 rose a hill stretching to an immense distance, and 
 clothed with wild olives, myrtles, and trees of such 
 other kinds as grow in a dry and sandy soil. Between 
 the hills and the Muthul was a plain, barren from want 
 of water, except in the neighbourhood of the river, 
 where it was planted with trees and thickly occupied 
 by cattle and husbandmen. 
 xLDc' 1 ^" ^^^^ ^^^^' which, as I said, lay at right angles to 
 I the road, Jugurtha took up his position in a very ex- 
 tended line. Giving Bomilcar the command of the 
 elephants and a part of his infantry, he instructed him 
 what to do, while he himself remained at a point 
 nearer the mountain with the whole body of cavalry 
 and the pick of the infantry, and there posted his men. 
 Then, visiting the several squadrons and companies, 
 he urged and conjured them to be mindful of their 
 ancient valour and of victory, and to shield himself 
 and his kingdom against the greed of the Romans. 
 The men, he said, against whom they had to fight were 
 
THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 175 
 
 those whom they had formerly beaten and led beneath chap. 
 
 XLIX. 
 
 the yoke, and though they had changed their general 
 they had not changed their spirit. Everything which 
 the Numidians had a right to expect from their com- 
 mander he had provided ; they would hold the higher 
 ground, their knowledge would be matched with inex- 
 perience, they would not join in conflict as a weaker 
 force against a stronger, or as raw recruits with men 
 better versed in war. They must therefore, he said, 
 hold themselves ready and on the alert to burst upon 
 the Romans at the given signal. That day would 
 either crown all their toil and victories, or be the 
 beginning of the greatest miseries ! Besides this, he 
 addressed singly each man whom he had rewarded 
 with money or distinction for some warlike exploit, 
 reminding him of his favour, and pointing him out as 
 an example to others. In fine, he suited his words to 
 each man's character, and used the various incentives 
 of promises, threats, entreaties. As he was thus en- 
 gaged, Metellus was seen descending the mountain 
 with his army, unaware of the enemy's presence. At 
 first he was baffled by the strange appearance of the 
 country, for the cavalry and the Numidians had taken 
 up their position in the brushwood, and owing to the 
 lowness of the trees were not altogether hidden, 
 but yet were difficult to distinguish for what they 
 were, as their own bodies and their military ensigns 
 were masked, both designedly and by the nature of 
 their position. He soon, however, discovered the am- 
 bush, and ordered a short halt. Changing his forma- 
 tion on the right flank, which was nearest the enemy, 
 he drew up his line with a threefold reserve, distri- 
 
1/6 THE JUGURTIIINE WAR. 
 
 CHAP, buted slingers and bowmen among- the companies, 
 placed all his cavalry on the wings, and, after a few 
 Avords of suitable encouragement to his soldiers, led 
 his force in its new formation, with the front ranks at 
 right angles to the line of march, down to the level 
 
 CHAP, c^round. He remarked that the Numidians remained 
 
 L. 
 
 quiet and did not descend the hill, and in that season, 
 and in the scarcity of water, felt a fear lest his army 
 should be exhausted by thirst. He therefore sent for- 
 ward his lieutenant, Publius Rutilius, with some light 
 cohorts and a part of the cavalry towards the river, to 
 seize a position for a camp, expecting that the enemy 
 would hinder his own advance by frequent charges and 
 flank attacks, and, in their distrust of the sword, would 
 try what the weariness and thirst of his soldiers would 
 avail them. He himself then made a gradual advance, 
 such as his means and situation allowed, in the same 
 order in which he had descended the hill. Marius was 
 behind in command of the troops facing the enemy, 
 he himself with the cavalry of the left wing, which in 
 the new order of marching was become the van. 
 
 As soon as Jugurtha marked that Metellus' rear had 
 passed his own front ranks he occupied the hill, at the 
 point where Metellus had descended, with a force of 
 about two thousand foot, so as to prevent it serving as 
 a refuge and subsequent stronghold to his adversaries 
 in a retreat. He then suddenly gave the signal, and 
 rushed upon the enemy. Some of the Numidians cut 
 down our rear ranks, others assailed us on either flank, 
 ^ everywhere the enemy was upon us, and pressing us 
 hard. The Roman ranks were thrown into disorder 
 at every point, and even soldiers who had resisted the 
 
THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 17/ 
 
 enemy with unusual resolution found themselves thwar- chap. 
 ted by the baffling nature of the fight, and while they 
 were being wounded from a distance, had no means of 
 striking a blow in return, or coming to close quarters. 
 As often as one of our squadrons began to pursue, 
 Jugurtha's horsemen, according to their instructions, 
 did not retreat in a body or to any one place, but 
 scattered themselves as widely as possible. They 
 were superior in numbers, and whenever they had 
 failed to deter the enemy from pursuit, surrounded 
 them on their rear and flanks when their order was 
 broken. When, again, the hill offered a readier retreat 
 than the plains, the Numidian horses, accustomed to 
 such riding, easily made their way amid the brush- 
 wood, while ours were held back by the rough and 
 unusual nature of the ground. The whole en- chap. 
 gagement, in its changeful and indecisive aspect, 
 was such as to arouse both shame and pity. Sepa- 
 rated from their comrades, some retreated, others 
 pursued ; heedless of standards and ranks, each 
 man made his stand where danger had overtaken him, 
 and there tried to avert it. Swords and javelins, 
 horses and men, foes and countrymen, were mingled 
 in confusion ; no plan was followed, or order obeyed ; 
 chance was supreme over all. The fourth part of/ 
 the day had passed in this way, and even yet the issue./ 
 was uncertain. At last, when all were faint with toil 
 and heat, Metellus marked that the onset of the 
 Numidians was less vigorous, and, gradually getting 
 his men together, re-formed their ranks, and posted 
 four cohorts of legionaries to resist the enemy's 
 infantry, of which a great part, out of sheer weariness, 
 
LII. 
 
 178 THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 
 
 CHAP, had seated themselves on the higher ground. At the 
 
 LI. 
 
 same time he begged and exhorted his men not to 
 show themselves wanting, nor to suffer the flying 
 enemy to win the day, reminding them that they had 
 no camp or fortifications of any kind to which to re- 
 treat, and that all their hopes lay in their arms. 
 Meanwhile, Jugurtha, on his side, did not remain inac- 
 tive. He visited and encouraged his men, renewed 
 the battle, and, backed by his chosen followers, left no 
 means of attack untried. He relieved his own troops 
 and pressed on the enemy when they wavered, where 
 he saw them making a firm stand he hampered them 
 CHAP by distant assaults. Thus did the two generals, 
 both of them men of high ability, vie with each 
 other in their efforts. Personally they were a 
 match, but the resources at their disposal were 
 unequal. Metellus could count on the courage of 
 his troops, but the ground was against him. Jugur- 
 tha, on the other hand, had everything in his favour 
 save the quality of his men. At last the Romans 
 understood that they had no place of escape, and that 
 the enemy was avoiding a regular battle. When 
 evening had already arrived, they carried out their 
 orders and stormed the hill. The Numidians, on losing 
 their position, fled in confusion. A few were killed, 
 but the majority were protected by their own fleetness, 
 and by their enemies' ignorance of the country. 
 
 Meanwhile, as soon as Rutilius had marched past 
 him, Bomilcar, who, as related above, had been placed 
 by Jugurtha in command of the elephants and a part 
 of the infantry, slowly led his men down into the 
 plain, and, while the Roman officer continued his hasty 
 
LIII. 
 
 THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 1 79 
 
 advance towards the river to which he had been des- chap. 
 patched, marshalled his army as noiselessly as the oc- 
 casion demanded, and kept ceaseless watch on every 
 movement of the enemy. Learning that Rutilius had 
 already encamped and was quite off his guard, and at 
 the same time that the din of the battle in which 
 Jugurtha was engaged was increasing, he now feared 
 lest the lieutenant should discover what was happen- 
 ing, and assist his hard-pressed comrades. In his dis- 
 trust of his men's courage he had drawn up his line in 
 close order, but he now extended it so as to block the 
 enemy's march, and in this order advanced against 
 the camp of Rutilius. The Romans, whose view was chap. 
 shut off by a plantation of trees, were suddenly aware 
 of a great cloud of dust. At first they thought it was 
 the dry soil being blown about by the wind ; they 
 noticed, however, that its advance was steady and like 
 that of an army in battle order, and that it approached 
 ever nearer and nearer. At last, understanding what 
 was really happening, they hastily seized their arms, 
 and, in obedience to order, took up a position in front 
 of the camp. The distance between the two armies 
 diminished, and they charged each other with a loud 
 shout. The Numidians stood their ground only as 
 long as they thought to find help in their elephants ; 
 as soon as they saw them entangled in the branches 
 of the trees and thus scattered and surrounded, they 
 took to flight, and most of them, with the loss of their 
 arms, escaped whole and sound under cover of the hill 
 and of the night, which was now falling. Of the ele- 
 phants four were captured, the rest, to the number of 
 forty, were killed. 
 
 M 
 
l3o THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 
 
 CHAP. The Romans were tired with marching, camp-mak- 
 ^"^' ing, and fighting, and were flushed with their victory. 
 The arrival, however, of Metellus was unexpectedly 
 delayed, and they advanced to meet him ready for 
 battle and on the alert; for the stratagems of the 
 Numidians forbade any relaxation of vigilance. The 
 night was dark, and the two armies, when now not far 
 apart, each inspired the other with terror and confu- 
 sion by its noise as if of an enemy's approach. In 
 this state of ignorance a pitiable disaster was on the 
 point of happening, when the horsemen who were 
 despatched from both armies discovered the truth. 
 As it was, fear was suddenly exchanged for joy. The 
 soldiers hailed each other in triumph, and heard and 
 related their several exploits ; each man was loud in 
 praising his prowess to the skies. Thus is it in the 
 affairs of men ; in victory even the cowards may boast, 
 • while calamity casts a slur even on the brave. 
 CHAP. Remaining four days in the same encampment, 
 Metellus made the recovery of the wounded his care, 
 rewarded those who had done good service in the 
 battles according to military custom, and praised and 
 thanked the whole body of his troops in a public speech. 
 He exhorted them to maintain a like spirit in the face 
 of the easy tasks which still remained, and assured 
 them that they had already fought enough for victory, 
 and that the rest of their toils would be for booty. In 
 the meantime, however, he sent deserters and other 
 suitable agents to discover where Jugurtha might be 
 living, and how he was employed ; whether he was at 
 the head of a few followers or of an army, and how he 
 bore himself under a defeat. The king, I should men- 
 
THE JUGURTHINE WAR. l8l 
 
 tlon, had withdrawn to a woody country of natural chap 
 strength, and was there collecting an army, greater in 
 numbers, but without vigour or strength, and com- 
 posed of men more skilled in the art of the husband- 
 man or shepherd than in that of war. The cause of 
 this was, that with the exception of the royal cavalry, 
 no Numidian attends the king after a rout ; they dis- 
 perse to whatever quarter they severally feel inclined, 
 and this is not esteemed a military offence, but is the 
 custom of the country. 
 
 Metellus saw that Jugurtha's spirit was still high, 
 and that a war was being renewed the conduct of 
 which must depend on his adversary's pleasure ; be- 
 tween himself and his enemies the contest was 
 unequal, for their defeats were less costly than his own 
 victories. He determined, therefore, to carry on the ' 
 war not by battles nor in battle array, but in another 
 fashion altogether. Accordingly he marched into the , 
 richest parts of Numidia, wasted the country, captured 
 and burnt many strongholds and towns which had 
 either been hastily fortified or left without a garrison, 
 slew all the adult males, and ordered everything else 
 to be the soldiers' booty. Amid the terror thus in- 
 spired, many persons were surrendered to the Romans 
 as hostages, corn and other useful provisions were 
 supplied in abundance, and a garrison was stationed 
 wherever there seemed occasion. This policy had a 
 much greater effect in frightening the king than any 
 battle lost by his soldiers. He whose whole hope lay 
 in flight found himself obliged to pursue, and though 
 he had been unable to protect his country when his 
 own, he had now to wage war in it when the enemy 
 
l82 . THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 
 
 CHAP, was its master. He embraced the course which seemed 
 best with the means at his disposal, and ordered the 
 greater part of his army to conceal itself in a fixed 
 position, while he himself with some picked cavalry- 
 pursued Metellus. By a series of night marches along 
 unfrequented roads he escaped notice and suddenly 
 attacked a straggling body of Romans. Most of them 
 were cut down in their defenceless condition, many 
 were captured, and not one of the whole number 
 made his escape unhurt. Before relief could arrive 
 from the camp, the Numidians, according to their 
 orders, withdrew to the neighbouring hills. 
 
 CHAP. Meanwhile at Rome great rejoicing arose on the 
 intelligence of the doings of Metellus, of his adherence 
 to ancient custom in his government of himself and 
 his army, of the victory which, though in an unfavour- 
 able position, his valour had won him, of his mastery 
 of the enemy's country, and of how he had reduced 
 Jugurtha, whose glory had been raised so high by 
 the carelessness of Aulus Albinius, to place his hope 
 of safety in a retreat to the deserts. The Senate, 
 therefore, decreed thanksgivings to the immortal gods 
 for the campaign so happily conducted, and the citi- 
 zens, who had been alarmed and anxious as to the 
 issue of the war, regained their cheerfulness. Of 
 Metellus men spoke in the most distinguished terms. 
 
 The general now redoubled his efforts for victory 
 and used every means of despatch ; he was cautious, 
 however, nowhere to expose himself to the enemy, 
 and remembered that envy follows close upon reputa- 
 tion. The more his fame increased the greater was 
 his anxiety, and, after Jugurtha's treacherous attacks, 
 
THE jugurthinp: war. 183 
 
 he no longer scattered his army on plundering expedi- chap. 
 tions. When corn or fodder were needed certain 
 cohorts of infantry, together with the whole of the 
 cavalry, acted as a guard. Part of the army he A 
 led in person, the rest were under Marius, but it I 
 was rather by fire than by rapine that he wasted 
 the country. The two generals pitched their camps 
 at no great distance from each other ; where 
 strength was required they united their forces, on 
 other occasions they kept apart, so as to spread 
 flight and terror the wider. At this period Jugurtha 
 was following them along the hills, seeking a suitable 
 line and position for a fight. Ascertaining what was 
 to be the route of the enemy, he would destroy the 
 fodder as well as the springs, of which there was a 
 scarcity. Showing himself at one time to Metellus, 
 at another to Marius, he would attack their rear-ranks 
 and immediately retreat to the hills, to recommence 
 his threatening demonstrations first in one quarter, 
 then in another. He neither gave battle nor allowed 
 the enemy rest, and contented himself with hampering 
 them in their projects. 
 
 The Roman general saw that he was being ex- chap. 
 hausted by this strategy, and that no offer of battle 
 was made by the enemy. He determined, therefore, 
 to besiege a large town named Zama, the key of that 
 part of the kingdom in which it was situated, thinking 
 that, as the occasion demanded, Jugurtha would come 
 to the relief of his subjects in their strait, and that 
 there would be a battle before the place. The king, 
 however, was acquainted of this plan by deserters, and 
 by forced marches outstripped Metellus, exhorted the 
 
 LVI. 
 
1 84 THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 
 
 CHAP, inhabitants to defend their walls, reinforced them 
 with a contingent of deserters (the troops who, since 
 they could not play him false, were the most trust- 
 worthy of the royal forces), and promised in addition, 
 that in due course he would himself come to their 
 help with his army. 
 
 After making these arrangements Jugurtha retired 
 to the most secret recesses he could find. A little 
 while afterwards he learnt that Marius, with a few 
 cohorts, had left the line of march on a mission to 
 Sicca, there to collect corn. This town had been the 
 first to secede from the king after his defeat. He 
 now marched thither by night with his chosen body 
 of horse, and attacked the Romans in the gateway as 
 they were in the act of departure. At the same time 
 he loudly called on the men of Sicca to surround the 
 cohorts in the rear ; fortune, he shouted, was giving 
 them the chance of a noble achievement, if they 
 accomplished it, henceforth he should live in fearless 
 enjoyment of his kingdom and they of their freedom. 
 Marius hastened to advance and get clear of the 
 town ; had he not done so the whole or a great part 
 of the people of Sicca would assuredly have played 
 him false. With such fickleness do the Numidians 
 behave. As it was, Jugurtha kept his soldiers for a 
 short while in their ranks. As soon as the enemy 
 began to press them harder, they scattered in flight 
 after losing a few of their number. 
 
 CHAP. I Marius next arrived before Zama. This town, 
 situated on a plain, was strong rather by art than by 
 nature, was abundantly provided with every requisite, 
 and well supplied both with arms and men. After 
 
 LVII. 
 
THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 185 
 
 making such preparations as his circumstances and chap. 
 
 the nature of the ground allowed, Metellus surrounded 
 
 the whole extent of the walls with his troops, and 
 
 assigned to each of his officers his post of command. 
 
 At a given signal a shout rose simultaneously from 
 
 every quarter, but without terrifying the Numidians, 
 
 who stood their ground without confusion, hostile and 
 
 on the alert. The battle then began. The Romans 
 
 fought each according to his temper. Some discharged 
 
 bullets and stones from a distance, others advanced 
 
 close to the wall and tried now to undermine it, and 
 
 now to storm it with ladders, showing great anxiety 
 
 to bring the fight to close quarters. On the other side, 
 
 the townsmen rolled down stones on their nearest 
 
 assailants, and flung pointed stakes and javelins, and 
 
 torchwood dipped in burning pitch and sulphur. 
 
 Even those who had remained at a distance found 
 
 but slight protection in their timidity, for many of 
 
 them were wounded by javelins hurled either from 
 
 engines or by the hand, and thus brave and cowardly 
 
 shared the same peril, though with very different 
 
 renown. 
 
 While this conflict was rasping around Zama, chap. 
 
 Lvin. 
 Jugurtha suddenly attacked the enemy's camp with 
 
 a large force, and burst upon the gate at a time when 
 the garrison had grown careless^ and were expecting 
 anything rather than a battle. Astounded by the 
 sudden alarm, our men consulted their safety in such 
 ways as their several characters inclined them ; some 
 fled, others seized their arms, while many were by this 
 time wounded or killed. Out of all that host, how- 
 ever, not more than forty took thought for the honour 
 
1 86 THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 
 
 CHAP, of Rome. These formed themselves into a body, and 
 seizing a position a little higher than the rest, defied 
 all efforts to dislodge them, hurling back the darts 
 discharged at them from a distance, and, as a few men 
 amid a host, more rarely missing their aim. When- 
 ever the Numidians attacked them at close quarters 
 they displayed prodigies of valour, and slaughtered, 
 scattered, and routed them with the greatest vigour. 
 Meanwhile, Metellus, as he was pressing on the siege 
 with much energy, heard the noise of an attack in his 
 rear. Turning his horse, he observed that the flight 
 was towards himself, which showed the fugitives to be 
 his own soldiers. In all haste he despatched the 
 whole of his cavalry to the camp, followed immediately 
 afterwards by the cohorts of the allies under Gaius 
 Marius, whom, with tears in his eyes, he besought, in 
 the name of their friendship and of the state, not to 
 allow reproach to cleave to their victorious army, nor 
 to permit the enemy to escape unpunished. Marius 
 quickly carried out his orders. Jugurtha found him- 
 self entangled in the entrenchments of the camp, and 
 seeing some of his men hurled headlong over the 
 ramparts, and others, in their hurry, blocking each 
 other's way amid the narrow paths, withdrew, with a 
 heavy loss, to his strongholds. Metellus, whose own 
 operations had been unsuccessful, on the arrival of 
 night returned with his army to the camp. 
 
 CHAP. The next day, before marching out to the attack, 
 he ordered the whole of the cavalry to patrol before 
 the camp, on the side by which the king had made 
 his approach, and assigned the charge of the different 
 gates and the neighbouring points to the different 
 
 TJX. 
 
THE JUGURTHINE WAR, 1 87 
 
 tribunes. He then marched up to the town and at- chap. 
 tacked the wall as on the former day. While he was 
 so engaged, Jugurtha suddenly dashed upon our men 
 from an ambush. Those who had been posted nearest 
 to his point of attack were for the moment frightened 
 and thrown into confusion ; the rest, however, quickly 
 came to their aid. The Numidians could now have 
 no longer stood their ground had not their infantry 
 mingled with the horsemen made great havoc in the 
 encounter. In reliance on these, instead of following 
 the usual cavalry tactics of alternate pursuit and re- 
 treat, they charged horse against horse, and entangled 
 and confused our ranks, and thus, by the help of their 
 light infantry, almost defeated their enemy. Mean- chap. 
 time the conflict was raging around Zama. The 
 struggle was fiercest at the several points where a 
 lieutenant or tribune was in command, and no one 
 trusted to his neighbour's valour instead of his own. 
 The townspeople showed no less vigour. At every 
 point there was assault and preparations to meet it. 
 On each side men were more eager to wound their 
 opponents than to defend themselves. Shouts of en- 
 couragement, joy, and pain arose to heaven amid the 
 din of arms, while darts were flying from side to side. 
 When the enemy for a while slackened in their attack, 
 the defenders of the wall watched with eagerness the 
 distant cavalry engagement. As Jugurtha's fortunes 
 rose and fell you might mark them now rejoicing 
 and now in fear. As if they could be heard or seen 
 by their comrades, some shouted warnings, others en- 
 couragement, while they beckoned and gesticulated, 
 and swayed their bodies, as if to avoid or hurl the 
 
 op Tm.; ' 
 
i88 
 
 THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 
 
 CHAP. 
 LX. 
 
 CHAP. 
 LXI. 
 
 darts. Marius, who was in command at this point, 
 marked their behaviour, and feigning despair, pur- 
 posely slackened the attack, and suffered the Nu- 
 midians to gaze without disturbance at the king's, 
 encounter. As soon as they were strongly engrossed 
 in anxiety for their comrades, he suddenly assaulted 
 the wall with the utmost violence, and his soldiers had 
 already climbed their ladders and almost seized the 
 battlements, when the townspeople rallied and met 
 them with a shower of stones, fire, and other missiles.. 
 Our men at first stood their ground ; then, as one 
 ladder after another was broken, and those who had 
 stood on them dashed to the ground, the remnant, 
 some whole and sound, but many sorely wounded^ 
 made their retreat as best they could. At last night 
 broke off the engagement. 
 
 Metellus saw that his attempt was vain. The town 
 was not captured, Jugurtha never gave battle except 
 in surprises or on ground of his own choosing, and the 
 summer was already past. He now retreated from 
 Zama, and, after placing garrisons in such of the 
 towns which had seceded to him as were sufficiently 
 protected by their position or fortifications, led the 
 rest of his army to its station in that part of the pro- 
 vince which borders on Numidia. He did not, how- 
 ever, follow the custom of other commanders and 
 surrender that season to repose and luxury, but, since 
 the war was little advanced by force of arms, aimed a 
 secret attack against the king by means of his friends,, 
 and prepared to use their treachery instead of arms. 
 The man who, as Jugurtha's greatest friend, had the 
 greatest power of deceiving him, was Bomilcar, the 
 
THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 1 89 
 
 same who had been with him at Rome, and, after chap. 
 
 LXI. 
 
 giving sureties in the matter of Massiva's death, had 
 fled to escape trial. To this man Metellus now appHed 
 with many promises, and induced him as a first step, 
 to visit him secretly for the sake of a conference, 
 and then pledged his word that on his surrendering 
 Jugurtha dead or alive, the Senate would grant him 
 a full pardon and possession of all his goods. These 
 offers easily won over the Numidian, who, besides his 
 natural inclination to treachery, was alarmed lest in the 
 event of peace being concluded with Rome, his own sur- 
 render for punishment might be one of the terms of the 
 treaty. On the first favourable occasion, Bomilcar ap- chap 
 
 LXI I 
 
 proached Jugurtha at a moment when he was troubled 
 and lamenting his fortunes, and advised and conjured 
 him with tears at last to take thought for himself and 
 his children and the Numidian people who had de- 
 served so well of him. He reminded him that they 
 had been beaten in every battle, their country wasted, 
 many of his subjects made prisoners or killed, and the 
 resources of his kingdom utterly impaired ; the courage 
 of his soldiers and the favour of fortune had already 
 been tried sufficiently often ; he implored him to be 
 on his guard lest, while he was hesitating, the Numi- 
 dians should take counsel for themselves. By these ^ 
 and other like arguments, Bomilcar incited the king 
 to surrender, and ambassadors were despatched to the I 
 general to announce that Jugurtha was ready to J 
 comply with his orders, and offered to surrender him- 
 self and his kingdom to his protection without any 
 stipulation. Metellus hastily ordered all persons of 
 senatorial rank to be summoned from their winter 
 
1,XII. 
 
 190 THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 
 
 CHAP, quartens, and held an assembly of these and such other 
 persons as he himself thought fit. According, there- 
 fore, to ancient custom, by the decree of his council 
 he sent through the ambassadors his commands to 
 Jugurtha to deliver up two hundred thousand pounds 
 of silver, all his elephants, and a large number of 
 horses and suits of armour. These commands were 
 complied with without delay, and he now ordered 
 that all his deserters should be brought to him in 
 chains. The greater number were delivered to him in 
 obedience to these orders ; a few, as soon as the 
 surrender began, had escaped to Mauritania, to king 
 Bocchus. After being thus plundered of arms, men, 
 and money, Jugurtha was summoned in person to 
 Tisidium, there to await further orders. On this he 
 began once more to waver in his resolution, and, in 
 consciousness of his guilt, to fear the punishment he 
 deserved. After wasting many days in hesitation, 
 during which at one moment in disgust at his ill- 
 fortune he thought anything preferable to war, at 
 another he considered how great would be the fall 
 from king to slave, he at last resumed the war, after 
 vainly sacrificing many of his chief means of defence. 
 At Rome the Senate, when consulted as to the dis- 
 position of the provinces, had decreed Numidia to 
 Metellus. 
 CHAP. About the same time it happened that, as Gaius 
 Marius was invoking the gods in sacrifice, the diviner 
 informed him that there were portents of great and 
 wonderful events, and that he should therefore carry 
 out in reliance on the gods whatever projects he had 
 in his mind ; let him try fortune as often as he would, 
 
 LXIII. 
 
THE JUGURTHINE WAR. IQI 
 
 the issue would always be favourable. Even before chap. 
 this, Marius had been tormented with a great desire 
 for the consulship, for attaining which he was, indeed, 
 well endowed with every qualification except that of 
 ancient family. He was energetic, upright, of wide 
 experience in warfare, and immense courage in battle. 
 In domestic life he was frugal, unconquered by lust 
 and riches, and only covetous of glory. 
 
 The birthplace of Marius was Arpinum, and there 
 he spent his boyhood. As soon as he was of an 
 age for military service, he practised himself not in 
 Greek oratory or in elegant accomplishments, but 
 in campaigning ; and thus amid honourable pur- 
 suits his character quickly developed, unimpaired. 
 On his seeking election as a military tribune few 
 people even knew him by sight, but the fame of 
 his exploits procured his return by every tribe. 
 Beginning with this, he won successive magistracies, 
 and always so conducted himself in office as to be 
 esteemed worthy of a more important post than 
 the one he held. Such was the quality he had shown 
 hitherto (for afterwards his thirst for popularity worked 
 his ruin), and yet he did not dare to stand for the 
 consulship. Even as late as this the commons had 
 entrance to other magistracies, but the consulship was 
 preserved by the nobility as the hereditary possession 
 of their order. No self-made man was so distinguished 
 or had performed such noble deeds as to be held 
 worthy of that office, or other than unclean. 
 
 When Marius saw that the words of the diviner chap. 
 pointed in the same direction as his own desires were 
 spurring him, he asked leave of absence from Metellus, 
 
192 THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 
 
 CHAP, in order to stand as a candidate. Metellus was 
 eminently endowed with courage, renown, and much 
 else that good men might desire ; he had, however, 
 that evil so common with men of rank, a scornful and 
 haughty temper. At first, astonished by so unusual an 
 occurrence, he expressed his surprise at Marius' project, 
 and advised him, with an appearance of friendship, 
 not to enter upon so improper a course, nor to cherish 
 thoughts above his fortunes ; it was not everything, he 
 said, that all men were free to desire ; Marius ought to be 
 content with his position, and, in fine, should be care- 
 ful not to demand from the Roman people a favour 
 which they would rightly deny him. Finding that 
 these and other arguments did not change Marius* 
 resolution, Metellus answered him with a promise to 
 do what he asked, as soon as the public business would 
 allow. When, however, the request was subsequently 
 repeated with some frequency, he is said to have 
 remarked that Marius should be in no hurry to depart, 
 as it would be time enough for him to stand for the 
 consulship in the same year as his own son, a 
 youth of about twenty, who was serving at the time in 
 the war and sharing his father's tent. This remark, as 
 was afterwards seen, strongly excited Marius to efforts 
 to gain the office to which he aspired, and to enmity 
 towards Metellus. He set to work under the influence 
 of ambition and anger, those worst of counsellors, and 
 refrained from no act or speech that might gain him 
 popularity. He treated the soldiers whom he com- 
 A manded in the winter quarters with more indulgence 
 V, than before ; and, at the same time, spread slanderous 
 i and boastful insinuations about the war among the 
 
THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 193 
 
 traders, of whom there were many at Attica. Were but chap. 
 the half of the army, he said, entrusted to him, in 
 a few days he would have Jugurtha in chains: the 
 general was purposely procrastinating war in the 
 excessive delight which a frivolous man of regal 
 haughtiness took in authority. These insinuations 
 seemed to the traders all the better grounded, inas- 
 much as the length of the war had impaired their 
 fortunes, and to the eager mind no haste is suffi- 
 cient. There was, moreover, in our army a Numidian chap. 
 
 LXV. 
 
 named Gauda, a son of Mastanabal and grandson of 
 Massinissa, whom Micipsa, when spent with disease, 
 and with his mental powers thus somewhat impaired, 
 had appointed in his will as his second heir. Gauda 
 had requested Metellus to assign him, as a prince, a 
 seat next his own, and, again, on a subsequent occa- 
 sion, to grant him a squadron of Roman cavalry as a 
 bodyguard. Both of these requests Metellus refused — 
 the seat of honour, because, by custom it belonged only 
 to those whom the Roman people recognised as kings; 
 the guard, inasmuch as it would be an insult to Roman 
 cavalry to consign them as attendants to a Numidian. 
 Marius made advances to Gauda in his trouble, and 
 encouraged him to try, with his help, to avenge himself 
 on the general for these insults. Inflating with fair 
 speeches a mind which diseases had enfeebled, he 
 represented to Gauda that he was a king, an important 
 person, and the grandson of Massinissa ; should Ju- 
 gurtha be captured or slain, he would have immediate 
 possession of the kingdom of Numidia, and this 
 might quickly be brought to pass, if he himself were 
 despatched as consul to direct the war. In this way, 
 
194 
 
 THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 
 
 CHAP. 
 LXV. 
 
 CHAP. 
 LXVI. 
 
 not only Cauda but the Roman knights, the soldiers, 
 and traders, were incited, some by Marius personally, 
 many by the hope of peace, to speak bitterly of 
 Metellus' conduct of the war in their letters to their 
 connections at Rome, and to ask for Marius as general. 
 It thus came to pass that many persons sought to gain 
 the consulship for him with the most honourable re- 
 commendations, while, just at this period, the com- 
 mons, after routing the nobility by the Mamilian law, 
 were supporting men of no birth as candidates ; thus 
 everything combined to favour Marius. 
 
 In the meantime Jugurtha, after breaking off his 
 surrender and renewing the war, was zealously making 
 all possible preparations, showing great activity, and 
 collecting an army. He tried by threats and by hold- 
 ing out rewards to gain over the cities which had 
 deserted him, fortified his own positions, replaced by 
 manufacture or purchase the armour, weapons, and 
 other material which he had sacrificed in the hope of 
 peace ; attracted bodies of Roman slaves, and with 
 his money tampered even with the Roman garrisons. 
 In a word, he left nothing untried, no stone unturned, 
 but adopted every possible expedient. When Jugur- 
 tha had first opened negotiations for peace, Metellus 
 had imposed a garrison on the town of Vaga. At the 
 importunate entreaty of the king, to whom, at heart, 
 the inhabitants had never been disloyal, the chief 
 citizens now formed a conspiracy. As for the common 
 people, they, as usual, especially with Numidians, were 
 of an inconstant temper, rebellious, and full of discord, 
 eager for change, the enemies of peace and quietness. 
 Arranging their plans among themselves, they agreed 
 
THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 1 95 
 
 to carry them out on the third day, which was one chap. 
 
 LXVI 
 
 observed as a festival throughout all Africa, and pro- 
 mised rather sport and wantonness than alarm. When 
 the time arrived the centurions, military tribunes, and 
 the governor of the town, Titus Turpilius Silanus, him- 
 self, were invited by different citizens to their homes, 
 and all, with the exception of Turpilius, massacred 
 in the course of the banquet. The conspirators then 
 attacked the soldiers who were wandering about un- 
 armed as was natural on such a day, and in the absence 
 of their officers. The common people followed their 
 example, some instructed by the nobles, others urged 
 only by their zeal for such work ; these were ignorant 
 of what had been done and the purpose of it, but 
 found in the mere rioting and revolution enough to 
 content them. The Roman soldiers, baffled by so chap. 
 
 LXVI I 
 
 unexpected an alarm, and not knowing what best to 
 do, fell into confusion. A force of the enemy barred 
 their path to the citadel, where their standards and 
 shields were deposited ; the gates, previously closed, 
 prevented their flight, and the women and children 
 standing on the edge of the roofs zealously hurled at 
 them stones and such other missiles as were at hand. 
 Against so baffling a danger no precautions could be 
 taken, and the bravest soldiers could make no resist- 
 ance to these weakest of opponents. Good and bad, 
 stout and cowardly were alike massacred unavenged. 
 Amid these outrages, when the cruelty of the Nu-' 
 midians v/as at its height and every gate shut, the 
 governor, Turpilius, was the single Italian who escaped 
 unharmed. Whether this was the result of his host's 
 compassion, of a bargain, or of chance, I cannot assure 
 
LXVIIT. 
 
 196 THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 
 
 CHAP, myself. Inasmuch, however, as in such a calamity he 
 preferred a shameful life to unspotted honour, he 
 seems to have been a worthless and execrable char- 
 acter. 
 
 CHAP. Metellus, on receiving news of the event at Vaga, for 
 a short while retired in sorrow from the public gaze. 
 As soon as anger began to mingle with his grief, he 
 hastened with the utmost zeal to avenge the wrong. 
 Exactly at sunset he led out the legions with which 
 he was in winter quarters, and as many Numidian 
 horsemen as he could muster, lightly equipped. About 
 the third hour of the next day he arrived at a plain 
 surrounded on all sides by somewhat higher ground. 
 His soldiers, tired with their long march, were in- 
 clined to be mutinous, when Metellus laid the matter 
 before them, told them that Vaga was not more than 
 a mile distant, and that they ought cheerfully to 
 submit to the rest of their toil so long as they could 
 avenge their fellow citizens, those bravest and most 
 unfortunate of men. In addition, he generously pro- 
 mised them the booty. After thus raising their spirits, 
 he ordered the cavalry to go in front in skirmishing 
 order, and the infantry to follow with their ranks as 
 
 CHAP, close as possible, and their ensigns concealed. The 
 people of Vaga, on perceiving that an army was march- 
 ing in their direction, at first conjectured rightly that 
 it was Metellus, and closed their gates. When, how- 
 ever, they noticed that their lands were not being 
 wasted, and that the van was composed of Numidian 
 cavalry, they changed their minds, and, thinking it 
 was Jugurtha who was coming, went forth to meet 
 him with great rejoicing. Suddenly, part of the 
 
 LXIX. 
 
THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 197 
 
 cavalry and infantry at a given signal cut to pieces chap. 
 the crowd which had poured out of the town, while 
 others hurried to the gates, and others seized the 
 towers ; rage and the hope of plunder overcame 
 their weariness. The men of Vaga rejoiced in their 
 treachery for only two days ; the whole of that great 
 and wealthy city was now given over to vengeance 
 and plunder. Turpilius, the governor of the town, who, 
 as explained above, was the only man who escaped 
 the massacre, was ordered by Metellus to stand his 
 trial. He excused his conduct but lamely, was con- 
 demned and, as a Latin citizen, punished by scourging 
 and decapitation. 
 
 About the same time Bomilcar, at whose instigation chap. 
 Jugurtha had begun the surrender which he afterwards \ 
 abandoned through fear, having incurred the king's 
 suspicion, and being suspected by him in turn, was now 
 desirous of a change of affairs. After wearying his 
 mind day and night in seeking some plot to work 
 Jugurtha's destruction, he at last, in the course of his 
 innumerable efforts, took to himself as an accomplice 
 a noble named Nabdalsa, (a man of great wealth, 
 and beloved and esteemed by his countrymen,) who 
 generally held an independent command, and carried 
 out all tasks which Jugurtha, either from weariness or 
 from attention to weightier matters, had left unfulfilled. 
 In this way he had acquired both renown and wealth. 
 By agreement between the two conspirators, a day was 
 fixed for their treachery; everything else they thought 
 best to arrange at the moment, as occasion might de- 
 mand. Nabdalsa set out for his army, which, accord- 
 ing to his orders, he was keeping between the outer 
 
198 THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 
 
 CHAP, stations of the Romans, to prevent the enemy from 
 ravaging the country with impunity. Confounded by 
 the greatness of the crime, he did not appear at the 
 time agreed on, and his cowardice prevented the exe- 
 ^ cution of the plot. Bomilcar was eager to carry out 
 his designs, but at the same time was disconcerted by 
 the timidity of his accompHce. Fearful lest, now that 
 Nabdalsa had abandoned his original plan, he might 
 form some new one, he despatched- a letter to him by 
 trusty messengers. In this letter, after reproaching 
 him for his lack of resolution and energy, and calling 
 to witness the gods by whom he had sworn, he warned 
 him not to turn the bribes of Metellus to his destruc- 
 tion, and showed that Jugurtha's ruin was near at 
 hand, and that the only question was whether he 
 should perish by their courage or by that of Metel- 
 lus: Nabdalsa should consider, therefore, whether 
 
 CHAP, he preferred rewards or a miserable death. When 
 this letter was delivered, Nabdalsa happened to 
 be fatigued, and was resting on a couch. After 
 acquainting himself with the message of Bomilcar, at 
 first anxiety, and then, as often happens, sleep took 
 possession of his troubled spirit. In his service was 
 a certain Numidian who took charge of his affairs, 
 much trusted and esteemed by him, and the sharer in 
 all but this latest of his designs. Hearing that a letter 
 had been brought, and custom making him think that 
 his own help and ability would be needed, this man 
 now entered the tent, took the letter while his master 
 slept, as it lay carelessly on a cushion above his head, 
 read it through, and, learning the treachery intended, 
 hastened to the king. Shortly afterwards Nabdalsa 
 
THE JUGURTHINE WAR. I99 
 
 awoke, and, on failing to find the letter, understood chap. 
 exactly what had happened. At first he tried to 
 overtake his betrayer, then, finding the attempt fruit- 
 less, he approached Jugurtha with the object of ap- 
 peasing him, declared that the treachery of his retainer 
 had anticipated the step which he had himself deter- 
 mined to take, and tearfully besought him by their 
 friendship, and by the proofs which he had hitherto 
 given of his loyalty, not to suspect him of such an 
 enormity. Dissembling his real feelings, the king chap 
 returned him a mild answer. After putting to death ^-^^^ 
 Bomilcar, and many others whom he discovered to 
 have shared in his treachery, he seems to have stifled 
 his anger for fear lest the matter might give rise to a 
 rebellion. From that time no day or night brought 
 peace to Jugurtha ; he never trusted place, man, or 
 season, feared his countrymen no less than the enemy, 
 pried into every corner, and was terrified at every sound. 
 At night he rested sometimes at one place, sometimes 
 at another, often where it little fitted his royal dignity, 
 and now and again, on waking from sleep, would seize 
 his arms and raise an outcry ; so tormented was he 
 by a terror which verged on madness. 
 
 On hearing from deserters of the fate of Bomilcar, ; chap 
 
 I LXXIII 
 
 and the betrayal of the plot, Metellus once more 
 made every preparation, and hastened to renew the j 
 war. Marius was wearying him as to his departure,/ 
 and was, at the same time, hateful and hostile to him 
 personally ; thinking him, therefore, an unsatisfactory 
 lieutenant, he dismissed him home. 
 
 At Rome, the commons, on learning the purport of 
 the letters which had been despatched on the subject 
 
200 THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 
 
 CHAP, of Metellus and Marius, had ver\^ readily believed the 
 
 LXXIII. 
 
 characters respectively assigned them. The noble 
 birth which had hitherto been an honour to the 
 general now made him unpopular, while humble 
 descent brought his rival into favour. In each case 
 men's judgment was guided rather by party spirit 
 than by the good or bad qualities of these two officers. 
 Turbulent magistrates, moreover, excited the crowd, 
 impeached Metellus at every public meeting, and 
 exaggerated the merit of Marius. At last the com- 
 mons were so aroused that all the artisans and country 
 people, whose fortunes and credit lay only in their 
 hands, abandoned their work to attend on Marius, and 
 thus postponed their own necessities to his dignity. 
 The nobility were defeated, and the consulship after 
 many years was entrusted to a man of no birth. 
 Later on, the tribune of the commons, Titus Manlius 
 Mancinus, demanded of the people whom they wished 
 to conduct the war with Jugurtha, and in a full assem- 
 bly the people ordered that Marius should have the 
 command. I should mention that, a little before this, 
 the Senate had decreed that Gaul should be his 
 province ; but this measure was useless. 
 CHAP. At the same time, Jugurtha, who had lost his friends, 
 
 LXXIV 'JO' y 
 
 many of whom he had himself put to death, while of 
 the rest, some in their terror had escaped to the 
 Romans, others to king Bocchus, now found that it 
 was impossible to carry on the war without lieutenants. 
 Amid such treachery, however, on the part of his old 
 officers he thought it dangerous to try the loyalty of 
 new ones, and was changeable and uncertain in his 
 plans. Discontented with every man, measure, and 
 
THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 201 
 
 counsel, he chanc^ed his route and his officers from chap. 
 
 ' >=> ^ LXXIV. 
 
 day to day; marched now agamst the enemy, and now 
 into desert places, often rested his hopes in flight, and 
 then, a moment afterwards, in arms. He doubted 
 whether he could trust the courage or the loyalty of 
 his countrymen the less, and thus, to whatever quarter 
 he turned, found everything opposed to him. While 
 he was in this state of inactivity, Metellus suddenly 
 appeared at the head of an army, and Jugurtha 
 equipped and marshalled the Numidians as well as 
 time would allow ; and the battle then began. In the 
 quarter where the king was taking part in the fight 
 the conflict lasted some time ; the rest of his troops 
 were all driven back and routed at the first charge. 
 The Romans captured a considerable quantity of 
 standards and arms, but only a few prisoners, for in 
 all their battles the Numidians, as a rule, are protected 
 rather by their feet than their swords. v 
 
 By this defeat, Jugurtha was led to still deeper ]chap. 
 distrust of his fortunes. Taking with him the deserters 
 and a part of his cavalry, he made his way to the 
 wastes, and thence to Thala, a large and wealthy town 
 where he had great treasures, and where his sons were 
 passing their boyhood amid much splendour. When 
 Metellus discovered this movement, although he knew 
 that between Thala and the nearest river there lay 
 fifty miles of parched and barren desert, yet in the 
 hope that by gaining possession of the town he might 
 put an end to the war, he applied himself to surmount 
 every difficulty, and conquer even nature herself. He 
 ordered all the beasts of burden to be relieved of their 
 packs, with the exception of provisions for ten days, 
 
 :.xxv. 
 
202 THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 
 
 CHAP, and that only skins and other vessels suitable for 
 
 LXXV. 
 
 holding water should be carried. He collected also 
 from the fields as many trained oxen as he could, and 
 on these placed vessels of every description, but 
 mostly wooden, which he had got together from the 
 huts of the Numidians. He then ordered the men of 
 the neighbourhood (who, after the king's defeat, had 
 made submission to Metellus) to bring, each of them, 
 as much water as he could, and announced the day 
 and place for them to appear. He himself loaded his 
 beasts from the river, which, as I mentioned above, 
 was the nearest water to the town; and, thus equipped, 
 set out for Thala. On arriving at the place where he 
 had enjoined the Numidians to meet him, the camp 
 was hardly pitched and fortified when suddenly so 
 much rain is said to have fallen from the heavens that 
 this alone provided the army with water enough and 
 to spare. Their supplies, too, surpassed their expecta- 
 tion, for the Numidians, like most newly-submitted 
 peoples, had exceeded the services required of them. 
 The soldiers, however, from a religious feeling, preferred 
 to use the rain water, and its fall added greatly to 
 their courage by making them think themselves under 
 the protection of the immortal gods. On the next 
 day, to the surprise of Juguitha, they made their way 
 to Thala. The inhabitants, who had deemed them- 
 selves protected by the difficulties of the country, were 
 astounded by so great and unusual a feat. They 
 prepared, however, for the conflict with undaunted 
 CHAP, energy, and our men did the same. The king now 
 believed that nothing was impossible to Metellus, 
 whose energy he had seen overcome all things — arms 
 
THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 203 
 
 and weapons, situations, and seasons, and even nature chap. 
 herself, who ruled all other men. He, therefore, made 
 his escape from the town by night, taking with him 
 his children, and a great part of his money. Hence- 
 forth, he never abode in any place for longer than a 
 single day or night, pretending that he was hurried 
 away by business, but really from fear of treachery. 
 This he thought he might avoid by the quickness of 
 his movements, as such designs require leisure and a 
 favourable occasion for their achievement. To return 
 to Metellus; on seeing that the townspeople were 
 ready for battle, and, at the same time, that the town 
 was protected both by its works and its situation, he 
 surrounded the walls with a rampart and ditch. He 
 then pushed forward mantlets at the most suitable 
 points that offered, threw up a mound, and by erecting 
 towers on it protected his work and his helpers. To 
 meet these measures the townspeople were active in 
 their preparations ; nothing, in fine, on either side was 
 left undone. At last the Romans, wearied by much 
 previous toil, and by the battles they had fought, on 
 the fortieth day after their arrival gained possession 
 of the town, and that alone ; all the booty had been 
 destroyed by the deserters. These, on seeing that 
 rams were battering the wall, and that their fortunes 
 were ruined, brought the gold, silver, and whatever 
 else was of highest value, to the royal palace. There 
 they ladened themselves with wine and the banquet, 
 and then destroyed the booty, the house, and their 
 own lives, by fire ; they thus voluntarily paid the very 
 penalty which they had feared to receive from their 
 enemies in case of defeat. 
 
 ■i : M 
 
204 'THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 
 
 CHAP. Simultaneously with the capture of Thala, deputies 
 had come to Metellus from the town of Leptis, be- 
 seeching him to send thither a garrison and governor. 
 According to their account, a certain Hamilcar, a man 
 of good birth and intriguing disposition, was eager for 
 a change in affairs, and the commands of the magis- 
 trates and the authority of the law were powerless 
 against him ; should Metellus delay, their safety, allies 
 of Rome as they were, would be in the greatest dan- 
 ger. The people of Leptis, I should mention, long 
 before this, at the very beginning of the [Jugurthine] 
 war, had sent to the consul Bestia, and subsequently 
 to Rome itself, to request friendship and alliance. On 
 obtaining their prayer, they remained ever honest and 
 loyal, and had strenuously carried out all the com- 
 mands of Bestia, Albinus, and Metellus. The general, 
 therefore, readily granted their petition, and sent to 
 their town four cohorts of Ligurians, and Gaius Annius 
 as governor. 
 
 CHAP. Leptis was founded by Sidonians who, as I learn, 
 LXXVIIT. ., , r ■ , ,. . 
 
 were exiled on account of mternal dissensions, and 
 
 came to these parts by sea. It is situated between the 
 
 two Syrtes, whose name was given them from their 
 
 nature. These are two bays which lie almost on the 
 
 verge of Africa, of unequal size but like character. 
 
 Near land they are very deep ; elsewhere, as it 
 
 chances, in some places deep, in others, when a storm 
 
 is blowing, full of shoals. When the sea gets high 
 
 and struggles with the wind, the waves draw down 
 
 mud, sand, and huge stones ; and thus the appearance 
 
 of these parts changes with every change of the wind^^ 
 
 It is this power of suction from which they are called 
 
THE JUGURTIIINE WAR. 205 
 
 Syrtes. Intermarriage with the Numidians changed ^chap. 
 
 LXXVIIJ, 
 
 nothing more than the language of the people of 
 Leptis ; the greater part of their laws and civilization 
 is Sidonian, and this they have the more easily retained 
 owing to their distance from the king's government, 
 for between them and the more populous part of 
 Numidia lay many miles of desert. 
 
 As the affairs of the people of Leptis have taken 7 ^ 
 me into these regions, it seems not unbecoming to re- 
 cord a splendid and memorable deed of two Cartha- 
 ginians, of which the mention of the country has 
 reminded me. In the period when the Carthaginians 
 were rulers over the greater part of Africa, Cyrene 
 also was a great and wealthy city. The intervening 
 country was sandy and monotonous, without river or 
 mountain to mark the boundary of their dominions. 
 This fact kept them in a desperate and prolonged 
 war ; armies and fleets had often been defeated and 
 routed on either side, and each had considerably im- 
 paired the other's strength. At last, in the fear lest 
 some third power should presently attack both victors 
 and vanquished in their exhausted condition, they 
 agreed in a time of truce that on an appointed day 
 deputies should set out from either city, and the place 
 where they met be held the common boundary of the 
 two peoples. Two brothers, called the Philaeni, were 
 sent from Carthage, and these made good speed in 
 their journey. The progress of the Cyrenians was 
 slower, whether through laziness or accident I have 
 not clearly ascertained ; for in these parts, storms are 
 as wont to delay the traveller as on the sea. Gather- 
 ing as it sweeps across the flat and lifeless country, 
 
206 THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 
 
 CHAP, the wind tosses up the sand from the soil, and this is 
 
 LXXIX 
 
 then blown along with tremendous force, and fills the 
 face and eyes, and hinders progress by shutting off all 
 view. The Cyrenians saw that they were somewhat 
 behindhand, and, in their fear of being punished on 
 their return for their failure, accused the Carthaginians 
 of having left home before their time, tried to upset 
 the whole proceedings, and, in fact, shewed a deter- 
 mination to do anything rather than come off the 
 worst. The Carthaginians then asked them to pro- 
 pose any other terms so long as they were fair, and on 
 this the Greeks gave them their choice of either being 
 themselves buried alive at the point where they de- 
 manded that their country's boundary should be set, 
 or allowing them to advance as far as they like on the 
 same condition. The Philaeni approved of the terms, 
 and sacrificed their own persons and lives to the 
 public good. Accordingly they were buried alive. 
 The Carthaginians dedicated altars to the brothers 
 on the spot, and other honours were ordained to them 
 in the city. I now return to my subject. 
 CHAP. After the loss of Thala, Jugurtha thought he had 
 no sufficient safeguard against Metellus. He set out, 
 1 therefore, with a few companions, and made his way 
 through vast deserts to the Gaetulians, a wild and un- 
 civilized tribe, at that time ignorant of the name of 
 Rome. Of this people he collected a host, and in a 
 short time accustomed them to keep the ranks, follow the 
 standards, obey commands, and behave in other res- 
 pects like regular soldiers. Besides this, by means of 
 great gifts and greater promises, he prevailed on those 
 immediately about King Bocchus to be zealous in his 
 
THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 207 
 
 service, and, with these to aid him, approached the chap. 
 king and induced him to take up arms against the 
 Romans. This task was the more easily and readily 
 accomplished, inasmuch as Bocchus, at the outset of 
 this war, had sent an embassy to Rome to ask for a 
 treaty of friendship. The conclusion of such a treaty, 
 which would have been most advantageous for the war 
 then newly begun, was prevented by the blind avarice 
 of a clique accustomed to sell every service, whether 
 honourable or the reverse. Bocchus, moreover, had 
 previously married a daughter of Jugurtha, though 
 this tie is held of slight importance among Numidians 
 and Mauritanians, inasmuch as every one has as many 
 wives as he can afford, some ten, some more, and the 
 kings a proportionately greater number. The mind is 
 thus distracted by numbers ; no wife holds the place 
 of a partner, but all are held equally cheap. The two chap. 
 
 LXXXl 
 
 kings now assembled their armies at a place they had 
 agreed on. Pledges were there given and received, 
 and Jugurtha roused the spirit of Bocchus by an -' 
 harangue. The Romans, he said, were unjust, of 
 fathomless greed, and the common enemy of all 
 peoples ; they had the same reason for a war with 
 Bocchus as with himself and other races — their lust, 
 namely, for empire, which made them see an enemy 
 in every kingdom ; it was now himself who was the 
 Roman's foe, a little before it had been the Cartha- 
 ginians, then King Perses, and thereafter it would 
 always be the richest victim they could find. After 
 these and similar speeches, they determined on a 
 march against the town of Cirta, as the place where 
 Metellus had deposited his spoil, captives, and heavy 
 
LXXXII. 
 
 208 THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 
 
 CHAP, baggage. Jugurtha thought that they would either be 
 rewarded by the capture of the town, or that, should 
 the Romans advance to its relief, a battle would be 
 fought. In his crafty policy, the only thing for which 
 he was eager was to lessen Bocchus' chance of peace, 
 lest, if there should be any procrastination, he might 
 prefer some other course to war. 
 
 CHAP. On learning of the alliance between the kings, the 
 general no longer offered battle rashly, or, as after his 
 many defeats of Jugurtha, he had been wont to do, in 
 every position. He awaited the two kings in a fortified 
 camp not far from Cirta, thinking it would be better 
 to fight at his convenience after learning the quality of 
 the Mauritanians, since they had joined in the war as 
 a new enemy. 
 
 Meanwhile he was informed by despatches from 
 Rome that his province had been assigned to Marius, 
 the news of whose election to the consulship he had 
 received previously. These events alTected him more 
 than was either right or honourable ; he could neither 
 restrain his tears nor govern his tongue. Though dis- 
 tinguished in other accomplishments, he bore vexation 
 in too womanish a manner. Some construed his be- 
 haviour as a mark of pride ; others as the outcome of 
 a noble spirit inflamed by insult; many, again, as 
 caused by the feeling that the victory he had practi- 
 cally won was being wrested from his hands. For 
 myself, I am assured that it was rather the honour 
 conferred upon Marius than his own wrongs which 
 tormented him, and that he would have borne the blow 
 more equably if the province of which he was deprived 
 had been assigned to any other than Marius. 
 
THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 209 
 
 Burdened by this grief, and thinking it foolish to chap. 
 charge himself with another man's work to his own 
 peril, Metellus sent ambassadors to Bocchus to desire 
 him not to become an enemy to the Roman people 
 without a cause. They were to urge that the king 
 had at this time an opportunity of cementing a friend- 
 ship and alliance ; that this was far preferable to war, 
 and that, despite his confidence in his resources, it 
 was unwise to exchange the certain for the doubtful ; 
 •every war was easy to enter on, most difficult to 
 abandon ; to begin and to end it were not in the power 
 of the same person ; even a coward might do the 
 first, the time for the second was fixed by the victor's 
 will ; Bocchus, therefore, should take thought for him- 
 self and his kingdom, and should be careful not to 
 involve his own prosperity in the ruined fortunes of 
 Jugurtha. To this message the king returned a con- 
 ciliatory answer, to the effect that he was desirous of 
 peace, but pitied the misfortunes of Jugurtha. If the 
 same opportunity were given to the latter, a treaty 
 was assured. The general sent fresh messengers in 
 reply to the proposals of Bocchus, who accepted some 
 of his terms, and declined others. In this manner the 
 time passed in the frequent interchange of messages, 
 and the war, as Metellus wished, was prolonged with- 
 out activity on either side. 
 
 As I narrated above, Marius, to the great delight of chap. 
 the commons, had been elected consul. Previously 
 hostile to the nobility, after his appointment by the 
 people to the province of Numidia, he attacked them 
 with even greater vigour and spirit, railing, now at in- 
 dividuals, and now at the whole body, boasting that he 
 
 LXXXIV. 
 
2IO THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 
 
 CHAP, had won the consulship as his spoil after their defeat, 
 and in other ways exalting himself and annoying 
 them. Meanwhile, he attached most importance to 
 the necessary provision for the war, demanded that 
 the strength of his legions should be raised, and 
 summoned reinforcements from the tributary peoples 
 and kings, and from the allies. He invited, moreover, 
 all the bravest men from Latium, with most of whom 
 he had been acquainted in the field, while a few he 
 knew by report. His solicitations also constrained 
 veterans who had served their time to set out under 
 his command. The Senate, though hostile to him, 
 did not dare to deny him on any point. The rein- 
 forcements it had voted with actual pleasure, under 
 the idea that military service was distasteful to the 
 commons, and that Marius would lose either the re- 
 quisites of war or the favour of the crowd. This hope, 
 however, was vain, so great a desire for accompanying 
 Marius had seized men's minds. Everyone thought 
 that he would be enriched with booty and return home 
 victorious, and pondered over other like ideas in his 
 mind. They had been, moreover, not a little excited 
 by a speech of Marius ; who, after all his demands had 
 been voted, and his desire was now to enlist soldiers, 
 summoned a meeting of the people, in order to en- 
 courage them and at the same time to indulge in his 
 usual invective against the nobility. His speech was 
 as follows : — 
 
 ''I am aware, Romans, that the qualities which 
 most men show in their behaviour after election are 
 very different from those with which they sought your 
 suffrages; and that the energetic, humble, and un- 
 
THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 211 
 
 ambitious character of their previous life is then chap. 
 
 LXXXV 
 
 changed for sloth and insolence. My views, however, 
 are very different from theirs ; for in proportion as the 
 state as a whole exceeds the consulship or praetorship 
 in importance, by so much ought our diligence in its 
 government to exceed that with which we seek these 
 offices. I am not insensible to the greatness of the 
 burden which, by your distinguished favour, I have to 
 bear. To prepare for war without straining the- trea- 
 sury, to press into service men whom one is unwilling 
 to offend, to superintend every detail at home and 
 abroad, and to do all this amid the jealousy of hostile 
 intriguers, is harder, Romans, than can be conceived. 
 Again, if others commit an error, their ancient family, 
 the brave deeds of their ancestors, the wealth of their 
 kinsmen and connections, and troops of clients are all 
 at hand to defend them. I have to place my whole 
 hopes in my own person : I must needs protect them 
 by my merit and integrity, for I have no other help in 
 which I can trust. I understand, too, Romans, that 
 the eyes of all men are upon me, and that, while, 
 inasmuch as my services advance the state, fair and 
 honest men are in my favour, the nobility are seeking 
 some point of attack. I must, therefore, strive with 
 the greater energy both that you may not be deceived 
 in me, and that your enemies may be disappointed. 
 My life, from boyhood to the present day, has been 
 such as to make me familiar with every toil and 
 danger ; nor, Romans, do I intend, now that I have 
 received my reward, to abandon the course of conduct 
 which, previously to your kindness, I voluntarily 
 pursued. Men who, in their desire for popularity. 
 
212 THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 
 
 CHAP, have assumed the mask of virtue, find it hard to 
 restrain themselves when in power; I, who have 
 passed my whole life in the most honourable pursuits, 
 now find that uprightness has passed from habit into 
 nature. 
 
 "You have commanded me to conduct the war with 
 Jugurtha, and at this the nobility have taken deep 
 offence. Consider, I pray you, whether it would be a 
 change for the better were you to despatch either on 
 this or on any like commission, some member of 
 that ring of nobles, some scion of an ancient house 
 who could boast of the effigies of his many ancestors, 
 but of never a campaign ; and allow him on an affair 
 of this importance, to hurry and bustle about in his 
 utter ignorance and take some man of the people to 
 instruct him in his duty. For, I assure you, it is 
 nothing uncommon for the man to whom you have 
 given command to look to some other for his orders. 
 I myself, Romans, have known cases of consuls who, 
 after their election, have begun to read the old 
 chronicles and the Greek manuals of warfare; men, 
 these, who begin at the wrong end, for though the 
 conduct of wars follows the appointment to them in 
 order of time, in the order of nature and experience it 
 precedes it. With these proud ones, Romans, com- 
 pare me, the self-made man. The things of which 
 they are wont to hear or read, I have either seen or 
 have myself performed ; and the knowledge which 
 they get from books, I have acquired by active service. 
 I leave it to you to consider whether deeds or maxims 
 are the more important. They despise my lack of 
 family ; I their cowardice. In my teeth men cast my 
 
THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 21 3 
 
 fortune ; in theirs, their infamous deeds. For my own chap. 
 
 I XXXV 
 
 part I think that all men have one common nature, 
 and that it is the bravest who are the noblest. If to 
 the fathers of Albinus or Bestia the question could 
 now be put whether they would prefer me or them as 
 their descendants, what other answer think you they 
 would return than that they wished to have the best 
 for their children ? Again, if these men are right in 
 despising me, let them do the same to their ancestors, 
 whose nobility, like my own, sprang from their merit. 
 They are jealous of the dignity conferred on me ; why 
 are they not jealous of my energy, my integrity, yes, 
 *and of my dangers, since it is by these that I have 
 gained it ? Rotten with pride, they pass their days, 
 as if they despised the 'dignities you can confer ; yet 
 they demand them with the air of men who have lived 
 an honourable life. Surely they are deceived who 
 thus hope to unite the two things of all others the 
 most opposed — the pleasure, namely, of sloth and the 
 rewards of merit. Again, in their speeches before 
 yourselves or the Senate, the greater part of their 
 harangue is a eulogy of their ancestors ; for they think 
 by dwelling on their brave deeds to increase their own 
 reputation. Yet the very reverse often is the result, 
 for the nobler the life of their ancestors, the more 
 shameful is their own sloth. Indeed, the glory of 
 forefathers is really to their descendants as a burning 
 light, which allows neither their good deeds nor their 
 bad to remain unnoticed. I confess, Romans, I have 
 nothing of this kind, but I have something which is 
 far nobler, the power, namely, to tell of doings of my 
 own. See, then, the unfairness of these men. The 
 
214 THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 
 
 CHAP, prlvileees which they claim for themselves in right of 
 
 LXX.XV -t^ o •' 
 
 another's merit, they do not allow me in right of my 
 own, and this because I have no effigies of ancestors 
 to show, and because the nobility I have is. a thing of 
 to-day. Yet surely to have won nobility is better 
 than to have received and shamed it. 
 
 " I am aware that my enemies, should they wish to 
 answer, will be at no loss for an eloquent and studied 
 reply. Now, however, that I am so favoured by you, 
 they attack me on every occasion ; and I have, there- 
 fore,' chosen not to remain silent, lest my self-restraint 
 should be mistaken for a consciousness of guilt. For 
 myself, indeed — I say it from my heart — no speech can 
 hurt me ; truth can speak no otherwise than favour- 
 ably ; falsehood is foiled by the evidence of my life 
 and character. They impugn, however, your policy in 
 assigning me so high an office and so weighty a task ; 
 and, so, I ask you again and again to consider whether 
 you ought really to repent it. To inspire your trust 
 I have no statues, triumphs, or consulships, of my 
 ancestors, to which to point ; but, if need be, I can 
 show spears, a standard, medals, and other prizes 
 soldiers earn, and scars dealt full upon my breast. 
 These are my statues, these my title to nobility, and 
 one which was not left me as a bequest, as in the case 
 of my enemies, but which I won for myself by my 
 many toils and dangers. My words have no studied 
 grace ; of that I think little ; merit needs no help to 
 display it, though my enemies must use their tricks 
 of rhetoric to conceal their base deeds behind a mass 
 of words. Again, I have learnt no Greek ; I was not 
 anxious to gain a knowledge which had done nothing 
 
THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 215 
 
 to help its teachers in the pursuit of virtue. In the chap. 
 
 LXXXV. 
 
 knowledge, however, which is far the most important 
 for the state, I am a master. To strike the foe, to 
 keep good watch, to fear nothing save disgrace, to bear 
 heat and cold with equal patience, to make my bed on 
 the ground, to undergo toil and hunger together, all 
 this I know, and with this teaching I shall exhort 
 my soldiers. Nor will I treat them with stringency, 
 myself with indulgence, nor claim the glory and leave 
 them the toil. To refrain from such conduct is to rule 
 with efficiency and moderation. To live in luxury 
 yourself while you coerce your army by punishments 
 is to act the tyrant, not the general. By such conduct 
 as I have praised your ancestors won renown for 
 themselves and the state. In reliance on their glory 
 a nobility, their very opposite in character, now scorns 
 us who emulate these men of old, and claims of you 
 every post of honour, not for any service rendered, but 
 simply as its due. Truly these arrogant nobles make 
 a deep mistake. Their ancestors left them everything 
 that could be left — wealth, pedigree, and their own 
 glorious memory. Their merit they did not, and could 
 not bequeath them ; that alone is neither given nor 
 received. They call me mean and unpolished, because 
 I am no adept at tricking out a feast, keep no actor, 
 no cook moVe highly paid than my bailiff. Romans, I 
 am proud to confess such conduct. The lesson I learnt 
 from my father and other pious men was that graces 
 befitted a woman, toil a man, and that the good should 
 be always richer in glory than in wealth ; arms, not 
 ornaments, are the true honours. Let the nobles, then, 
 continue to follow the course they delight in and prize ; 
 
 
2l6 THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 
 
 CHAP, let them live and drink ; in the scenes of rivalry where 
 
 LXXXV 
 
 they spent their youth there let them pass their old 
 age, the slaves of their belly and their lust ; and the 
 sweat and dust, and the like, let them leave to us who 
 find more joy in them than in the feast. But this they 
 will not do. When they have disgraced themselves 
 with every crime, these vilest of men come to seize the 
 prizes of the good. In defiance of all justice, those 
 outrageous vices, luxury and sloth, are no obstacle to 
 the men who practise them, while they arc the destruc- 
 tion of the guiltless state. 
 
 '' I have answered my enemies with a brevity which 
 suits my own character better than such a theme as 
 their misconduct ; I will now say a few words on public 
 affairs. In the first place, Romans, be of good heart 
 as regards Numidia. Hitherto Jugurtha has been 
 protected by the avarice, unskilfulness, and arrogance 
 of your generals, and all these you have now removed. 
 In the second place, you have an army there, acquainted 
 with the country, but, I profess, more vigorous than 
 fortunate ; for a great part of it has been wasted away 
 by the corruption or rashness of your commanders. I 
 ask such of you, therefore, as are of military age to 
 join your efforts with mine, and protect the state. Let 
 no one take alarm from the misfortunes of others, or 
 from the arrogance of generals. I shall be with you 
 in person on the march, and in the field, at once to 
 consult your interests and to share your dangers; I 
 shall treat you in all respects the same as myself; and 
 with the help of the gods, victory, booty, renown, are 
 all ready to our hand. Even were they doubtful or 
 distant, it would yet be the duty of every honest man 
 
THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 21/ 
 
 to support the state. Cowardice never yet gained a chap. 
 man immortality, nor has any parent yet asked for his 
 children that they might exist for ever; they ask 
 that they may live out their life in uprightness and 
 honour. Romans, I would say more, could words in- 
 spire the timid with courage ; for the brave man I 
 think I have said fully enough." 
 
 After a speech of this kind, Marius, when he saw chap. 
 the enthusiasm of the commons aroused, hastily loaded 
 ships with provision, pay, arms, and other requisites, 
 and ordered his lieutenant, Aulus Manlius, to set out 
 in charge of them. Meanwhile he himself levied 
 soldiers, not, according to ancient custom, from tlie 
 classes, but simply as they volunteered, and, for the 
 most part, men of no fortune. Some asserted that this 
 course was taken owing to the scarcity of respectable 
 recruits, others traced it to the consul's desire for 
 popularity, inasmuch as it was by men of this descrip- 
 tion that his renovv^n and dignity had been given him, 
 while the seeker for power ever finds his readiest in- 
 strument in the needy wretch, who, in his destitution, 
 has no home to hold dear, and thinks everything 
 honourable that brings him gain. 
 
 Marius, therefore, set out for Africa with a force 
 slightly in excess of that decreed him, and after a 
 few days landed at Utica. The army was delivered 
 to him by Publius Rutilius, the lieutenant of Metellus; 
 for the general himself had avoided the sight of 
 Marius, lest he should see the things of which his 
 resolution had been unable to support the mere 
 hearing. 
 
 With his legions and auxiliary cohorts at their full lxxxvii 
 
2i8 THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 
 
 CHAP. Strength, the consul marched upon a fertile district, 
 Lxxxvii. ^^jj stocked with booty. He gave the whole of the 
 plunder there taken to his soldiers, and then attacked 
 some fortresses and towns which were neither well 
 situated, nor manned for defence ; he also fought 
 many petty engagements at various points. Mean- 
 while his raw soldiers joined in battle without alarm, 
 and saw that the runaways were either captured or 
 killed, that the bravest man was the safest, and that 
 the power of protecting his freedom, country, parents, 
 and every other blessing, and of winning glory and 
 wealth, all lay in a man's arms. In this way, recruits 
 and veterans were soon welded together, and all 
 became equally courageous. 
 
 On learning of the arrival of Marius, the kings 
 separated, and made their way to inaccessible districts. 
 Jugurtha had determined on this course in the hope 
 that it might be possible to attack the enemy in detail, 
 and that the Romans, like most other soldiers, when 
 relieved of alarm, would grow careless and disorderly. 
 T v^v^^.^- Meanwhile, Metellus had started for Rome, and was 
 
 J'XXXVIII. 
 
 there, contrary to his expectation, received with the 
 utmost rejoicing. Now that his unpopularity had 
 faded away, he was equally beloved by the commons 
 and the Senate. 
 
 Marius now gave his mind with energy and fore- 
 sight to the position alike of his own and the enemy's 
 army, ascertained their respective advantages and 
 drawbacks, set spies to i^atch the movements of the 
 kings, forestalled their plans and treacheries, and left 
 nothing unlooked to on his own side, or unmenaced 
 on theirs. He had thus often attacked and routed 
 
THE JUGURTHIXE WAR. 
 
 on their march both the Gaetulians and Jugurtha, as chap 
 they tried to plunder our allies ; and, not far from 
 Cirta, had stripped the king himself of his arms. 
 Finding, however, that these exploits served rather to 
 gain glory than to finish the war, he determined to 
 invest, one after another, the cities which from their 
 garrison or situation were most adapted for helping 
 the enemy and injuring himself; Jugurtha would thus 
 be deprived of his strongholds should he not interfere, 
 or, if he did, would have to fight a battle. As for 
 Bocchus, that king had sent numerous embassies to 
 him, expressing his desire for the friendship of the 
 Roman people, and assuring him that he need fear no 
 attack from his quarter. Whether in this he was 
 feigning in order to make an assault the more 
 dangerous because unexpected, or whether it was an 
 outcome of the fickle character which made him love 
 to be now at peace, and now at war, has not been 
 ascertained. The consul carried out his plan, and by chap 
 
 LXXXIX 
 
 marching on the fortified towns and strongholds 
 wrested them from the enemy, in some cases by force, 
 in others by threats or promise of reward. At first he 
 confined himself to insignificant ventures, thinking 
 that Jugurtha would give battle in defence of his 
 subjects. When he learned that the king was far 
 away and engaged on other business, it seemed time 
 to attempt greater and more difficult undertakings. 
 
 In the midst of vast deserts there lay a strong and 
 important town, named Cap ^a, founded, so tradition 
 said, by the Libyan Hercules. Jugurtha had ex- 
 empted its citizens from tribute ; his yoke was 
 light, and they were, therefore, the most loyal of his 
 
220 
 
 THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 
 
 CHAP. 
 LXXXIX. 
 
 CHAP. 
 XC. 
 
 subjects. Against their enemies they were protected 
 by walls, arms, and men, and, above all, by their 
 inaccessible position. With the exception of the- 
 immediate neighbourhood, the whole country was 
 desolate, untilled, without streams, and made unsafe- 
 by serpents, which, like all savage creatures, become 
 more dangerous by lack of food, while their nature, 
 of itself a deadly one, is more quickened by thirst 
 than by anything else. A great desire of mastering 
 this place had seized Marius. It would be useful for- 
 the war, and at tl\e same time the exploit appeared 
 difficult, and Metellus, wath great glory to himself,, 
 had taken the town of Thala, whose position and for- 
 tifications were very like those of Capsa, except that at 
 Thala there w^re some springs not far from the walls,, 
 while the people of Capsa had only a single fount 
 of running water, and that within the towm ; the- 
 rest of their supply came from rain. This incon-- 
 venience, both at Capsa and in all parts of Africa 
 where men lived amid deserts far from the sea,, 
 was the more easily borne owing to the Numidian 
 habit of feeding chiefly on milk and game, while they 
 avoid salt and other stimulants of the palate. Food is to- 
 them the antidote of hunger and thirst, not. an object 
 of passionate extravagance. To resume, the consul, 
 made every enquiry, and then, I suppose, placed his- 
 trust in heaven, for no forethought could enable him 
 to make sufficient provision against such obstacles. 
 Besides those I have mentioned, he w^as assailed by a. 
 scarcity of corn ; for the Numidlans apply themselves, 
 more to raising fodder for their cattle than crops, and. 
 by command of the king had conveyed every blade to- 
 
XCI. 
 
 THE JUGURTIIINE WAR. 22 
 
 their strongholds ; it was now, also, the height of sum- chap 
 mer, and the country at this season was parched and 
 barren. In spite of these difficulties, Marius made 
 such arrangements as his means allowed with great 
 forethought ; he assigned to the auxiliary cavalry the 
 task of conveying all the cattle that had been cap- 
 tured on the previous days, ordered his lieutenant, 
 Aulus Manlius, with some light cohorts, to proceed to 
 the town of Laris, where he had stored pay and pro- 
 visions, and announced that in a few days he would 
 come to the same place in person in the course of his 
 pillaging. With his real object thus concealed, he 
 advanced towards the river Tanais. On his march he chap. 
 had each day equally portioned out the flocks among 
 his army by centuries and squadrons, and saw that 
 leather bottles were made out of the hides. In this 
 way he lessened the effects of the scarcity of corn, and 
 at the same time, in perfect secrecy, made prepara- 
 tions, soon to be of use, while' finally, by the sixth day, 
 when they reached the river, a great quantity of skins 
 had been got ready, Marius now pitched his camp with 
 only a slight fortification, and ordered the soldiers to 
 take their food and be prepared to march exactly at 
 sunset ; all their baggage was to be thrown away, and 
 they were to load themselves and their beasts with 
 nothing but water. When it seemed time, he marched 
 out of the camp, advanced throughout the night, and 
 then came to a halt. He followed the same plan the 
 next night, and on the third arrived, long before dawn, 
 at some downs, distant not more than two miles from 
 Capsa ; there he concealed himself and all his forces 
 as closely as he could. Day dawned, and the Numid- 
 
222 THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 
 
 CHAP, fans, who dreaded no attack, issued in numbers from 
 xci 
 
 the town, when suddenly Marius ordered all his 
 
 cavalry and the swiftest of his foot soldiers to advance 
 
 at full speed upon Capsa, and seize the gates. He 
 
 himself hurried eagerly after them, and forbade the 
 
 soldiers to go after booty. The towns-people became 
 
 aware of his attack and the peril of their position ; 
 
 their great alarm, the suddenness of the calamity, and 
 
 the fact that a part of their citizens were outside the 
 
 walls and in the enemy's power, all compelled them 
 
 \ to surrender. The town was, nevertheless, burnt, the 
 i\ adult Numidians slaughtered, all the others sold, and 
 
 v^the spoil divided among the soldiers. This outrage 
 on the laws of war was not caused by any avarice or 
 wickedness on the part of the consul ; it was due to 
 the fact that the place, while useful to Jugurtha, was 
 difficult for us to reach, and its inhabitants a fickle and 
 treacherous race, restrained neither by kindness nor 
 fear, 
 x^tr Even before this Marius had been regarded as a 
 great and illustrious general ; now that he had accom- 
 plished such an exploit without loss to his soldiers, 
 his fame rose still higher. Every error in his judg- 
 ment was interpreted as a merit; the soldiers, who 
 were mildly governed and at the same time enriched, 
 praised him to the skies; the Numidians feared him as 
 something more than man ; and, in fine, all, allies and 
 enemies alike, believed that he was either inspired or 
 that, by the will of heaven, all things were foretold him. 
 ^ After the success of this undertaking, the consul 
 
 \ marched upon other towns, captured by storm a few 
 
 Jwhere the Numidians resisted, but found a greater 
 
THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 223 
 
 number abandoned owing to the terror inspired by chap. 
 the fate of Capsa ; these he destroyed with fire, and 
 filled the whole land with sorrow and bloodshed. 
 After gaining possession of many places, and mostly 
 without loss to his army, he applied himself to another 
 exploit, not, indeed, so perilous as that of Capsa, but 
 no less difficult to achieve. 
 
 Not far from the river Muluccha, which separated 
 the kingdom of Jugurtha and Bocchus, there rose amid 
 the surrounding plain a rocky mountain, broad enougli 
 at the summit for a fort of moderate size, and reach- 
 ing to an immense height. A single narrow approach 
 was left ; all the rest was as precipitous naturally as 
 if labour and design had been employed to form it. 
 The fact that the king's treasures were stored in this 
 place now led Marius to concentrate all his energies 
 on its capture. Chance, however, was more instru- 
 mental than skill in bringing about a happy result. 
 The fort was well supplied with men and arms, and 
 had an abundance of provisions and a spring of water ; 
 the ground, too, was unsuited for the employment of 
 ramparts, turrets, and other means of attack ; and the 
 path used by the garrison was extremely narrow, with 
 a sheer descent on either side. Penthouses were 
 brought up at great risk, but with no result ; as 
 soon as they had made a slight advance, they were 
 destroyed by fire or showers of stones. The rug- chap. 
 gedness of the ground prevented the soldiers from 
 making a stand in front of their works, and they 
 could not even labour amid the penthouses without 
 danger. The bravest men were wounded or killed, 
 and their loss increased the terror of the rest. After 
 
 xcni. 
 
224 ^^^^ JUGURTIIINE WAR. 
 
 CHAP, many days had been spent in fruitless toil, Marius 
 anxiously debated whether he should abandon the 
 attempt, since all his efforts were in vain, or wait for 
 the fortune whose favours he had often experienced. 
 He had pondered his situation for many restless days 
 and nights, when a certain Ligurian, a private in one 
 of the auxiliary cohorts, happening to leave the camp 
 to fetch water, at a point not far from the side of the 
 fort, opposite to that on which the combatants were 
 engaged, noticed some snails crawling amid the rocks, 
 and, as he went after first one, then another, and then 
 a larger number, in his eager gathering gradually 
 climbed nearly to the summit. He at last remarked 
 the loneliness of his situation, and man's inborn love 
 of the difficult made him change his purpose. It 
 happened that, just where he was, a huge holm oak 
 had sprung up amid the rocks, growing for a little 
 way horizontally and then taking a turn, and spring- 
 ing aloft in the natural direction of all plants. Clinging 
 sometimes to the branches of this tree, at others to 
 the jutting rocks, the Ligurian made his way to the 
 level summit of the mountain, for the attention of all 
 the Numidians Avas occupied with the combatants. 
 After satisfying himself on all points which he thought 
 might presently be of use, he now returned by the 
 same way; not, however, carelessly, as he had ascended, 
 but testing and examining every inch. He then hastily 
 sought an interview with Marius, informed him of his 
 adventure, and advised him to assail the fort on the 
 side by which he had made the ascent, offering himself 
 to act as guide on the perilous journey. Marius sent 
 some of those about him with the Ligurian to test 
 
XCIV. 
 
 THE JUGURTI^INE WAR. 22$ 
 
 his assurances, and these, accordincf to their several chap. 
 
 . . XCIII. 
 
 characters, variously reported the undertaking as 
 difficult or easy. The spirit, however, of the consul 
 was somewhat raised. From the trumpeters and 
 hornblowers at his disposal he chose five of the 
 swiftest, and sent with them . . . four centurions 
 as a guard. He ordered the whole force to obey the 
 Ligurian, and fixed the following day for the attempt. 
 When he saw that the appointed time had arrived, chap. 
 and all the arrangements were complete, Marius ad- 
 vanced against the place. Meanwhile the scaling 
 party, instructed by their leader, had changed their 
 armour and accoutrements, and had bared their heads 
 and feet, so as more easily to see and keep their foot- 
 ing amid the rocks. On their backs they carried their 
 swords and shields, but these last were of Numidian 
 make and formed of leather, both as being lighter and 
 making less noise when struck. The Ligurian led the 
 way and fastened nooses round the rocks and the pro- 
 jecting roots of ancient trees, so as by these supports 
 to assist the soldiers in their ascent. Some were 
 frightened by the strange nature of the track, and 
 these, from time to time, he helped along with his 
 hands. Whenever the ascent was somewhat steeper, 
 he sent them on in front, one by one, without their 
 arms, and then followed with these himself Where 
 the footing seemed doubtful, he was the first to test it, 
 and by repeatedly climbing up and down in the same 
 way, and then suddenly standing aside, inspired the 
 rest with boldness. After a long and exhausting 
 climb they at length arrived at the fort, and found it 
 undefended on this side; its garrison, as on other days, 
 
226 THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 
 
 CHAP, had all gone to face the enemy. On hearing from 
 messengers of the success of the Ligurian, Marius, 
 although he had kept the Numidians fully engaged in 
 battle the whole of the day, now redoubled his exhor- 
 tations to his soldiers, and himself issuing beyond the 
 penthouses, made his men advance under cover of 
 their locked shields, and at the same time terrified the 
 enemy from a distance by means of his catapults, 
 bowmen, and slingers. The Numidians on previous 
 occasions had often overthrown or burnt the Roman 
 penthouses, and were no longer in the habit of shelter- 
 ing themselves behind their ramparts. Alike by day 
 and night they moved to and fro before their wall, 
 insulted the Romans, scoffed at Marius as a madman, 
 threatened our soldiers with being made slaves to 
 Jugurtha, and displayed all the insolence of success. 
 Meanwhile, when all, both Romans and Numidians, 
 w^ere occupied in the battle, and our men were fighting 
 vigorously for fame and dominion, the others for their 
 own safety, the trumpets suddenly sounded in the 
 rear. The women and boys, who had issued forth to 
 see the fight, were the first to fly, and they were fol- 
 lowed by those of the defenders nearest the wall, and 
 finally by the whole body of armed and unarmed men. 
 On this the Romans redoubled their efforts, scattered 
 the enemy, whom for the most part they were content 
 only to wound, made their way over the bodies of the 
 slain, strove, in their eagerness for glory, each to be 
 the first to reach the wall, and in not a single instance 
 allowed plunder to delay them. Marius' rashness was 
 redeemed by his fortune, and his fault redounded to 
 his fame. 
 
THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 22/ 
 
 While this affair was in progress, the quaestor, chap. 
 Lucius Sulla, entered the camp with a large force of 
 cavalry, which he had been left behind at Rome to 
 levy from Latium and the allies. Our subject thus 
 brings this remarkable man to our notice, and it, there- 
 fore, seems fitting briefly to describe his character and 
 accomplishments, as we shall have no other oppor- 
 tunity of speaking on Sulla, and Lucius Sisenna, who 
 has composed the best and most painstaking treatise 
 of any writer on this subject, seems to me hardly to 
 have spoken his mind with freedom. 
 
 Sulla, then, was nobly born, of a patrician house, and 
 a family which the indolence of his ancestors had 
 reduced to obscurity. He was as well versed in the 
 literatures of Greece and Rome as the most learned, a 
 man of great aspiration, eager for pleasure, yet more 
 eager for fame, luxurious in his leisure, yet never 
 suffering pleasure to withdraw him from his duties, 
 except that he might have better consulted his honour 
 in his married life. He was eloquent, shrewd, and an 
 obliging friend, with a quite incredible skill in feigning 
 and concealment, and of great generosity in many 
 matters, and especially with regard to money. Before 
 his triumph in the civil war, though the most fortun- 
 ate of men, his luck never surpassed his energy, and 
 many doubted whether he could more rightly be 
 called the fortunate or the brave. As to his sub- 
 sequent conduct I do not know v/hether its narration 
 would be a more shameful or a more disgusting task. 
 
 When, as narrated above, he arrived with the cavalry chap. 
 in Marius' camp in Africa, Sulla was quite ignorant and 
 unpractised in war. In a short time, however, he 
 
 P 
 
228 THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 
 
 CHAP, became the most skilful soldier in the army. He ad- 
 dressed the men with kindness, granted many favours, 
 both by request, and of his own accord, and was un- 
 willing to receive those offered by others, though he 
 returned these more readily than he did his loans; for 
 his own part he never sought repayment, but rather 
 was anxious to increase the number of his debtors. 
 He would talk, both gravely and gail}^ with the 
 humblest, frequently visited the men at their work, on 
 the march, and on guard, and all the time refrained 
 from the vice of the meanly ambitious, and never 
 injured the character of the consul or any man of 
 honour ; he contented himself with allowing none to 
 excel him in counsel or action, and with himself out- 
 stripping most competitors. By these services and 
 accomplishments he quickly endeared himself to 
 Marius and the soldiers. 
 
 CHAP. Jugurtha had lost the town of Capsa and many 
 other fortified important places, and with them great 
 treasures ; he now sent messengers to Bocchus, bidding 
 him lead his forces into Numidia with all speed, as the 
 time for battle had arrived. Learning that the king 
 was hesitating and pondering in doubt on the respec- 
 tive advantages of peace and war, he again, as he had 
 done before, bribed those about him, while to the 
 Mauritanian himself he promised a third part of 
 Numidia, to be surrendered on the expulsion of the 
 Romans from Africa or the conclusion of a peace 
 which should leave his dominions intact. Bocchus 
 was enticed by the bribe, and joined Jugurtha with a 
 great host. 
 
 The two kings united their armies and attacked 
 
THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 229 
 
 Marius, who was already setting out for his winter chap. 
 quarter, when hardly a tenth part of the day was left, 
 thinking that the night, which was already falling, 
 would protect them if worsted, while, if victorious, 
 their knowledge of the country would prevent its 
 hampering them ; the Romans, on the other hand, 
 they thought, would in either event find their diffi- 
 culties increased in the darkness. The consul had 
 no sooner been warned from many quarters of the 
 approach of the enemy than the enemy himself was 
 upon him, and, before the army could be marshalled 
 or collect its baggage; indeed, before it could receive 
 any signal or command, the Mauritanian and Gae- 
 tulian cavalry in no line or order of battle, but in 
 troops, just as chance had thrown them together, 
 charged down upon our men. These were confused 
 with the suddenness of the alarm, but nevertheless 
 each remembered his courage, and either seized on 
 his armour or sheltered from the enemy others so 
 engaged. Some mounted their horses and advanced 
 against the enemy, and the fight assumed the char- 
 acter rather of a contest with brigands than a bat- 
 tle. Foot and horse were mingled together without 
 standards or ranks, slaughtering others and being 
 themselves cut down. Many who were fighting 
 desperately against the foe in front found themselves 
 beset in the rear. Neither valour nor armour gave 
 any real security, our men were outnumbered by their 
 enemy and surrounded on every side. At last the 
 Romans [whose knowledge, as a body, of war, was in- 
 creased bythe present mixture of] veterans and recruits, 
 formed in rings, as chance, or the nature of the ground 
 
230 THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 
 
 CHAP, threw them togfether, and bein^ in this way sheltered 
 
 XCVII o ' «j 
 
 and in good order on every side, beat off the enemy's 
 CHAP, attack. Though beset by such a calamity, Marius was 
 neither downcast nor inclined to despond. At the 
 head of his own troop, which he had formed of brave 
 soldiers rather than personal friends, he ranged over 
 the field ; at one moment helped some hard-pressed 
 Romans ; at the next charged into the thickest of the 
 foe. His thought for his soldiers he showed by his 
 valour, for in the general confusion he could give 
 them no commands. The day was now spent, and 
 the barbarians relaxed no effort, but rather pressed 
 on more vigorously, believing, as the kings had told 
 them, that night was in their favour. At this point 
 Marius took the best course the situation allowed, 
 and, in order to provide his men with a refuge, seized 
 on two neighbouring hills, the one of which, though 
 too small for a camp, possessed a bountiful spring of 
 water, while the other was suited to his purpose, being 
 for the most part lofty and steep, and thus requiring 
 little entrenching. Ordering Sulla to bivouac near 
 the spring with his cavalry, he himself gradually con- 
 centrated his scattered troops, whose confusion was 
 fully equalled by that of the enemy, and led the 
 whole force at a rapid pace to the hill. The difficult 
 nature of the ground compelled the kings to desist 
 from the battle ; they did not, however, permit their 
 men to retire to any distance, but encamped in loose 
 order with their hosts surrounding the two hills. The 
 barbarians then lit numerous fires, and throughout the 
 greater part of the night rejoiced, according to their 
 custom, with vaunts and shouts ; even their leaders 
 
THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 231 
 
 grew insolent, and behaved themselves as conquerors, chap. 
 merely because they had not fled. The Romans, who 
 were themselves in darkness and on higher ground, 
 could easily watch their behaviour, and were greatly 
 cheered by it. Marius, most of all, was encouraged chap. 
 by the inexperience the enemy betrayed, and ordered 
 perfect silence to be kept, forbidding even the ordin- 
 ary calls to be sounded at the different watches. As 
 daylight approached and the enemy, already wearied 
 out, had been now for some little while overpowered 
 by sleep, [he suddenly ordered] the watches and, with 
 them, the trumpeters of the cohorts, squadrons, and 
 legions, all simultaneously [to] sound an alarm, and 
 the soldiers [to] raise a shout and sally forth from the 
 gates. The Mauritanians and Gaetulians, suddenly 
 roused byan unfamiliar and terrifyingdin, could neither 
 flee nor seize their arms, nor, in fact, take any action 
 or measures for defence, to such an extent had the din 
 and outcry, the absence of help, and the onset of our 
 men, the confusion and panic, caused them all to be 
 seized as with a kind of madness. To conclude, the 
 whole army fled in utter rout ; many arms and ensigns 
 of war were captured, and more of the enemy were 
 killed in this battle than in all those that preceded 
 it. Sleep and an unwonted panic hampered their 
 flight. 
 
 Marius now resumed his march to his quarters for chap. 
 the winter, which he had determined to pass in the 
 seaports, for the sake of provisions. His victory made 
 him neither remiss nor arrogant, and, as if in the pre- 
 sence of the enemy, he marched with his army in a 
 hollow square; Sulla, with the cavalry, was on the 
 
 c. 
 
232 THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 
 
 CHAP, extreme ri^ht ; on the left was Aulus Manlius, with 
 c. ^ 
 
 the sHngers and bowmen, in charge also of the Ligurian 
 
 cohorts ; tribunes, with companies of h'ght troops, 
 were posted in the van and rear ; while deserters, the 
 men least valued and best acquainted with the coun- 
 try, spied out the enemy's line of march. At the same 
 time the consul looked to every point himself, as if 
 none other had charge of it ; visited all the men, and 
 distributed praise and blame as they were severally 
 deserved. He compelled the soldiers to be armed and 
 on the alert like himself, fortified the camp with the 
 same care he displayed on the march, drafted cohorts 
 from the different legions to keep guard at the gates, 
 and cavalry from the auxiliary forces to patrol before 
 the camp, and posted other troops on the rampart ; 
 the watches he went the round of in person, not so 
 much from any mistrust as to the fulfilment of his 
 orders, as from the desire to increase the willingness 
 of his soldiers by showing them that their general 
 shared equally in their toil. In fact, both at this and 
 other periods [of the Jugurthine war], Marius main- 
 tained discipline rather by appealing to his men's 
 sense of honour than by punishments. This conduct 
 many traced to his desire for popularity, while some 
 thought that he had been from boyhood so inured to 
 hardship and other miseries, as they are mostly 
 accounted, that he now regarded them as pleasures. 
 Be this as it may, the public interests were as well 
 and honourably served as under the most tyrannical 
 of commanders. 
 CHAP. At last, on the fourth day, not far from Cirta, the 
 
 CI. 
 
 scouts from all quarters presented themselves in haste. 
 
THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 233 
 
 a certain sign that the enemy was at hand. Pouring chap. 
 in, as they did, from every side, and all with the same 
 intelligence, they rendered it impossible for the consul 
 to decide how to draw up his army for the battle ; he 
 therefore made no change in his formation, but stood 
 his ground prepared for all emergencies. He thus 
 baulked Jugurtha, who had divided his forces into 
 four, under the idea that one or other of them must in 
 any case take the enemy in the rear. Meanwhile 
 Sulla, who was the first to be attacked, cheered on his 
 men, and at the head of a troop formed in the closest 
 order, charged the enemy in person, while the rest of 
 his soldiers kept their position, sheltering themselves 
 from the javelins darted from a distance, and cutting 
 down any of the enemy who attacked them at closer 
 quarters. While the cavalry were thus engaged, 
 Bocchus, with the infantry whom his son Volux had 
 brought up, and who, owing to a delay in the march, 
 had been absent from the former battle, charged his 
 Roman rear. Marius at this moment was occupied in 
 the front, as there Jugurtha was attacking with the 
 strongest division. The Numidian now learnt that 
 Bocchus had arrived, and, with a few attendants, 
 wheeled round, unnoticed, to the infantry. There he 
 shouted in Latin, a tongue which he had learned to 
 speak at Numantia, that our soldiers were fighting in 
 vain, as a moment before he had slain Marius with 
 his own hand, at the same time displaying a dripping 
 sword, which in the course of battle he had stained 
 gallantly enough with the blood of our infantry. On 
 hearing his words, our men were panic-stricken, though 
 rather by the hideousness of such a calamity than 
 
234 THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 
 
 CHAP from belief in the news. The barbarians at once 
 plucked up their courage, and pressed the frightened 
 Romans more fiercely. They had nearly reduced 
 them to flight, when Sulla returned from crushing the 
 enemy against whom he had ridden, and charged the 
 Mauritanians on their flank. Bocchus rode ofl" im- 
 mediately, but Jugurtha, in his eagerness to uphold 
 his men and to cling to the victory he had so nearly 
 won, was hemmed in by the cavalry, and when all, 
 both to his right and left, had been cut down, eluded 
 the enemy's javelins and broke alone through their 
 midst. Meanwhile Marius, after routing the cavalry, 
 hastened to the assistance of his comrades, of whose 
 straits he had just been informed. This completed 
 the rout of the enemy. A dreadful scene then ensued 
 in the open plains ; there was flight and pursuit, 
 slaughter and capture, horses and riders dashed to 
 earth, and many a wounded man, with no strength to 
 fly or patience to lie still, struggling to rise and forth- 
 with fainting back ; as far as the eye could reach, the 
 whole country was strewn with weapons, armour, and 
 corpses, and between them appeared the blood-stained 
 earth. 
 
 'HAP. Henceforth indisputably victorious, the consul now 
 made his way to Cirta, whither from the outset he had 
 directed his march. To this place, five days after the 
 second .defeat of the barbarians, came ambassadors 
 from Bocchus entreating Marius in the king's name to 
 send him two trusty envoys, as he wished to confer 
 with them both on his own position and on the 
 interests of the Roman people. Marius immediately 
 ordered Lucius Sulla and Aulus Manlius to proceed 
 
THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 235 
 
 to the king, and they, although they had come by chap. 
 request, nevertheless determined to address the king 
 in order to alter his disposition if hostile, or if they 
 found him desirous of peace, to further kindle his 
 eagerness. Accordingly, Sulla, to whose eloquence, 
 not to his years, Manlius gave way, spoke briefly to 
 the following effect : — 
 
 ."We greatly rejoice, King Bocchus, that heaven 
 has warned a man of your parts at last to prefer 
 peace to war, and, by avoiding the pollution of 
 your own nobility by association with the utter vile- 
 ness of Jugurtha, to release us from the cruel necessity 
 of bringing your mistake and his wickedness to a 
 common punishment. From the very beginning of their 
 empire the Roman people has thought it better to 
 seek friends than slaves, and has deemed it safer to 
 rule by goodwill rather than compulsion. To yourself, 
 nothing can be more convenient than our friendship ; 
 in the first place, our distance from you will make 
 collisions almost impossible, while our goodwill will 
 be as effectual as were we your neighbours ; in the 
 second, we have subjects in abundance, of friends 
 neither we nor any that ever lived have had enough. 
 Would that you had seen the wisdom of this course 
 from the beginning ! Had you done so, you would 
 by this time assuredly have received more favours 
 from the Roman people than, as it is, you have 
 suffered ills. Fortune, however, is ruler over all, and 
 she, it seems, has seen fit that you should experience 
 both our power and our goodwill. Now, therefore, 
 that you have her permission, hasten and advance on 
 the road you have entered. You have in your power 
 
 ,RSIX 
 
236 THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 
 
 CHAP, many means of outweighing your errors by your 
 
 services. Let this thought sink into your breast, that 
 
 the Roman people was never outdone in a contest of 
 
 kindness ; its power in real war you have learnt for 
 
 yourself" 
 
 To this speech Bocchus made a peaceful and 
 
 courteous reply, and at the same time touched briefly 
 
 on his offence. He had taken up arms, he said, in no 
 
 hostile spirit, but for the defence of his kingdom ; a 
 
 part of Numidia, whence, as he contended, he had 
 
 forcibly expelled Jugurtha, had, according to the laws 
 
 of war, becom.e his own, and it was impossible for him 
 
 to allow Marius to lay it waste. He alluded also to 
 
 the refusal of alliance when he had previously sent an 
 
 embassy to Rome, but expressed a wish to bury the 
 
 past, and, for the present, if he had Marius' permission, 
 
 to send an embassy to the Senate. Leave was granted; 
 
 but Jugurtha had learnt of the embassy of Sulla and 
 
 Manlius, and, fearing the very projects which were 
 
 actually on foot, had bribed the friends of Bocchus, 
 
 and these now led the barbarian to alter his resolve. 
 
 CHAP. Meanwhile Marius, after settling; his army in huts 
 cm. 
 
 for the winter, marched with the light cohorts and a 
 
 part of the cavalry to the desert country to besiege 
 
 one of the royal forts, in which Jugurtha had placed 
 
 the whole of his deserters as a garrison. 
 
 Bocchus now once more, either from considering 
 
 what had been the issue to him of the two battles, or 
 
 by the advice of other friends whom Jugurtha had left 
 
 unbribed, chose from among his intimates five of 
 
 proved loyalty and great ability, and bade these 
 
 proceed as ambassadors to Marius, and subsequently. 
 
THE JUGURTIIINE WAR. 237 
 
 if advisable, to Rome ; giving them full power of ^^^j^- 
 treating and of concluding the war in any way they 
 could. The ambassadors set out betimes for the 
 Roman winter quarters, but on their way were beset 
 and plundered by Gaetulian brigands, and escaped 
 trembling and in sorry plight to Sulla, whom the 
 consul, on setting out for his expedition, had left in 
 command as pro-praetor. Sulla received them not as 
 their condition warranted, as impostors and enemies, 
 but with an elaborate and unstinted courtesy, which 
 made the barbarians believe that the reputation of 
 the Romans for avarice was undeserved, and that 
 Sulla, since he showed them such generosity, was 
 their friend. Even as late as this many still under- 
 stood nothing about bribery, and thought that no one 
 was generous except out of a corresponding goodwill, 
 and regarded all gifts as tokens of kindness. The am- 
 bassadors explained to the quaestor the instructions 
 they had received from Bocchus, and at the same time 
 begged of him his patronage and advice, magnified 
 the king's resources, loyalty, and greatness, and touched 
 on other points which they thought likely to be of use 
 or to conciliate. Sulla promised them everything, 
 and, instructed by him how to address both Marius 
 and the Senate, they remained where they were for 
 about forty days. 
 
 On returning to Cirta, unsuccessful from his enter- chap. 
 prise, Marius was informed of the arrival of the 
 ambassadors, and ordered them to accompany Sulla 
 to Utica. He also summoned Lucius Belienus, a 
 praetor, and all persons in the country of senatorial 
 'rank, and in the presence of these received the 
 
 CIV. 
 
238 THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 
 
 CHAP, messag-e of Bocchus. The consul granted the am- 
 
 CIV. 
 
 bassadors leave to proceed to Rome ; meanwhile, 
 they asked for a truce. This Sulla and the majority 
 of the council were in favour of granting ; a few voted 
 for a more arrogant course, ignorant, we may presume, 
 of human fortunes, which in their unstable and fluctuat- 
 ing nature are ever shifting to opposite poles. After 
 obtaining all their requests, three of the Mauritanians 
 set out for Rome with Gnaeus Octavius Ruso, who, as 
 quaestor, had brought pay-money to Africa ; the other 
 two returned to the king. From these Bocchus heard 
 with pleasure all their news, and especially of the 
 kindness and zeal of Sulla in his service. At Rome, 
 his ambassadors, after owning that the king had erred 
 and been led away by the wickedness of Jugurtha, 
 entreated for an alliance of friendship, and received as 
 answer that " The Senate and people of Rome are 
 wont to remember services both good and ill. To 
 Bocchus, inasmuch as he repents, they accord pardon 
 for his fault ; an alliance of friendship will be granted 
 when he has deserved it." 
 CHAP. Immediately on learning this answer, Bocchus be- 
 sought Marius by letter to send Sulla to him, that 
 under his guidance measures might be taken to settle 
 the points at issue. Sulla was now despatched with 
 an escort of cavalry [foot soldiers], and Balearic slingers,' 
 and with these there went a force of bowmen and 
 a cohort of Paeliginians who, for the sake of expedi- 
 tion, wore the armour of skirmishers, by which they 
 were as well protected as by any other kind against 
 the [light] weapons of their enemies. When they had 
 now been five days on the march, Volux, the son of 
 
CVI. 
 
 THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 239 
 
 Bocchus suddenly appeared on the open plain with not chap. 
 more than a thousand horsemen ; but these by their 
 confused and disorderly advance seemed both to Sulla 
 and every one else more numerous than they really 
 were, and inspired a fear of hostilities. Each man, 
 therefore, held himself in readiness, tested his armour, 
 and prepared his weapons for use ; some little fear was 
 felt, but hope prevailed, as was natural with conquerors 
 when confronted with an enemy they had often de- 
 feated. Meanwhile the horsemen who had been sent 
 to the front to reconnoitre, reported, and truly, that the 
 encounter was a peaceful one. VoKix approached, and, chap. 
 addressing the quaestor, informed him that he had 
 been sent by his father Bocchus at once to meet and 
 escort him. Durmg this and the following day the two 
 forces mingled fearlessly together, but later on, when 
 the camp had been pitched, and it was now evening, 
 the Mauritanian suddenly hastened to Sulla with an 
 agitated and frightened countenance, and, announcing 
 that he was informed by the scouts that Jugurtha was 
 not far distant, prayed and entreated him to escape 
 secretly with himself under cover of night. Sulla 
 haughtily replied that he had no fear of the oft- 
 defeated Numidian, and had full confidence in his 
 men's courage ; even, he added, were certain de- 
 struction imminent, he would rather stand his ground 
 than betray his soldiers and disgrace himself by flight 
 in order to prolong the uncertainty of a life which 
 soon, perchance, disease might terminate. Advised, 
 however, by Volux to set out by night, he approved the 
 plan, and immediately ordered that when the soldiers 
 should have finished their suppers in camp, a number 
 
 /^: 
 
240 THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 
 
 CHAP, of fires be lighted, and the departure effected in silence 
 in the course of the first watch. Exactly at sunrise, 
 when all were tired with their night march and Sulla 
 was measuring out a camp, the Mauritanian cavalry- 
 reported that Jugurtha was encamped in advance of 
 them at a distance of about two miles. The news 
 became known, and now indeed our men were seized 
 with terror, believing themselves betrayed by Volux 
 and beset by an ambush, nor were there wanting some 
 who demanded that he should be summarily punished 
 and that so great a crime on his part should not be 
 
 CHAP, left unavenged. Sulla, however, althourfi he took the 
 cvii. . 
 
 same view of the case, defended the Mauritanian from 
 
 harm. He exhorted his soldiers to keep a brave 
 heart, and told them that a few men of energy had 
 often fought with success against a host, that the less 
 they spared themselves in the battle the safer they 
 would be, and that no soldier who had armed his 
 hand ought to seek for safety from his unarmed feet, 
 while, in the height of his terror, he exposed the blind 
 and undefended side of his body to the foe. He then, 
 after loudly invoking heaven to witness the crime and 
 treachery of Bocchus, ordered Volux, since he was 
 found plotting against them, to leave the camp. 
 Volux besought him with tears not to hold such a 
 belief; no deceit, he assured him, had been used ; the 
 catastrophe had been brought about by the cunning 
 of Jugurtlia, whose spies had apparently acquainted 
 him with their route. The king, however, he con- 
 tinued, had no large force at his disposal, he was 
 dependent for all his hopes and resources on his father 
 Bocchus, and, he believed, would not venture on any 
 
THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 24 1 
 
 open attack in the presence of the latter's own son ; chap. 
 
 the best course, it seemed to him, that they could take 
 
 was to march openly through the midst of Jugurtha's 
 
 camp ; and he would either send his Mauritanians on 
 
 in front or leave them where they were, and himself 
 
 accompany Sulla without any escort. Under such 
 
 circumstances his proposal was approved, and a start 
 
 was at once made ; their approach was unexpected, 
 
 Jugurtha waited and hesitated, and, meanwhile, they 
 
 passed him in safety. A few days afterwards they 
 
 reached their journey's end. 
 
 On their arrival they found in frequent and familiar chap, 
 
 . . CVIII. 
 
 intercourse with Bocchus a certain Numidian, named 
 
 Aspar, whom Jugurtha, on hearing of the summons to 
 Sulla, had despatched as an ambassador and secret 
 spy upon the designs of- Bocchus. They found also a 
 certain Dabar, a son of Massugrada, and of the family 
 of Massinissa, but of low birth on his mother's side 
 [she having been his father's concubine], whose many 
 good qualities had made him beloved and esteemed 
 by the Mauritanian. Bocchus had proved this Dabar's 
 loyalty to the Romans on many occasions, and there- 
 fore chose him to convey a message to Sulla announc- 
 ing that he was ready to do whatever the Roman people 
 wished. He further asked the general himself to fix a 
 day, place, and hour, for a conference, and assured him 
 that he had violated no single detail of their agree- 
 ment, and that he need have no fear of Jugurtha's 
 ambassador, who had been received solely to enable 
 them to conduct their business with greater freedom, for 
 this was the only way by which they could guard against 
 the king's subtle attacks. I gather, however, that Boc- 
 
CIX. 
 
 242 THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 
 
 CHAP, chus was actuated rather by considerations of " Punic 
 honour " than by these which he professed, and was 
 at the same time amusing both the Romans and the 
 Numidians with the hopes of peace ; he deUberated 
 often and deeply whether he should deliver Jugurtha 
 to the Romans or Sulla to him, and while his inclina- 
 
 CHAP. tion was hostile, his fears pleaded our cause. Sulla 
 replied to his message that he would speak briefly 
 with him in the presence of Aspar, and hold the rest 
 of their discussions in private or with as few witnesses 
 as possible ; at the same time he instructed him what 
 answer to return. The meeting took place in the way 
 he wished, and Sulla announced that he had come on 
 a mission from the consul to ask whether Bocchus 
 intended to maintain peace or war. On this the king, 
 according to his instructions, bade him return after 
 ten days ; he had even yet not come to any resolution, 
 but would give him an answer on the day named. 
 They then separated and returned each to his own 
 camp. When the night was far advanced Sulla was 
 secretly summoned by Bocchus. Only trusty interpre- 
 ters were admitted by either party, and, besides these, 
 Dabar, a man of high character and liked by both 
 parties, as a go-between. The king immediately began 
 the following speech : — 
 
 CHAP. " I never thought that it could happen that I, the 
 greatest king in this land, and of all princes of whom 
 I know, should owe gratitude to any private person. 
 Indeed, Sulla, I profess that before I knew you, though 
 I helped many at their prayer and others of my own 
 accord, I myself needed the assistance of none. At 
 the breach of such a custom others are wont to grieve, 
 
THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 243 
 
 to me it is a pleasure ; I am content that it may be ^f?^^'- 
 my lot to have needed for a moment this friendship of 
 yours, than which my heart holds nothing dearer. And 
 this profession it is open to you to test : take and use 
 my arms, men, money, whatever in fact you will, and 
 never, while you live, think that my debt of gratitude 
 to you is discharged. It will ever remain with me 
 undiminished, and, in a word, you shall never to my 
 knowledge wish for anything in vain. To my thinking, 
 it is less dishonourable for a king to be surpassed in 
 arms than in generosity. As for your commonwealth, 
 as guardian of whose interests you have been sent 
 hither, listen to the few words I have to say : I neither 
 made war upon the Roman people, nor did I ever wish 
 it to be made ; I only used arms to protect my terri- 
 tory against an armed invader. This question, how- 
 ev^er, since you wish it, I pass over ; as for your war 
 with Jugurtha, carry it on as long as you please. I 
 for my part will not cross the river Muluccha, the 
 ancient boundary of my kingdom and that of Micipsa, 
 nor will I allow Jugurtha to come on this side of it. 
 Furthermore, if you make any request which you can 
 worthily prefer and I accord, you shall not leave my 
 presence unsatisfied." 
 
 To this speech Sulla replied briefly and moderately chap 
 as touching himself, but spoke at length on the subject 
 of the peace and their common interests. As the 
 upshot he made it clear to the king that the Senate and 
 people of Rome, inasmuch as they had proved their 
 superiority in arms, would not regard his promises as 
 any favour; that he must do something which they 
 might see had been to their advantage rather than his 
 
 Q 
 
 CXI. 
 
244 'l^I^E JUGURTIIINE WAR. 
 
 CHAP, own, and that this was perfectly easy for him since he 
 had Jugurtha in his power: let him deHver Jugurtha 
 to the Romans and their debt would be great ; their 
 friendship and alliance, and the part of Numidia which 
 he was at present trying to obtain, would all come to 
 him as a matter of course. The king at first gave a 
 firm denial, alleging that the bonds of kinship and 
 marriage, besides a solemn treaty, prevented his com- 
 pliance ; he had fears too, he said, lest if he should act 
 treacherously, he might alienate the affection of his 
 people, who loved Jugurtha and hated the Romans. 
 At last, after many importunities he gave way, and 
 promised to do everything as Sulla desired. They 
 made such arrangements as seemed expedient for 
 counterfeiting the peace for which the Numidian, in 
 his weariness of war, was most desirous, and then 
 after concerting their plot, departed their several 
 ways. 
 
 CHAP On the next day Bocchus summoned Aspar, Jugur- 
 
 tha's ambassador, and informed him that through 
 Dabar he had learnt from Sulla that the war could be 
 brought to an end on certain conditions, and that he 
 therefore wished him to ascertain the views of his king. 
 Aspar was overjoyed and set out for the camp of 
 Jugurtha. When he had been duly instructed on all 
 points by that king, after eight days he returned in 
 haste to Bocchus, and informed him that Jugurtha was 
 anxious to comply with every demand, but had little 
 faith in Marius as he had often made previously fruitless 
 treaties of peace with Roman generals : if Bocchus 
 wished to act in the interests of both and gain a secure 
 peace, he should contrive a meeting of all the parties 
 
cxin. 
 
 THE JUCiURTHINE WAR. 245 
 
 as if for a conference on the question of peace, and chap. 
 should then betray Sulla to himself: when he had a 
 man of such importance as a prisoner, a treaty would 
 soon be concluded at the bidding of [the Senate or] 
 people [of Rome] ; a man of noble birth would not be 
 left in the hands of enemies, into whose power he had 
 fallen, by no cowardice of his own, but in the service 
 of the state. 
 
 The Mauritanian loni;' deliberated on this proposal, chai 
 and at length promised to carry it out. Whether in 
 this case his hesitation was real or assumed my infor- 
 mation does not say. The caprices of kings are as 
 unstable as they are strong, and often clash with 
 each other. Later on, the time and place for the 
 assembly of the conference on the subject of peace 
 were settled, and Bocchus addressed himself now 
 to Sulla, now to the envoy of Jugurtha, treated each 
 with courtesy, and made them both the same promise. 
 They, on their side, were equally delighted and full of 
 hope. On the night which preceded the day appointed 
 for the conference, the Mauritanian is said to have 
 first summoned his friends, and then, suddenly chang- 
 ing his mind, to have bidden them withdraw, and to 
 have long debated the problem with himself, while his 
 countenance and glance changed with each turn of 
 his thought, and, despite his silence, laid bare the 
 secrets of his breast. At last he ordered Sulla to be 
 summoned, and planned the treachery against the 
 Numidian, according to his wish. At last day came, 
 and it was announced to him that Jugurtha w as not 
 far off. Accompanied by a few friend.s, and by our 
 quaestor, as if to pay the king the compliment of 
 
CXIV. 
 
 246 THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 
 
 CHAP, meetinef him on his way, he advanced to a hillock 
 
 CXIII. 
 
 within easy view of the men in ambush. The Nu- 
 midian, with most of his intimates, approached the 
 same place, according to the agreement, unarmed. 
 The signal was immediately given, and he was attacked 
 by the ambush upon every side. His companions 
 were all cut down ; Jugurtha himself was delivered in 
 bonds to Sulla, and by him conducted to Marius. 
 CHAP. During this same period the Roman generals 
 Quintus Caepio and Gains Manlius were defeated in 
 a battle against the Gauls, and all Italy trembled in 
 the panic thus occasioned. From that day down 
 to our own times the Romans have believed that, 
 while their courage can surmount all else with ease, 
 with the Gauls their contest is for preservation, not 
 for fame. In the present crisis, when it was announced 
 that the war in Numidia was ended, and that Jugurtha 
 was being brought in chains to Rome, Marius was 
 elected consul in his absence, and Gaul decreed to him 
 as his province. On the first of January the general 
 who had won such renown, and was now consul for 
 the second time, celebrated his triumph. At that 
 crisis the hopes and the resources of the state were 
 alike centred in him. 
 
247 
 
 NOTES TO THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 
 
 These I zuouldask to reiiieviber the character of the men chai 
 who were unsuccessful as candidates at the times zvJien I 
 obtained my several offices, and the classes zvJw subse- 
 quently gained admittance to tJie Senate. . . . {Qui 
 si reputaverint, et quibus ego tcmporibiis magistrat7is 
 adeptus sum, qualcs viri idem assequi nequiverint, et 
 postea quae genera hominum in senatum pervenerint. . . .) 
 
 Marcus Cato was an unsuccessful candidate for the 
 praetorship shortly before Sallust's election as tribune, 
 and it is to this, possibly, among other cases of which 
 we do not know, that the historian is supposed to refer. 
 As the sentence stands its language is singularly in- 
 felicitous, for to have succeeded where a Cato failed 
 should have been a cause rather for shame than for 
 rejoicing ; and yet it is of such a success that Sallust 
 seems to boast. It is possible, however, that he really 
 meant to point out that Cato's rejection convinced 
 him that he himself could not hope for a continued 
 success, and thus afforded a reason for abandoning 
 politics ; if so, he expresses himself very obscurely. 
 
 The allusion to the '^ geiiera hojninum " who subse- 
 quently gained admittance to the Senate is usually 
 referred to the policy of Caesar ; some, however, think 
 
248 NOTES TO THK JUGURTIIINE WAR. 
 
 CHAP, that it was the measures of the triumvirs which Sallust 
 had in mind ; others, again, take postea to mean 
 "lastly," and think that he refers to some particular 
 instance at an earlier date. 
 
 CHAP. Massinissa . . . after the eouqucst of the Car- 
 
 thaginians and the eaptnrc of Sufa.x . . . was 
 rewarded by the Roman people with a gift of all the 
 cities and lands which they had conquered. ( Victis 
 CartJiagi)iiensilnis et eapto Snface . . . populns 
 Roniamis qnasennqne nrbis et agros uiann ceperat, regi 
 dono dedit) 
 
 Massinissa (born B.C. 238) was a son of Gala, king of 
 the Massylians. In the second Punic war he fought 
 on the side of Carthage again.st Sufax, king of the 
 Massaesylians or Western Numidians, and afterwards 
 in Spain against the Romans themselves, until their 
 decisive victory at Silpia in ]'..C. 206. During the next 
 two years he was engaged in a fruitless contest for the 
 possession of his father's kingdom with Sufax, now the 
 ally of Carthage. In this war he suffered three crush- 
 ing defeats, and when Scipio landed in Africa in B.C. 
 204, could only join him as the landless chief of a few 
 freebooters. His genius, however, for African warfare 
 enabled him to do the Romans good service, and he 
 took a prominent part in the surprise of Sufax's camp 
 by which that king was captured, and his army of fifty 
 thousand foot and ten thousand cavalry, completely 
 destroyed. On the conclusion of the war, Massinissa, 
 besides being confirmed in his possession of his father's 
 kingdom, was rewarded by Scipio with a grant of the 
 greater part of the territory of Sufax. In the treaty, 
 
NOTES TO THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 249 
 
 moreover, which was concluded with Carthai^e, it was chap. 
 stipulated that he should retain all the possessions 
 which he or his predecessor had held within the 
 boundaries of Carthage, and also that Carthage should 
 not make war upon any ally of Rome. Of the 
 means of annoyance thus placed in his hand Massinissa 
 availed himself to the full, and during his long reign 
 of more than fifty years made perpetual encroach- 
 ments on the Carthaginian territory, especially in the 
 fertile district of Emporia. Confirmed by the Romans 
 in possession of this district in B.C 161, he proceeded 
 to attack that of the Bagradas, and in B.C. 152 Car- 
 thage prepared for armed resistance. The Numidian 
 appealed to Rome for protection, and after the Car- 
 thaginians had been 'defeated by him, the Senate 
 declared war on them for disobeying their commands. 
 At this conjuncture Massinissa's long life of ninety 
 years (B.C. 238-148) came to a close, and Scipio 
 divided his kingdom among his three sons, Micipsa, 
 Gulussa, and Mastanabal, giving to the first the resi- 
 dency and state chest, to the second the command in 
 war, and to the third the administration of justice. 
 On the destruction of Carthage, the dominions which 
 that city had held in its latest days, the lands along 
 the coast opposite to Sicily, from the rich Tusca as 
 far as Thenae, were formed into a Roman province, 
 but the Numidian princes were formally confirmed in 
 their possessions on the Bagradas and in Emporia, 
 and their kingdom stretched from the rich Muluccha 
 as far as the great Syrtis, touching Mauritania on the 
 one side, and Cyrene and Egypt on the other. Gulussa 
 and Mastanabal both died durinji their brother's life ; 
 
250 NOTES TO THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 
 
 CHAP, and though the first in Massiva, and the second in 
 Gauda, left behind him a legitimate son, Micipsa be- 
 came sole king. He himself was of a quiet and 
 peaceable disposition, and we hear of no remarkable 
 
 V. 
 
 occurrence during his reign. 
 
 CHAP. Micipsa, on sending to Spain a contingent of Nnmidian 
 foot and horse to the help of the Roman people in the 
 Nnniantine war^ placed JugurtJia in coniniaiid of this 
 fo7'ce. {Bello Niunantino Micipsa, cum popiclo Romano 
 eqiiitnni atqiie peditum anxilia mitteret {Jugurtha) pj'ae- 
 fecit Nuniidis qnos in Hispaniam mittebat) 
 
 The siege of Numantia formed one of the principal 
 incidents of a twenty years' war in Spain (B.C. 154- 
 133) which afforded even more striking proof of the 
 treachery and incapacity of the Roman generals than 
 that with Jugurtha. Fulvius Nobilior was defeated 
 under its walls in B.C. 153, and a similar ill success in 
 B.C. 141 induced Quintus Pompeius to offer terms to 
 the inhabitants. Pompeius subsequently, with the 
 sanction of the Senate, repudiated the treaty, and the 
 war went on until B.C. 137, when the consul G. Hostil- 
 ius Mancinus was forced to surrender, and agree to 
 terms of peace dictated by the Numantines. This 
 treaty also was repudiated and the war again resumed. 
 In 134 B.C. Scipio yEmilianus, the first general of the 
 day, received the command, and in the following year 
 reduced the town, not by assault, but by an elaborate 
 blockade. The inhabitants were then sold into slavery, 
 the city levelled with the ground, and its territory 
 divided among the neighbours. Such was the fate 
 awarded by the Romans to an enemy who throughout 
 
NOTES TO THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 25 1 
 
 the Struggle had displayed a courage and honour far chap. 
 
 VII. 
 
 CHAP. 
 XL 
 
 superior to their own. 
 
 It was only zuitJiin the last three years that Jugiirtha 
 \lry his adoptioji] had been admitted to authority. {Nam 
 ipsuni ilium tribiis proxiimis annis \adoptatione'] in 
 regnum pervenisse^ 
 
 Numantia fell in B.C. 133, and Sallust, two chapters 
 back, has asserted that on Jugurtha's return Micipsa 
 " adopted him immediately." The king's death, though 
 Sallust speaks of it as occurring ** a few years after- 
 wards," did not take place till B.C. 118, that is at least 
 fourteen years after what we should have imagined 
 from the historian's language was the date of Jugur- 
 tha's adoption. We have here, therefore, another 
 instance of our author's gross carelessness in matters 
 of chronology. Dietsch, to save Sallust's credit, brack- 
 ets " adoptatione " as a stupid gloss. If it be omitted, 
 " in regiium pervenisse " must be referred to the posi- 
 tion assigned to Jugurtha by Micipsa's will, or by 
 some other measure of which we do not know ; but 
 the historian has sinned too deeply in other places for 
 his credit to be allowed to outweigh that of the manu- 
 script. 
 
 My family formed its friendship with the Roman chap 
 people in the Carthaginian war, when we eould hope to 
 find in yon no more than a loyal though luckless ally. 
 {Familia nostra cjimpopulo Romano hello Carthaginiensi 
 amicitiam instituit, quo tempore magis fides ejus quam 
 fortuna petenda erat.) 
 
 The assertion which Sallust here puts into the mouth 
 
 XIV. 
 
252 NOTES TO THE JUCiURTHTNE WAR. 
 
 CHAP, of Adherbal is in outrageous opposition to facts, 
 Massinissa fought on the side of the Carthaginians- 
 till their decisive defeat at Silpia in Spain, B.C. 206, 
 He then formed a secret alliance with Scipio, but did 
 not finally break with the Carthaginians until the 
 Romans landed in Africa, B.C. 204. In the interven- 
 ing two years he himself had been three times defeated 
 by Sufax, while the long campaign in Italy had 
 terminated with the expulsion of the Carthaginians. 
 Massinissa's personal ability made him a valuable ally 
 to the Romans, but he joined them as the chief of a 
 mere band of marauders at a time when fortune was- 
 entirely on their side. 
 
 CHAP. 
 XV. 
 
 Of these the most couspieuous ivas Marcus Alinilius' 
 Scaiinis, a man of high birth, aft energetic partisan, 
 greedy for power, office, and zuealth, and an adept in 
 concealing his personal vices. (Sed ex omnibus maxujne 
 M. ^milius Scaurus, homo Jiobilis, impiger, factiosus, 
 avidus potentiae Jionoris divitiaruni, ceteruni vitia sua 
 callide occult ans}) 
 
 From the way in which Sallust speaks of him it is- 
 evident that Scaurus had by this time already attained 
 a considerable position at Rome ; we do not, however,, 
 possess much information as to how he gained it. He 
 was born in B.C. 163 of a patrician family, but of one 
 so poor that it could not have been by his profusion 
 that he gained popularity. In his youth he served in- 
 Spain, probably in the siege of Numantia, and we hear" 
 of him in Sardinia in B.C. 126. In B.C. 1 15 he obtained 
 the consulship, and distinguished himself by passing 
 two laws, one to restrain the growing luxury, the other 
 
NOTES TO THE JUGURTIIINE WAR. 253 
 
 to check the power of the freedinen. In the following- chaj-. 
 year he gained some victories over the [nalpini, a 
 mountain tribe, and for these paUry successes was 
 allowed the honour of a triumph. In B.C. 109 he w^is 
 censor, along with M. Livius Drusus, and made an 
 unsuccessful attempt to retain his office after his col- 
 league's death. He was a second time consul in 
 B.C. 107, and in B.C. 100 took an active part in oppos- 
 ing Saturninus. Ten years later we hear of him 
 triumphantly resisting the attacks of his enemies, and 
 his death, which seems to have taken place a little 
 before B.C. 88, brought to a close a career of uniform 
 success. The character which Sallust here assigns to 
 Scaurus is possibly slightly coloured by the historian's 
 democratic partialities, but Mommsen is probably right 
 in surmising that neither in morality nor genius did 
 he rise above " respectability." He was, however, one 
 of Cicero's heroes, and his success, despite his aristo- 
 cratic policy, in obtaining popularity ought to count 
 in his favour. 
 
 At tJie /lead of this commission ivas Lucius Opimins, 
 a man of distinction, and at that time of great injliiencc 
 in t/ie Senate ozvi)ig to the stern use which he had made 
 as consul of the victory of the nobility at the time when 
 Gains GraccJiiis and Marcns Fnlvius Flacciis were mnr- 
 dered. {Cnjns legationis princcpsfuit L. Opimins, homo 
 clams et tnm in senatn potens, quia consul C. Graccho et 
 M. Fnlvio Flacco interfectis, acerrume victoriam nobili- 
 tatis in plebem exeimerat.) 
 
 Lucius Opimius, as praetor in B.C. 125, had received 
 the surrender of Fregellac from the traitor Numitorius. 
 
 CHAJ' 
 XVI. 
 
254 NOTES TO THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 
 
 CHAP. In B.C. 122, the efforts of Gaius Gracchus procured his 
 
 XVI 
 
 defeat when a candidate for the consulship, but in the 
 following year he was duly elected and entrusted by 
 the Senate with extraordinary powers against the 
 democrats. These he so used as to make an appeal 
 to arms inevitable, and, after the murder of Gracchus 
 and Marcus Flaccus, put himself at the head of a com- 
 mission by whom over three thousand of the popular 
 party are said to have been strangled in prison. On 
 laying down office he was accused of treason to the 
 state, but the aristocrats had no difficulty in procuring 
 his acquittal. It is satisfactory to know that Opimius 
 wasone of those condemned under the bill of Limetanus, 
 in B.C. 109, and that he died in exile at Dyrrachium. 
 Cicero, of course, praises him as a champion of order. 
 
 CHAP As it zvas interpreted to me from the Punic books said 
 
 XVIII. ^ -' J J • T-> ' • 
 
 to have belonged to KingHiempsal. ( Utt ex libris Piimcts, 
 qni regis Hiempsalis dicebantur, interpretatiim nobis est.) 
 
 The Hiempsal here mentioned is the father of Juba, 
 Caesar's opponent. The account which the books 
 "said to have belonged" to him give of the history of 
 Africa is of course quite valueless. Other and more 
 trustworthy authorities which Sallust may have con- 
 sulted in compiling his narrative are the history of 
 Sisenna mentioned in chapter 95, the autobiography 
 and Roman history of P. Rutilius Rufus, who served 
 in the war as Metellus' legate, and the memoirs of Sulla 
 and Marcus Aemilius Scaurus. Besides these he might 
 have referred to the annal writers, such as G. Licinius 
 Macer, and to the reports sent to the Senate by the 
 various generals, which may still have been extant. 
 
NOTES TO THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 255 
 
 That Sallust did avail himself of some, if not all of chap. 
 these materials, there is abundant evidence in his work 
 to prove ; he was too young, however, to be able to 
 supplement them from the conversation of men who 
 had fought in the campaigns, and seems to have made 
 little use of the opportunities for research afforded by 
 his stay in Africa. 
 
 Near the tozun of Cirta, not far from the sea. {Hand 
 longe a maid pr ope Cirtam oppidnju.) 
 
 Cirta, the modern Constantina, lies in the upper 
 part of the river Ampsager, by which one side of the 
 town is protected from attack. Mr Long (History, i. 
 392-395), quotes a long description of its situation from 
 an Arab geographer of the sixth century, and con- 
 cludes from his account that Sallust " evidently knew 
 nothing of the position of the town, and his description 
 of the siege of Cirta is a fiction." The sentence 
 quoted as a heading to this note is itself a proof of our 
 author's carelessness or ignorance, as Cirta instead of 
 being near the sea is at least forty miles inland. Sallust, 
 indeed, seems to be singularly unhappy in the part of 
 his work relating to this town, as in chapter 81 he 
 speaks of it as in possession of Metellus, without giving 
 us any information as to how it passed out of Ju- 
 gurtha's hands. It is about the siege of Cirta, more- 
 over, that the chief chronological difficulties in his 
 narration present themselves. We know that Micipsa 
 died in B.C. 118, and that Bestia, the first general who 
 acted against Jugurtha, was one of the consuls for B.C. 
 112. In the interval of six years between these two 
 dates, we have to place the murder of Hiempsal, 
 
 CHAP 
 XXI. 
 
256 NOTKS TO THK JUGURTHINK WAR. 
 
 CHAP. Adhcrbal's visit to Rome, the commission for dividing 
 ^^^' Numidia between Adherbal and Jugurtha, Jugurtha's 
 predatory raids on his cousin's kingdom, and the five 
 months' siege of Cirta. Kritz makes all these events 
 to have happened in a single year, B.C. 116, but this 
 may fairly be described as a physical impossibility, and 
 even if his theory were put in a more reasonable form 
 it would leave an interval of over three years between 
 the massacre of the Italians and the Roman measures 
 of vengeance. That such an interval was allowed to 
 elapse is not only intrinsically improbable, but in direct 
 contradiction to the statement of Sallust that Jugurtha's 
 partisans failed in their efforts to gain time. There 
 are, moreover, two positive reasons for assigning the 
 siege of Cirta to a later date than B.C. 116. In the 
 first place, M. Aemilius Scaurus is spoken of as of 
 consular rank at the time of his mission during the 
 siege, and his consulship did not take place till B.C. 
 115. It is true that '' roiisu/ans'' seems somctlrnQS to 
 be loosely used to include a '' consul-designatus," which 
 Scaurus would have been in B.C. 116, and that in so 
 careless a writer as Sallust too much stress must not 
 be laid on a chance expression ; the epitomizer, how- 
 ever, of Livy mentions the fall of Cirta after the defeat 
 of Cn. Papirius Carbo in B.C. 113, and this evidence 
 turns the scale decidedly in favour of the date B.C. 112. 
 The murder of Hiempsal, and flight of his brother to 
 Rome, probably took place in B.C. 107, and the arrival 
 of Opimius' commission in the following year. There 
 is nothing strange in supposing that the efforts of 
 Jugurtha to provoke Adherbal into a war, were 
 continued for three years before they met with success. 
 
NOTES TO THE JUOURTIFINE WAR. 257 
 
 Gains Metnniius, a tribune elect, an active man, and chap. 
 
 xxvri. 
 cxn enemy to the poiver of the nobility. [G. Memmius, 
 
 tribnnus plebis designatus, vir acer et infestns potentiae 
 
 nobilitatis.) 
 
 This Gaius Memmius subsequently deserted the 
 democratic party, and was killed in B.C. 100 by the 
 mob of Saturninus. He and his brother Lucius were 
 two of the most celebrated orators of the time, though 
 Cicero speaks disparagingly of such specimens of their 
 eloquence as were extant in his time. The word {pei^- 
 scribere) which Sallust uses in chapter 30, ought to 
 denote that the speech which follows is written out as 
 Memmius actually delivered it ; it is unlikely, how- 
 ever, that Sallust resisted the temptation of trying to 
 improve another man's oratory. 
 
 In accordance ivith the Sempronian lazu Nuniidia and 
 Italy were assigned to the consuls of the next year as 
 their provinces. {Lege Sempronia provinciae futuris 
 consulibus Numidia atque Italia decretae.) 
 
 In the law here referred to Gaius Gracchus endeav- 
 oured to loosen the hold which the Senate possessed 
 over the consuls by virtue of its power of fixing their 
 respective spheres of duty. He did not altogether 
 deprive the Senate of this power, but prevented its 
 being used for purposes of reward or retaliation by 
 ordaining that the consuls should have their provinces 
 fixed for them before they entered upon office, and 
 thus be rendered independent of the favour of the 
 Senate. 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 xxvir. 
 
258 NOTES TO THE JUGURTIIINE WAR. 
 
 CHAP. 
 XXIX. 
 
 CHAP. 
 XXIX. 
 
 ^ 
 
 Tlie consul sent his quaestor Sextms to Vaga, a toivn 
 of JiignrtJids. {Mittitiir a con side Sex tins quaestor in 
 oppidnni Jugnrtliae Vagani) 
 
 Vaga or Vacca is one of the few places mentioned 
 by Sallust of which we are able to fix the site. It lay 
 a long clay's journey to the south-west of Utica, on the 
 borders of what are now Tunis and Algiers. In chap. 47 
 Sallust mentions that it was the resort of many Italian 
 traders, and it was probably, therefore, commercial 
 reasons which impelled the Romans to restore it after 
 its destruction by Metellus. (Chap. 68.) By Justinian 
 it was surrounded with a wall and renamed Theodosia 
 in honour of his wife. Its modern name is Baja. 
 
 After saying a feiu ivords in the presence of the coun- 
 cil. [Pauea praesenti consilio locutns.) 
 
 The functions and constitution of a provincial 
 governor's council arc among the points illustrated by 
 Sallust's history of this war. From chapters 62 and 
 104 we learn that all persons in the province of sena- 
 torial rank would be expected to attend, together with 
 the general's staff, and any other persons whose advice 
 he chose to ask. Measures adopted after a discussion 
 would apparently be announced in the name of the 
 council, and not of the individual commander, and for 
 the latter to conclude any negotiation on his personal 
 responsibility would be a breach of ancient custom. 
 The expression ''per satnram sententiis exqnisitis'' is 
 variously taken to refer to a vote passed by acclama- 
 tion or to a desultory discussion. 
 
 ( 
 
CHAP. 
 XXXI. 
 
 NOTES TO THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 259 
 
 Calpiirnius then set out for Rome to hold the elections, chap. 
 
 XXIX. 
 
 {^Calpiirnius Romain ad magistratus rogandos proficis- 
 citur) 
 
 Calpurnius' colleague in the consulship, Publius 
 Scipio Nasica, had died during his year of office, hence 
 Calpurnius' presence in Rome was actually necessary. 
 He was subsequently one of those condemned under 
 the bill of Mamilius Limetanus, but is mentioned as 
 living in Rome in B.C. 90. He was compelled, how- 
 ever, to retire into exile in the course of that year, in 
 order to avoid condemnation under the Varian law 
 against intrigues with the Italians. 
 
 / refrai7i for very shame from dilating on hozv for 
 the last fifteen years y on have been the sport of an arro- 
 gant faction. {Nam ilia quidem piget dicere, his annis 
 quindecem qiiam ludibrio fneritis super biae pancornni.) 
 
 This speech of Memmius was delivered in B.C. 1 11, 
 and it is difficult to see why he speaks of the demo- 
 cracy as having been oppressed for fifteen years rather 
 than ten or twenty. Ten years would have recalled 
 his hearers' minds to the time of Gains Gracchus ; 
 twenty, to that of his brother Tiberius ; fifteen can 
 have reminded them of no measure of greater impor- 
 tance than the exclusion of the Italians from Rome 
 by the bill of Junius Pennus (B.C. 126), which, although 
 a blow to the democrats, certainly did not constitute 
 an epoch in their struggle with the aristocracy. Mr. 
 Long, in his paraphrase of this speech {History, i. 403)^ 
 actually gives the number as twenty, but Dietsch men- 
 tions no alternative reading. 
 
 R 
 
260 NOTES TO THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 
 
 CHAP. They set their commissions to work against the party 
 of the commons in Rome. (In plebem Romafiiim quae- 
 stioftes habitae sunt?) 
 
 P. Popilllus Laenas and P. Rutilius, the consuls for 
 132, with C. Laelius and P. Scipio Nasica, the Pontifex 
 Maximus, were at the head of this commission. Its 
 members did not set to work with anything like the 
 ferocity which distinguished Lucius Opimius in trying 
 the partisans of Gaius Gracchus eleven years later ; 
 and indeed it is chiefly memorable for the intrepid 
 behaviour of Blossius, Tiberius' teacher and friend, 
 when summoned before it. 
 
 CHAP. Juourtha therefore came to Rome ivith Cassias, in a 
 
 XXXIII -^ o ./ 
 
 guise so pitiful as to be the very opposite of royal state. 
 {Igitiir Jugurtha contra decus rcgium cultu quam 
 maxume miserabili cum Cassio Romam vcjiit.) 
 
 The assumption of the outward signs of mourning 
 by persons who wished to excite compassion was com- 
 mon both in Greece and Rome ; it was this practice 
 which Jugurtha now followed, apparently in a some- 
 what extravagant manner. When Adherbal addressed 
 the Senate, and spoke of himself as " deformatus 
 aerumnis," he was probably attired in a similar 
 fashion. 
 
 CHAP. 
 XXXV] . 
 
 A nyhozv time slipped aivay, and the date of the elec- 
 tions drew nigh at Jiand. Albinus, therefore, departed 
 for Rome. {Sed postquam dilapso te^npore comitiorum 
 dies adveittabat, Albinus Roinam decessit) 
 
 The return of Albinus to Rome was rendered neces- 
 sary by the absence of his colleague, M. Minucius 
 Rufus, in his province of Macedonia. 
 
NOTES TO THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 261 
 
 Just at this time at Roine the state zvas being violently ^\^^^- 
 excited by dissensions among the tribunes. {Ea tem- 
 pestate Romae scditionibus tribnniciis atrociter respiiblica 
 agitabatnj\) 
 
 It is not likely that '' continuarc magistratum " refers 
 to any attempt on the part of the tribunes to hold 
 office for, say, fifteen months instead of the legal 
 twelve. Just as in the ''Catiline" Sallust uses the phrase 
 " continuare domos " of joining two houses under one 
 roof, so here he means that some of the tribunes were 
 seeking re-election, and endeavouring to add a second 
 term of office to that which was about to expire. 
 Gaius Gracchus, in accordance with a bill which he 
 himself brought forward, had held the tribunate for 
 two successive years, B.C. 123, 122, and was only 
 defeated in his third candidature by the knavery of 
 the magistrate presiding at the election. He had, in 
 fact, in some measure anticipated the policy of the 
 empire, and was endeavouring to make the tribunate 
 the basis of a personal rule. The eligibility of tribunes 
 for re-election was a standing menace to the Senate, 
 and we are therefore not surprised to find from this 
 passage of Sallust that after the death of Gracchus it 
 had been annulled. 
 
 He arrived by means of forced inarches in most in- 
 clement zveather at the tozvn of Snthnl. {Magnisque 
 itineribns, Jiieme aspera, pervenit ad oppidiim Suthnl.) 
 
 Sallust's authorities apparently did not like dwelling 
 on such a disaster to the Roman arms as the surrender 
 of Aulus, and it is evident that Sallust is chiefly 
 indebted to his imagination for the account which he 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 xxxvii. 
 
262 NOTES TO THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 
 
 CHAP, o-ives. It is absurd to suppose that in such a place 
 
 XXXVII 
 
 and season Aulus set about besieging a town in the 
 regular Roman fashion, and equally absurd to sup- 
 pose that guilty negotiations could be carried on more 
 secretly in any one place in a desert than any other. 
 The situation of Suthul is not known to us ; the actual 
 surrender, according to Orosius, took place at Calama, 
 the modern Guelma, about forty miles from the sea. 
 The strength of the Roman army which thus disgrace- 
 fully capitulated Orosius estimates at 40,000 men. 
 
 CHAP. The Senate decreed that, without the consent of itself 
 
 XXXIX. -^ -^ 
 
 and the people, no agreement^ could have had the force of 
 a treaty. {Senatiis decernit sno atqiie populi injiissn 
 nulluni potuisse foedns fieri.) 
 
 The conscience of the Senate in the matter of the 
 disavowal of treaties grew more and more pliable with 
 the course of time. When they repudiated that con- 
 cluded with the Samnites after the disaster of the 
 Caudine Forks, all the officers of the army were sur- 
 rendered to their vengeance. Again, some eight-and- 
 twenty years before the present occasion Mancinus 
 was similarly given up to the Numantines, though his 
 officers were held guiltless. Now the treaty was 
 simply disowned as soon as the Romans had obtained 
 full benefit from it, and no further steps were taken in 
 the matter, the war apparently being renewed without 
 any formal notice to Jugurtha. It is possible, as Mr. 
 Long suggests, that the Senate may have justified its 
 conduct by some legal or religious quibble, but it is 
 noticeable that if perfidy was Jugurtha's natural 
 weapon, throughout the war the Romans invariably 
 excelled him in its use. 
 
NOTES TO THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 263 
 
 Meamvliile at Rome, Gains Mamilius Liinetanns, a ^^^^ 
 tribune of the commons, proposed to the people that an 
 enquiry should be held. {Interim Romae G. Mamilius 
 L imetanus tribunus plebei rogationem, ad populum pro- 
 mulgat uti quaereretur.) 
 
 From Cicero we learn that the jury in the trials 
 held under this act of Limetanus was composed of 
 "equites," or capitalists, men who would be interested 
 in bringing the war to an end, from their connection 
 with the tax farmers and traders in Africa, whose 
 lives and fortunes were both endangered by its con- 
 tinuance, while many of their friends may have been 
 among the victims of the massacre at Cirta. Among 
 those whom the commission condemned Cicero men- 
 tions L. Calpurnius Bestia, G. Cato, G. Sulpicius Galba, 
 Sp. Albinus, and Lucius Opimius. What the punish- 
 ment assigned to them was we have no means of 
 learning. 
 
 The nobility in guilty terror opposed their proceedings chap, 
 at one time by means of the allies and Latin citizens, at 
 another by the Roman knights, who had been drawn 
 from the side of the commons by the hope of an alliance 
 ivith themselves. {Nobilitas noxia atque eo percidsa 
 modo per socios ac nomen Latinum, interdum per cquitcs 
 Romanos quos spes societatis a plebe dimoverat Grac- 
 choriim actionibus obviam ierat.) 
 
 The democratic leaders had had the unwisdom to 
 depart from the policy of Gaius Gracchus, who tried 
 to enlist the Italians on his side by offers of the full 
 Roman franchise. As, moreover, most of the privately 
 
 XLII. 
 
264. NOTES TO THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 
 
 CHAP, owned land available for distribution had already been 
 
 XLII 
 
 disposed of, the Latin and Italian communities feared, 
 not without reason, that the democrats might proceed 
 to confiscate the domains of which they held posses- 
 sion as corporate bodies, and as a means of protection 
 against such measures were ready to ally themselves 
 with the Senate. As they had no power of voting 
 they could only have made themselves useful as mobs 
 in the streets of the capital, and it is strange that the 
 democrats did not now employ against the Senate 
 the law of Junius Pcnnus, which had originally been 
 passed as a party measure against themselves. As 
 to the conduct of the knights, that class was always 
 a shifting force in Roman politics, throwing its weight 
 now on this side and now on that, according as it was 
 exasperated at the moment by the exclusiveness of 
 the nobility or the anarchist tendencies of the demo- 
 crats. The Senate, however, always retained a hold 
 over it owing to the services which the provincial 
 governors would render to the tax-farmers and traders 
 with whom they came in contact, though at present 
 this advantage was counterbalanced by the equestrian 
 control of the law courts. 
 
 CHAP. Nnmidia had fallen to Metellus, a man of energy, 
 w J Lose reputation, althongh he was an opponent of the 
 popular party, was nnsJiaken and unblemished. {Metello 
 Nnmidia evenerat, acri viro et qiiamqnam advorso 
 populi partiiim.fama tamen aequabili et i}iviolata.) 
 
 It is of this Metellus that the story is told that, 
 when maliciously accused of malversation, on his pro- 
 ducing his account books the jury refused to look at 
 
NOTES TO THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 
 
 265 
 
 them, holding his bare word sufficient to rebut the 
 charge. Three years after his return from Africa he 
 was allowed the honours of a triumph and the title 
 " Numidius" for his services in the war. In B.C. 102 
 he was one of the censors, and endeavoured to expel 
 Glaucia and Saturninus from the Senate. Two years 
 later, by an unprincipled manoeuvre on the part of 
 Marius, he was himself expelled from the Senate for 
 refusing to swear obedience to an agrarian law, and 
 retired into exile at Rhodes. He was recalled to 
 Rome the following year, but we hear nothing more 
 of him. A fragment of one of his speeches is preserved 
 by Gellius. 
 
 CHAP. 
 XLHl. 
 
 The Senate by its ififlicence, the allies ayid Latin 
 citizens and dependent kings by freely sending contin- 
 gents. {Sefiatus auctoritate, socii nomenque Latimun 
 et reges nltro auxilia mittendo.) 
 
 Another way of punctuating this passage is to place 
 the comma after " Latinum^' instead of " anctoritatel' 
 when the translation becomes, " Contingents were sent 
 by the allies and Latin citizens in compliance with a 
 decree of the Senate, and by the dependent kings of 
 their own accord." This rendering is adopted by 
 Dietsch in his earlier edition, and it seems to fit in 
 better with what we know of the method of procedure 
 in such cases, than does the translation given in the 
 text. 
 
 He therefore sent foj'ward Ids lieutenant^ Pnblius 
 Rntilius. {P. Rutilinm legatziin praemisit.) 
 
 Publius RutiHus Rufus had been a military tribune 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 xuii. 
 
 CHAP. 
 L. 
 
 I -,-T- -»T TTT-i 
 
266 NOTES TO THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 
 
 CHAP, under Scipio during the siege of Numantia, was prae- 
 tor in B.C. Ill, and consul six years later. In B.C. 95 
 he accompanied the pro-consul, O. Mucins Scaevola, to 
 his province of Asia, there to act as his legatus. On 
 his return he was tried on a charge of extortion, and, 
 though his innocence was clearly established, a jury of 
 '' equitesl' i.e. tax-farmers and capitalists, condemned 
 him in order to annoy the Senate. Rutilius retired to 
 Smyrna, to live among the people whom he had been 
 accused of oppressing, and refused subsequently to 
 return to Rome when recalled. Several of his speeches 
 were published, and he also wrote his autobiography, 
 and a history of Rome in Greek ; with these Sallust 
 was evidently acquainted, and it is to Rutilius that we 
 owe the unusual excellence of his description of this 
 battle. 
 
 CHAP He learnt that Marius had left the line of marcJi on 
 
 LVI. . . . . . 
 
 a mission to Sicca. {Cognoscit M avium ex itinere 
 Siccani missum) 
 
 Sicca is the modern El Kef, and lies on the river 
 Bagradas, not far from the boundary of the Roman 
 province. It was built upon a hill, and was subse- 
 quently occupied as a Roman colony. Besides Sicca 
 it had the name Veneria from a temple of Astarte 
 whom the Romans identified with their goddess 
 Venus. 
 
 CHAP Jugurtha was summoned in person to Tisidium, there 
 to await further orders. {Cum ipse ad impe7'andum 
 Tisidium vocarettir.) 
 
 The locality of Tisidium is unknown. It has been 
 
NOTES TO THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 26/ 
 
 proposed to substitute the reading " Thysdrum," but for chap. 
 this there is no authority, and Mr. Long, who has gone ^^^^^* 
 very fully into the geography of these campaigns, de- 
 clares that there could be no reason for Metellus being 
 there, and that the subsequent narrative of Sallust 
 proves that Tisidium is not Thysdrus. 
 
 As Gains Alarms ivas invoking the gods in sacrifice ^^m" 
 the diviner informed him that there were portents of 
 great and wonderfitl events. {G. Mario per hostias 
 deis stipplicanti, magna atque mirabilia portendi hanis- 
 pex dixerat.) 
 
 Gains Marius was born in the year B.C. 157 at 
 Cereatae, near Arpinium. Like most of his contem- 
 poraries he first saw service during the siege of 
 Numantia. In B.C. 1 19 he was one of the tribunes of 
 the commons, and distinguished himself during his 
 term of office by his freedom from party spirit, oppos- 
 ing the Senate when they attempted to interfere with 
 the freedom of election, and the democrats in an 
 endeavour to extend the corn laws. His career 
 hitherto had by no means been one of triumphant 
 success, as he had been twice defeated on the same 
 day when a candidate for both aedileships, and in B.C. 
 1 1 5 had barely secured the praetorship. As Sallust 
 remarks, it was probably chiefly the popular indigna- 
 tion against the nobility which now enabled him to 
 obtain the consulship. He was the first ''novus homo'' 
 who had held that office since B.C. 143, and after his 
 death it was not again gained by any member of the 
 class until Cicero's election for B.C. 6"^. 
 
268 NOTES TO THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 
 
 CHAP Whoin Micipsa had appointed in his ivill his second 
 
 heir. {Qnein Micipsa testainento secu?idnin heredem 
 scripserat) 
 
 According to Sallust, Micipsa had followed in his 
 will the custom of Roman testators who named some- 
 times as many as two or three sets of heirs who were 
 successively to be offered the inheritance should the 
 original legatees be unable or decline to accept it. In 
 most cases, of course, such mention would be purely 
 complimentary. Thus Augustus appointed the chief 
 men of the state as his heirs in ultimate default, 
 according to Tacitus, out of simple vanity. In the 
 present case the bequest took unexpected effect. 
 
 CHAP. Tnrpilius was condemned and, as a Latin citizen. 
 
 LXIX 
 
 pnnisJied by scourging and decapitation. {Turpilins 
 condemjiatus verbcratiisqiic capitc pocnas solvit ; nam is 
 civis ex Latio erat.) 
 
 The Porcian law secured the backs of Roman citi- 
 zens from the scourge, but the Latins had no other 
 protection than could be found in a law of Drusius 
 which ordained that they could only be scourged by 
 the command of their own officers. As Turpilius was 
 himself an officer, and probably the highest of the 
 non-Romans, it seems that even this was disregarded. 
 According to Plutarch, Turpilius was a personal friend 
 of Metellus, and his condemnation was brought about 
 by Marius out of hatred for the general. Turpilius 
 Plutarch represents as really innocent. 
 
NOTES TO THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 269 
 
 / should 7nention that a little before this the Senate chap. 
 
 1 xxiii. 
 had decreed that Gaul should be his province ; but this 
 
 measure was useless. {Sed paullo .... deer ever at ; ea 
 
 res frustra fuit.) 
 
 The translation in the text is from Mommsen's con- 
 jecture, "Ei uti GalHa provincia esset paullo ante Sena- 
 tus decreverat," which is preferable to filling in the 
 hiatus with "ante Senatus Metello bellum." The 
 sense in any case is evident, but it is more likely that 
 the Senate would have tried to gain their ends by an 
 indirect than by a direct method of opposing the evi- 
 dent wish of the people, and the need had already 
 risen for a strong hand in Gaul. 
 
 CHAP. 
 LXXV. 
 
 Taking- zvith him the deserters and a part of his 
 cavalry he made his zvay to the zvastes and thence to 
 Thala. {Cum perfugis et parte equitatus in solittidinei, 
 dein Thalani pervenit^ 
 
 In the midst of vast deserts there lay a strong and chap. 
 important tozvn named Capsa. {Erat inter ingentis 
 solitudines oppidum magnum atque valens, nomine 
 Capsa.) 
 
 Thala and Capsa are two places in the south of the 
 modern regency of Tunis. Capsa has been clearly 
 shown to be the same as the modern Kafsa or Gafsa : 
 the site of Thala, on the other hand, is still uncertain, 
 as it has been variously identified with the modern 
 Thelepte, and with two villages which still bear the 
 name of Thala in its original form. Sallust's account of 
 the two expeditions is very unsatisfactory, as he gives 
 them as isolated incidents, without any information 
 
270 
 
 NOTES TO THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 
 
 CHAPS. 
 
 LXXV, 
 
 LXXXIX. 
 
 CHAP. 
 LXXVIII. 
 
 CHAP. 
 LXXXVI. 
 
 as to the movements which followed or preceded them. 
 The object of the Roman commanders was evidently 
 to deprive Jugurtha of all his strongholds in the 
 eastern part of his dominions ; Mommsen, however, 
 draws a distinction between the two undertakings, and 
 says that " the expedition of Marius to Capsa was an 
 adventure as aimless as that of Metellus to Thala had 
 been judicious;" grounding this distinction on the 
 hope which Metellus entertained of capturing Jugur- 
 tha's person. 
 
 // is this power of suction from zuJiich they ai^e called 
 Syrtes. {Syrtes ab tractii ^loniinatae.) 
 
 The name Syrtes is derived from the Greek a-vpeiv, 
 to sweep or draw. 
 
 Meaniuhile lie Jiimself levied soldiers^ not, according 
 to ancient custom, from the classes, but simply as they 
 volunteered, and, for the most part, men of no fortune. 
 {Ipse interea milites scribere, non more inajoriim ?teque 
 ex classibus, sed 7iti cujusque lubido erat, capite censos 
 plerosque.) 
 
 Capite Censi were originally the sixth class of citi- 
 zens at Rome, whose property, consisting of less than 
 1 1,000 asses (;^43), did not bind them to enter the army. 
 This minimum census long before the Jugurthine war 
 was lowered from eleven to four thousand asses {£17), 
 and in times of emergency freeborn citizens possessed 
 of property rated at from 375 to 1500 asses (^i los. — 
 £6) were also called upon to serve. In recruiting his 
 army from volunteers without paying any attention to 
 a property-qualification, Marius was only carrying to 
 
NOTES TO THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 2/1 
 
 its logical conclusion a tendency which had lone chap. 
 
 LXXXVI. 
 
 existed ; none the less, this and his other measures of 
 military reform completely revolutionized the Roman 
 army. 
 
 From the trumpeters and Jwrnblowers at Ins disposal, chap. 
 he chose five of the swiftest, and sent them . . . four 
 centurions as a guard. {Itaque ex copia tubicinum et 
 cornicinum numero quinque quam velocissumos delegit, 
 et C7im eis praesidio qui forent . . . quatuor centurio7tes.) 
 
 There is here evidently something wrong with the 
 text, as four centurions by themselves would have 
 been an absurdly insufficient guard, while the descrip- 
 tion of the ascent and in fact the whole natureof the 
 attempt forbids us to suppose that they were at the 
 head of their companies, for the force would then have 
 been too numerous for such a surprise. Dietsch in 
 his earlier edition supplied the words " et paucos 
 milites," but, though this makes excellent sense, we 
 have no reason for supposing that these were the par- 
 ticular words which Sallust used. 
 
 Lucius Sisenna, zvho has composed the best and most ^^,^- 
 painstaking ti'eatise of any ivriter on the subject. (Z. 
 Sisenna, optume et diligentisstime omniuniy qui eas res 
 dixere persecti tus. ) 
 
 Lucius Cornelius Sisenna was a praetor in B.C. y^ 
 and one of Pompey's lieutenants in B.C. 6y. His his- 
 tory of Rome seems to have begun with the Marsic 
 war, and was probably written in twenty-four books. 
 Cicero mentions as its most striking peculiarity the 
 strange words that are to be found in it. 
 
272 NOTES TO THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 
 
 ^xrv' Sulla, then, was iiobly born, of a patrician house, and 
 a family ivhich the indolence of his ancestors had re- 
 duced to obscurity. (Igitur Sulla gentis patriciae nobilis 
 fuit, familia jam propc extincta majorum ignavia.) 
 
 Sulla was born in B.C. 138, and, as Sallust says, had 
 as yet done nothing to distinguish himself. He could 
 not, however, have been so utterly unacquainted with 
 military matters as the historian represents, as previous 
 service in the cavalry was a necessary qualification for 
 the quaestorship. The sketch which Sallust here gives 
 of his character is, as having been given by a demo- 
 crat, remarkable for its fairness, and it is very honour- 
 able to our author that he was fully alive to the good 
 qualities of Sulla and to the bad ones of Marius. The 
 allusion contained in the phrase "except that he 
 might have behaved more honourably in the matter 
 of his wife," cannot be satisfactorily explained. Sulla 
 was married no less than six times, and Sallust may 
 refer either to the generally scandalous character of 
 his behaviour, or to some particular incident with 
 which we are unacquainted. 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 xcvii. 
 
 At last the Romans \2vhosc knoivledge, as a body, of 
 war, was increased by the present mixture of] veterans 
 and recruits. . . . Denique Romani veteres novique [et 
 ob ea scientes belli\ . . . 
 
 In his former edition Dietsch bracketed " novique " 
 in this " et ob ea scientes belli." The latter may have 
 been inserted as a glo.ss, the former have crept in as 
 a part of a very common phrase. One of the two 
 must certainly be omitted ; as the sentence stands, it 
 may .suggest a meaning, but possesses none. 
 
NOTES TO thp: jugurthine war. 273 
 
 He need have no fear of Jiio;itrtha's ambassador who chap. 
 
 CVIII. 
 
 had been received solely to enable them to conduct their 
 business with greater freedom. {Neic Jngurthae legatum 
 pertimesceret. . . . quo res communis licentiits gereretur.) 
 it has been proposed to omit any hiatus here, and 
 refer *'quo" to Bocchus' request that Sulla should be 
 free from fear ; but this would make the reference in 
 the following clause extremely obscure. It seems, 
 better, therefore, to suppose that two or three words 
 with the meaning given in the text here dropped out. 
 
 During the same period the Roman gejterals Qnintus chap. 
 Caepio and Gnaeus Manlins were defeated in a battle 
 against the Gauls. {Per idem tempus advorsum Gallos 
 ab ducibus nostris Q. Caepione et Gn. Manlio male 
 pugjiatum erat.) 
 
 The defeat here referred to is that of the battle of 
 Arausio, fought October 6th, B.C. 105, in which the allies 
 of Ouintus Caepio, and Gnaeus Manlius Maximus were 
 annihilated in succession by the Cimbrians, and 80,000 
 Roman soldiers lost their lives. As in the case of the 
 Numidian war, the military disaster was followed by 
 a storm of persecutions, which resulted in the condem- 
 nation not only of Caepio, whose folly had occasioned 
 the defeat, and who was also suspected of embezzle- 
 ment, but of Manlius and many other men of note. 
 
 When it ivas announced that the zvar in Numidia chap. 
 
 CXIV. 
 
 was ended, and that Jugurtha was being brougJit in 
 chains to Rome. (Sed postquam belhim in Numidia 
 confectum, et JitgurtJiam Roman vinctum adduci 7iu7i- 
 .tiatum est.) 
 
 Sallust had apparently become tired of his task 
 
274 NOTES TO THE JUGURTHINE WAR. 
 
 CHAP, before he broug-ht it to a close, as he has not taken 
 
 ex IV. 
 
 the trouble to inform his readers of the subsequent 
 fate either of Jugurtha or of his kingdom. From 
 other sources we learn that a few days after Marius' 
 triumph the prince was thrown into the Tullianum, 
 and there either strangled or left to perish of cold or 
 hunger. His kingdom passed into the hand of his 
 half-brother Gauda, diminished on its western side by 
 the country between Caesarea and the river Muluccha, 
 which was granted to Bocchus in return for his 
 treachery. Jugurtha may be said to have richly 
 deserved the fate he met, but not at the hands of the 
 Romans, who repudiated two treaties which their 
 generals had concluded with him, tried to procure 
 his assassination by his own servants, and only finally 
 became possessed of his person by means of treachery. 
 Marius celebrated his triumph on January ist, B.C. 
 104. Like Metellus, he had assumed the command 
 in Africa at the end of the year, and his two cam- 
 paigns must therefore be placed not in B.C. 107, 106, 
 but in B.C. 106, 105, and those of Metellus in B.C. 108, 
 107. The surrender of Jugurtha took place at the 
 close of the summer of B.C. 105, and the news of his 
 election to the consulship would naturally bring 
 Marius to Rome without delay. 
 
 ^rintcti at the anibcrsitg ^ress bj) 
 
 ROBERT MACLKIIOSE, 153 WEST NILE STIIEET, GLASGOW. 
 
 
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