BOOK LXV.
Quintus Cæcilius Metellus, the consul, [y. r. 643. b. c. 109,] defeated Jugurtha, in two battles, and ravaged all Numidia. Marcus Junius Silanus, the consul, fought unsuccessfully against the Cimbrians. The Cimbrian ambassadors petitioning the senate for a settlement and lands, were refused. [y. r. 644. b. c. 108.] Marcus Minucius, the proconsul, vanquished the Thracians. Cassius, the consul, with his army, was cut off by the Tigurine Gauls, in the country of the Helvetians. The soldiers who survived that unfortunate action stipulated for their lives, by giving hostages, and delivering up half their property.
BOOK LXVI.
Jugurtha, [y. r. 645. b. c. 107,] being driven out of Numidia by Caius Marius, received aid from Bocchus, king of the Moors. [y. r. 646. b. c. 106.] Bocchus, having lost a battle, and being unwilling to carry on the war any longer, delivered up Jugurtha in chains to Marius. In this action, Lucius Cornelius Sylla, the quæstor under Marius, distinguished himself most highly.
BOOK LXVII.
Marcus Aurelius Scaurus, [y. r. 647. b. c. 105,] lieutenant-general under the consul, was taken prisoner by the Cimbrians, his army being routed; and was slain by Boiorix, for saying, in their council, when they talked of invading Italy, that the Romans were not to be conquered. Cneius Mallius, the consul, and Quintus Servilius Cæpio, the proconsul, were taken prisoners by the same enemies who defeated their armies and drove them from both their camps, with the loss of eighty thousand men, and forty thousand sutlers, and other camp-followers. The goods of Cæpio, whose rashness was the cause of this misfortune, were sold by auction, by order of the people; being the first person whose effects were confiscated, since the dethronement of king Tarquin, and he was deprived of office. [y. r. 648. b. c. 104.] Jugurtha, with his two sons, was led in triumph before the chariot of Caius Marius, and was put to death in prison. Marius entered the senate, in his triumphal habit; the first person that ever did so: on account of the apprehensions of a Cimbrian war, he is continued in the consulship for several years, being elected a second and a third time, in his absence; dissembling his views, he attains the consulship a fourth time. The Cimbrians, having ravaged all the country between the Rhine and the Pyrenees, passed into Spain, where, having committed many depredations, they were at length put to flight by the Celtiberians: returning into Gaul, they joined the Teutons, a warlike people.