During the winter of 108 B.C., Marius applied for leave, that he might go home to stand for election as Consul.
Metellus was indignant at what seemed to him the presumption of his officer, and he refused to let him go.
Marius was not disturbed by the refusal. He knew that in due time he would go to Italy, and meanwhile he wrote home unfavourable reports of his general, hinting, too, that if he had been in command of the army, Jugurtha would have been captured long ago.
The soldiers, he knew well, adored him, and when they sent messages home would say nothing but good of him.
After some time had passed, Marius again asked for leave to go to Rome.
Then Metellus scoffed at his desire, saying: ‘Will you not be content to wait and be Consul with this little son of mine?’
As the son of the general was a lad of about twenty, and as Marius was already forty-nine years of age, the taunt was not easy to bear.
But at length, as Marius persisted in asking leave, Metellus was forced to let him go. Only a short time was now left before those who intended to stand for the Consulships must be in Rome.
The journey from the camp to the coast was a long one, but Marius accomplished it in two days and a night.
In spite of the need for haste, he waited to offer a sacrifice before he sailed. And it seemed to him well that he had done so, for the priest bade him go his way, assured that success, greater than he had dreamed, would be his.