Conspiracy of Catiline and the Jurgurthine War

by Sallust

Metellus, seeing that the people of Thala were determined on resistance, and that the town was defended both by art and situation, surrounded the walls with a rampart and a trench. He then directed his machines against the most eligible points, threw up a mound, and erected towers upon it to protect[208] the works and the workmen. The townsmen, on the other hand, were exceedingly active and diligent; and nothing was neglected on either side. At last the Romans, though exhausted with much previous fatigue and fighting, got possession, forty days after their arrival, of the town, and the town only; for all the spoil had been destroyed by the deserters; who, when they saw the walls shaken by the battering-ram, and their own situation desperate, had conveyed the gold and silver, and whatever else is esteemed valuable, to the royal palace, where, after being sated with wine and luxuries, they destroyed the treasures, the building, and themselves, by fire, and thus voluntarily submitted to the sufferings which, in case of being conquered, they dreaded at the hands of the enemy.

LXXVII. At the very time that Thala was taken, there came to Metellus embassadors from the city of Leptis,[209] requesting him to send them a garrison and a governor; saying "that a certain Hamilcar, a man of rank, and of a factious disposition, against whom the magistrates and the laws were alike powerless, was trying to induce them to change sides; and that unless he attended to the matter promptly, their own safety,[210] and the allies of Rome, would be in the utmost danger." For the people at Leptis, at the very commencement of the war with Jugurtha, had sent to the consul Bestia, and afterward to Rome, desiring to be admitted into friendship and alliance with us. Having been granted their request, they continued true and faithful adherents to us, and promptly executed all orders from Bestia, Albinus, and Metellus. They therefore readily obtained from the general the aid which they solicited; and four cohorts of Ligurians were dispatched to Leptis, with Caius Annius to be governor of the place.

LXXVIII. This city was built by a party of Sidonians, who, as I have understood, being driven from their country through civil dissensions, came by sea into those parts of Africa. It is situated between the two Syrtes, which take their name from their nature[211] These are two gulfs almost at the extremity of Africa[212] of unequal size, but of similar character. Those parts of them next to the land are very deep; the other parts sometimes deep and sometimes shallow, as chance may direct; for when the sea swells, and is agitated by the winds, the waves roll along with them mud, sand, and huge stones; and thus the appearance of the gulfs changes with the direction of the wind.

Of this people, the language alone[213] has been altered by their intermarriages with the Numidians; their laws and customs continue for the most part Sidonian; which they have preserved with the greater ease, through living at so great a distance from the king's dominions.[214] Between them and the populous parts of Numidia lie vast and uncultivated deserts.

LXXIX. Since the affairs of Leptis have led me into these regions, it will not be foreign to my subject to relate the noble and singular act of two Carthaginians, which the place has brought to my recollection.

At the time when the Carthaginians were masters of the greater part of Africa, the Cyrenians were also a great and powerful people. The territory that lay between them was sandy, and of a uniform appearance, without a stream or a hill to determine their respective boundaries; a circumstance which involved them in a severe and protracted war. After armies and fleets had been routed and put to flight on both sides, and each people had greatly weakened their opponents, fearing lest some third party should attack both victors and vanquished in a state of exhaustion, they came to an agreement, during a short cessation of arms, "that on a certain day deputies should leave home on either side, and that the spot where they should meet should be the common boundary between the two states." From Carthage, accordingly, were dispatched two brothers, who were named Philaeni,[215] and who traveled with great expedition. The deputies of the Cyrenians proceeded more slowly; but whether from indolence or accident I have not been informed. However, a storm of wind in these deserts will cause obstruction to passengers not less than at sea; for when a violent blast, sweeping over a level surface devoid of vegetation,[216] raises the sand from the ground, it is driven onward with great force, and fills the mouth and eyes of the traveler, and thus, by hindering his view, retards his progress. The Cyrenian deputies, finding that they had lost ground, and dreading punishment at home for their mismanagement, accused the Carthaginians of having left home before the time; quarreling about the matter, and preferring to do any thing rather than submit. The Philaeni, upon this, asked them to name any other mode of settling the controversy, provided it were equitable; and the Cyrenians gave them their choice, "either that they should be buried alive in the spot which they claimed as the boundary for their people, or that they themselves, on the same conditions, should be allowed to go forward to whatever point they should think proper." The Philaeni, having accepted the conditions, sacrificed themselves[217] to the interest of their country, and were interred alive. The people of Carthage consecrated altars to the brothers on the spot; and other honors were instituted to them at home. I now return to my subject.

LXXX. After the loss of Thala, Jugurtha, thinking no place sufficiently secure against Metellus, fled with a few followers into the country of the Getulians, a people savage and uncivilized, and, at that period, unacquainted with even the name of Rome. Of these barbarians he collected a great multitude, and trained them by degrees to march in ranks, to follow standards, to obey the word of command, and to perform other military exercises. He also gained over to his interest, by large presents and larger promises, the intimate friends of king Bocchus, and working upon the king by their means, induced him to commence war against the Romans. This was the more practicable and easy, because Bocchus, at the commencement of hostilities with Jugurtha, had sent an embassy to Rome to solicit friendship and alliance; but a faction, blinded by avarice, and accustomed to sell their votes on every question honorable or dishonorable,[218] had caused his advances to be rejected, though they were of the highest consequence to the war recently begun. A daughter of Bocchus, too, was married to Jugurtha,[219] but such a connection, among the Numidians and Moors, is but lightly regarded; for every man has as many wives as he pleases, in proportion to his ability to maintain them; some ten, others more, but the kings most of all. Thus the affection of the husband is divided among a multitude; no one of them becomes a companion to him,[220] but all are equally neglected.

LXXXI. The two kings, with their armies,[221] met in a place settled by mutual agreement, where, after pledges of amity were given and received, Jugurtha inflamed the mind of Bocchus by observing "that the Romans were a lawless people, of insatiable covetousness, and the common enemies of mankind; that they had the same motive for making war on Bocchus as on himself and other nations, the lust of dominion; that all independent states were objects of hatred to them; at present, for instance, himself; a little before, the Carthaginians had been so, as well as king Perses; and that, in future, as any sovereign became conspicuous for his power, so would he assuredly be treated as an enemy by the Romans."

Induced by these and similar considerations, they determined to march against Cirta, where Metellus had deposited his plunder, prisoners, and baggage. Jugurtha supposed that, if he took the city, there would be ample recompense for his exertions; or that, if the Roman general came to succor his adherents, he would have the opportunity of engaging him in the field. He also hastened this movement from policy, to lessen Bocchus's chance of peace;[222] lest, if delay should be allowed, he should decide upon something different from war.

LXXXII. Metellus, when he heard of the confederacy of the kings, did not rashly, or in every place, give opportunities of fighting, as he had been used to do since Jugurtha had been so often defeated, but, fortifying his camp, awaited the approach of the kings at no great distance from Cirta; thinking it better, when he should have learned something of the Moors,[223] as they were new enemies in the field, to give battle on an advantage. In the mean time he was informed, by letters from Rome, that the province of Numidia was assigned to Marius, of whose election to the consulship he had already heard.