A History of Rome During the Later Republic and Early Principate Part 34

[919] Sall.u.s.t (l.c.) represents him as the author of this ma.s.sacre; (Jugurtha) omnis p.u.b.eres Numidas atque negotiatores promiscue, uti quisque armatus obvius fuerat, interficit. But the attribution may be due to the brevity of the narrative. The leader of a murderous host may easily be credited with the outrages which it commits.

[920] Cic. _Brut_. 36. 136 Tum etiam C. L. Memmii fuerunt oratores mediocres, accusatores acres atque acerbi. Itaque in judicium capitis multos vocaverunt, pro reis non saepe dixerunt. For his mordant style see Cic. _de Orat_. ii. 59, 240. The lofty opinion which he was supposed to hold of himself is ill.u.s.trated in Cic. _de Orat_. ii. 66, 267 Velut tu, Cra.s.se, in contione "ita sibi ipsum magnum videri Memmium ut in forum descendens caput ad fornicem Fabianum demitteret".

[921] He was already "vir acer et infestus potentiae n.o.bilitatis" (Sall.

_Jug_. 27. 2).

[922] Ibid. 27. 1.

[923] Ibid. 27. 2.

[924] Sall. _Jug_. 27. 3 Lege Semp.r.o.nia provinciae futuris consulibus Numidia atque Italia decretae. Consules declarati P. Scipio Nasica, L.

Bestia: Calpurnio Numidia, Scipioni Italia obvenit.

[925] Jugurtha, contra spem nuntio accepto, quippe cui Romae omnia venum ire in animo haeserat (Ibid, 28. 1).

[926] Ibid.

[927] Sall. _Jug_. 28. 2.

[928] In consule nostro multae bonaeque artes animi et corporis erant, quas omnis avaritia praepediebat: patiens laborum, acri ingenio, satis providens, belli haud ignarus, firmissumus contra pericula et insidias (Ibid. 28. 5).

[929] Sall. _Jug_. 28. 4 Calpurnius parato exercitu legal sibi homines n.o.bilis, factiosos, quorum auctoritate quae deliquisset munita fore sperabat.

[930] Sall. _l. c_.

[931] The only record of this campaign is contained in the few words of Sall.u.s.t (Ibid, 28. 7) Acriter Numidiam ingressus est multosque mortalis et urbis aliquot pugnando cepit.

[932] Possibly not at this time, but the date of its recovery is unknown. The town is in the hands of Metellus during the closing months of his campaign (Sall. _Jug_. 81. 2). Cf. p. 431.

[933] Sall. _Jug_. 19. 7 Mauris omnibus rex Bocchus imperitabat, praeter nomen cetera ignarus populi Romani, itemque n.o.bis neque bello neque pace antea cognitus. Practically nothing is known of the predecessors of this king. Livy (xxix. 30) mentions an earlier Baga of Mauretania, and perhaps this name is identical with that of Bocchus or [Greek: _Bogos_].

See Biereye _Res Numidarum et Maurorum_. For the earlier history of Mauretania see also Gobel _Die Westkuste Afrikas im Altertum_. The boundaries of the kingdom were the Atlantic and the Muluccha on the west and east respectively (Liv. xxiv. 49, xxi. 22; Sall. _Jug_. 110). The southern boundary naturally s.h.i.+fted. At times the Mauretanian kings ruled over some of the Gaetulian tribes, and Strabo (ii. 3.4) makes the kingdom extend at one time to tribes akin to the Aethiopians--presumably to the Atlas range. Elsewhere (xvii. 3. 2) he speaks of it as extending over the Rif to the Gaetulians. See Gobel op. cit. pp. 79-82.

[934] Ibid. 80. 4 Bocchus initio hujusce belli legatos Romam miserat foedus et amicitiam pet.i.tum.

[935] Sall. _Jug_. 29. 2 Scaurus ... tametsi a principio, plerisque ex factione ejus conruptis, acerrume regem inpugnaverat, tamen magnitudine pecuniae a bono honestoque in pravom abstractus est.

[936] Sall. _Jug_. 29. 3.

[937] Ibid. 29. 4 Interea fidei causa mitt.i.tur a consule s.e.xtius quaestor in oppidum Jugurthae Vagam.

[938] Vaga (Bedja) marks the frontier between the Numidian kingdom and the Roman province--the frontier created in 172 B.C. by the invasions of Masinissa and finally fixed in 146 B.C. The town lay on the west of the Wad Bedja, which joins the Medjerda, and on the right of the road from Carthage to Bulla Regia. There was another Vaga in the heart of Numidia, between the Ampsaga and Thabraca. See Tissot _Geographie comparee_ ii. pp. 6, 302; Wilmanns in C.I.L. viii. p. 154.

[939] Long _Decline of the Rom. Republic_ i. p. 400.

[940] Sall. _Jug_, 29, 5 Rex ... pauca praesenti consilio locutus de invidia fact! sui atque uti in deditionem acciperetur, reliqua c.u.m Bestia et Scauro secreta transigit.

[941] Ibid. (Rex) quasi per saturam sententiis exquisitis in deditionem accipitur.

[942] Ibid. 29. 6.

[943] Bestia's presence was necessary at Rome as his colleague Nasica had died during his tenure of the consuls.h.i.+p (Cic. _Brut_. 34. 128).

[944] Sall. _Jug_. 30. I Postquam res in Africa gestas, quoque modo actae forent fama divolgavit, Romae per omnis locos et conventus de facto consulis agitari. Apud plebem gravis invidia.

[945] Sall. _Jug_. 30. 1 Patres solliciti erant: probarentne tantum flagitium an decretum consulis subvorterent parum constabat.

[946] Ibid. 30. 2 Maxume eos potentia Scauri, quod is auctor et socius Bestiae ferebatur, a vero bonoque inpediebat.

[947] Ibid. 30. 3.

[948] Ibid. 31.

[949] The best ma.n.u.scripts read _his annis xv_ in Sall, _Jug_ 31. 2, but xv may be a mistake for xx, which is the reading of some good ones.

Twenty years would carry us back to 131 B.C., approximately the date of the fall of Tiberius Gracchus. The year 126 B.C. which the reading xv gives, can hardly be said to mark an epoch in the decline of the liberties of the people.

[950] Sociis nostris veluti hostibus, hostibus pro sociis utuntur (Sall.

_Jug_. 31. 23).

[951] Metum ab scelere suo ad ignaviam vostram transtulere, quos omnis eadem cupere, eadem odisse, eadem metuere in unum coegit. Sed haec inter bonos amicitia, inter malos factio est (Sall_. Jug_. 31. 14.)

[952] Quo facilius indicio regis Scauri et reliquorum, quos pecuniae captae accersebat (Memmius), delicta patefierent (Ibid. 33. i).

[953] Alii perfugas vendere (Sall, _Jug_, 32.3). Long (_Decline of the Rom. Rep. i. p_. 406) thinks that this means that they were sold as slaves. But the words are probably to be brought into connection with the terms of the Mamilian commission (Sall. _Jug_. 40.1) "qui elephantos quique perfugas tradidissent". Ihne (_Rom. Gesch. v. p_. 131) seems to regard these _perfugae_ as Roman subjects who had been handed over by Jugurtha.

[954] Quoniam se populo Romano dedisset, ne vim quam misericordiam ejus experiri mallet (Sall. _Jug_. 32. 5).

[955] Sall. _Jug_, 33.7.

[956] Confirmatus ab omnibus, quorum potentia aut scelere cuncta ea gesserat quae supra diximus (Ibid. 33. 2).

[957] Ibid. 33. 2 (Jugurtha) C. Baebium tribunum plebis magna mercede parat, cujus inpudentia contra jus et injurias omnis munitus foret.

[958] Sall. _Jug_. 33. 3.

[959] Producto Jugurtha (Ibid, 33. 4) i.e. led him to the front of the tribunal, or the Rostra if the scene took place in the Forum.

[960] Regem tacere jubet (Sall. _Jug_. 34.1).

[961] Vicit tamen inpudentia (Ibid.).

[962] Ibid. 34. 2.

[963] Sall. _Jug_. 35. 2. It is not impossible that he may have been mentioned as one of the supplementary heirs in Micipsa's will. See p. 323.

[964] Sall. _Jug_. 35. 6.

[965] Ibid. 35. 7 Fit reus magis ex aequo bonoque quam ex jure gentium Bomilcar, comes ejus qui Romam fide publica venerat.

[966] Sall. _Jug_. 35. 9.