The Historians' History of the World 05

The consul L. Calpurnius Bestia undertook the direction of the war, and preparations were made with great ardour; Scaurus himself going with the force as legate. Bestia pressed forward into Numidia, and fortune favoured him, so that Jugurtha lost courage and asked for a suspension of hostilities. During the conference Jugurtha bribed Scaurus and through him the consul, so that the matter was arranged. Jugurtha was to throw himself on his conqueror’s mercy, and the Roman renegade, in exchange for an insignificant sum of money and some elephants, was to give him his freedom and to leave him in unrestricted possession of his kingdom.

When this bargain became known in Rome, C. Memmius, now tribune, insisted on a judicial inquiry and on Jugurtha being summoned before the assembly of the Roman people that he might give information as to the share taken by each of the different parties in the peace conference. “If the king really surrendered unconditionally,” said he, “he will not refuse to appear; if he refuses, you may learn from that fact the nature of this peace and this surrender, which has brought to Jugurtha amnesty for his crimes, to a small number of our nobles exceeding riches, and to our fatherland shame and disgrace.”c For this picturesque incident we may turn to Sallust, the original authority.

SALLUST’S ACCOUNT OF JUGURTHA AT ROME

[111-110 B.C.]

During the course of these proceedings at Rome, those whom Bestia had left in Numidia in command of the army, following the example of their general, had been guilty of many scandalous transactions. Some, seduced by gold, had restored Jugurtha his elephants; others had sold him his deserters; others had ravaged the lands of those at peace with us; so strong a spirit of rapacity, like the contagion of a pestilence, had pervaded the breasts of all.

Cassius, when the measure proposed by Memmius had been carried, and whilst all the nobility were in consternation, set out on his mission to Jugurtha, whom, alarmed as he was, and despairing of his fortune, from a sense of guilt, he admonished “that, since he had surrendered himself to the Romans, he had better make trial of their mercy than their power.” He also pledged his own word, which Jugurtha valued not less than that of the public, for his safety. Such at that period, was the reputation of Cassius.

Jugurtha, accordingly, accompanied Cassius to Rome, but without any mark of royalty, and in the garb, as much as possible, of a suppliant; and, though he felt great confidence on his own part, and was supported by all those through whose power or villainy he had accomplished his projects, he purchased, by a vast bribe, the aid of Caius Bæbius, a tribune of the people, by whose audacity he hoped to be protected against the law, and against all harm.

An assembly of the people being convoked, Memmius, although they were violently exasperated against Jugurtha (some demanding that he should be cast into prison, others that, unless he should name his accomplices in guilt, he should be put to death, according to the usage of their ancestors, as a public enemy), yet, regarding rather their character than their resentment, endeavoured to calm their turbulence and mitigate their rage; and assured them that, as far as depended on him, the public faith should not be broken. At length, when silence was obtained, he brought forward Jugurtha, and addressed them. He detailed the misdeeds of Jugurtha at Rome and in Numidia, and set forth his crimes towards his father and brothers; and admonished the prince, “that the Roman people, though they were well aware by whose support and agency he had acted, yet desired further testimony from himself; that, if he disclosed the truth, there was great hope for him in the honour and clemency of the Romans; but if he concealed it, he would certainly not save his accomplices, but ruin himself and his hopes forever.”

But when Memmius had concluded his speech, and Jugurtha was expected to give his answer, Caius Bæbius, the tribune of the people, whom I have just noticed as having been bribed, enjoined the prince to hold his peace; and though the multitude who formed the assembly were desperately enraged, and endeavoured to terrify the tribune by outcries, by angry looks, by violent gestures, and by every other act to which anger prompts, his audacity was at last triumphant. The people, mocked and set at naught, withdrew from the place of assembly; and the confidence of Jugurtha, Bestia, and the others whom this investigation had alarmed, was greatly augmented.