Jugurtha,

Jugurtha, king of Numidia, son of Mastanabal, who was a natural son of Masinissa, was carefully educated along with Adherbal and Hiempsal, the sons of his uncle Micipsa, who succeeded Masinissa on the throne. After Micipsa's death Jugurtha soon caused Hiempsal to be murdered (118 B.C.), whereupon Adherbal fled to Rome. Jugurtha succeeded in bribing great part of the Roman senate, and obtained a decision in his favour, freeing him from the charge of the murder of Hiempsal, and assigning him a larger share of the kingdom than was given to Adherbal (117 B.C.). But Jugurtha soon invaded Adherbal's dominions, and, notwithstanding injunctions by the Romans to the contrary, besieged him in the town of Cirta (112 B.C.), and caused him and the Romans who were captured with him to be put to death with horrible tortures. Thereupon war was declared against Jugurtha by the Roman people; but, by bribing the generals, Jugurtha contrived for years to baffle the Roman power. At last the consul, Q. Cæcilius Metellus, proving inaccessible to bribes, defeated him in 109 and 108 B.C., so that he was compelled to flee to the Mauritanian king, Bocchus. Marius, who succeeded Metellus in the command, carried on the war against Jugurtha and Bocchus, till at last Bocchus delivered him up to Sulla, then the quæstor of Marius. He was carried in the triumph of Marius, January 1, 104 B.C., and then flung into a dungeon under the Capitol to die of hunger. Our interest in Jugurtha is entirely due to the masterpiece of history in miniature which Sallust devoted to his story.