After dispatching Hiempsal and Adherbal, his two rivals to the Numidian throne, Jugurtha must now face the wrath of the Roman Republic with his usual tactic: bribes, more bribes!

                     

                                   In spite of all its might, Rome didn't have a cavalry worth the Numidian's one [Source]

The Phoney War (111 BC)

The war upon Jugurtha is declared by the Roman Senate in 111BC. The mood of the Republic is definetely in favour of a quick and martial conflict in order to avenge the honour of the Roman people and it’s Lucius Bestia, one of the new consul for the year 111 BC, one of the most noisy advocate of war, who is charged to crush the impudent Jugurtha. 

Jugurtha is worried but decides once again to turn to his old tactics and manages to stop the invading army in its tracks with gold. Huge pile of golds, as much as is needed to turn a Roman consul away from his goal. The Numidians towns captured by Bestia are freed and the troops return to the Roman african province, while Bestia goes back to Rome in order to validate the "peace".

The truce granted by Bestia plunges Rome into chaos: the Senate oligarchs are publicly ashamed of the decision of one of their own and are unable to decide if they must stand by it or repel it. Among the people, it's even worse: the shameful treason of Bestia is decried and spit upon as evidence of the corruption and falsehood of the elite. The scandal is such that the Tribunes of the People manage to pass a motion to try the Consul for corruption and Jugurtha himself is summoned as a witness.

It says a lot about the swagger and confidence of Jugurtha in himself that he didn’t flinch a bit at the request and presented himself to the Roman people. Of course, he does not come empty handed and bribes as much men as possible, so much so that he manages to thwart the corruption trial.

However, Jugurtha can never stay far away from a scandal. This danger avoided, Jugurtha jumps headlong into a new one: the assassination of a political rival. It turned out that in Rome was living at the time a Numidian called Massiva, who was no other than a grandson of Massinissa. 

Some Romans were not happy with the way Jugurtha had played them and among them was Spurius Albinus. He decided to blow on the embers of war by supporting Massiva in claiming the Numidian throne. Jugurtha could not let this go unnoticed and unanswered and he ordered the assassination of this potential rival here and there. The assassination was carried out but the murderers were promptly captured and even if he managed to smuggle his henchmen away, Jugurtha’s implication was crystal clear for everyone.

The Senate expelled Jugurtha from the Roman soil, a move which reopened almost immediately the hostility between the two nations. On his way out of Rome, Jugurtha is said to have exclaimed:

Yender is a city put up for sale, and its days are numbered if it finds a buyer.

Those words are both prophetic and ironic. One one side, they no doubt refer to the future Emperors of Rome (something which makes me think these words are apocryphal) and on the other side, Jugurtha spent all he could to gain the advantage but that was never enough.

                           

                                        Jugurtha leaving Rome and pronouncing his famous invective [Source]

Renewal of hostilities (109 BC)

Spurius Albinus, the new Consul, had had his way, even if his protégé Massiva was no more: war with Jugurtha. He hastily levied a new army and fresh provisions to wage war on the other side of the Mediterannean. However, his haste did no good against Jugurtha, who successfully followed delaying tactics. After chasing for months the ghost army of Jugurtha, Spurius Albinus eventually had to come back to Rome where political quabbles had arisen, leaving the army in the hand of his brother, Aulus.

                    

                                                                      Map of North Africa 

Aulus was not the greatest commander and was probably even more impatient than his brother to conclude the war by any means. He decided to make a quick dash to the town of Suthul, were the treasury of Jugurtha was said to be hidden. After long and painful marches, the Roman army reached the town of Suthul and started the siege. 

           

                                                                                             [Source]

Jugurtha decided once more to try his luck with the greed of the Romans. With a mixture of obsequiosity and corruption, he managed to make Aulus raise the siege and to attract him into an unfavourable terrain for negotiations. There, once he had made the Romans comfortable enough to think that the war was over and the Numidians subjugated, he quickly had their camp surrounded.

According Sallust:

On the following day, in a conference with Aulus, Jugurtha pointed out that he had him and his army surrounded, and could either put them to the sword or starve them to death; however [...] if Aulus would make a treaty with him, he would spare all their lives and content himself with making them pass under a yoke in token of surrender, provided that they evacuated Numidia within ten days. 

                                   Passing under the yoke was an humiliation, for Romans as well as Barbarians [Source]

Aulus agreed and he and his army returned to the African roman province in shame. The shame was passed to his own brother in Rome, Spurius Albinus, who quickly moved to raise more troops in order to join his brother and clear his family name from such a disgraceful surrender. However, as soon as he reached Africa, seeing the morale of the army, he knew he could not confront Jugurtha. His luck had run out and soon enough he will be recalled and forced to leave the Roman army to the new Roman consul: Metellus.

Time and time again, Jugurtha has managed to deflect the Roman war machine thanks to delaying tactics and mountain of golds. Nobody says from where all this cash came from. We can only assume that 30 years of peace under Micipsa inflated the royal treasure so much that Jugurtha was confident enough to spend it liberally around him. But what is the most interesting with his bribery is that Jugurtha is the first who made a systematic and successful use of bribery against the Roman republic. He not only managed to make a fool of the Roman senate but also to drive a wedge between the oligarchs of the Senate and the people who became ashamed and furious at the greed of their elites.

To be continued...

List of episodes:

First Episode

Source:

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0126