Jugurthine War

Багерман А.Я.

The Jugurthine War (Latin: Bellum Iugurthinum) was an armed conflict between Ancient Rome and the Numidian king Jugurtha, which lasted from 112 to 105 BC.e. The success of the tactics of bribery and corruption used by Jugurtha revealed the corruption of morals among the top of Roman society. In the context of the decline of Roman virtue, the author of the most detailed treatise on it, the Roman historian Sallust, considered this war. Jugurtha (160-104 BC) - king of Numidia in 117-105 BC, son of King Mastanbal, grandson of Masinissa, who fought the Jugurthine War with Rome. Numidia was a state that existed from the third to the first centuries BC in North Africa (in what is now northern Algeria, part of Tunisia and Libya), where Berber tribes lived, which the Greeks and Romans called Numidians. Later, Rome would take over Numidia in 46 BC and make it one of its own provinces. Before the formation of a single state in the third century BC, the Numidians were nomads, then briefly united into a single state with the capital in the city of Cirta (now the city of Constantine in Algeria), but then it broke up into two parts: Western and Eastern. Both parts of Numidia fought against Carthage, which wanted to subdue them. As a result, the king of Eastern Numidia, Masinissa, was able to defeat Carthage and unite Numidia into a single state in 202 BC, with the help of the Romans. Masinissa-considered the first king of a unified Numidia, reigned in 202-149 BC. e., became famous for his participation as an ally of Rome in the battle of Zama in 202 BC. e. against the general of Carthage in the 2nd Punic War (218-201 BC), Hannibal. Rome helped Masinissa unite Numidia into a single state, making him its ruler with the status of an ally of Rome.

Background

After the death of his father, Jugurtha was raised by his father's brother Micipsa, who became the next ruler of Numidia, who had two sons of his own, Adherbal and Hiempsal. The young Jugurtha was so popular with the Numidians that his uncle Micipsa tried to get rid of his nephew by sending Scipio Africanus the Younger, who was besieging Numantia at that time. Jugurtha managed to convince the Roman senators of his loyalty, and under their pressure, Micipsa agreed to adopt Jugurtha. Before his death, Micipsa divided Numidia into 3 parts, but after his death in 118 BC. Jugurtha claimed sole rule and began a struggle with his brothers. As a result, he killed Hiempsal in 117 BC, and forced Adherbal to flee to seek protection in Rome in 116 BC, since Numidia had the status of a Roman ally and the Roman Senate had the last decisive word in the dispute between the two brothers for the throne of Numidia. Jugurtha himself followed his brother to Rome with an embassy. As a result, the Senate commission divided Numidia in such a way that Jugurtha got the less settled and developed western part of the country, but nomads lived there, who were considered good warriors, and Adherbal got the Eastern part.

The beginning of the war

Four years later, in 112 BC, Jugurtha again attacked Adherbal, who asked for help from Rome. Rome at that time decided to help him diplomatically, which, however, was not crowned with success, and Rome could not yet resolve the issue by military means, since it was facing a military threat from the Germans. As a result, Jugurtha took the capital of Numidia, the city of Cirta. After the capture of the capital, Jugurtha killed not only Adherbal, who had the title of friend and ally of the Roman people, but also Roman citizens who participated in the defense of the capital. In response, the Senate declared war on Jugurtha, which was named Jugurtha after the king. One of the most important and detailed sources about this war is the book of the ancient Roman historian of the first century BC Gaius Sallust Crispus - “The Jugurthine War". In this book, the author examines the Jugurthine War in the context of the decline of Roman virtue in favor of bribery and corruption. Since the Roman province of Africa was located next to Numidia, the consuls in 111 BC were given control of both Italy and Africa, which meant a war with Numidia, and whoever ruled the province of Africa commanded all the Roman military forces in the upcoming war.

Main events of the Jugurthine War

Consul Lucius Calpurnius Bestia opened the Numidian campaign in 111 BCE but soon reached an agreement with Jugurtha. Allegations of bribery caused a scandal at Rome. Jugurtha was summoned to give evidence, but a tribune’s intervention prevented interrogation.

Massiva, son of Gulussa and grandson of Masinissa, was also in Rome and sought the Numidian throne. He was murdered on Jugurtha’s orders. The victim was Massiva, not Jugurtha. The Senate then required Jugurtha to leave Italy. Sallust associates his departure with the famous remark about a venal city doomed when it found a buyer.

War resumed under Spurius Postumius Albinus. While the consul was at Rome, his brother Aulus led an unsuccessful expedition that ended in a humiliating capitulation in 110 BCE. Rome rejected the agreement and continued the war; Quintus Caecilius Metellus took command in 109.

Metellus successfully started the war by reorganizing the Roman army there and adding fresh reinforcements from Rome. He invaded Numidia. He inflicted a series of defeats on Jugurtha and his generals. Jugurtha tried to negotiate peace with him. Metellus did not reject them, but negotiated, simultaneously persuading the Numidian ambassadors to hand over Jugurtha to him, dead or alive, and continuing his offensive through Numidian territory. As a result, in the winter of 109-108 BC, after a series of battles won by the Romans, failed negotiations and the devastation of Numidia, Metelus withdrew to the Roman province of Africa, leaving Roman garrisons in important Numidian cities. In winter, Jugurtha again resumed negotiations, but he refused to surrender, and the war resumed with the arrival of spring. Metelus again invaded Numidia and led an offensive against the city of Tala, located in the desert, where Jugurtha was hiding with his family. But Jugurtha did not wait for the approach of the Romans to the city of Tala, fled from it at night and through the desert reached his father-in-law, the Moorish king Bocchus (reigned in 118-91 BC), whom he began to persuade to take part on his side in the war with Rome. Bocchus supported Jugurtha by giving him troops and the war continued. Metellus decided to drive a wedge between the allies and began negotiations for peace with Bocchus, but Metellus could not finish them and the war, since one of the newly elected consuls of 107 BC.e. by the decision of the people received the province of Africa, and therefore command in this war. This consul was a former subordinate of Metellus, Gaius Marius. Metellus was recalled back to Rome. Metellus did not finish this war, but for his success in it, he was granted the agnomen (nickname, nickname) “Numidicus”. Gaius Marius arrived in Numidia with reinforcements, which he was able to replenish the troops and led an offensive deep into Numidia, managing to take the city of Capsa and destroy it, as well as capture the fortified Muluccan fortress, where the treasures of Jugurtha were stored. After that, Marius took a number of other fortresses and cities. At this time, King Bocchus came to Jugurtha, as he had promised him a third of Numidia for his help in the war with Rome, and together they attacked the Romans, who were returning to their winter quarters, but were eventually defeated by Gaius Marius himself. After that, Marius defeated the Numidians and took the Numidian capital, Cirta. Shortly before the attack of the combined forces of Bocchus and Jugurtha, a young Quaestor Lucius Cornelius Sulla arrived in the Roman camp, with whom Marius would later start a civil war due to disagreements. After the capture of Cirta, Marius received an embassy from the Moorish king Bocchus, who offered to give Jugurtha to the Romans in exchange for an alliance with Rome and part of the territory of Numidia. After the meeting, the embassy went on to Rome, and Marius sent Quaestor Lucius Cornelius Sulla on behalf of Rome for further negotiations with Bocchus. In the end, the parties came to an agreement, and Bocchus seized his son-in-law and handed him over to Sulla. Sulla will later order a ring in memory of this, which will be engraved with the scene of the delivery of Bocchus to Sulla-Sulla is depicted in the center sitting in a chair. To the left of it is a kneeling figure of the Moorish king Bocchus, on the other side is a bound Jugurtha. A scene from this ring would later be minted on a coin, in memory of his father, by Lucius Cornelius Sulla's son, Faustus in 56 BC. As a result, the war was over and Marius arrived in Rome, along with the captured Jugurtha. Jugurtha was held in royal robes in the triumph granted to Marius for the end of the war, and then executed in the Mamertina prison in 104 BC.

Results of the war

The war is over. Jugurtha was taken prisoner to Rome, where he was soon executed. According to agreements with Rome, the Moorish king Bocchus was given control of part of the territory of Numidia under the settlement, and the remaining territory of Numidia was taken over by another grandson of Masinissa, Gauda. Gauda ruled Numidia in 105-88 BC.

Related topics

• Roman Republic

Literature and sources

1. Gaius Sallust Crispus. Catilinarian Conspiracy and the Jugurthine War, Moscow,1916. 2. Titus Livy. Essays. In 2 vols. - (Series "Literary monuments"). - L.: Science,1969. - Vol. 1. Annals. Small works. - 444 p.; Vol. 2. History. — 370 pages. 3. Durov V. S. Art historiography of Ancient Rome. St. Petersburg: SPbU Publ.,1993. 4. L. Muller. Numismatics of Ancient Africa,1862, vol. III. From.1-77. 5. F. Lubker. Iugurta / / Realy slovar' klassicheskikh drevnostey po Lyubkeru [Real dictionary of classical Antiquities by Lubker], edited by F. F. Zelinsky, A. I. Georgievsky, M. S. Kutorga et al. Society of Classical Philology and Pedagogy,1885, pp. 687-689.

• Sallust. Jugurthine War, 35