The Historians' History of the World 05 [The Roman Republic]

Marius remained till the following year in Africa, to inaugurate the new order of things there. Numidia was still reckoned a kingdom; but the new king Gauda, a half brother of Jugurtha, and the last descendant of Masinissa, was compelled to relinquish the western portion to Bocchus. Numidia was not converted into a Roman province, because the protection of the border against the hordes of the deserts would always have required a considerable standing army of Roman soldiers.c

Ihnee says that the Romans were “as ungenerous and as unjust to him as to Hannibal and Perseus and all their great foes. On the whole he inspires less abhorrence than Metellus or Marius or Sulla, or the wretches who took his bribes.”

Plutarch describes the last days of Jugurtha with terrible vigour.

PLUTARCH ON JUGURTHA’S DEATH

“Marius, bringing home his army again out of Libya into Italy, took possession of his consulship the first day of January (on which day the Romans begin their [second] year) 104, and therewithal made his triumph into the city of Rome, shewing that to the Romans, which they thought never to have seen: and that was, King Jugurtha prisoner, who was so subtile a man, and could so well frame himself unto his fortune, and with his craft and subtlety was of so great courage besides, that none of his enemies ever hoped to have had him alive. But it is said, that after he was led in triumph, he fell mad straight upon it. And the pomp of triumph being ended, he was carried into prison, where the sergeants for haste to have the spoil of him, tore his apparel by force from off his back: and because they would take away his rich gold earrings that hung at his ears, they pulled away with them the tip of his ear, and then cast him naked to the bottom of a deep dungeon, his wits being altogether troubled. Yet when they did throw him down, laughing he said: O Hercules, how cold are your stoves! He lived there yet six days, fighting with hunger, and desiring always to prolong his miserable life unto the last hour: the which was a just deserved punishment for his wicked life.”f

THE CIMBRIANS AND THE TEUTONS

[113-105 B.C.]

Whilst in distant Africa the Romans were engaged in making war upon the various savage hordes of the desert, from the forests of Germany a new danger threatened them on the borders of their empire. For reasons unknown, the Cimbrians (i.e., “the combatants”), a Teutonic tribe, had forsaken their home by the Baltic, and withdrawn to the northern Alpine countries to seek new abiding places. Here they adopted a nomadic form of existence, wandering hither and thither, taking their wives and children and all their possessions with them wherever they went. That they and the other Teutonic tribes afterwards united to them are to be classed as Germans, and not, as the Romans formerly thought, as Celts, is proved by their names, their stature, and others of their characteristics, and further by the fact that still later we find mention of the Cimbrians in the Danish or Cimbrian peninsula, and the Teutons in northeast Germany in the vicinity of the Baltic, together no doubt constituting the last remains of this tribe. But in the course of its long wandering there had been added to this German nucleus not only other German-speaking rovers in search of booty, but also numerous Celtic hordes, so that we even find leaders with Celtic names at the head of the Cimbrians. The Cimbrians and Teutons are described as tall and slightly built men with blue eyes and auburn hair—strong, wild, warlike figures. In battle they fought with impetuous bravery. After a victory they gave themselves up to the lust of cruelty; there was a general destruction and the prisoners were either hanged or butchered to make sacrifices for their gods. From the blood which flowed from the sacrifices, the priestesses, old gray-haired women in white linen garments, foretold the future.