Numidia

Sulla despised him right back.

Marius was fighting King Jugurtha in Numidia.

The war was dragging.

Sulla did something Marius could not.

There was no trouble here, for by good luck it happened that there had arrived only a few days before the most gigantic mare that had ever eaten hay in the royal stables.

She had come all the way from Africa, a present from Fayol, the fourth king of Numidia.

When Father Grandgousier went to look at the mare, he found her a marvelous animal indeed.

She was as big as six elephants with her hooves split into toes.

Scaurus had in his youth thought of becoming a money-lender, a trade in which he would certainly have excelled, and he may very likely have hoped to make something out of the commission as the exemplary Opemius, murderer of Gaius Gracchus, did.

This man, whom Cicero extols as a most excellent citizen, had opposed Jugurtha at Rome, but being in consequence treated by the king in Numidia with marked deference, joined the majority of his colleagues in swallowing the bribes offered to them.

So Adherbal received the eastern half, which though it contained the capital Syrta and better harbors and towns, consisted mostly of barren sand, while the more fertile portion was assigned to his rival.

This took place in the year 117 B.C. Scarcely had the commissioners left the province when the successful villain again took up arms.

Adherbal, after much long suffering and sending a complaint to Rome, was driven to do the same in self-defense.

But he was defeated between Syrta and the sea, and would have been taken in Syrta had not the colony of Italians resident there beaten off the horsemen in pursuit.

Meanwhile Adherbal's message had reached Rome, and the Senate, with its high sense of responsibility, sent ten young men to Numidia as adjudicators.

Perhaps indeed it was not mere carelessness which sent these young hopefuls to the best school of bribery in the world.

End of chapter 18 Chapter 19 In the next place Hanno, perceiving that the Romans were weakened by disease and privation, owing to an epidemic having broken out among them, and thinking that his own troops were in fit fighting condition, took with him all his elephants, about fifty in number, and all the rest of his force and advanced rapidly from Heraclea.

He had ordered the Numidian horse to proceed him and approach the enemy's fortified camp to provoke him and attempt to draw his cavalry out, after which they were to give way and retire until they rejoined himself.

The Numidians acting on these orders advanced up to one of the camps and the Roman cavalry at once issued forth and boldly attacked them.

The Africans retreated as they had been ordered until they joined Hanno's army and then, wheeling round and encircling the enemy, they attacked them, killing many and pursuing the rest as far as the camp.

After this Hanno encamped opposite the Romans, occupying the hill called Taurus, at a distance of about ten stadia from the enemy.

Having made themselves masters of the town called Tunis, which was a suitable base for these raids, and also well situated for operations against the capital and its immediate environs, they established themselves there.

End of chapter 30 Chapter 31 The Carthaginians, having thus been twice defeated, shortly before at sea and now on land, in both cases owing to no lack of bravery in their troops, but owing to the incompetence of their commanders, were now in a thoroughly difficult position.

For, in addition to the misfortunes I have mentioned, the Numidians, attacking them at the same time as the Romans, inflicted not less but even more damage on the country than the latter.

There was no trouble here, for by good luck it happened that there had arrived only a few days before the most gigantic mare that had ever eaten hay in the royal stables.

She had come all the way from Africa, a present from Fayol, the fourth king of Numidia.

When Father Grandgousier went to look at the mare, he found her a marvelous animal indeed.

She was as big as six elephants with her hooves split into toes.

yet on sped the fisherman as though the south wind were at his heels and when beneath him lay the lake where alba though in ruins still holds the trojan fire and worships the lesser vesta a wondering crowd barred his way for a while as it gave way the gates swung open on easy hinge and the excluded fathers gazed on the dish that had gained an entrance admitted to the presence receive coiffee of piscinium a fish too big for a private kitchen be this kept as a festive day hasten to fill out thy belly with good things and devour a turbot that has been preserved to grace thy reign the fish himself wanted to be caught could flattery be more gross yet the monarch's comb began to rise there is nothing that divine majesty will not believe concerning itself when lauded to the skies but no platter could be found big enough for the fish so a council of magnates is summoned men hated by the emperor and on whose faces sat the pallor of that great and perilous friendship first to answer the ligurian's call haste haste he is seated was pegasus hastily catching up his cloak he that had been newly appointed as bailiff over the astonished city for what else but bailiffs were the prefects of those days of whom pegasus was the best and the most righteous expounder of the law though he thought that even in those dread days there should be no sword in the hand of justice next to come in was the aged genial crispus whose gentle soul well matched his style of eloquence no better adviser than he for the ruler of lands and seas and nations had he been free under that scourge and plague to denounce cruelties and proffer honest counsels but what can be more dangerous than the ear of a tyrant on whose caprice hangs the life of a friend who has come to talk of the rain or the heat or the showery spring weather so crispus never struck out against the torrent nor was he wont to speak freely the thoughts of his heart and stake his life upon the truth thus was it that he lived through many winters and saw his eightieth solstice protected even in that court by weapons such as these next to him hurried achilles of like age as himself and with him the youth who little merited the cruel death that was so soon hurried on by his master's sword but to be both young and noble has long since become a prodigy, hence I would rather be a giant's little brother.

Therefore it availed the poor youth nothing that he speared the Numidian bears, stripped as a huntsman upon the Alban arena, for who nowadays would not see through patrician tricks? Who would now marvel brutus at that old-world cleverness of yours? Tis an easy matter to be fool a king that wears a beard.

No more cheerful in face, though of ignoble blood, came Rubrius, condemned long since of a crime that may not be named, and yet more shameless than a reprobate who should write satire.

There too was present the unwieldy frame of Montanus, and crispiness reeking at early dawn, with odours enough to out-scent two funerals more ruthless than he Pompeius.

yet on sped the fisherman as though the south wind were at his heels and when beneath him lay the lake where alba though in ruins still holds the trojan fire and worships the lesser vesta a wondering crowd barred his way for a while as it gave way the gates swung open on easy hinge and the excluded fathers gazed on the dish that had gained an entrance admitted to the presence receive coiffee of piscinium a fish too big for a private kitchen be this kept as a festive day hasten to fill out thy belly with good things and devour a turbot that has been preserved to grace thy reign the fish himself wanted to be caught could flattery be more gross yet the monarch's comb began to rise there is nothing that divine majesty will not believe concerning itself when lauded to the skies but no plaza could be found big enough for the fish so a council of magnates is summoned men hated by the emperor and on whose faces sat the pallor of that great and perilous friendship first to answer the ligurian's call haste haste he is seated was pegasus hastily catching up his cloak he that had been newly appointed as bailiff over the astonished city for what else but bailiffs were the prefects of those days of whom pegasus was the best and the most righteous expounder of the law though he thought that even in those dread days there should be no sword in the hand of justice next to come in was the aged genial crispus whose gentle soul well matched his style of eloquence no better adviser than he for the ruler of lands and seas and nations had he been free under that scourge and plague to denounce cruelties and proffer honest counsels but what can be more dangerous than the ear of a tyrant on whose caprice hangs the life of a friend who has come to talk of the rain or the heat or the showery spring weather so crispus never struck out against the torrent nor was he wont to speak freely the thoughts of his heart and stake his life upon the truth thus was it that he lived through many winters and saw his eightieth solstice protected even in that court by weapons such as these next to him hurried achilles of like age as himself and with him the youth who little merited the cruel death that was so soon hurried on by his master's sword but to be both young and noble has long since become a prodigy, hence I would rather be a giant's little brother.

Therefore it availed the poor youth nothing that he speared the Numidian bears, stripped as a huntsman upon the Alban arena, for who nowadays would not see through patrician tricks? Who would now marvel brutus at that old-world cleverness of yours? Tis an easy matter to be fool a king that wears a beard.

No more cheerful in face, though of ignoble blood, came Rubrius, condemned long since of a crime that may not be named, and yet more shameless than a reprobate who should write satire.

There too was present the unwieldy frame of Montanus, and crispiness reeking at early dawn, with odours enough to out-scent two funerals, more ruthless than he Pompeius.