Jugurtha

Jugurtha was a Numidian king who fought Rome in the Jugurthine War. His bribery of Roman elites and mobile warfare exposed corruption and military weakness before he was defeated by forces associated with Marius and Sulla.

Jugurtha’s struggle with Rome exposed corruption within the Roman political elite, since he repeatedly used bribery and personal connections to delay decisive action. The war eventually produced the rise of Gaius Marius, who took over the command, while Sulla helped secure Jugurtha’s capture through negotiations with Bocchus of Mauretania. Jugurtha was taken to Rome, displayed in Marius’s triumph and executed in 104 BCE.

Sallust’s Catiline’s War, the Jugurthine War, Histories covers the people, places and political pressures behind Catiline’s attempted rising, Jugurtha’s resistance to Roman command in North Africa, and the way bribery, debt, ambition and military patronage corroded republican government. In Colleen McCullough’s The First Man in Rome, when the mishandled war against Jugurtha discredits established commanders, Marius turns military success, popular support and marriage into a campaign for the consulship.