JUGURTHA (Gr. 10760as), king of Numidia, an illegiti mate son of Mastanabal, and grandson of Massinissa. After his father's death he was brought up by his uncle Micipsa together with his cousins Adherbal and Hiempsal. Jugurtha inherited much of Massinissa's political ability. Micipsa, naturally afraid of him, sent him to Spain (134 B.c.) in command of a Numidian force, to serve under P. Cornelius Scipio Africanus Minor. He became a favourite with Scipio and the Roman nobles, some of whom put into his head the idea of making himself sole king of Numidia.
In 118 B.C. Micipsa died. By his will, Jugurtha was associated with Adherbal and Hiempsal in the government of Numidia. Scipio had written to Micipsa a strong letter of recommendation in favour of Jugurtha ; and to Scipio, accordingly, Micipsa en trusted the execution of his will. His testamentary arrangements utterly failed. The princes soon quarrelled, and Jugurtha claimed the entire kingdom. Hiempsal he contrived to have assassinated; Adherbal he quickly drove out of Numidia. He then sent envoys to Rome to defend his usurpation on the ground that he was the injured party. The senate decided that Numidia was to be divided, and gave the western, the richer and more populous half, to Jugurtha, while the sands and deserts of the eastern half were left to Adherbal. Jugurtha's envoys appear to have bribed sev eral Roman nobles and senators. Jugurtha at once began to provoke Adherbal to a war of self-defence. He defeated him near the modern Philippeville, and Adherbal sought safety in the fort ress of Cirta (Constantine). Here he was besieged by Jugurtha, who forced the place to capitulate, and treacherously massacred all the inhabitants, among them his cousin Adherbal and a number of Italian merchants.
The Roman senate, a majority of which still clung to Jugurtha, were persuaded in the same year (III) to declare war. An army was despatched to Africa under the consul L. Calpurnius Bestia, several of the Numidian towns voluntarily surrendered, and Bocchus, the king of Mauretania, and Jugurtha's father-in-law, offered the Romans his alliance. Jugurtha having at his com mand the accumulated treasures of Massinissa, succeeded in ar ranging with the Roman general a peace which left him in pos session of the whole of Numidia. But the tribune Memmius in sisted that Jugurtha should appear in person and be questioned as to the negotiations. Jugurtha appeared under a safe conduct, but
his partisans took care that his mouth should be closed. Soon afterwards he caused his cousin Massiva, then resident at Rome and a claimant to the throne of Numidia, to be assassinated. The treaty was thereupon set aside, and Jugurtha was ordered to quit Rome. On this occasion he uttered the well-known words, "A city for sale, and doomed to perish as soon as it finds a purchaser!" (Livy, Epit. The war was renewed, and the consul Spurius Albinus entrusted with the command. The Roman army in Africa was thoroughly demoralized. An unsuccessful attempt was made on a fortified town, Suthul, in which the royal treasures were deposited. The army was surprised by the enemy in a night attack, and the camp was taken and plundered. Every Roman was driven out of Numidia, and a disgraceful peace was concluded (109).
The war was now entrusted to Quintus Metellus, an able soldier and stern disciplinarian, and from the year 109 to its close in io6 the contest was carried on with credit to the Roman arms. Ju gurtha was defeated on the river Muthul, after an obstinate and skilful resistance. Once again, however, he succeeded in sur prising the Roman camp and forcing Metellus into winter quarters. There were fresh negotiations, but Metellus insisted on the sur render of the king's person, and this Jugurtha refused. In 106, Marius was called on by the vote of the Roman people to super sede Metellus, but it was through the perfidy of Bocchus and the diplomacy of L. Cornelius Sulla, Marius's quaestor, that the war was ended. Jugurtha fell into an ambush, and was conveyed a prisoner to Rome. Two years afterwards, in 104, he figured with his two sons in Marius's triumph, and in the subterranean prison beneath the Capitol he was either strangled or starved to death. Jugurtha mainly owes his historical importance to the full and minute account of him which we have from the hand of Sallust, himself afterwards governor of Numidia.
See A. H. J. Greenidge, Hist. of Rome (19o4) T. Mommsen, Hist. of Rome (1854, etc.), book iv. ch. v.; the chief ancient authorities (besides Sallust) are Livy, Plutarch, Marius and Sofia; leius Paterculus, ii. ; Diod. Sic., Excerpta, xxxiv. ; Florus, iii. 1. See also MARIUS, SULLA, NUMIDIA.