War of Jugurtha

The war of Jugurtha is the name of a conflict between the Roman République and the king numide Jugurtha between 112 and 105 av. J. - C. This conflict is named according to a work of the historian Salluste.

Context numide

Jugurtha is the nephew then the adoptive son of Micipsa, can be under the Roman pressure. With its death, in 118 av. J. - C., Micipsa wishes that the kingdom be separate between its two sons and Jugurtha. Jugurtha makes assassinate one of the two heirs, Hiempsal. Adherbal, the other wire, flees then towards Rome to require helps. In 116 av. J. - C., Roman emissary obtain a treaty. That Ci, probalement by corruption of Romans, is very favorable to Jugurtha. In 113 av. J. - C., it attacks his/her brother in his capital of Cirta. A second Roman commission allows Jugurtha to take the city. Jugurtha then makes kill his/her brother and the Italiques which had helped to defend the city.

Roman context

The Roman Senate, the freehands after the end of the War of Cimbres, declares the war in Numidie, area which it dominates since the end of the Third Punic War.

After having ordered in Hispanie like Propréteur in 114 av. J. - C., Marius left in Africa to fight Jugurtha at the sides of sound owner Quintus Caecilius Metellus, the consul of 109 av. J. - C.. Popular near its soldiers and of the Roman population, it has allies with the tribunat.

The war

In 111 av. J. - C., the Roman consul Lucius Calpurnius Bestia goes in Numidie, and Jugurtha goes in terms of use vis-a-vis a winner, by corrupting Bestia. Jugurtha goes then to Rome where it corrupts powerful orators and makes assassinate his cousin Massiva, potential rival. End -110, Jugurtha beats the legate Aulus Postumius Albinus, by trick, according to the Roman chronicles. He then asks to be recognized sovereign of Numidie. The Senate refuses. Numides and the Romans meet with the Bataille of Muthul, the losses are heavy for the Romans. Those then decide to attack the cities, obliging Numides with the Guérilla, but Metellus is beaten with Zama and must be folded up on Carthage.

Marius leaves for Rome and is made elect consul. Mettellus, known as Numidicus , must undergo the affront to see its former customer adapting his troops and gaining a war which it already itself had almost gained. Jugurtha is combined then with his/her father-in-law Bocchus, king of Mauritania. Marius gains some victories then by continuing the strategy of Metellus, but without being able to overcome. Bocchus negotiates a peace treaty separated, delivers Jugurtha in 106 av. J. - C., and receives n the other hand part of the Numidie. In 104 av. J. - C. Jugurtha is strangled with the Tullianum in Rome.

Consequences

The year of the victory of Marius, 105, was also that of its re-election at the post of consul, without it needing, against any tradition, to arise to Rome. This war revealed corruption reigning in the army and the Roman political community. The War of Cimbres and the war of Jugurtha had a particular influence on the career of the consul Marius as on the important reforms which it introduced into the Institutions of the Roman Republic and in the army (marianic Réforme).

In a certain tradition Amazigh, in spite of the patience of Rome to its regard, Jugurtha, humble son of slave, is seen like the defender of the tradititions numides and close to its people vis-a-vis Adherbal, proud and guards of the Italic colonists.

Sources

Salluste, the war of Jugurtha , Beautiful Letters, 2002.

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