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When the Assembly met, the crowd was agitated and hostile. Once Jugurtha himself came out, Memmius launched into a full recounting of how deeply Jugurtha had corrupted the Senate. But he reminded everyone that Jugurtha himself was here to testify, not be punished. The crowd waited expectantly for the big moment when Jugurtha would reveal all. But the king did not move and did not speak. Instead, Gaius Bebius stepped forward and told the king to remain silent. Bebius said that he was vetoing the proceedings. The crowd was stunned and then erupted in anger. But much like Octavius’s vetoing of Tiberius Gracchus’s land bill, nothing would persuade or intimidate Bebius into changing his mind. That was it. Jugurtha would not testify. The Assembly shook with rage as Jugurtha was escorted off the rostra, but when he was gone the crowds dissipated peacefully. They did not, however, forget the prize they had been denied.⁴⁸

During his sojourn in Rome, Jugurtha resolved to tie up some loose ends. His prior conduct had triggered a diaspora of anyone with Numidian royal blood, all of whom rightfully considered themselves targets for assassination. A few of these refugees wound up in Rome, and one of them positioned himself as a replacement king if the Romans squashed Jugurtha—a grandson of the late Numidian king Micipsa named Massiva. Jugurtha caught wind of this plot and determined to do to Massiva what he had already done to Hiempsal and Adherbal.⁴⁹

Jugurtha delegated the task to Bomilcar, one of his most loyal supporters. Bomilcar trolled the seedy underbelly of Rome until he made contact with a small group of men who were “adept in such business.” These men stalked Massiva until they learned his regular schedule, set a trap, and jumped him. But the hit was not carried out with anything resembling ninja stealth. Massiva was killed but it was such a reckless, loud fight that the murder was discovered and the assassins apprehended. Dragged before the consul, the killers made a full confession and implicated Bomilcar as the mastermind.⁵⁰

Skirting the protection that had been offered Jugurtha, the consul prepared to bring Bomilcar to trial for the crime—and hopefully implicate Jugurtha along the way. The Numidian king tried to laugh off the charges and handed over fifty of his retainers to guarantee Bomilcar’s appearance in court. But unable to halt the proceedings with his usual array of bribes, Jugurtha decided to cut his losses. Abandoning the fifty hostages to their fate, Jugurtha arranged for Bomilcar’s escape from Rome. When the Senate discovered the defendant had escaped, they ordered Jugurtha himself to vacate Rome immediately. As he departed, Jugurtha looked back at Rome and issued his famous judgment: “A city for sale and doomed to speedy destruction if it finds a purchaser.”⁵¹

* See prologue.

CHAPTER 5 THE SPOILS OF VICTORY

For the first time resistance was offered to the insolence of the nobles, the beginning of a struggle which threw everything, human and divine, into confusion, and rose to such a pitch of frenzy that civil discord ended in war and the devastation of Italy.

SALLUST¹

SOMETIME AFTER 120 BC, A GREAT NORTHERN TRIBE CALLED the Cimbri left their homeland near modern Denmark and migrated south. Over the following months and years they progressed toward the Danube, and then followed the course of the river west toward the Alps. Since no one is thrilled when a horde of three hundred thousand strangers comes wandering over the horizon, wherever the Cimbri went, they were met by hostile natives. But since the Cimbri were not a conquering horde, they were willing to move on when faced with hostility from the existing inhabitants. All they were looking for was a peaceful place to settle where they could build a new life.²

Like so many “barbarian” tribes who inhabited the world beyond the Mediterranean, identifying who the Cimbri were, and where they came from, is difficult for historians. The Romans were never too particular about getting the details right and had a tendency to make sweeping generalizations, lumping completely different peoples into single catch-all categories. The Cimbri are alternatively described as being Gauls, Scythians, Celts, and Germans—and even when they are successfully identified in 114 as the “Cimbri,” the sources are unclear whether it was really one homogenous people or whether it was a roving confederation that also included groups like the Teutones and Ambrones. The Romans also tended to describe every barbarian tribe as enormous, hairy, painted, dirty, and loud—more beasts than men. Mustering every ounce of hackney stereotyping, the historian Diodorus says the Cimbri “had the appearance of giants, endowed with enormous strength.” But since this is how the Romans described every Germanic tribe, it is difficult to know what the Cimbri really looked like.³