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Metellus was not going to let Jugurtha off lightly. Jugurtha was to be stripped of his wealth and the means to make further war. He was to promptly deliver “two hundred thousand pounds of silver, all his elephants, and a considerable quantity of horses and arms.” But with the darkness closing in, Jugurtha’s survival instincts kicked back to life. When Metellus ordered the king to present himself in person, Jugurtha balked. The king refused the final order to surrender and instead rode deep into the interior of Numidia, far from the Romans. There, in distant seclusion, he could plot his return.²⁹

Metellus was frustrated that his plan to end the war had been stymied at the eleventh hour, but he knew he had considerably weakened Jugurtha. Metellus was also gratified to learn shortly thereafter that the Senate had extended his command; he would have another year to capture the elusive king. But while Metellus focused on Jugurtha, an even greater danger lurked within his own ranks.³⁰

GAIUS MARIUS HAD always kept his eye on the consulship. Though the path of his political career had been uneven, he felt that it was his destiny to one day achieve high office. He was now approaching his fiftieth birthday and continued to carry those ambitions of power. Marius was convinced that if given the chance he could outshine the stagnant optimates and become the most dominant man in Rome.

A year of fighting under Metellus had reminded everyone that Marius was an excellent soldier and popular with the men under his command. He was generous with spoils, mingled easily with the common legionaries, and joined in with camp labor. As Plutarch later wrote, “It is a most agreeable spectacle for a Roman soldier when he sees a general eating common bread in public, or sleeping on a simple pallet, or taking a hand in the construction of some trench or palisade. For they have not so much admiration for those leaders who share honor and riches with them as for those who take part in their toils and dangers.” Marius personified this type of leadership.³¹

In early 108, Marius went to the port city of Utica to attend to some business and make a few necessary sacrifices to the gods. During these rituals, Marius asked a soothsayer to take stock of his own personal situation. The soothsayer told him “a great and marvelous career awaited him” and encouraged Marius to keep “trusting in the gods, to carry out what he had in mind and put his fortune to the test as often as possible.” There was only one thing on Marius’s mind at the moment, and the message from the gods could not be clearer. Marius resolved to return to the legionary camp and request Metellus grant him a leave of absence so he could return to Rome and run for the consulship.³²

However, Metellus wasn’t interested in letting Marius leave. He told Marius that such dreams were not for all men, that Marius really ought to content himself with the success he’d already won and not seek to rise above his station. But Marius refused to let it go, pestering Metellus until Metellus caustically put an end to the debate. “Don’t be in a hurry to go to Rome,” he said. “It will be soon enough for you to be a candidate when my son becomes one.” Since Metellus’s oldest son was then just twenty years old, the implication was clear: Metellus would never grant Marius’s request for leave.³³

Furious but undeterred, Marius activated the extensive network of support he had built up both back in Rome and among the soldiers and merchants in Numidia. Marius openly griped that Metellus was dragging his feet and that if he were in charge the war would be over in a matter of weeks. He also curried favor with the remnants of the Numidian royal family that had fled into exile. Another grandson of the long-dead King Micipsa named Gauda approached Metellus, requesting to be recognized as the rightful king when Jugurtha was dethroned. But Metellus refused to treat the young man with any royal honors. Marius tracked down the offended would-be king and promised that he would be king if Marius was in charge. Marius’s politicking in Numidia led to a steady stream of letters back to Rome claiming that Metellus was turning into a slow-moving tyrant who was now too much in love with imperious power to end the war properly. Marius boldly claimed that if “but half the army were put in his charge, he would have Jugurtha in fetters within a few days.”³⁴

AS THESE POLITICAL machinations unfolded in the Roman camp, King Jugurtha was himself back to work—rebuilding his treasury, recruiting soldiers, and generally undermining the Roman occupation of Numidia. In the winter of 109–108, he made contact with the Roman-occupied city of Vaga and induced its people to revolt. With the revolt erupting on a holiday, the Roman garrison was caught off guard and slaughtered to a man. Well, almost to a man. The commander of the garrison, a well-liked officer named Titus Turpilius Silanus, somehow escaped unharmed.³⁵