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Some fifty years after the death of the glorious King Massinissa of Numidia, one of his grandsons, Jugurtha, led a formidable insurrection against the Romans in North Africa. A courageous warrior who excelled in guerrilla tactics, Jugurtha still wasn’t afraid of fighting real battles. For seven years, he was a fearsome adversary for Rome.
Jugurtha’s youth
Jugurtha was born around 160 BCE. His father Mastanabal was the son of King Massinissa of Numidia. Jugurtha grew up at King Massinissa’s court. His Amazigh name, Yugerṯen (ⵢⵓⴳⵔⵝⵏ), means: “he surpassed them”.
After Massinissa died, in 148, his throne was shared between his three sons: Micipsa, Gulussa and Mastanabal, Jugurtha’s father, who was in charge of administrating justice. He died around 140. Micipsa became the sole King of Numidia.
Young Jugurtha was very popular among the Numidians, to the point that his uncle Micipsa feared he might become too influential. To get him out of the way, he sent him to Spain, to support his Roman allies in their military campaign there.
In Spain, Jugurtha took part in the siege of Numantia, a fortified city of the indigenous Iberians. His military exploits grew his reputation even more. After the conquest of Numantia, in 133, the Roman commander Scipio Aemilianus sent him home to Numidia with a letter to Micipsa, congratulating him for having “a nephew worthy of yourself and his forefather Massinissa”.
During this time, Jugurtha also made himself many influential friends in Rome. Finally, he discovered the Roman venality and sensitivity to corruption… a weakness which he would not hesitate to take advantage of later on. He described Rome as “a city on sale, condemned to quick destruction if it were to find a buyer.”
Jugurtha’s access to power
Shortly before his death, Micipsa, under pressure of the Romans, decided to share his Kingdom between his two sons Hiempsal and Adherbal and his nephew Jugurtha. To seal this succession agreement, Micipsa apparently adopted Jugurtha. Micipsa died in 118.
Jugurtha found himself immediately in conflict with Micipsa’s sons. He had Hiempsal killed in 117, while Adherbal fled to Rome. Under Roman auspices, Numidia was divided between Jugurtha and Adherbal. This agreement was marred with accusations of corruption of Roman officials by Jugurtha.
The war between Jugurtha and Adherbal restarted in 112, when Jugurtha attacked Adherbal, conquered his territory, and besieged his capital, Cirta. Adherbal placed himself under the protection of Rome, but the Romans, who were already militarily involved elsewhere, only sent a delegation to negotiate with Jugurtha, without military aid. Jugurtha finally took Cirta and killed Adherbal, becoming the sole King of Numidia.
Another grandson of Massinissa, Massiva, the son of Gulussa, took Adherbal’s side in his conflict with Jugurtha. After Adherbal was defeated, he fled to Rome.
Jugurtha’s war against Rome
After Jugurtha’s conquest of Cirta, his troops massacred the city’s inhabitants, including Romans. For Rome, this was a declaration of war.
The Romans reacted by sending an army into Numidia. However, their heavy infantry was not a match for the Numidian light cavalry. Jugurtha also apparently bribed some officers to retreat. The Romans were forced to negotiate peace.
The peace treaty was very favorable to Jugurtha, which led to new suspicions of corruption. The local Roman commander was recalled to Rome to face corruption accusations. Jugurtha obtained safe conduct to come to Rome himself, in order to testify in favor of the accused.
After arriving in Rome in 110, Jugurtha bribed two tribunes to cancel the trial. He also seized the opportunity to have his cousin Massiva killed, as he saw him as a potential rival for his throne. Bomilcar, Jugurtha’s trusted right-hand man, was in charge of the murder. After he was discovered, Bomilcar was to be put on trial, but Jugurtha secretly sent him back to Numidia before his trial. Massiva’s assassination would badly blemish Jugurtha’s reputation in Rome.
Back in Numidia, Jugurtha launched a large-scale insurrection against the Roman presence in his Kingdom. Rome sent an army to fight him, but Jugurtha’s troops had the advantage of a better knowledge of the land. In winter 109, Jugurtha managed to attract the Romans into the Sahara desert, where he attacked them by surprise. Half the Roman soldiers were massacred, while the survivors gave themselves up and were sent back to Rome.
The Roman Senate, which hadn’t taken Jugurtha’s threat seriously up to then (or had let itself be corrupted by bribes), sent general Quintus Metellus, a soldier well-known for his integrity, to Africa. He started by reorganizing the army, in order to better the new recruits’ training and to establish better military discipline. In spring 109, he led his army into Numidia. This time, the Romans won a few battles, but they were not able to capture Jugurtha himself. From that point on, the King of Numidia led a guerrilla campaign, using his better knowledge of the land to set up ambushes against the enemy and inflicting him considerable losses.
By the end of 109, Metellus captured Bomilcar, Jugurtha’s closest confidant, and managed to convince him to betray his master in exchange for Roman favor. In 108, Bomilcar plotted with Nabdalsa, another Numidian nobleman, to capture or kill Jugurtha. Their conspiracy was discovered and Bomilcar was executed.
By the end of 108, Metellus finally found out where Jugurtha was hiding. He besieged him and took his fortress, but Jugurtha managed to flee.
After this defeat, Jugurtha fled to the court of King Bocchus of Mauretania, whose daughter he had married. Metellus started negotiating with Bocchus for him to surrender Jugurtha.
In 107, Metellus was replaced by his deputy, Gaius Marius. The new Roman commander’s first decision was to stop the negotiations with Jugurtha and restart the war. He retook several cities his predecessor had lost.
His conquests brought him always closer to Mauretanian territory, which worried Bocchus, and allowed his son-in-law Jugurtha to convince him to get directly involved in the war with him.
In October 106, the unified army of Jugurtha and Bocchus engaged the Roman army in the desert region West of Setif. The Romans were taken by surprise and didn’t have time to get organised. They were besieged on two hills, but managed to resist until night. Early the next morning, while their enemies were still sleeping, the Romans attacked their camp, which was insufficiently guarded, and routed them. Jugurtha fled to Getulia, while Bocchus returned into his Kingdom. The Romans then took Cirta, the Numidian capital.
Despite their victory, the Romans understood that they could never manage to defeat Jugurtha and his guerrilla tactics by military force. Gaius Marius and his quaestor Sulla restarted the negotiations with Bocchus. The Mauretanian King, whom historians decribe as cunning and treacherous, finally agreed to betray Jugurtha. In exchange, he wanted to extend his Kingdom over the Western half of Numidia.
In summer 105, Bocchus received Jugurtha at his court. His invitation was a trap: Jugurtha was captured, bound in chains and surrendered to the Romans. His last companions were massacred by the Mauretanians.
Later on
Left: Sulla’s triumph
Right: Jugurtha in chains
Jugurtha and his sons Iampsas and Oxyntas were deported to Rome, where they were paraded at Gaius Marius’ triumph. Then, Jugurtha was imprisoned in the Tullianum, the famous Roman prison. He was executed in 104.
As a reward for surrendering Jugurtha, Bocchus received the honorific title of Amicus populi romani, friend of the Roman people. He also took over the Western part of Numidia, with Iol (Cherchell) as its main city.
Finally, in Rome, the fact that Jugurtha was able to buy the consciences of the civil and military authorities so easily for his own ends revealed the extent of political corruption in the Roman Republic at this time. The Roman historian Sallust, who wrote a book on the Jugurthine War, described this problem as an effect of the decline of traditional Roman values. The Roman Empire would later be founded in order to restore these lost values.
Jugurtha nowadays
More recently, the figure of Jugurtha became an emblem of anti-colonialism and North African nationalism, as his fight against the Romans evokes resistance to foreign invasions. The Algerian writer Jean Amrouche wrote an essay, L’Eternel Jugurtha (The Eternal Jugurtha), presenting Jugurtha as the incarnation of the North African spirit: a “free man” (the etymological meaning of Amazigh), always resisting those who wish to enslave him.
