rgesses and their Italian allies. The restoration of Carthage was
set aside. Italian colonies were broken up. The allotment commission was
abolished, and a fixed rent was imposed on the occupants of the public
domains, but the proletariate of the capital continued to have a
distribution of corn, and jurymen or judges (_judices_) were still
selected from the mercantile classes. The Senate continued to be composed
of effeminated nobles, and insignificant persons were raised to the
highest offices.

The administration, under the restoration, was feeble and unpopular.
Social evils spread with alarming rapidity. Both slavery and great
fortunes increased. The provinces were miserably governed, while pirates
and robbers pillaged the countries around the Mediterranean. There was a
great revolt of slaves in Sicily, who gained, for a time, the mastery of
the island.

(M954) While public affairs were thus disgracefully managed, a war broke
out between Numidia and Rome. That African kingdom extended from the river
Molochath to the great Syrtis on the one hand, and to Cyrene and Egypt on
the other, and included the greatest part of the ancient Carthaginian
territories. Numidia, next to Egypt, was the most important of the Roman
client States. On the fall of Carthage, it was ruled by the eldest son of
Masinassa, Micipsa, a feeble old man, who devoted himself to the study of
philosophy, rather than affairs of State. The government was really in the
hands of his nephew, Jugurtha, courageous, sagacious, and able. He was
adopted by Micipsa, to rule in conjunction with his two sons, Adherbal and
Hiempsal. In the year B.C. 118 Micipsa died, and a collision arose, as was
to be expected, among his heirs. Hiempsal was assassinated, and the
struggle for the Numidian crown lay between Adherbal and Jugurtha. The
latter seized the whole territory, and Adherbal escaped to Rome, and laid
his complaint before the Senate. Jugurtha's envoys also appeared, and the
Senate decreed that the two heirs should have the kingdom equally divided
between them, but Jugurtha obtained the more fertile western half.

Then war arose between the two kings, and Adherbal was defeated, and
retired to his capital, Aita, where he was besieged by Jugurtha. Adherbal
made his complaints to Rome, and a commission of aristocratic but
inexperienced young men came to the camp of Jugurtha to arrange the
difficulties. Jugurtha rejected their demands, and the young men returned
ho