as advised to solicit for
Jugurtha's kingdom; which coming to the ears of the latter, he caused him
to be assassinated in the midst of Rome. The murderer was seized, and
delivered up to the civil magistrate, and Jugurtha was commanded to depart
Italy. Upon leaving the city, he cast back his eyes several times towards
it, and said, "Rome would sell itself could it meet with a purchaser; and
were one to be found, it were inevitably ruined."(945)

And now the war broke out anew. At first the indolence, or perhaps
connivance, of Albinus the consul, made it go on very slowly; but
afterwards, when he returned to Rome to hold the public assemblies,(946)
the Roman army, by the unskilfulness of his brother Aulus, having marched
into a defile from whence there was no getting out, surrendered
ignominiously to the enemy, who forced the Romans to submit to the
ceremony of passing under the yoke, and made them engage to leave Numidia
in ten days.

The reader will naturally imagine in what light so shameful a peace,
concluded without the authority of the people, was considered at Rome.
They could not flatter themselves with the hope of being successful in
this war, till the conduct of it was given to L. Metellus the consul.(947)
To all the rest of the virtues which constitute the great captain, he
added a perfect disregard of wealth; a quality most essentially requisite
against such an enemy as Jugurtha, who hitherto had always been
victorious, rather by money than his sword. But the African monarch found
Metellus as invincible in this, as in all other respects. He therefore was
forced to venture his life, and exert his utmost bravery, through the
defect of an expedient which now began to fail him. Accordingly, he
signalized himself in a surprising manner; and showed in this campaign,
all that could be expected from the courage, abilities, and attention of
an illustrious general, to whom despair adds new vigour, and suggests new
lights: he was, however, unsuccessful, because opposed by a consul, who
did not suffer the most inconsiderable error to escape him, nor ever let
slip an opportunity of taking advantage of the enemy.

Jugurtha's greatest concern was, how to secure himself from traitors. From
the time he had been told that Bomilcar, in whom he reposed the utmost
confidence, had a design upon his life, he enjoyed no peace. He did not
believe himself safe any where; but all things, by day as well as by
night, the citizen as well