was baffled by the wily African, caught
in a defile, and only escaped by passing under the yoke, and agreeing
to evacuate Numidia.

This disgrace stirred Rome more deeply still. A new consul was elected
and a new army raised. A commission was appointed to inquire into the
conduct of the senate, and several of the leading members were found
guilty of high treason and put to death without mercy. Rome had begun to
purge itself.

The new general, Metellus, was not one to be sent under the yoke. He
defeated Jugurtha in the field and pursued him so unrelentingly that
soon the African usurper was a fugitive, without an army, and with only
some fortresses under his control.

Metellus had with him as his principal officer a man who was to become
famous in Roman history. This man, Caius Marius, was then fifty years of
age. Yet he had years enough before him to play a mighty part. He was a
man of the people, rough and uneducated; scorned learning, but had a
vigorous ambition and a striking military genius. He claimed to be a
_New Man_, knew no Greek, and boasted that he had no images but "prizes
won by valor and scars upon his breast."

This man made himself the favorite of the populace, was elected consul,
and by undisguised trickery took the conduct of the war out of the hands
of Metellus just as the latter was about to succeed. With him to Africa
went another man who was to become equally famous, L. Cornelius Sulla,
the future chief of Rome. Sulla was not a _New Man_. He was an
aristocrat, knew Greek better than Marius knew Latin, was educated and
dissipated, and showed the marks of a dissolute life in his face. When
he rode into the camp of Marius at the head of the cavalry he had seen
no service, and the rugged soldier looked with contempt on this
effeminate pleasure-seeker who had been sent as his lieutenant. He soon
learned his mistake, and before the campaign ended Sulla was his most
trusted officer and chief adviser.

In the subsequent conduct of the war there is an interesting story to
tell. There were two hill-forts in Numidia which still remained in
Jugurtha's control. One of these was taken easily. The other--which
contained all that was left of the usurper's treasures--was a formidable
place, which long defied the Roman engineers. It stood on a precipitous
rock, with only a single narrow ascent; was well garrisoned and supplied
with arms, food, and water; and so long defied all the efforts of Marius
that he al