Rome: An Empire's Story

Greg Woolf's new book, Rome: An Empire's Story, says this about Numidia, which presented a threat to the growth of Rome in the 2d century BC, and about its King: Jugurtha.

"The lack of political consensus in Rome meant that it was always possible for him [Jugurtha] to find some supporters among the Senate, and as he murdered and intrigued his way into a more and more powerful position at home, he protected himself from the complaints to the Senate by bribing prominent figures. Sallust puts into Jugurtha's mouth the famous description of Rome as 'A city for sale and ready for destruction just as soon as it finds a buyer.'

"By 118 Jugurtha had murdered one heir to the throne and was at war with another, in 112 he ignored a senatorially mediated partition of the kingdom and two Roman embassies, killed his brother (massacring a group of Italian merchants in the final siege of Cirta), and survived both a Roman invasion and a summons to Rome. Eventually Rome could ignore the situation no longer: a half-hearted war was fought by a succession of senatorial general until the arrival of Gaius Marius. Jugurtha's capture in 107 and execution in 104 marked the end of a very long defiance of Rome."

Somehow Saddam Hussein comes to mind. So little has changed in the way the world works.

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