Friday, January 13, 2006

The Jugurthine War - Sallust


I had read this book in University and really enjoyed it. I enjoyed it so much so, that I took the name and have used it for most of my online life. Juggertha, my online alter-ego was taken from the Numidian Prince Jugurtha. Jugurtha had an interesting history...

Jugurtha was born into the royal family of Numidia. And, while he was not actually the King's son, he enjoyed the admiration of the court. Even the king's legitimate two sons looked up to Jugurtha. He was a powerful, intelligent, and honest young man and he held the acclaim of the people.

While this may have appeared to be a good thing, soon jealousy raised it's head... Over the King. He had come o see Jugurtha as a threat and wanted him done away with. A chance came when his Roman allies had requested aid for their war in Gaul. The King sent Jugurtha in the hopes that he might be lost in battle.

Instead, Jugurtha proved himself a mighty warrior and not only earned the respect of his Roman compatriots, but heightened the reputation of his country in Rome. Having heard the reports of his deeds, the King welcomed Jugurtha back with open ams and pledged the kingdom to him.

The problem was, was that the King was going senile and within a short time would be dead. After his death Numidia was divided amongst Jugurtha and he two Princes. This did not hold for long as trust soon diminished and tension mounted so Jugurtha saw fit to cut through them both - by cutting the throat of one of the young Princes.

War soon followed and the other Prince sought help from Rome. Rome agreed that Jugurtha should respect the peace and end the fighting but within a shorttime he was at it again. Eventually he had pulled the last Prince from a city and cut him to ribbons and had set the fury of the whole Roman Empire down on him.

If you want to know what happened next, read the book!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Your blog keeps getting better and better! Your older articles are not as good as newer ones you have a lot more creativity and originality now keep it up!