« Sal. Jug. 32 | Sal. Jug. 33 | Sal. Jug. 34 | About This Work »
33Accordingly Jugurtha, exchanging the pomp of a king for a garb especially designed to excite pity, came to Rome with Cassius; 2and although personally he possessed great assurance, yet with the encouragement of all those through whose power or guilt he had committed the numerous crimes that I have mentioned he won over Gaius Baebius, a tribune of the commons, by a heavy bribe, that through this officer’s effrontery he might be protected against the strong arm of the law and against all personal violence. 3But when Gaius Memmius had called an assembly of the people, the commons were so exasperated at the king that some demanded that he should be imprisoned, others that if he did not reveal the accomplices in his guilt, he should be punished as an enemy after the usage of our forefathers. But Memmius, taking counsel of propriety rather than of resentment, quieted their excitement and soothed their spirits, finally declaring that, so far as it was in his power to prevent it, the public pledge should not be broken. 4Afterwards, when silence followed and Jugurtha was brought out, Memmius made an address, recalled the king’s actions at Rome and in Numidia, and described his crimes against his father and brothers. He said to him that although the Roman people were aware through whose encouragement and help the king had done these things, yet they wished clearer testimony from his own lips. If he would reveal the truth, he had much to hope for from the good faith and mercy of the Roman people, but if he kept silence, he could not save his accomplices and would ruin himself and his hopes.
« Sal. Jug. 32 | Sal. Jug. 33 | Sal. Jug. 34 | About This Work »