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61After Metellus saw that his attempt was vain, that the town was no nearer being taken, that Jugurtha would not fight except from ambush or on his own ground, and that the summer was now at an end, he left Zama and placed garrisons in such of the towns which had gone over to him as were strongly enough fortified by their situation or by walls. 2The rest of his army he stationed in the part of our province which lies nearest to Numidia, that they might pass the winter there. 3But he did not devote that season, as others commonly do, to rest or dissipation, but since the war was making little progress through arms, he prepared to lay snares for the king through his friends and to make their treachery his weapons.
4Now Bomilcar had been at Rome with Jugurtha, and then, after being released on bail, had fled to escape trial for the murder of Massiva. Since this man’s special intimacy with the king gave him special opportunities for deceiving him, Metellus tried to win his co-operation by many promises. 5First, he contrived that the Numidian should come to him secretly for a conference; then after he had pledged his honour that if Bomilcar would deliver Jugurtha into his hands alive or dead, the senate would grant him impunity and restore all his property, he persuaded him without difficulty; for he was treacherous by nature and besides feared that if peace should ever be made with the Romans, one condition would be his own surrender and execution.
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