had obtained Macedonia, was at a still greater distance.
[221] Jugurtha protracted the war, delayed the negotiations for peace,
and in this manner thwarted the consul. We have here restored the
active form _ludificare_, because it exists in all the manuscripts.
It is found also in Cicero, though the deponent _ludificari_ is more
frequent.
[222] Some were convinced that after the hurry which the consul had
shown at the beginning, the war was protracted, not so much by his
carelessness, as by his cunning designs. _Non magis quam_ is
expressed in modern languages as if the Latin were _dolo magis quam
socordia_: 'they believed that the war was protracted by his cunning
designs rather than by his carelessness.' See Zumpt, S 725.

37. Ea tempestate Romae seditionibus tribuniciis atrociter res publica
agitabatur. P. Lucullus et L. Annius, tribuni plebis, resistentibus
collegis, continuare magistratum[223] nitebantur, quae dissensio totius
anni comitia impediebat. Ea mora in spem adductus Aulus, quem pro
praetore in castris relictum supra diximus, aut conficiundi belli aut
terrore exercitus ab rege pecuniae capiundae, milites mense Januario ex
hibernis in expeditionem evocat, magnisque itineribus, hieme aspera,
pervenit ad oppidum Suthul, ubi regis thesauri erant. Quod quamquam et
saevitia temporis et opportunitate loci neque capi neque obsideri poterat
(nam circum murum situm in praerupti montis extremo planities limosa
hiemalibus aquis paludem fecerat[224]), tamen aut simulandi gratia, quo
regi formidinem adderet, aut cupidine caecus ob thesauros oppidi
potiundi, vineas agere, aggerem jacere, aliaque, quae incepto usui
forent, properare.

[223] _Continuare magistratum_, 'to continue for another year in a
magistracy which has been given for only one year.' In the case of