manner. Some of these conversations reached the ears of Scipio, who sent
for Jugurtha and gave him a friendly warning. He dismissed him, however,
with honor at the end of the campaign. The young prince returned to Africa
loaded with distinctions, and the king, being now afraid to pass him over,
named him as joint-heir with his children to a third part of Numidia. The
Numidians perhaps objected to being partitioned. Micipsa died soon after.
Jugurtha at once murdered Hiempsal, claimed the sovereignty, and attacked
his other cousin. Adherbal, closely besieged in the town of Cirta, which
remained faithful to him, appealed to Rome; but Jugurtha had already
prepared his ground, and knew that he had nothing to fear. The Senate sent
out commissioners. The commissioners received the bribes which they
expected. They gave Jugurtha general instructions to leave his cousin in
peace; but they did not wait to see their orders obeyed, and went quietly
home. The natural results immediately followed. Jugurtha pressed the siege
more resolutely. The town surrendered; Adherbal was taken, and was put to
death after being savagely tortured; and there being no longer any
competitor alive in whose behalf the Senate could be called on to
interfere, he thought himself safe from further interference.
Unfortunately in the capture of Citra a number of Romans who resided there
had been killed after the surrender, and after a promise that their lives
should be spared. An outcry was raised in Rome, and became so loud that
the Senate was forced to promise investigation; but it went to work
languidly, with reluctance so evident as to rouse suspicion.
Notwithstanding the fate of the Gracchi and their friends, Memmius, a
tribune, was found bold enough to tell the people that there were men in
the Senate who had taken bribes.

The Senate, conscious of its guilt, was now obliged to exert itself. War
was declared against Jugurtha, and a consul was sent to Africa with an
army. But the consul, too, had his fortune to make, and Micipsa's