Jugurthine War The Jugurthine War took place in 112 – 106 BC , between Rome and Jugurtha of Numidia , a kingdom on the north African coast approximating to modern Algeria . The Romans defeated Jugurtha . The war takes its name from the Berber king Jugurtha ( Berber : Yugerten , ⵢⵓⴳⴻⵔⵜⴻⵏ ) , nephew and later adopted son of Micipsa , King of Numidia . The war constituted an important phase in the Roman subjugation of Northern Africa , but Numidia did not become a Roman province till 46 BC . Following Jugurtha ' s usurpation of the throne of Numidia , a loyal ally of Rome since the Punic Wars , Rome felt compelled to intervene . Jugurtha and Numidia . Numidia was a Berber kingdom located in North Africa ( roughly corresponding to northern modern day Algeria ) not far from Rome ' s arch enemy , Carthage . King Micipsa died in 118 BC . He was survived by two natural sons , Adherbal and Hiempsal , and his adopted nephew , Jugurtha . It was Micipsa ' s wish that all three would share his kingdom after his death . After King Micipsa ' s death , Jugurtha proved to be a ruthless and unscrupulous man who would do anything to achieve what he wanted , including murder , bribery , treachery , and assassination . Jugurtha learned Roman ways and military tactics while commanding the Numidian army under Scipio Aemilianus at the Siege of Numantia . After Micipsa died , Jugurtha ordered Hiempsal assassinated and Adherbal fled to Rome for assistance against his half - brother . A Roman commission was sent to Numidia in 116 BC to make peace and divide the country among the two brothers . However , Jugurtha bribed the Roman officials in the commission and the best regions of Numidia were given to Jugurtha . Nevertheless , it was accepted and peace was made . Shortly after , in 113 BC , Jugurtha provoked a war with his brother and cornered Adherbal in Adherbal ' s capital city of Cirta . Adherbal along with the Italians living there resisted . A second Roman commission was sent and , after being bribed , allowed Jugurtha to take the city . Jugurtha then executed his brother , Adherbal , along with many of the Italians who helped Adherbal defend Cirta . This execution of Italians and Romans moved the Roman Senate to declare war on Numidia in 112 BC . Bestia . The Roman consul Lucius Calpurnius Bestia led an army against Jugurtha but Jugurtha surrendered and was given unusually favorable terms . It appears that Bestia was bribed . So favorable were Jugurtha ' s terms of surrender that it led to an investigation in Rome . Jugurtha was summoned to Rome . Upon his arrival in Rome , Jugurtha bribed two Roman Tribunes of the Plebs who in turn protected him and prevented him from testifying . Jugurtha then attempted to arrange for the assassination of a potential rival ( his cousin Massiva , staying in Rome ) and was expelled from the city . In late 110 or early 109 Jugurtha defeated a Roman army led by the praetor Aulus Postumius Albinus Magnus , brother of the consul of that year , apparently by using bribery , treachery , and trickery . He then demanded to be recognized as the rightful ruler of Numidia . The Senate refused . Metellus . The consul Quintus Caecilius Metellus was sent to North Africa to defeat Jugurtha . For his efforts Metellus was later given the title " Numidicus " although he accomplished precisely nothing in his time there . Quintus Caecilius Metellus was honest and able as a commander but was buying time in order to maximise his glory when he did actually defeat them . His successful war plan was to destroy Jugurtha ' s supply lines and this forced Jugurtha to guerilla tactics . An internal Roman struggle developed between Metellus and his subordinate commander ( legate ) , Gaius Marius . Metellus permitted Marius to return to Rome and Marius was elected consul in 107 BC . Metellus was fully aware of Marius ' ambitions in Roman politics and refused for days to allow him to sail to Rome and stand for the consulship . Metellus was , however , unaware that Marius wanted his command in Numidia . Numidia was not an area designated to be protected by consul by the Roman Senate . However , the populares passed a law in its Tribal Assembly which gave the command against Jugurtha to Marius in 107 BC . This was significant because the Assembly usurped the Senate ' s rights and powers in this matter and the Senate yielded . Marius . When Gaius Marius arrived in Numidia , Jugurtha had joined forces with his father - in - law , Bocchus , the King of Mauretania . Marius continued Metellus ' s plan and won several victories , but , just like the earlier Fabian strategy , Jugurtha ' s tactics prevented a Roman victory . It soon became evident that Rome could not defeat Jugurtha through war . Instead , Bocchus negotiated a peace with the Romans that included betraying and turning Jugurtha over to them and in return , Bocchus received part of the Numidian Kingdom . However , Bocchus was tempted to do the opposite to the lightly armed Sulla against the more well - armed Jugurtha . After a public display , Jugurtha was thrown into a pit under the Tullianum in Rome to die . Revelations . The Jugurthine War clearly revealed the problems of the Republic at that time . The fact that a man such as Jugurtha could rise to power by buying Roman military and civil officials reflected a Roman moral and ethical decline . Romans now sought individual power often at the expense of the state , also displayed by Marius ' s rise to power by ignoring Roman traditions . These events were also observed by Marius ' s quaestor , Lucius Cornelius Sulla , who later came to rival Marius in the first of the great civil wars of the Late Republic . The beginning of this rivalry , according to Plutarch , was purportedly Sulla ' s crucial role in the negotiations for and eventual capture of Jugurtha , which led to Sulla wearing a ring portraying the capture despite Marius being awarded the victory for it . The Roman historian Sallust wrote a monograph , " Bellum Jugurthinum " , on the Jugurthine War emphasising this decline of Roman ethics and placed it , along with his work on the Conspiracy of Catiline , in the timeline of the degeneration of Rome that began with the Fall of Carthage and ended with that of the Republic . He is one of our most valuable sources on the war , along with Plutarch ' s biographies of Sulla and Marius .