HKB
most of their arms, and military standards, were taken; and more were killed in this than in all former battles, their escape being impeded by sleep and the sudden alarm.
C. Marius now continued the route, which he had commenced, toward his winter quarters, which, for the convenience of getting provisions, he had determined to fix in the towns on the coast. He was not, however, rendered careless or presumptuous by his victory, but marched with his army in form of a square[296] just as if he were in sight of the enemy. Sylla, with his cavalry, was on the right; Aulus Manlius, with the slingers and archers, and Ligurian cohorts, had the command on the left; the tribunes, with the light-armed infantry, the consul had placed in the front and rear. The deserters, whose lives were of little value, and who were well acquainted with the country, observed the route of the enemy. Marius himself, too, as if no other were placed in charge, attended to every thing, went through the whole of the troops, and praised or blamed them according to their desert. He was always armed and on the alert, and obliged his men to imitate his example. He fortified his camp with the same caution with which he marched; stationing cohorts of the legions to watch the gates, and the auxiliary cavalry in front, and others upon the rampart and lines. He went round the posts in person, not from suspicion that his orders would not be observed, but that the labor of the soldiers, shared equally by their general, might be endured by them with cheerfulness. [297] Indeed, Marius, as well at this as at other periods of the war, kept his men to their duty rather by the dread of shame[298] than of severity; a course which many said was adopted from desire of popularity, but some thought it was because he took pleasure in toils to which he had been accustomed from his youth, and in exertions which other men call perfect miseries. The public interest, however, was served with as much efficiency and honor as it could have been under the most rigorous command.
CI. At length, on the fourth day of his march, when he was not far from the town of Cirta, his scouts suddenly made their appearance from all quarters at once; a circumstance by which the enemy was known to be at hand. But as they came in from different points, and all gave the same account, the consul, doubting in what form to draw up his army, made no alteration in it, but halted where he was, being already prepared for every contingency. Jugurtha's expectations, in consequence, disappointed him; for he had divided his force into four bodies, trusting that one of them, assuredly,[299] would surprise the Romans in the rear. Sylla, meanwhile, with whom they first came in contact, having cheered on his men, charged the Moors, in person and with his officers,[300] with troop after troop of cavalry, in the closest order possible; while the rest of his force, retaining their position, protected themselves against the darts thrown from a distance, and killed such of the enemy as fell into their hands.
While the cavalry was thus engaged, Bocchus, with his infantry, which his son Volux had brought up, and which, from delay on their march, had not been present in the former battle, assailed the Romans in the rear. Marius was at that moment occupied in front, as Jugurtha was there with his largest force. The Numidian king, hearing of the arrival of Bocchus, wheeled secretly about, with a few of his followers, to the infantry,[301] and exclaimed in Latin, which he had learned to speak at Numantia, "that our men wore struggling in vain; for that he had just slain Marius with his own hand;" showing, at the same time, his sword besmeared with blood, which he had, indeed, sufficiently stained by vigorously cutting down our infantry[302].