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By repeating these and similar sentiments, Memmius prevailed on the people to send Lucius Cassius,1 who was then prætor, to Jugurtha, and to bring him, under guarantee of the public faith,2 to Rome, in order that, by the prince's evidence, the misconduct of Scaurus and the rest, whom they charged with having taken bribes, might more easily be made manifest.
During the course of these proceedings at Rome, those whom Bestia had left in Numidia in command of the army, following the example of their general, had been guilty of many scandalous transactions. Some, seduced by gold, had restored Jugurtha his elephants; others had sold him his deserters; others had ravaged the lands of those at peace with us; so strong a spirit of rapacity, like the contagion of a pestilence, had pervaded the breasts of all.
Cassius, when the measure proposed by Memmius had been carried, and while all the nobility were in consternation, set out on his mission to Jugurtha, whom, alarmed as he was, and despairing of his fortune, from a sense of guilt, he admonished " that since he had surrendered himself to the Romans, he had better make trial of their mercy than their power." He also pledged his own word, which Jugurtha valued not less than that of the public, for his safety. Such, at that period, was the reputation of Cassius.
1 XXXII. Lucius Cassius] This is the man from whom came the common saying cui bono? "Lucius Cassius, whom the Roman people thought the most accurate and wisest of judges, was accustomed constantly to inquire, in the progress of a cause, cui bono fuisset, of what advantage any thing had been." Cic. pro Rose. Am. 30. "His tribunal," says Valerius Maximus (iii. 7), "was called, from his excessive severity, the rock of the accused." It was probably on account of this quality in his character that he was now sent into Numidia.
2 Under guarantee of the public faith] “Interpositâ fide publicâ.” See Cat. 47, 48. So a little below, fidem suam interponit. Interpono is "to pledge."
Sallust. The Jugurthine War. Rev. John Selby Watson, M.A. New York and London. Harper & Brothers. 1899.
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