co-operate with him in this enterprise; and the two kings, with their united forces, attacked Marius on his march, when he was about to retire into winter quarters. Though the Roman general was taken by surprise for a moment, his consummate skill and the discipline of his troops proved again triumphant; the Numidians were repulsed, and their army, as usual with them in case of a defeat, dispersed in all directions. Jugurtha himself, after displaying the greatest courage in the action, cut his way almost alone through a body of Roman cavalry, and escaped from the field of battle. He quickly again gathered round him a body of Numidian horse; but his only hope of continuing the war now rested on Bocchus. The latter was for some time uncertain what course to adopt, but was at length gained over by Sulla, the Quaestor of Marius, to the Roman cause, and joined in a plan for seizing the person of the Numidian king. Jugurtha fell into the snare; he was induced, under pretense of a conference, to repair with only a few followers to meet Bocchus, when he was instantly surrounded, his attendants cut to pieces, and he himself made prisoner, and delivered in chains to Sulla, by whom he was conveyed directly to the camp of Marius. This occurred early in the year B.C. 106. L. Cornelius Sulla, the Quaestor of Marius, who afterward plays such a distinguished part in Roman history, was descended from a Patrician family which had been reduced to great obscurity. But his means were sufficient to secure him a good education. He studied the Greek and Roman writers with diligence and success, and early imbibed that love of literature and art by which he was distinguished throughout his life. But he was also fond of pleasure, and was conspicuous even among the Romans for licentiousness and debauchery. He was in every respect a contrast to Marius. He possessed all the accomplishments and all the vices which the old Cato had been most accustomed to denounce, and he was one of those advocates of Greek literature and of Greek profligacy who had since Cato's time become more and more common among the Roman Nobles. But Sulla's love of pleasure did not absorb all his time, nor enfeeble his mind; for no Roman during the latter days of the Republic, with the exception of Julius Caesar, had a clearer judgment, a keener discrimination of character, or a firmer will. Upon his arrival in Africa, Marius was not well pleased that a Quaestor had been assigned to him who was only known for his profligacy, and who had had no experience in war; but the zeal and energy with which Sulla attended to his new duties soon rendered him a useful and skillful officer, and gained for him the unqualified approbation of his commander, notwithstanding his previous prejudices against him. He was equally successful in winning the affections of the soldiers. He always addressed them with the greatest kindness, seized every opportunity of