[275] 'The battle-line being long, but not deep.' [276] _Montem_, the same as _monti_. See Zumpt, S 411. [277] _Decuerint_. Sallust might have written _decuerit_ in the singular. Compare Zumpt, S 226. [278] _Quum interim Metellus--conspicitur_, is the apodosis. 'Then, in the meantime, Metellus appears.' Respecting this use of _quum_ with the present indicative, see Zumpt, S 580, 2; for the circumstance of _interim_ being used here, where we might expect _subito_, does not alter the case, and only expresses that Jugurtha was yet engaged in encouraging his army when Metellus became visible. [279] _Incerti_ is here used passively and personally, 'uncertain what it might be,' for _de quibus incertum erat, quidnam esset_; and the neuter _quidnam_ is used in the sense of the masculine plural, 'it was uncertain whether they were men, and what sort of men.' In like manner we have seen (chapter 18) _ignarus_ used passively. [280] 'With an alteration in the ranks,' those soldiers who had before marched by the side of one another now being placed behind one another, as the man who had till then been on the right wing of his detachment suddenly turned to the right, with his face towards the hill. On the right of the whole marching army, he now formed the front towards the enemy (_aciem_), and strengthened by a threefold reserve. [281] 'The _principia_ standing transversely' (to the direction in which till then the column had been). The march of the Roman army was from east to west; the enemy appeared on the right flank, and the Roman vanguard (_principia_) therefore turned round to face them (that is, turning its face to the north), and it is this direction which is expressed by _transversus_. _Principia_ is the vanguard, because in a Roman legion the ten companies of _principes_ formed the front line, while the _hastati_ constituted the second, and the _triarii_ the third. In this manner the _principes_ here faced the enemy, while the other divisions of the army drew up behind them as a reserve.