24. 'Non mea culpa saepe ad vos oratum mitto, patres conscripti, sed vis Jugurthae subigit, quem tanta libido extinguendi me invasit, ut neque vos neque deos immortales in animo habeat, sanguinem meum quam omnia malit. Itaque quintum jam mensem socius et amicus populi Romani armis obsessus teneor, neque mihi Micipsae patris mei beneficia neque vestra decreta auxiliantur; ferro an fame acrius urguear incertus sum. Plura de Jugurtha scribere dehortatur me fortuna mea; et jam antea expertus sum parum fidei miseris esse. Nisi tamen intellego[153] illum supra quam ego sum petere, neque simul amicitiam vestram et regnum meum sperare. Utrum gravius existimet, nemini occultum est. Nam, initio occidit Hiempsalem, fratrem meum, dein patrio regno me expulit; quae sane fuerint nostrae injuriae, nihil ad vos.[154] Verum nunc vestrum regnum armis tenet, me, quem vos imperatorem Numidis posuistis, clausum obsidet; legatorum verba quanti fecerit, pericula mea declarant. Quid reliquum nisi vestra vis, quo moveri possit? Nam ego quidem vellem et haec, quae scribo, et illa, quae antea in senatu questus sum, vana forent potius, quam miseria mea fidem verbis faceret. Sed quoniam eo natus sum, ut Jugurthae scelerum ostentui essem,[155] non jam mortem neque aerumnas, tantummodo inimici imperium et crutiatus corporis deprecor.[156] Regno Numidiae, quod vestrum est, uti libet consulite; me ex manibus impiis eripite per majestatem imperii, per amicitiae fidem, si ulla apud vos memoria remanet avi mei Masinissae.' [153] _Nisi tamen intellego_ refers to the preceding _plura scribere nolo_, and expresses an exception, as is always the case with _nisi_ after a negative: he will write nothing else, but still add the remark that Jugurtha aimed at something beyond the kingdom of Adherbal; namely, that he intended afterwards to attack the Romans themselves, because he saw that the acquisition of the kingdom of Adherbal was irreconcilable with the friendship of Rome. _Plura non scribam nisi hoc intellego_ is an elliptical expression, equivalent to _plura non scribam, nisi hoc scribam, me intellegere_. [154] 'Whatever may have been our mutual acts of injustice, it is no concern of yours;' that is, they must be indifferent to you. Consider only the fact, that he has taken possession of the kingdom of your ally. [155] Adherbal, for the purpose of exciting the sympathy of the senate, represents it as a fact that he is born only to exhibit (endure) the crimes of Jugurtha. Respecting the dative _ostentui_, see Zumpt, SS 90 and 422. [156] Adherbal prays the senate to _prevent (deprecor)_ his enemy from acquiring the sole sovereignty, and from killing him amid tortures.