[32] It is not armies, or treasures, etc.--[Greek: _Ou tode to chrusoun skaeptron to taen basileian diasozon estin, alla oi polloi philoi skaeptron basileioin ulaethestaton kai asphalestaton_.] "It is not this golden scepter that can preserve a kingdom; but numerous friends are to princes their trust and safest scepter." Xen. Cyrop., viii. 7,14. [33] And who can be a greater friend than one brother to another? --_Quis autem amicior, quam frater fratri?_ "[Greek: _Nomiz adelphous tous alaethinous philous_] Menander." _Wasse_. [34] That I have not adopted a better son, &c--_Ne ego meliores liberos sumsissevidear quam genuisse_. As there is no allusion to Micipsa's adoption of any other son than Jugurtha, Sallust's expression _liberos sumsisse_ can hardly be defended. It is necessary to give _son_ in the singular, in the translation. [35] XI. Had spoken insincerely--_Ficta locutum_. Jugurtha saw that Micipsa pretended more love for him than he really felt. Compare c. 6,7. [36] Which is regarded by the Numidians as the seat of honor--_Quad apud Numidas honori ducitur_. "I incline," says Sir Henry Steuart, "to consider those manuscripts as the most correct, in which the word _et_ is placed immediately before _apud, Quod et apud Numidas honori ducitur_." Sir Henry might have learned, had he consulted the commentators, that "_ the word_ et _is placed immediately before_ apud" in no manuscript; that Lipsius was the first who proposed its insertion; and that Crispinus, the only editor who has received it into his text, is ridiculed by Wasse for his folly. "Lipsius," says Cortius, "cùm sciret apud Romanos etiam medium locum honoratiorem fuisse, corrigit: _quod et apud Numidas honori ducitur_. Sed quis talia ab historico exegerit? Si de Numidis narrat, non facile aliquis intulerit, aliter propterea fuisse apud Romanos." [37] To the other seat--_In alteram partem_. We must suppose that the three seats were placed ready for the three princes; that Adherbal sat down first, in one of the outside seats; the one, namely, that would be on the right hand of a spectator facing them; and that Hiempsal immediately took the middle seat, on Adherbal's right hand, so as to force Jugurtha to take the other outside one. Adherbal had then to remove Hiempsal _in alteram partem_, that is, to induce him to take the seat corresponding to his own, on the other side of the middle one. [38] Chief lictor--_Proximus lictor_. "The _proximus lictor_ was he who, when the lictors walked before the prince or magistrate in a regular line, one behind the other, was last, or next to the person on whom they attended." _Cortius_. He would thus be ready to receive the great man's commands, and be in immediate communication with him. We must suppose either that Sallust merely speaks in conformity with the practice of the Romans, or, what is more probable, that the Roman custom of being preceded by lictors had been adopted in Numidia.