River Muthul, flowing from the south -------------------------------------------------- I Hill on North I which <----------- I I Jugurtha I I posted I I himself -------------------------------------------------- Range of hills, parallel I with the Muthul I I Route of Metellus I [161] XLIX. In a transverse direction--_Transverso itinere_. It lay on the flank of the Romans as they marched toward the river, _in dextero latere_, c.49, fin. [162] Well acquainted with the country--_Prudentes._ "Periti loci et regionis." _Cortius._Or it may mean knowing what they were to do, while the enemy would be _imperiti,_ surprised and perplexed. [163] Would crown--_Confirmaturum_. Would establish, settle, put the last hand to them. [164] Was seen--_Conspicitur._ This is the reading adopted by Cortius, Müller, and Allen, as being that of all the manuscripts. Havercamp, Kritzius, and Dietsch admitted into their texts, on the sole authority of Donatus ad Ter. Eun. ii. 3, _conspicatur_, i.e. (Metellus) _catches sight_ of the enemy. The latter reading, perhaps, makes a better connection. [165] Rendering it uncertain--_Incerti._ Presenting such an appearance that a spectator could not be certain what they were. [166] He drew up these in the right wing--in three lines--_In dextero latere triplicibus subsidiis aciem instruxit._ In the other passages in which Sallust has the word _subsidia_ (Cat. c. 59), he uses it for _the lines behind the front._ Thus he says of Catiline, _Octo cohortes in fronte constituit; reliqua signa in subsidiis arctiùs collocat;_ and of Petreius, _Cohortes veteranas--in fronte; post eas reliquum exercitum in subsidiis locat._ But whether he uses the word in the same sense here; whether we might, as Cortius thinks (whom Gerlach and Dietsch follow), call the division of Metellus's troops _quadruple_ instead of _triple,_ or whether he arranged them as De Brosses and others suppose, in the usual disposition of Hastati, Principes, and Triarii, who shall place beyond dispute? The probability, however, if Sallust is consistent with himself in his use of the word, lies with Cortius. Gerlach refers to Caesar, De Bell, Civ., iii. 89: "_Celeriter ex tertiâ acie singulas cohortes detraxit, atque ex his quartam instituit;_ but this does not illustrate Sallust's use of the word _subsidia_: Caesar forms a fourth _acies_; Metellus draws up one _acies_ triplicibus subsidia".