1Then at last on the fourth day, not far from the town of Cirta, scouts show themselves hurrying in from all sides at once, from which it is understood that the enemy is near. 2But because they were returning from different directions, one from one quarter and another from another, and all reported the same thing, the consul, uncertain how he should draw up his line, changed nothing in his formation and waits where he was, prepared against every contingency. 3So Jugurtha's hope was disappointed, for he had divided his forces into four parts, thinking that from all of them equally some would come upon the enemy from behind. 4Meanwhile Sulla, whom the enemy had reached first, encouraged his men, and he himself and some others charge the Moors by squadrons and with their horses packed as closely as possible, while the rest, staying in position, protected their bodies from the javelins hurled from a distance and cut down any who came to close quarters.
5While the cavalry are fighting in this way, Bocchus, with the infantry which his son Volux had brought and which, delayed on the march, had not been present in the earlier battle, attacks the Roman rear. 6Marius at that moment was busy in the front line, because Jugurtha was there with most of his men. 6Then the Numidian, learning of Bocchus' arrival, secretly turns with a few men to the infantry. 6There in Latin — for he had learned to speak it at Numantia — he shouts that our men are fighting in vain, that a little while ago he had killed Marius with his own hand. 6At the same time he displayed a sword smeared with blood, which he had stained in the battle by killing, energetically enough, one of our foot soldiers.
7When the soldiers heard this, they are alarmed more by the horror of the thing than by belief in the report, and at the same time the barbarians took heart and advanced more fiercely on the stricken Romans. 8And now they were not far from flight, when Sulla, having routed those against whom he had gone, returned and fell upon the Moors from the flank. 8Bocchus at once turns away. 9But Jugurtha, while he is eager to support his men and to hold on to a victory almost won, is surrounded by the cavalry, and with all killed on his right and left, he breaks out alone, dodging among the enemy's weapons.
10And meanwhile Marius, having routed the cavalry, runs to the help of his men, who he had heard were already being driven back. 11At last the enemy were routed on every side. 11Then there was a dreadful spectacle on the open plains: pursuing and fleeing, killing and capture; 11horses and men struck down, and many, having received wounds, unable either to flee or to lie still, struggling up only to collapse at once; 11finally everything, as far as the eye could see, strewn with missiles, arms and corpses, and between them the ground soaked with blood.