1I am about to write of the war which the Roman people waged with Jugurtha, king of the Numidians, first because it was great and fierce and of varying fortune, and then because it was then for the first time that resistance was offered to the arrogance of the nobility; 2and this struggle threw all things divine and human into confusion and went so far in madness that civil strife ended only in war and the devastation of Italy. 3But before I begin an account of such a matter, I shall go back a little earlier, so that everything may be clearer and more plainly in view for understanding. 4In the Second Punic War, in which Hannibal, the Carthaginian commander, had worn down the resources of Italy more than anyone since the name of Rome grew great, Masinissa, king of the Numidians, who had been received into friendship by Publius Scipio (who later had the surname Africanus from his valour), had performed many brilliant feats of arms.
4In return for these, after the Carthaginians had been conquered and Syphax captured, whose power in Africa was great and widespread, the Roman people gave the king as a gift whatever cities and lands they had taken by force. 5Accordingly, Masinissa's friendship remained loyal and honourable towards us. 5But his reign and his life ended together. 6Then his son Micipsa held the kingdom alone, his brothers Mastanabal and Gulussa having been carried off by disease. 7He fathered Adherbal and Hiempsal, and kept in his palace, in the same style as his own children, Jugurtha, son of his brother Mastanabal, whom Masinissa had left a commoner because he was born of a concubine.