1But when he noticed that the Numidians were keeping still and not coming down from the hill, fearing because of the season of the year and the lack of water that the army would be worn out by thirst, he sent his lieutenant Rutilius ahead to the river with the light-armed cohorts and part of the cavalry, to seize a site for the camp in advance, thinking that the enemy would delay his march with frequent attacks and flank skirmishes and, since they had no confidence in their arms, would try to exploit the weariness and thirst of his soldiers. 2Then he himself, as the situation and the ground required, advanced slowly, in the order in which he had come down from the mountain, kept Marius behind the front line, and was himself with the cavalry of the left wing, which on the march had become the front.
3But Jugurtha, when he saw that the rear of Metellus' column had passed his own front ranks, with a force of about two thousand infantry seized the mountain where Metellus had come down, so that it might not by chance serve his opponents as a refuge if they retreated, and afterwards as a stronghold. 4Then, suddenly giving the signal, he attacked the enemy. 4Some of the Numidians cut down the rearmost, some made attacks from left and right; they pressed on, fierce and persistent, and threw the ranks of the Romans into confusion everywhere. 4Even those of them who had met the enemy with steadier spirits were baffled by the irregular fighting and were themselves merely wounded from a distance, nor had they any opportunity of striking back or of coming to close quarters.
5The horsemen, already instructed by Jugurtha, whenever a squadron of Romans began to pursue, did not retreat in close order or to one place, but scattered as widely as possible in different directions. 6So, being superior in numbers, if they had not managed to deter the enemy from pursuit, they surrounded them, now dispersed, from the rear or the flanks; 6if, however, the hill had been more suitable for flight than the plain, there indeed the horses of the Numidians, being used to it, easily got away among the brushwood, while the roughness and strangeness of the ground held our men back.