1On the march, moreover, he had distributed cattle to the army every day equally by centuries and likewise by squadrons, and saw to it that water-skins were made from the hides; 1at once he relieved the shortage of grain and prepared, while no one knew of it, what would soon be needed. 1At last on the sixth day, when they came to the river, a very great quantity of water-skins had been made. 2There, having pitched a camp with light fortifications, he orders the soldiers to take food and to be ready to march out at sunset, and, throwing aside all their baggage, to load themselves and the pack animals with water alone.
3Then, when the time seemed right, he leaves the camp, and after marching the whole night he halted; 3he does the same the next night; 3then on the third, long before dawn, he reaches hilly ground not more than two miles from Capsa, and there waits with all his forces as secretly as he can. 4But when day began and many Numidians, fearing nothing hostile, had gone out of the town, he suddenly orders all the cavalry, and with them the swiftest foot soldiers, to make for Capsa at the run and to seize the gates; 4then he himself followed swiftly and alertly, and did not allow the soldiers to plunder.
5When the townspeople learned of this, the confusion, their great fear, the unexpected disaster, and moreover the fact that part of the citizens were outside the walls in the enemy's power, forced them to surrender. 6Nevertheless the town was burned, the adult Numidians were killed, all the rest sold, and the booty divided among the soldiers. 7This deed, contrary to the law of war, was committed not through the greed or wickedness of the consul, but because the place was useful to Jugurtha and hard of access for us, and the race of men fickle and faithless, controlled before neither by kindness nor by fear.