The Jugurthine War 3 The Siege of Zama 109 BC DOCUMENTARY

Jugurtha had spent years carefully plotting his takeover of the kingdom of Numidia. His audacity and cunning knew no bounds as he assassinated rivals, bribed Roman officials, and kept at bay the numerous legions sent against him. But finally in 109 BC, the consul Metellus, a foe both keen of mind and pure of virtue, stood ready to challenge him. Their epic clash would feature pitched battles, sieges, and guerrilla warfare which resulted in the bloodiest year of the war so far. Let us now see who was the better of these two generals. It should be no surprise that the grind of producing almost one documentary a week has left me with quite a few gray hairs. Looking ahead at my own family genetics, this can be a bit troubling when I consider the older relatives of my family who have a habit of losing their hair entirely. Today's sponsor, MD Hair, can alleviate these concerns. MD Hair provides medical-grade hair treatment services tailored to your needs. 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With his army now prepared for battle, the general led the legions back into Numidia, determined not to meet the humiliating fate of Albinus. The consul was at the head of the column with a mixed force of light infantry from the legions and auxiliary archers and slingers. The rear was brought up by Marius and a force of cavalry, while the flanks of the column were guarded by additional auxiliary cavalry and light troops mixed with them for close support. The Romans' first target was the town of Vaga, a major center of trade in Numidia where several Italian businessmen had also settled. The settlement did not resist the consul's advance, and after garrisoning it, he now had a major logistical base inside Numidia itself. Throughout this first part of the campaign, streams of envoys continued to come from Jugurtha, but they were repeatedly rebuffed by Metellus, who continued to convince many of them to betray their king. Finally, Jugurtha decided he had no other choice but to resolve the issue on the battlefield, and gathered a large army to face the Romans. Salus describes to us the site that Jugurtha carefully chose to make his stand. Quote, From which there was a mountain twenty miles distant on a parallel course, forsaken by nature and human cultivation. But from the middle of it, reaching an immense distance, there sprang a kind of hill, which was covered in wild olive and myrtle and other types of trees that grow in arid and sandy ground. In the middle there was a plain, which owing to the dearth of water was desert, apart from the areas near the river. These were planted with copses and frequented by livestock and farmers. It was on this hill then, which we have said stretched on a sideways route, that Jugurtha extended his line of men and took up position. As to the nature of the opposing armies, we unfortunately have few details on their size. The force inherited by Metellus from Albinus seems to have been larger than the standard consular army of the time, based on Salus' mention of a third legion, as well as the additional auxiliaries raised to support the army. We can thus estimate that the Romans could have had as many as 40,000 men. Similarly, we have few details on Jugurtha's army, save that it outnumbered the Romans and was composed of a mixture of infantry, the Von Numidian-like cavalry, and a contingent of 44 war elephants. Assigning numbers to this army is thus problematic, but it is likely that Jugurtha had at least several thousand more men to call upon than Metellus. When forming up his army, Jugurtha kept the pick of his infantry and all of the cavalry under his command, while his war elephants and a supporting force of infantry were given to his second-in-command, Bomulcar. The infantry were likely placed in the center of the formation, while the cavalry and elephants would have been used to protect the army's flank. The Romans soon arrived on the battlefield, and it did not take long for Metellus to notice the Numidians stationed on the high ground. The consul quickly deduced that Jugurtha planned to trap him between the hills and the river to his back, and he reformed his march column to be able to swiftly deploy into battle order when the time came. He had his right flank, the one closest to the enemy, heavily reinforced with three lines of reserves rather than the traditional two that the Roman armies fought with at the time. He then spread his archers and slingers between the legionary maniples in the center of the formation while the flanks were covered by the cavalry. With his forces now prepared, Metellus advanced into the open plains, with Marius at the van of the column with a part of the cavalry. As Jugurtha remained steadfastly on top of the hill, Metellus believed that the Numidians would aim to wear down the Romans in a series of skirmishes rather than descend from the high ground and fight a pitched battle. Thus, he sent one of his legates, Rutilius, with the force of cavalry and light infantry to quickly secure a campsite near the river. However, once the entire Roman column had marched into the open, Jugurtha's true plan was revealed in full. Two thousand Numidian infantry now detached from the army and moved to block the path that the Romans had just used to enter the field, cutting off an easy route of escape. With the Romans being boxed in, Jugurtha then ordered the attack, catching the enemy by surprise. Salus describes the chaos that followed, quote, Some Numidians slaughtered those in the rear, others made assaults from the left and the right. Their presence and pressure were ferocious, and in every quarter they disrupted the ranks of the Romans, amongst whom even the stauncher ones, when encountering the enemy, were bewildered by the irregularity of the battle, being wounded themselves only from long range and having no opportunity of striking back or fighting hand to hand. When a Roman squadron began a pursuit, Jugurtha's cavalry, following earlier instructions, did not retreat in a body or in the same direction, but dispersed in as many different ways as possible. So whenever they were unable to deter the enemy from pursuit, with their superior numbers, they simply surrounded and scattered pursuers from the rear of their ranks, and whenever the hill was more advantageous for flight than plain, the Numidians' horses were of course on familiar ground and easily made their way through the bush, while the harshness and unusualness of the terrain held our men back. And yet, despite the dire situation, Metellus' men did not break like those under Albinus had just a year before. The Romans stubbornly held their ground and nerved throughout the day, until the Numidians began to Jugurtha's infantry were now especially cautious and had largely retreated to the relative safety of the high ground. Metellus was quick to seize upon this opportunity, and the Roman army now began to redress its ranks, while the consul personally rallied four cohorts of infantry to his side to storm the hills. Jugurtha tried to urge his men on the heights to stand their ground, but as the legions began to march up towards them, the battle turned against the Numidians, who retreated in the face of the superior close-order Roman infantry. The Numidians sustained some casualties, but most of them escaped, owing to their greater mobility and knowledge of the local terrain. Meanwhile, a second engagement was taking place near the Roman campsite, where Bomulcar decided to seize the opportunity to prevent Rutilius from constructing the safe haven for Metellus' army. Unlike in the Battle of the Plains, here the Numidians quickly came to grips with the Romans, hoping that their powerful war elephants would allow them to break through the enemy lines. However, the rough terrain impeded the charge of these living tanks of antiquity, and when the Numidian infantry at the front realized this, and that the rest of the Roman army would soon be reinforcing Rutilius, they quickly lost heart and began to flee. The Numidian elephants suffered catastrophic losses as they became bogged down and were overwhelmed, but again, many of the enemy warriors escaped thanks to their greater knowledge of the terrain or due to the cover of night. And yet, even with Jugurtha having quit the field, the Romans had learned not to underestimate him, and remained on high alert, now seeking to concentrate all of their forces together. However, darkness was by now approaching, and made visibility poor, and the two parts of the Roman army under Metellus and Rutilius actually first mistook each other for more Numidians, and came close to attacking each other in their nervous excitement. Luckily, the cavalry in either detachment prevented this potential friendly fire scenario by riding ahead of the main force, and quickly reporting the correct identity of the opposing army to the commanders. With his army thus regrouped, Metellus made camp near Muthul, where the Romans remained for the next four days, tending to their wounded, and handing out rewards to deserving soldiers. The Battle of Muthul was Rome's first significant victory over Jugurtha. Unusually for an ancient battle, the casualties for the victor ended up being higher, as the Numidians had been able to exploit the element of surprise and their superior mobility to harass the Romans throughout the day, while keeping out of close quarters almost entirely. However, although Jugurtha had suffered only slim losses in terms of men killed, the king still found his forces heavily depleted after the battle. His entire contingent of war elephants had been eliminated, with 40 of them being killed in the last four captured, and apart from his royal cavalry guard, the vast majority of his warriors had not made an orderly retreat with their king to regroup, but instead were scattered to the winds. In addition, as news of Jugurtha's defeat spread, several communities switched sides to the Romans, the first among them being a town named Sica. But Metellus's scouts also reported that Jugurtha was already raising fresh troops in some heavily forested valleys, which were naturally well fortified against any attack. The consul, however, decided against a direct confrontation with Jugurtha, and instead opted for a strategy of targeting his base of support within Numidia itself. Therefore, the Romans began a widespread campaign of looting and raiding, sacking several settlements and establishing garrisons in a number of others. Jugurtha could not let these raids on his lands go unaddressed, and he began shadowing Metellus with a force of picked cavalry, waiting for an opportunity to strike. Days later, having skillfully evaded Metellus's attention, Jugurtha ambushed the Romans while they were scattered throughout the countryside raiding. Once again, the Numidians caught the Romans by surprise and killed many of them before they could even reach their weapons. Reports soon began to circulate around the Roman army of the attack, but by the time reinforcements arrived to the beleaguered troops, the Numidians had already slipped away. It was a curt but bloody reminder that Jugurtha remained a viable threat and was not to be underestimated, even in defeat. Back in Rome, news had reached both the senate and the common people about Metellus's exploits, and they were unsurprisingly overjoyed to hear that the war was finally going in the Republic's favor, boosting the consul's reputation greatly. The war, however, continued to be a hard-fought one for the Romans, as the Numidians now waged a dogged guerrilla campaign against the invaders. Jugurtha made even more extensive use of his army's impressive mobility and his own knowledge of the local terrain, constantly harassing the Roman column. Metellus needed to force a decisive confrontation soon if he wanted to end the war in a timely manner, which would also boost his own prestige by making him the man to finally bring Jugurtha to heel. The consul's new strategy was to target the most significant Numidian city in the area, aiming to force Jugurtha to fight in the open or risk the loss of an important base of support. The target was a place that had once brought glory to the Republic in the wars against Carthage, and Metellus doubtless hoped that the same would be repeated now, at Zama. When Jugurtha learned of Metellus' advance on Zama, he sent word to the city to ready its defenses and assured its defenders he would arrive in person with an army at the right moment. To bolster the city further, he also assigned several Roman deserters to his defense, who would have had intimate knowledge of Roman siege practices and how best to resist them. In the meantime, Jugurtha kept the bulk of his troops concealed and watched for opportunities to harass the Romans. An ideal opportunity soon presented itself to the king, when he learned that no less a figure than Marius was at Sica with only a few cohorts to secure supplies. When the small Roman force left the town, they found Jugurtha and a force of cavalry waiting for them just outside the gates. The Numidians began to harass the Romans with their tried and trusted hit-and-run tactics, while Jugurtha urged the citizens of Sica to turn upon the Romans. Fortunately for the hard-pressed legionaries, Marius had the foresight to press out of town as quickly as possible and charge forth at the Numidians. With his efforts to trap Marius' failing and the Romans now pressing hard upon his force, Jugurtha ordered a withdrawal. Once again, the Numidians escaped with only slight casualties thanks to their greater mobility. As Marius returned to the main Roman force, the preparations for Zama's siege were nearing completion. Metellus had completely encircled the city and was hoping to take it quickly by storm despite its formidable defenses and large garrison. This was no doubt partly due to the fact that When his army was prepared, Metellus ordered the assault to begin, and with a great war cry, the Romans surged forth at the walls under the covering fire of their light infantry, as assault parties were tasked with undermining Zama's defenses or scaling them with ladders. The Numidian defenders mounted stiff resistance, hurling javelins and dropping boulders and a mixture of sulfur and pitch on the oncoming Romans. It was at this moment, with the Romans locked in a brutal struggle for the walls, that Jugurtha chose to attack. His target was Metellus' main camp, the capture of which would remove a safe haven for the Romans to retreat to in the event of a defeat. The sentries on the walls were caught completely by surprise, with many of them being killed and others fleeing in panic as the Numidians who had emerged seemingly out of nowhere burst through the gates. However, Jugurtha ran into unexpectedly heavy resistance from a small unit of 40 Romans in the camp who occupied a small hill within it and repelled several attempts by the Numidians to dislodge them. Meanwhile, the streams of fleeing men soon alerted Metellus to the unfolding disaster in his camp, and he sent Marius with all of the army's cavalry and allied cohorts to relieve the remaining defenders. The speedy Roman response proved decisive, and Jugurtha was driven back from the camp, this time sustaining heavy losses in the route that followed. However, despite this success, both Jugurtha and the defenders at Zama were undeterred, and as nightfall came, Metellus was forced to withdraw to his camp, planning to resume the siege the following day. In the morning, Metellus came better prepared for possible attacks by Jugurtha, having all of his cavalry ride ahead of the main army to cover their advance to the walls. Once the army was deployed, the Romans resumed the assault upon Zama while keeping a keen eye out for Jugurtha. The elusive king soon made his presence known once again, this time launching his assault on the Roman siege lines outside of their camp. Although this surprise assault caused panic in some of the troops, the Romans were otherwise far better prepared than they were on the previous day, and reacted to the Numidian assault with impressive speed and efficiency. Jugurtha's men sustained heavy losses as the Roman combined arms tactics proved highly effective against the Numidians, with their infantry and cavalry working closely together. Zama, on the other hand, was proving to be more difficult to defeat, with the Romans failing to make any headway against its formidable walls. Marius once again distinguished himself in the siege by deliberately reducing the pace of attacks in his sector of the line, thus luring the Numidian defenders into a false sense of security. After judging that the enemy was sufficiently distracted, Marius then ordered the assault to resume, and very nearly succeeded in gaining a foothold on Zama's walls. Unfortunately for the Romans, the Numidians regained their focus quickly and drove the Romans back, wrecking many of their ladders and sending the men climbing them falling to their deaths. Once again, a day of bloody fighting ended with no clear victor, and Metellus withdrew his men for the night. At this moment however, the consul considered his options and decided the operation around Zama was no longer worth the effort. The city was simply too well defended for it to be taken using his current tactics, and Metellus did not have the time for a protracted siege. Furthermore, while Jugurtha was in the area, he refused to be drawn into the formal pitched battle that Metellus was hoping for. Thus, on the following morning, Metellus abandoned the siege and marched his army back to the Roman province in Africa for the winter. Jugurtha seems to have been satisfied enough with the success and did not pursue the Romans, although it is possible that his heavy losses over the past two days also prevented this. Before settling into winter quarters for the remainder of the year, Metellus sent garrisons to several Numidian towns that had switched sides to Rome. This campaign of 109 BC had certainly been the bloodiest of the war so far, with mixed results for both sides. For Rome, they had scored their first significant victory over Jugurtha at Suthul, and had also gained a foothold inside Numidia with the capture of several towns. On the other hand, Jugurtha continued to evade capture or a decisive defeat and had successfully thwarted the Romans at Zama, but his earlier losses had undermined his support within Numidia, and at the end of an expensive year, he found himself heavily depleted of men and material. It was clear that the war would go on, though with the next round of elections looming in Rome, whether it would be Metellus or someone else who continued it on remained uncertain. But what was clearly unexpected for the reigning consul would be the insidious betrayal of his subordinate, Marius. Stay tuned as we continue our series on the Jugurthine War. If you liked this episode, be sure to check out our Patreon where we post script previews, give you HD downloads of all our art, and make available polls on what we cover next. A big thanks to the current patrons for funding the channel, and to the researchers, writers, and artists who made this episode possible. 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