In consequence of this defeat, Jugurtha, feeling less confidence in the state of his affairs than ever, retreated with the deserters, and part of his cavalry, first into the deserts, and afterward to Thala, LXXV. Thala] The river on which this town stood is not named by Sallust, but it appears to have been the Bagrada. It seems to have been nearly destroyed by the Romans, after the defeat of Juba, in the time of Julius Cæsar; though Tacitus, Ann. iii. 21, mentions it as having afforded a refuge to the Romans in the insurrection of the Numidian chief, Tacfarinas. D'Anville and Dr, Shaw, Travels in Bombay, vol. i. pt. 2, ch. 5, think it the same with Telepte, now Ferre-anah; but this is very doubtful. See Cellar. iv. 5. It was in ruins in the time of Strabo. a large and opulent city, where lay the 
greater portion of his treasures, and where there was magnificent provision for the education of his children. When Metellus was informed of this, although he knew that there was, between Thala and the nearest river, a dry and desert region fifty miles broad, yet, in the hope of finishing the war if he should gain possession of the town, he resolved to surmount all difficulties, and to conquer even Nature herself. He gave orders that the beasts of burden, therefore, should be lightened of all the baggage excepting ten days' provision; and that they should be laden with skins and other utensils for holding water. He also collected from the fields as many laboring cattle as he could find, and loaded them with vessels of all sorts, but chiefly wooden, taken from the cottages of the Numidians. He directed such of the neighboring people, too, as had submitted to him after the retreat of Jugurtha, to bring him as much water as they could carry, appointing a time and a place for them to be in attendance. He then loaded his beasts from the river, which, as I have intimated, was the nearest water to the town, and, thus provided, set out for Thala. When he came to the place at which he had desired the Numidians to meet him, and had pitched and fortified his camp, so copious a fall of rain is said to have happened, as would have furnished more than sufficient water for his whole army. Provisions, too, were brought him far beyond his expectations; for the Numidians, like most people after a recent surrender, had done more than was required of them. Had done more than was required of them] Officia intenderant. "Auxit intenditque sævitiam exacerbatus indicio filii sui Drusi." Suet. Tib. 62. The men, however, from a religious feeling, preferred using the rain-water; the fall of which greatly increased their courage, for they thought themselves the peculiar care of the gods. On the next day, to the surprise of Jugurtha, they arrived at Thala. The inhabitants, who thought themselves secured by the difficulties of the approach to them, were astonished at so strange and unexpected a sight, but, nevertheless, prepared for their defense. Our men showed equal alacrity on their side. But Jugurtha himself, believing that to Metellus, who, by his exertions, had triumphed over every obstacle, over arms, deserts, seasons, and finally over Nature herself that controls all, nothing was impossible, fled with his children, and a 
great portion of his treasure, from the city during the night. Nor did he ever, after this time, continue LXXVI. Nor did he ever—continue, etc.] Neque postea—moratus, simulabat, etc.] Most editors take moratus for morans : Allen places a colon after it, as if it were for moratus est. more than one day or night in any place; pretending to be hurried away by business, but in reality dreading treachery, which he thought he might escape by change of residence, as schemes of such a kind are the result of leisure and opportunity. Metellus, seeing that the people of Thala were determined on resistance, and that the town was defended both by art and situation, surrounded the walls with a rampart and a trench. He then directed his machines against the most eligible points, threw up a mound, and erected towers upon it to protect And erected towns upon it to protect, etc.] Et super aggerem impositis turribus opus et administros tutari. "And protected the work and the workmen with towers placed on the mound." Impositis turribus is not the ablative absolute, but the ablative of the instrument. the works and the workmen. The townsmen, on the other hand, were exceedingly active and diligent; and nothing was neglected on either side. At last the Romans, though exhausted with much previous fatigue and fighting, got possession, forty days after their arrival, of the town, and the town only; for all the spoil had been destroyed by the deserters; who, when they saw the walls shaken by the battering-ram, and their own situation desperate, had conveyed the gold and silver, and whatever else is esteemed valuable, to the royal palace, where, after being sated with wine and luxuries, they destroyed the treasures, the building, and themselves, by fire, and thus voluntarily submitted to the sufferings which, in case of being conquered, they dreaded at the hands of the enemy. At the very time that Thala was taken, there came to Metellus embassadors from the city of Leptis, LXXVII. Leptis] Leptis Major, now Lebida. In c. 19, Leptis Minor is meant. requesting him to send them a garrison and a governor; saying "that a certain Hamilcar, a man of rank, and of a factious disposition, against whom the magistrates and the laws were alike powerless, was trying to induce them to change sides; and that unless he attended to the matter promptly, their own safety," Their own safety] Suam salutem: i.e. the safety of the people of Leptis. and the allies of Rome, would be in the utmost danger." For the people at Leptis, at the very commencement of the war 
with Jugurtha, had sent to the consul Bestia, and afterward to Rome, desiring to be admitted into friendship and alliance with us. Having been granted their request, they continued true and faithful adherents to us, and promptly executed all orders from Bestia, Albinus, and Metellus. They therefore readily obtained from the general the aid which they solicited; and four cohorts of Ligurians were dispatched to Leptis, with Caius Annius to be governor of the place. This city was built by a party of Sidonians, who, as I have understood, being driven from their country through civil dissensions, came by sea into those parts of Africa. It is situated between the two Syrtes, which take their name from their nature. LXXVIII. Which take their name from their nature] Quibus nomen ex re inditum. From σύρειν, to draw, because the stones and sand were drawn to and fro by the force of the wind and tide. But it has been suggested that this etymology is probably false; it is less likely that their name should be from the Greek than from the Arabic, in which sert signifies a desert tract or region, a term still applied to the desert country bordering on the Syrtes. See Ritter, Allgem. vergleich, Geog. vol. i. p. 929. The words which, in Havercamp, close this description of the Syrtes, " Syrtes ab tractu nominate," and which Gruter and Putschius suspected not to be Sallust's, Cortius omitted; and his example has been followed by Müller and Burnouf; Gerlach, Kritzius, and Dietsch, have retained them. Gerlach, however, thinks them a gloss, though they are found in every manuscript but one. These are two gulfs almost at the extremity of Africa, Almost at the extremity of Africa] Prope in extremâ Africâ. "By extremâ Africa Gerlach rightly understands the eastern part of Africa, bordering on Egypt, and at a great distance from Numidia." Kritzius. of unequal size, but of similar character. Those parts of them next to the land are very deep; the other parts some-times deep and sometimes shallow, as chance may direct; for when the sea swells, and is agitated by the winds, the waves roll along with them mud, sand, and huge stones; and thus the appearance of the gulfs changes with the direction of the wind. Of this people, the language alone The language alone] Lingua modò. has been altered by their intermarriages with the Numidians; their laws and customs continue for the most part Sidonian; which they have preserved with the greater case, through living at so great a distance from the king's dominions. From the king's dominions] Ab imperio regis, "Understand Masinissa's, Micipsa's, or Jugurtha's." Bernouf. Between them and the populous parts of Numidia lie vast and uncultivated deserts.