A war in North Africa that Rome should have won in months took years, because the enemy kept bribing Roman generals. Jugurtha, king of Numidia, understood Roman corruption better than the Romans did. Sallust uses the war to diagnose a republic rotting from the inside — incompetent aristocrats, a restless populace, and a system where money buys everything. The hero who finally wins the war is Marius, a new man from nowhere. The trouble is just beginning.
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