Jugurtha

Jugurtha
King Jugurtha (in chains) captured by the Romans
Reign	118–105 BC
Predecessor	Micipsa
Successor	Gauda
Born	c. 160 BC Numidia
Died	c. 104 BC Rome
Issue	Oxyntas
Father	Mastanabal

Jugurtha or Jugurthen (Libyco-Berber Yugurten or Yugarten, c. 160 – 104 BC) was a king of Numidia. When the Numidian king Micipsa, who had adopted Jugurtha, died in 118 BC, Jugurtha and his two adoptive brothers, Hiempsal and Adherbal, succeeded him. Jugurtha arranged to have Hiempsal killed and, after a civil war, defeated and killed Adherbal in 112 BC.

The death of Adherbal, which was against the wishes of Rome, along with the growing popular anger in Rome at Jugurtha's success in bribing Roman senators and thus avoiding retribution for his crimes, led to the Jugurthine War between Rome and Numidia. After a number of battles in Numidia between Roman and Numidian forces, Jugurtha was captured in 105 BC and paraded through Rome as part of Gaius Marius' Roman triumph. He was thrown into the Tullianum prison, where he was executed by strangulation in 104 BC.^[1]