The Jugurthine War took place from the years 111 BCE to 106 BCE in the Numidian territory. This all started on a conflict between Rome and the king of Numidia, Jugurtha hence the Jugurthine War. During this conflict the Romans found a tremendous advantage, as well as a boost in popularity for Marius, the military leader.
Before the war started the Roman people were led by a senate, which consisted of various elected officials. Magistrates carried out many of the duties that needed to be done. These magistrates had to be elected by an Assembly. The Assembly consisted of three parts. The first were two counsels. Next were the praetors. The most important though were the ten tribunes of plebs, who had the most power of all. (Sallust p. 16)Though the Roman Senate contained the majority of the power it could not get involved in business affairs overseas. These affairs were handled by a section of governmental officials called Equites. Due to the fact that the most powerful part of the government could not do these overseas affairs, tension arose between the Senate and the Equites. Seeing as though the Senate was the most powerful part of the Roman government, it was only natural that they were the most experienced and educated in the art of war. Now that the Senate was obviously taking over all of the government, it was only right that a upper echelon of Senators started to emerge. Like many leaders these men came from a prominent families within the city of Rome. After some time the populace of Rome decided to branch off into two different sections. The first section consisted of the people that supported the individualist approach to rule. The people who believed in this philosophy were called the populares, or people's government. The other group of individuals believed that the Senate should rule over the people. This was the larger group of the two, they dubbed themselves optimates.