Tertio missus est:
Understand loco with tertio.
Before Q. Caecilius Metellus Numidicus was sent , the consul
L. Calpumius Bestia had been first sent against Jugurtha. Calpurnius had been corrupted
by the money of the king and had made a treaty with Jugurtha, which had not been approved by the Roman senate.
Spurius Albinus Postumius, the second consul to be sent, had fought, through the extension of his brother,
ignominiose, "disgracefully".
Is exercitum ... ad disciplinam Romanam reduxit:
When Metellus arrived in Africa, the army was "weak, cowardly, and incapable of facing either danger
or hardship ... (and) subject to no discipline or restraint" (BJ 44).
Metellus trained the army not by punishing them but by removing opportunities
for them to do wrong.
cum nihil ... faceret:
Translate as "Although nothing cruentum had been done..." CumCon
Before Q. Caecilius Metellus Numidicus was sent , the consul L. Calpumius Bestia had been first sent against Jugurtha. Calpurnius had been corrupted by the money of the king and had made a treaty with Jugurtha, which had not been approved by the Roman senate. Spurius Albinus Postumius, the second consul to be sent, had fought, through the extension of his brother, ignominiose, "disgracefully".