A greater danger than Rome had experienced since the time of Hannibal now threatened the state. Vast numbers of barbarians, such as spread over the south of Europe in the later times of the Roman Empire, had collected together on the northern side of the Alps, and were ready to pour down upon Italy. The two leading nations of which they consisted are called Cimbri and Teutones, of whom the former were probably Celts and the latter Germans, but the exact parts of Europe from which they came can not be ascertained. The whole host is said to have contained 300,000 fighting men, besides a much larger number of women and children. The alarm at Rome was still farther increased by the ill success which had hitherto attended the arms of the Republic against these barbarians. Army after army had fallen before them. The Cimbri were first heard of in B.C. 113, in Noricum, whence they descended into Illyricum, and defeated a Roman army under the command of Cn. Papirius Carbo. They then marched westward into Switzerland, where they were joined by the Tigurini and the Ambrones. They next poured over Gaul, which they plundered and ravaged in every direction. The Romans sent army after army to defend the southwestern part of the country, which was now a Roman province; but all in vain. In B.C. 109 the Consul M. Junius Silanus was defeated by the Cimbri; in B.C. 107 the Tigurini cut in pieces, near the Lake of Geneva, the army of the Consul L. Cassius Longinus, the colleague of Marias, who lost his life in the battle; and shortly afterward M. Aurelius Scaurus was also defeated and taken prisoner. But the most dreadful loss was still to come. In B.C. 105 two consular armies, commanded by the Consul Cn. Mallius Maximus and the Proconsul Cn. Servilius Cæpio, consisting of 80,000 men, were completely annihilated by the barbarians: only two men are said to have escaped the slaughter.
These repeated disasters hushed all party quarrels. Every one at Rome felt that Marius was the only man capable of saving the state, and he was accordingly elected Consul by the unanimous votes of all parties while he was still absent in Africa. He entered Rome in triumph, as we have already said, on the 1st of January, B.C. 104, which was the first day of his second Consulship. Meantime the threatened danger was for a while averted. Instead of crossing the Alps and pouring down upon Italy, as had been expected, the Cimbri marched into Spain, which they ravaged for the next two or three years. This interval was advantageously employed by Marius in training the new troops, and accustoming them to hardships and toil. It was probably during this time that he introduced the various changes into the organization of the Roman army which are usually attributed to him. Notwithstanding the sternness and severity with which he punished the least breach of discipline, he was a favorite with his new soldiers, who learned to place implicit confidence in their general, and were delighted with the strict impartiality with which he visited the offenses of the officers as well as of the privates. As the enemy still continued in Spain, Marius was elected Consul a third time for the year B.C. 103, and also a fourth time for the following year, with Q. Lutatius Catulus as his colleague. It was in this year (B.C. 102) that the long-expected barbarians arrived. The Cimbri, who had returned from Spain, united their forces with the Teutones. Marius first took up his position in a fortified camp upon the Rhone, probably in the vicinity of the modern Arles; and as the entrance of the river was nearly blocked up by mud and sand, he employed his soldiers in digging a canal from the Rhone to the Mediterranean, that he might the more easily obtain his supplies from the sea.[65] Meantime the barbarians had divided their forces. The Cimbri marched round the northern foot of the Alps, in order to enter Italy by the northeast, crossing the Tyrolese Alps by the defiles of Tridentum (Trent). The Teutones and Ambrones, on the other hand, marched against Marius, intending, as it seems, to penetrate into Italy by Nice and the Riviera of Genoa. Marius, anxious to accustom his soldiers to the savage and strange appearance of the barbarians, would not give them battle at first. The latter resolved to attack the Roman camp; but as they were repulsed in this attempt, they pressed on at once for Italy. So great were their numbers, that they are said to have been six days in marching by the Roman camp. As soon as they had advanced a little way, Marius followed them; and thus the armies continued to march for a few days, the barbarians in the front and Marius behind, till they came to the neighborhood of Aquæ Sextiæ (Aix). Here the decisive battle was fought. An ambush of 3000 soldiers, which Marius had stationed in the rear of the barbarians, and which fell upon them when they were already retreating, decided the fortune of the day. Attacked both in front and rear, and also dreadfully exhausted by the excessive heat of the weather, they at length broke their ranks and fled. The carnage was dreadful; the whole nation was annihilated, for those who escaped put an end to their lives, and their wives followed their example. Immediately after the battle, as Marius was in the act of setting fire to the vast heap of broken arms which was intended as an offering to the gods, horsemen rode up to him, and greeted him with the news of his being elected Consul for the fifth time.
The Cimbri, in the mean time, had forced their way into Italy. The colleague of Marius, Q. Lutatius Catulus, despairing of defending the passes of the Tyrol, had taken up a strong position on the Athesis (Adige); but, in consequence of the terror of his soldiers at the approach of the barbarians, he was obliged to retreat even beyond the Po, thus leaving the whole of the rich plain of Lombardy exposed to their ravages. Marius was therefore recalled to Rome. The Senate offered him a triumph for his victory over the Teutones, which he declined while the Cimbri were in Italy, and proceeded to join Catulus, who now commanded as Proconsul (B.C. 101). The united armies of the Consul and Proconsul crossed the Po, and hastened in search of the Cimbri, whom they found to the westward of Milan, near Vercellæ, searching for the Teutones, of whose destruction they had not yet heard. The Cimbri met with the same fate as the Teutones; the whole nation was annihilated; and the women, like those of the Tentones, put an end to their lives. Marius was hailed as the savior of the state; his name was coupled with the gods in the libations and at banquets; and he received the title of third founder of Rome. He celebrated his victories by a brilliant triumph, in which, however, he allowed Catulus to share.
During the brilliant campaigns of Marius, Sicily had been exposed to the horrors of a second Servile War. The insurrection broke out in the east of the island, where the slaves elected as their king one Salvius, a soothsayer. He displayed considerable abilities, and in a short time collected a force of 20,000 foot and 2000 horse. After defeating a Roman army he assumed all the pomp of royalty, and took the surname of Tryphon, which had been borne by a usurper to the Syrian throne. The success of Salvius led to an insurrection in the western part of the island, where the slaves chose as their leader a Cilician named Athenio, who joined Tryphon, and acknowledged his sovereignty. Upon the death of Tryphon, Athenio became king. The insurrection had now assumed such a formidable aspect that, in B.C. 101, the Senate sent the Consul M. Aquillius into Sicily. He succeeded in subduing the insurgents, and killed Athenio with his own hand. The survivors were sent to Rome, and condemned to fight with wild beasts; but they disdained to minister to the pleasures of their oppressors, and slew each other with their own hands in the amphitheatre.
The career of Marius had hitherto been a glorious one, and it would have been fortunate for him if he had died on the day of his triumph. The remainder of his life is full of horrors, and brings out into prominent relief the worst features of his character. As the time for the consular elections approached, Marius became again a candidate for the Consulship. He wished to be first in peace as well as in war, and to rule the state as well as the army. But he did not possess the qualities requisite for a popular leader at Rome; he had no power of oratory, and lost his presence of mind in the noise and shouts of the popular assemblies. In order to secure his election, he entered into close connection with two of the worst demagogues that ever appeared at Rome, Saturninus and Glaucia. The former was a candidate for the Tribunate, and the latter for the Prætorship; and by their means, as well as by bribing the Tribes, Marius secured his election to the Consulship for the sixth time. Glaucia also obtained the Prætorship, but Saturninus was not equally successful. He lost his election chiefly through the exertions of A. Nonius, who was chosen in his stead. But Nonius paid dearly for the honor, for on the evening of his election he was murdered by the emissaries of Saturninus and Glaucia, and next morning, at an early hour, before the forum was full, Saturninus was chosen to fill up the vacancy.
As soon as Saturninus had entered upon his office (B.C. 100) he brought forward an Agrarian Law for dividing among the soldiers of Marius the lands in Gaul which had been lately occupied by the Cimbri. He added to the law a clause that, if it was enacted by the people, every Senator should swear obedience to it within five days, and that whoever refused to do so should be expelled from the Senate, and pay a fine of twenty talents. This clause was specially aimed at Metellus, who, it was well known, would refuse to obey the requisition. In order to insure a refusal on the part of Metellus, Marius rose in the Senate, and declared that he would never take the oath, and Metellus made the same declaration; but when the law had been passed, and Saturninus summoned the Senators to the rostra to comply with the demands of the law, Marius, to the astonishment of all, immediately took the oath, and advised the Senate to follow his example. Metellus alone refused compliance; and on the following day Saturninus sent his beadle to drag him out of the Senate-house. Not content with this victory, Saturninus brought forward a bill to punish him with exile. The friends of Metellus were ready to take up arms in his defense; but he declined their assistance, and withdrew privately from the city. Saturninus brought forward other popular measures, of which our information is very scanty. He proposed a Lex Frumentaria, by which the state was to sell corn to the people at a very low price; and also a law for founding new colonies in Sicily, Achaia, and Macedonia. In the election of the magistrates for the following year Saturninus was again chosen Tribune. Glaucia was at the same time a candidate for the Consulship, the two other candidates being M. Antonius and C. Memmius. The election of Antonius was certain, and the struggle lay between Glaucia and Memmius. As the latter seemed likely to carry his election, Saturninus and Glaucia hired some ruffians, who murdered him openly in the comitia. All sensible people had previously become alarmed at the mad conduct of Saturninus and his partisans, and this last act produced a complete reaction against them. The Senate felt themselves now sufficiently strong to declare them public enemies, and invested the Consuls with dictatorial power. Marius was unwilling to act against his associates, but he had no alternative, and his backwardness was compensated by the zeal of others. Driven out of the forum, Saturninus, Glaucia, and the Quæstor Saufeius took refuge in the Capitol, but the partisans of the Senate cut off the pipes which supplied the citadel with water before Marius began to move against them. Unable to hold out any longer, they surrendered to Marius. The latter did all he could to save their lives: as soon as they descended from the Capitol, he placed them, for security, in the Curia Hostilia; but the mob pulled off the tiles of the Senate-house, and pelted them till they died. The Senate gave their sanction to the proceeding by rewarding with the citizenship a slave of the name of Scæva, who claimed the honor of having killed Saturninus.
Marius had lost all influence in the state by allying himself with such unprincipled adventurers. In the following year (B.C. 99) he left Rome, in order that he might not witness the return of Metellus from exile, a measure which he had been unable to prevent. He set sail for Cappadocia and Galatia under the pretense of offering sacrifices which he had vowed to the Great Mother. He had, however, a deeper purpose in visiting these countries. Finding that he was losing his popularity while the Republic was at peace, he was anxious to recover his lost ground by gaining fresh victories in war, and accordingly repaired to the court of Mithridates, in hopes of rousing him to attack the Romans.
The mad scheme of Saturninus, and the discredit into which Marius had fallen, had given new strength to the Senate. They judged the opportunity favorable for depriving the Equites of the judicial power which they had enjoyed, with only a temporary cessation, since the time of C. Gracchus. The Equites had abused their power, as the Senate had done before them. They were the capitalists who farmed the public revenues in the provinces, where they committed peculation and extortion with habitual impunity. When accused, they were tried by accomplices and partisans. Their unjust condemnation of Rutilius Rufus had shown how unfit they were to be intrusted with judicial duties. Rutilius was a man of spotless integrity, and while acting as lieutenant to Q. Mucius Scævola, Proconsul of Asia in B.C. 95, he displayed so much honesty and firmness in repressing the extortions of the farmers of the taxes, that he became an object of fear and hatred to the whole body. Accordingly, on his return to Rome, a charge of malversation was trumped up against him, he was found guilty, and compelled to withdraw into banishment (B.C. 92).
The following year (B.C. 91) witnessed the memorable Tribunate of M. Livius Drusus. He was the son of the celebrated opponent of C. Gracchus. He was a man of boundless activity and extraordinary ability. Like his father, he was an advocate of the party of the Nobles. He took up arms against Saturninus, and supported the Senate in the dispute for the possession of the judicial power. His election to the Tribunate was hailed by the Nobles with delight, and for a time he possessed their unlimited confidence. He gained over the people to the party of the Senate by various popular measures, such as the distribution of corn at a low price, and the establishment of colonies in Italy and Sicily. He was thus enabled to carry his measures for the reform of the judicia, which were, that the Senate should be increased from 300 to 600 by the addition of an equal number of Equites, and that the Judices should be taken from the Senate thus doubled in numbers. Drusus seems to have been actuated by a single-minded desire to do justice to all, but the measure was acceptable to neither party. The Senators viewed with dislike the elevation to their own rank of 300 Equites, while the Equites had no desire to transfer to a select few of their own order the profitable share in the administration of justice which they all enjoyed.
Another measure of Drusus rendered him equally unpopular with the people. He had held out to the Latins and the Italian allies the promise of the Roman franchise. Some of the most eminent men of Rome had long been convinced of the necessity of this reform. It had been meditated by the younger Scipio Africanus, and proposed by C. Gracchus. The Roman people, however, always offered it the most violent opposition. But Drusus still had many partisans. The Italian allies looked up to him as their leader, and loudly demanded the rights which had been promised them. It was too late to retreat; and, in order to oppose the formidable coalition against him, Drusus had recourse to sedition and conspiracy. A secret society was formed, in which the members bound themselves by a solemn oath to have the same friends and foes with Drusus, and to obey all his commands. The ferment soon became so great that the public peace was more than once threatened. The Allies were ready to take up arms at the first movement. The Consuls, looking upon Drusus as a conspirator, resolved to meet his plots by counterplots. But he knew his danger, and whenever he went into the city kept a strong body-guard of attendants close to his person. The end could not much longer be postponed; and the civil war was on the point of breaking out, when one evening Drusus was assassinated in his own house, while dismissing the crowds who were attending him. A leather-cutter's knife was found sticking in his loins. Turning round to those who surrounded him, he asked them, as he was dying, "Friends and neighbors, when will the Commonwealth have a citizen like me again?"
Even in the lifetime of Drusus the Senate had repealed all his laws. After his death the Tribune Q. Varius brought forward a law declaring all persons guilty of high treason who had assisted the cause of the Allies. Many eminent men were condemned under this law. This measure, following the assassination of Drusus, roused the indignation of the Allies to the highest pitch. They clearly saw that the Roman people would yield nothing except upon compulsion.
Rome had never been exposed to greater danger than at this time. Those who had been her bravest defenders now rose against her; and she would probably have perished had the whole Italian people taken part in the war. But the insurrection was confined almost exclusively to the Sabellians and their kindred races. The Etruscans and Umbrians stood aloof, while the Sabines, Volscians, and other tribes who already possessed the Roman franchise, supported the Republic, and furnished the materials of her armies. The nations which composed the formidable conspiracy against Rome were eight in number—the Marsians, Pelignians, Marrucinians, Vestinians, Picentines, Samnites, Apulians, and Lucanians. Of these the Marsians were particularly distinguished for their courage and skill in war; and from the prominent part which they took in the struggle, it was frequently termed the Marsic as well as the Social War.
The war broke out at Asculum in Picenum. The Proconsul Q. Servilius, who had the charge of this part of Italy, hearing that the inhabitants of Asculum were organizing a revolt, entered the town, and endeavored to persuade them to lay aside their hostile intentions. But he was murdered, together with his legate, by the exasperated citizens, and all the Romans in the place were likewise put to death. The insurrection now became general. The Allies entered upon the war with feelings of bitter hatred against their former rulers. They resolved to destroy Rome, and fixed upon Corfinium, a strong city of the Peligni, to which they gave the name of Italica, as the new capital of the Italian Confederation. The government of the new Republic was borrowed from that of Rome. It was to have two Consuls, twelve Prætors, and a Senate of 500 members. Q. Pompædius Silo, a Marsian, one of the chief instigators of the war, and C. Papius Mutilus, a Samnite, who cherished the hereditary hatred of his countrymen against the Romans, were chosen Consuls. Under them were many able lieutenants, who had learned the art of war under the best Roman generals. The soldiers had also served, in the Roman armies, and were armed and disciplined in the same way, so that the contest partook of all the characters of a civil war. But the Romans had the great advantage which a single state always possesses over a confederation.
Of the details of the war our information is meagre and imperfect. But in the military operations we clearly see that the Allies formed two principal groups: the one composed of the Marsians, with their neighbors the Marrucinians, Pelignians, Vestinians, and Picentines; the other of the Samnites, with the Lucanians and Apulians. The two Consuls, L. Julius Cæsar and P. Rutilius Lupus, took the field with powerful armies, and under them served Marius, Sulla, and the most experienced generals of the time. The Romans were fully aware of the formidable nature of the struggle, which was one for existence, and not for victory. In the first campaign the advantage was on the side of the Allies. The Samnites, under their Consul Papius, overran Campania, took most of the towns, and laid siege to Acerræ, into which Cæsar threw himself. Pompædius Silo was still more successful. He defeated the Roman Consul P. Rutilius Lupus with great slaughter, Rutilius himself being slain in the battle. This disaster was to some extent repaired by Marius, who commanded a separate army in the neighborhood, and compelled the victorious Allies to retire. The old general then intrenched himself in a fortified camp, and neither the stratagems nor the taunts of the Samnites could entice him from his advantageous position. "If you are a great general," said Pompædius, "come down and fight;" to which the veteran replied, "Nay, do you, if you are a great general, compel me to fight against my will." The Romans considered that Marius was over-cautious and too slow; and Plutarch says that his age and corpulence rendered him incapable of enduring the fatigue of very active service. But it is more probable that he was not very willing to destroy the Allies, who had been among his most active partisans, and to whom he still looked for support in his future struggles with the Nobility.
The Romans now saw the necessity of making some concessions. The Lex Julia, proposed by the Consul Julius Cæsar, granted the franchise to all the Latin colonies, and to those of the Allies who had remained faithful to Rome, or had laid down their arms. The effects of this concession were immediately seen. Several of the Allies hastened to avail themselves of it, and disunion and distrust were produced among the rest.
The next campaign (B.C. 89) was decidedly favorable to the Romans. The Consuls were Cn. Pompeius Strabo, the father of the celebrated Triumvir, and L. Porcius Cato. The latter, it is true, was slain at the commencement of the campaign; but his loss was more than compensated by his lieutenant Sulla obtaining, in consequence, the supreme command. He carried on the war with the utmost vigor, and completely eclipsed his old commander Marius. He drove the enemy out of Campania, subdued the Hirpini, and then penetrated into the very heart of Samnium. Here he defeated Papius Mutilus, the Samnite Consul, and followed up his victory by the capture of the strong town of Bovianum.
Meanwhile Pompeius Strabo had been equally successful in the north. Asculum was reduced after a long and obstinate siege. The Marrucinians, Vestinians, Pelignians, and finally the Marsians, laid down their arms before the end of the year. Their submission was facilitated by the Lex Plautia Papiria, proposed by the Tribunes M. Plautius Silvanus and C. Papirius Carbo (B.C. 89), which completed the arrangements of the Lex Julia, and granted, in fact, every thing which the Allies had demanded before the war. All citizens of a town in alliance with Rome could obtain, by this law, the Roman franchise, provided they were at the time resident in Italy, and registered their names with the Prætor within sixty days.[66]
The war was thus virtually brought to a conclusion within two years, but 300,000 men, the flower of Rome and Italy, perished in this short time. The only nations remaining in arms were the Samnites and Lucanians, who still maintained a guerrilla warfare in their mountains, and continued to keep possession of the strong fortress of Nola, in Campania, from which all the efforts of Sulla failed to dislodge them.
It now remained to be settled in what way the new citizens were to be incorporated in the Roman state. If they were enrolled in the thirty-five tribes, they would outnumber the old citizens. It was therefore resolved to form ten new tribes, which should consist of the new citizens exclusively; but, before these arrangements could be completed, the Civil War broke out.
One reason which induced the Senate to bring the Social War to a conclusion was the necessity of attacking Mithridates, king of Pontus, one of the ablest monarchs with whom Rome ever came into contact. The origin and history of this war will be narrated in the following chapter. The dispute between Marias and Sulla for the command against Mithridates was the occasion of the first Civil War. The ability which Sulla had displayed in the Social War, and his well-known attachment to the Senatorial party, naturally marked him out as the man to whom this important dignity was to be granted. He was accordingly elected Consul for the year 88 B.C., with Q. Pompeius Rufus as his colleague; and he forthwith received the command of the Mithridatic War. But Marius had long coveted this distinction; he quitted the magnificent villa which he had built at Misenum, and took up his residence at Rome; and in order to show that neither his age nor his corpulency had destroyed his vigor, he repaired daily to the Campus Martius, and went through the usual exercises with the young men. He was determined not to yield without a struggle to his hated rival. As he had formerly employed the Tribune Saturninus to carry out his designs, so now he found an able instrument for his purpose in the Tribune P. Sulpicius Rufus. Sulpicius was one of the greatest orators of the age, and had acquired great influence by his splendid talents. He was an intimate friend of the Tribune M. Livius Drusus, and had been himself elected Tribune for B.C. 88, through the influence of the Senatorial party, who placed great hopes in him; but, being overwhelmed with debt, he now sold himself to Marius, who promised him a liberal share of the spoils of the Mithridatic War. Accordingly, Sulpicius brought forward a law by which the Italians were to be distributed among the thirty-five tribes. As they far outnumbered the old Roman citizens, they would have an overwhelming majority in each tribe, and would certainly confer upon Marius the command of the Mithridatic War. To prevent the Tribune from putting these rogations to the vote, the Consuls declared a justitium, during which no business could be legally transacted. But Sulpicius was resolved to carry his point; with an armed band of followers he entered the forum and called upon the Consuls to withdraw the justitium; and upon their refusal to comply with his demand he ordered his satellites to draw their swords and fall upon them. Pompeius escaped, but his son Quintus, who was also the son-in-law of Sulla, was killed. Sulla himself took refuge in the house of Marius, which was close to the forum, and in order to save his life he was obliged to remove the justitium.
Sulla quitted Rome and hastened to his army, then besieging Nola, which was still held by the Samnites (see p. 180). The city was now in the hands of Sulpicius and Marius, and the rogations passed into law without opposition, as well as a third, conferring upon Marius the command of the Mithridatic War. Marius lost no time in sending some Tribunes to assume on his behalf the command of the army at Nola; but the soldiers, who loved Sulla, and who feared that Marius might lead another army to Asia, and thus deprive them of their anticipated plunder, stoned his deputies to death. Sulla found his soldiers ready to respond to his wishes; they called upon him to lead them to Rome, and deliver the city from the tyrants. He therefore hesitated no longer, but at the head of six legions broke up from his encampment at Nola, and marched toward the city. His officers, however, refused to serve against their country, and all quitted him, with the exception of one Quæstor. This was the first time that a Roman had ever marched at the head of Roman troops against the city. Marius was taken by surprise. Such was the reverence that the Romans entertained for law, that it seems never to have occurred to him or to his party that Sulla would venture to draw his sword against the state. Marius attempted to gain time for preparations by forbidding Sulla, in the name of the Republic, to advance any farther; but the Prætors who carried the command narrowly escaped being murdered by the soldiers; and Marius, as a last resource, offered liberty to the slaves who would join him. But it was all in vain. Sulla forced his way into the city, and Marius took to flight with his son and a few followers. Sulla used his victory with moderation. He protected the city from plunder; and only Marius, Sulpicius, and ten others of his bitterest enemies, were declared public enemies by the Senate. Sulpicius was betrayed by one of his slaves and put to death, but Marius and his son succeeded in making their escape. Marius himself embarked on board a ship at Ostia, with a few companions, and then sailed southward along the coast of Italy. At Circeii he and his companions were obliged to land on account of the violence of the wind and the want of provisions. After wandering about for a long time, they learned from some peasants that a number of horsemen had been in search of them; and they accordingly turned aside from the road, and passed the night in a deep wood in great want. But the indomitable spirit of the old man did not fail him; and he consoled himself and encouraged his companions by the assurance that he should still live to see his seventh Consulship, in accordance with a prediction that had been made to him in his youth. Shortly afterward, when they were near to Minturnæ, they descried a party of horsemen galloping toward them. In great haste they hurried down to the sea, and swam off to two merchant vessels, which received them on board. The horsemen bade the crew bring the ship to land or throw Marius overboard; but, moved by his tears and entreaties, they refused to surrender him. The sailors soon changed their minds; and, fearing to keep Marius, they cast anchor at the mouth of the Liris, where they persuaded him to disembark, and rest himself from his fatigues till a wind should rise; but they had no sooner landed him than they immediately sailed away. Marius was now quite alone amid the swamps and marshes through which the Liris flows. With difficulty he reached the hut of an old man, who concealed him in a hole near the river, and covered him with reeds; but hearing shortly afterward the noise of his pursuers, he crept out of his hiding-place and threw himself into the marsh. He was discovered, and dragged out of the water; and, covered with mud, and with a rope round his neck, was delivered up to the authorities of Minturnæ. The magistrates then deliberated whether they should comply with the instruction that had been sent from Rome to all the municipal towns to put Marius to death as soon as they found him. After some consultation they resolved to obey it, and sent a Cimbrian slave to carry out their orders. The room in which the old general was confined was dark; and, to the frightened barbarian, the eyes of Marius seemed to dart forth fire, and from the darkness a terrible voice shouted out, "Man! durst thou slay C. Marius?" The barbarian immediately threw down his sword, and rushed out of the house, exclaiming, "I can not kill C. Marius!" Straightway there was a revulsion of feeling among the inhabitants of Minturnæ. They repented of their ungrateful conduct toward a man who had saved Rome and Italy. They got ready a ship for his departure, provided him with every thing necessary for the voyage, and, with prayers and wishes for his safety, placed him on board. The wind carried him to the island of Ænaria (now Ischia), where he found the rest of his friends; and from thence he set sail for Africa, which he reached in safety. He landed near the site of Carthage, but he had scarcely put his foot on shore before the Prætor Sextilius sent an officer to bid him leave the country, or else he would carry into execution the decree of the Senate. This last blow almost unmanned Marius: grief and indignation for a time deprived him of speech, and his only reply was, "Tell the Prætor that you have seen C. Marius a fugitive sitting on the ruins of Carthage." Shortly afterward Marius was joined by his son, and they crossed over to the island of Cercina, where they remained unmolested.
Meantime a revolution had taken place at Rome, which prepared the way for the return of Marius to Italy. Sulla's soldiers were impatient for the plunder of Asia, and he therefore contented himself with repealing the Sulpician laws. He then sent forward his legions to Capua, that they might be ready to embark for Greece, but he himself remained in Rome till the Consuls were elected for the following year. The candidates whom he recommended were rejected, and the choice fell on Cn. Octavius, who belonged to the aristocratical party, but was a weak and irresolute man, and on L. Cinna, a professed champion of the popular side. Sulla did not attempt to oppose their election: to have recalled his legions to Rome would have been a dangerous experiment when the soldiers were so eager for the spoils of the East; and he only took the vain precaution of making Cinna promise that he would make no attempt to disturb the existing order of things. But as soon as Sulla had quitted Italy, Cinna brought forward again the law of Sulpicius for incorporating the new Italian citizens among the thirty-five tribes. The two Consuls had recourse to arms, Octavius to oppose and Cinna to carry the law. A dreadful conflict took place in the forum. The party of Octavius obtained the victory, and Cinna was driven out of the city with great slaughter. But Cinna, by means of the new citizens, whose cause he espoused, was soon at the head of a formidable army. As soon as Marius heard of these changes he set sail from Africa, and offered to serve under Cinna, who gladly accepted his proposal, and named him Proconsul; but Marius refused all marks of honor. The sufferings and privations he had endured had exasperated his proud and haughty spirit almost to madness, and nothing but the blood of his enemies could appease his resentment. He continued to wear a mean and humble dress, and his hair and beard had remained unshorn from the day he had been driven out of Rome. After joining Cinna, Marius prosecuted the war with great vigor. He first captured the corn-ships, and thus cut off Rome from its usual supply of food. He next took Ostia and the other towns on the sea-coast, and, moving down the Tiber, encamped on the Janiculum. Famine began to rage in the city, and the Senate was obliged to yield. They sent a deputation to Cinna and Marius, inviting them into the city, but entreating them to spare the citizens. Cinna received the deputies sitting in his chair of office, and gave them a kind answer. Marius stood in silence by the side of the Consul, but his actions spoke louder than words. After the audience was over they entered the city. The most frightful scenes followed. The Consul Octavius was slain while seated in his curule chair. The streets ran with the noblest blood of Rome. Every one whom Marius hated or feared was hunted out and put to death; and no consideration, either of rank, talent, or former friendship, induced him to spare the victims of his vengeance. The great orator M. Antonius fell by the hands of his assassins; and his former colleague, Q. Catulus, who had triumphed with him over the Cimbri, was obliged to put an end to his own life. Cinna was soon tired of the butchery; but the appetite of Marius seemed only whetted by the slaughter, and daily required fresh victims for its gratification. Without going through the form of an election, Marius and Cinna named themselves Consuls for the following year (B.C. 86), and thus was fulfilled the prediction that Marius should be seven times Consul. But he did not long enjoy the honor: he was now in his seventy-first year; his body was worn out by the fatigues and sufferings he had recently undergone; and on the eighteenth day of his Consulship he died of an attack of pleurisy, after a few days' illness.
The kingdom of Pontus, which derived its name from being on the coast of the Pontus Euxinus, or Black Sea, was originally a satrapy of the Persian empire, extending from the River Halys on the west to the frontiers of Colchis on the east. Even under the later Persian kings the rulers of Pontus were really independent, and in the wars of the successors of Alexander the Great it became a separate kingdom. Most of its kings bore the name of Mithridates; and the fifth monarch of this name formed an alliance with the Romans, and was rewarded with the province of Phrygia for the services he had rendered them in the war against Aristonicus. He was assassinated about B.C. 120, and was succeeded by his son Mithridates VI., commonly called the Great, who was then only about twelve years of age. His youth was remarkable, but much that has been transmitted to us respecting this period of his life wears a very suspicious aspect; it is certain, however, that when he attained to manhood he was not only endowed with consummate skill in all martial exercises, and possessed of a bodily frame inured to all hardships, but his naturally vigorous intellect had been improved by careful culture. As a boy he had been brought up at Sinope, where he had probably received the elements of a Greek education, and so powerful was his memory that he is said to have learned not less than twenty-five languages, and to have been able in the days of his greatest power to transact business with the deputies of every tribe subject to his rule in their own peculiar dialect. As soon as he was firmly established on the throne he began to turn his arms against the neighboring nations. On the west his progress was hemmed in by the power of Rome, and the minor sovereigns of Bithynia and Cappadocia enjoyed the all-powerful protection of the Republic. But on the east his ambition found free scope. He subdued the barbarian tribes between the Euxine and the confines of Armenia, including the whole of Colchis and the province called Lesser Armenia; and he even added to his dominions the Tauric Chersonesus, now called the Crimea. The Greek kingdom of Bosphorus, which formed a portion of the Chersonesus, likewise submitted to his sway. Moreover, he formed alliances with Tigranes, king of Armenia, to whom he gave his daughter Cleopatra in marriage, as well as with the warlike nations of the Parthians and Iberians. He thus found himself in possession of such great power and extensive resources, that he began to deem himself equal to a contest with Rome itself. Many causes of dissension had already arisen between them. Shortly after his accession, the Romans had taken advantage of his minority to wrest from him the province of Phrygia. In B.C. 93 they resisted his attempt to place upon the throne of Cappadocia one of his own nephews, and appointed a Cappadocian named Ariobarzanes to be king of that country. For a time Mithridates submitted; but the death of Nicomedes II., king of Bithynia, shortly afterward, at length brought matters to a crisis. That monarch was succeeded by his eldest son, Nicomedes III.; but Mithridates took the opportunity to set up a rival claimant, whose pretensions he supported with an army, and quickly drove Nicomedes out of Bithynia (B.C. 90). About the same time he openly invaded Cappadocia, and expelled Ariobarzanes from his kingdom, establishing his own son Ariarathes in his place. Both the fugitive princes had recourse to Rome, where they found ready support; a decree was passed that Nicomedes and Ariobarzanes should be restored to their respective kingdoms, and the execution of it was confided to M. Aquillius and L. Cassius.
Mithridates again yielded, and the two fugitive kings were restored to their dominions; but no sooner was Nicomedes replaced on the throne of Bithynia than he was urged by the Roman legates to invade the territories of Mithridates, into which he made a predatory incursion. Mithridates offered no resistance, but sent to the Romans to demand satisfaction, and it was not until his embassador was dismissed with an evasive answer that he prepared for immediate hostilities (B.C. 88). His first step was to invade Cappadocia, from which he easily expelled Ariobarzanes once more. His generals drove Nicomedes out of Bithynia, and defeated Aquillius. Mithridates, following up his advantage, not only made himself master of Phrygia and Galatia, but invaded the Roman province of Asia. Here the universal discontent of the inhabitants, caused by the oppression of the Roman governors, enabled him to overrun the whole province almost without opposition. The Roman officers, who had imprudently brought this danger upon themselves, were unable to collect any forces to oppose his progress; and Aquillius himself, the chief author of the war, fell into the hands of the King of Pontus. Mithridates took up his winter quarters at Pergamus, where he issued the sanguinary order to all the cities of Asia to put to death on the same day all the Roman and Italian citizens who were to be found within their walls. So hateful had the Romans rendered themselves during the short period of their dominion, that these commands were obeyed with alacrity by almost all the cities of Asia. Eighty thousand persons are said to have perished in this fearful massacre.
The success of Mithridates encouraged the Athenians to declare against Rome, and the king accordingly sent his general Archelaus with a large army and fleet into Greece. Most of the Grecian states now declared in favor of Mithridates. Such was the position of affairs when Sulla landed in Epirus in B.C. 87. He immediately marched southward, and laid siege to Athens and the Piræus. But for many months these towns resisted all his attacks. Athens was first taken in the spring of the following year; and Archelaus, despairing of defending the Piræus any longer, withdrew into Bœotia, where he received some powerful re-enforcements from Mithridates. Piræus now fell into the hands of Sulla, and both this place and Athens were treated with the utmost barbarity. The soldiers were indulged in indiscriminate slaughter and plunder. Having thus wreaked his vengeance upon the unfortunate Athenians, Sulla directed his arms against Archelaus in Bœotia, and defeated him with enormous loss at Chæronea. Out of the 110,000 men of which the Pontic army consisted, Archelaus assembled only 10,000 at Chalcis, in Eubœa, where he had taken refuge. Mithridates, on receiving news of this great disaster, immediately set about raising fresh troops, and was soon able to send another army of 80,000 men to Eubœa. But he now found himself threatened with danger from a new and unexpected quarter. While Sulla was still occupied in Greece, the party of Marius at Rome had sent a fresh army to Asia under the Consul L. Valerius Flaccus to carry on the war at once against their foreign and domestic enemies. Flaccus was murdered by his troops at the instigation of Fimbria, who now assumed the command, and gained several victories over Mithridates and his generals in Asia (B.C. 85). About the same time the new army, which the king had sent to Archelaus in Greece, was defeated by Sulla in the neighborhood of Orchomenus. These repeated disasters made Mithridates anxious for peace, but it was not granted by Sulla till the following year (B.C. 84), when he had crossed the Hellespont in order to carry on the war in Asia. The terms of peace were definitely settled at an interview which the Roman general and the Pontic king had at Dardanus, in the Troad. Mithridates consented to abandon all his conquests in Asia, to restrict himself to the dominions which he held before the commencement of the war, or pay a sum of 5000 talents, and surrender to the Romans a fleet of seventy ships fully equipped. Thus terminated the First Mithridatic War.
Sulla was now at liberty to turn his aims against Fimbria, who was with his army at Thyatira. The name of Sulla carried victory with it. The troops of Fimbria deserted their general, who put an end to his own life. Sulla now prepared to return to Italy. After exacting enormous sums from the wealthy cities of Asia, he left his legate, L. Licinius Murena, in command of that province, with two legions, and set sail with his own army to Athens. While preparing for his deadly struggle in Italy, he did not lose his interest in literature. He carried with him from Athens to Rome the valuable library of Apellicon of Teos, which contained most of the works of Aristotle and Theophrastus.