longer any question of aristocrats and democrats,--Sulpicius called
whole crowds of new citizens into the town to carry his laws by force.
But as the bill for giving the command to Marius was tacked to them,
Sylla resolved on taking up arms to prevent this. In former days, a
man like Fabius Maximus Rullianus would perhaps with a bleeding heart
have bowed himself to the will of fate; but those times were gone. That
Sylla had recourse to arms, is a thing which, considering the age in
which it was done, ought to be judged of with indulgence: he had to
fear that Sulpicius and his party would not stop short, but that they
would try and have his life. Calling together his soldiers near Nola,
he pointed out to them that Marius would form a new army, and disband
them, and thus the rich war would slip out of their grasp, and they
would be left in disgrace: they resolved one and all to follow him to
Rome. He marched with six legions along the Appian road; the senate,
which was under the power of Sulpicius, stood aghast at the approach of
an army, and sent delegates to enquire what he wanted. Sylla gave an
evasive answer, but kept on advancing, and was joined by his colleague,
Cn. Octavius.
Marius and Sulpicius had made preparations for a defence: but these
were of little avail, as Rome was no fortress, and the eastern suburbs,
which in fact were the most splendid quarters of the city, lay open. It
was to no purpose that they closed the gates: for the walls afforded no
longer any protection, having gone to ruin in some places, while in
many others they could easily be climbed over from the suburbs, owing
to the houses which were built against them on both sides, now that the
town had so greatly increased. Even as late as the war with Hannibal,
Rome might have still been defended; but this could now be done no
more. Nor did Marius try to make a stand at the gates; he withdrew into
the inner part of the city. There was some fighting at the Carinæ; but
Sylla outflanked the enemy with his superior numbers, and he marched
down the _Via sacra_ to the Forum, on which all dispersed. Marius and
Sulpicius made their escape.
Sylla used his victory with moderation; so that at that time he appears
in a favourable light: yet he unhappily sinned against the forms of the
constitution by causing Marius and his son, Sulpicius and nine of their
followers, to be outlawed. Sulpicius was seized and put to death, as
were also one or two besides; but these were all. Marius escaped with
his son to the sea-coast; came in a boat to Tarracina, where he was
in danger of being given up; and from thence he went on to Minturnæ
on the Liris: there he hid himself in a marsh, and was taken. The
magistrate had him thrown into prison, and as a price had been set on
his head, sent a _servus publicus_ to kill him. The latter, a Cimbric
captive, affrighted at the sight of Marius, whom he recognised as his
conqueror, ran away from him with a cry of terror at the fickleness
of fortune. The decurions then let Marius go away in a boat; and he
first went to Ischia, and from thence in a small vessel to Africa.
Here he lived during the troubles which followed, among the ruins of
Carthage, forgotten and unheeded: there was either no governor just
then in Africa, or the proconsul must have belonged to his party. No
one thought of seeking a refuge with Mithridates.
Sylla was so little of a tyrant as to leave the election of consuls for
the next year free, owing to which men of both parties were chosen, Cn.
Octavius (perhaps a son of the tribune M. Octavius), who belonged to
that of Sylla, and L. Cornelius Cinna, who was on the side of Marius:
which is another proof how utterly the division into patricians and
plebeians was now forgotten, the democracy being headed by one of
the Cornelii and one of the Valerii (L. Valerius Flaccus), downright
demagogues, who trampled under foot every vested right. At the end of
the year, Sylla, when he thought that he had put things in order, as
the struggle with the Samnites was one that would last long, went over
to Greece: there he carried on the war against Archelaus, who commanded
the army of Mithridates.
To Q. Pompeius, the colleague of Sylla, the province of Italy was in
the meanwhile given for the following year, that he might withstand
Cinna, uphold Octavius, and end the Social War. Cn. Pompeius, the
father of Cn. Pompeius Magnus, was still at that time with an army in
Apulia, on the shores of the Adriatic. Of this Cn. Pompeius, Cicero
says, _homo diis nobilitatique perinvisus_: he might also have said,
_populo Romano_; for no one was more generally hated. He was a man of
deep cunning and of crooked policy, like the men of the fifteenth and
sixteenth centuries, especially in Italy. Neither party knew, whether
he was for, or against them; nor was he for any of them, as in reality
he was calculating how, at the end of all this confusion, the power
might fall into his own hands. To this Cn. Pompeius, Q. Pompeius turned
himself, to take the command from him. Cneius pretended to obey the
senate, and to give up the _imperium_ to him; but he secretly set
the soldiers against Quintus, who, when he wanted to make them take
the oaths, was murdered, on which Cneius, under a shallow pretence
of popularity, was compelled by the troops to resume the command;--a
farce, like those played off in Spanish South America by Bolivar, and
others of the same stamp. He then wrote to the senate, reporting what
a calamity had befallen him, and asked to be confirmed in his command,
that he might set on foot an enquiry, and do what he could for the
welfare of the republic; a request which indeed they were weak enough
to grant him. He was now at the head of this army, and he waited to see
what would happen. Sylla being in Greece, the Samnites had time to take
breath.
It was not long (665) before the breach between Cinna and Octavius
became an open one. In Italy, owing to the transactions concerning
the franchise, the Latins, Italians, and Etruscans had different
interests. Cinna, who was evidently aiming at absolute power, stood
forth as the leader of the Marian party, and offered the Italians,
as a bait to win them over, that they should be distributed among
the old tribes. The Samnites were still in arms, hoping to conquer
Rome or to remain independent; and therefore they would not hear of
accepting the citizenship: this, however, separated them from all the
rest, who earnestly wished to have it. Cinna’s party consisted of the
old Latin towns from Tibur to the neighbourhood of Capua, especially
Tibur, Præneste, the Hernican towns, and several places between the
Liris and the Vulturnus. He now demanded that all these should be
distributed among the old tribes; nor can we understand, why Sylla with
his political principles should not have been for this measure, as it
indeed was the only effectual means of infusing a sort of aristocracy
into democracy:--it may have been that those old shadows of tribes
were the very things which he was attached to. The new citizens came
thronging in crowds to Rome to carry the law, for they hoped to overawe
the people by their numbers. Cn. Octavius declared himself against it,
and there was a fight in the city, in which many of the new citizens
were killed: ten thousand are said to have fallen; but I consider that
number as quite uncertain. The senate had now the courage to oppose
Cinna; but it was guilty of the irregularity of depriving him by a
_senatus consultum_ of his consulship, which it had by no means the
right of doing by itself: for according to the existing forms, the
assent of the people was needed. Things had indeed come to such a pass,
that the sovereignty of the people could not have been acknowledged
any more; but in point of form, the step was certainly a revolutionary
one. The war at Nola was still going on, that town being besieged by
a Roman army which could not have been sufficient to overpower that
of the Samnites. Thither Cinna went, and bribed the officers and
soldiers. These had been taught by Sylla’s success what they could do;
and they espoused his cause, and encouraged him to resume the consular
_insignia_, to break the pride of the oligarchy, and to march to Rome
and assert his dignity by force. It is very likely that a truce was
concluded with the Samnites. To give a greater lustre to himself and
his party, Cinna invited the aged Marius to return from Libya, and
recalled the other outlaws. The old general came to Etruria, where
he formed Etruscan cohorts, and gave freedom to all the slaves who
joined him. Another man whom they called upon, was Q. Sertorius, a
follower of Marius’ party, which he had joined from disgust to those
who were ruling, though he kept himself quite clear of all the tyranny
of the demagogues. He is one of the most spotless characters of that
age: he was generous, open-hearted, and humane, free from the haughty
exclusiveness of a Roman citizen, and gifted with all the qualities of
a great general. He was in that position in which, at the outbreak of a
revolution, the very best men will often find themselves, as they get
involved at the beginning, and afterwards cannot go back, but without
knowing what they are about, and against their own wishes, are made to
share in the crimes which are sure to be committed at such times; yet
he kept his hands unstained during the scenes of horror which he had to
witness after the victory. Sertorius hastened to Cinna, who now marched
with his army from Campania along the Appian road to Rome, as Sylla
had done before. Cinna was joined by Carbo, a man deeply compromised
in his guilt, who in the course of these events became notorious; and
Marius likewise advanced from Etruria. In their distress, the senate
called upon Cn. Pompeius for help; and the latter gave up the war on
the shores of the Adriatic, and came to Rome. Octavius was encamped on
the Janiculum; Pompeius, before the _Porta Collina_. For some time his
conduct was so doubtful, that the senate only expected that he would
betray them. Yet at last, a battle--probably an insignificant one--was
fought with Cinna; and though the latter had the best of it, the senate
had at least a pledge that Cn. Pompeius was serving them. A plague now
broke out in both armies, each of which thus lost many thousands of
soldiers. Pompeius also died of it: according to other accounts, he
was struck within the camp by a flash of lightning. The people were so
exasperated against him, that they tore his corpse from the bier, as it
was passing through the city, and mutilated it.
Near Albano, at the foot of the Monte Cavo, there was another Roman
army opposed by a rebel one. Latium, which formerly had dreadfully
suffered in the Volscian and Samnite wars, but had enjoyed peace
for more than two centuries, now got its death-blow. Ostia, Aricia,
Lanuvium, and Antium, were taken by storm and laid waste by Marius;
Tibur and Præneste joined him of their own accord. Rome was now hemmed
in by four camps; and though these were indeed too weak to venture upon
an assault, a terrible famine arose in the city, and both soldiers
and commanders became so dispirited, that the senate determined upon
parleying with Cinna, the very man whom it had denounced as a traitor.
As he had not laid aside the consular _insignia_, he at once asked,
whether he was treated with as consul; and to this the senate had to
submit. Marius stood as a private individual by the side of the curule
chair, with a sneering laugh, and with looks in which the delegates
might have read their sentence of death. When it was stipulated that
no blood should be shed, Cinna only gave the very ambiguous answer,
that it should not be done with his wish; and on this he demanded that
Merula, who had been chosen consul in his stead, should be deposed. To
this humiliation also, the senate seems to have yielded. But Octavius,
the other consul, would not give way: he betook himself with a small
troop to the Janiculum, having the madness to think of defending
himself. When Marius and Cinna entered the city, which was about the
end of the year, the bloodshed immediately began, chiefly at Marius’
instigation. Cn. Octavius was cut down by the soldiers as soon as they
had marched in; and L. Cornelius Merula, the _Flamen Dialis_, opened
his veins and died near the altar of the temple of Jupiter.
Marius now had himself proclaimed consul for the seventh, and Cinna for
the second time, without any election whatever. He had always hoped for
this consulship which had been prophesied to him even from a child,
when a nest, with seven young eagles in it, fell down into his lap
from a tree which is called in Cicero Marius’ oak. His acquaintance
also with the Syrian fortune teller may have led him to dwell upon the
number seven, which was of high import among the Syrians and Jews,
as was the number three with the Romans. The victory was followed up
with the fellest cruelty: Marius had his body-guard of freed slaves
which he sent out to murder people. All who were distinguished in the
hostile party, the very flower of the senate, were put to death without
any reason assigned, without even a proscription, on a bare order;
especially his personal enemies, as the orators Antonius and Crassus.
Q. Catulus, Marius’ colleague in the Cimbric war, was likewise marked
out to die; but he killed himself: Marius’ conduct towards him is
one of the most deplorable acts of that wretched man. Some very few
persons of real worth were with Cinna, among whom was Sertorius, nor is
Marius Gratidianus, a cousin of Marius, to be judged of too harshly;
but Cinna, Carbo, and their friends were monsters, whereas those
who were at the head of the other side, that of the senate, were the
most refined, and, according to the standard of that corrupt age, the
noblest of men.
The work of murder went on until Q. Sertorius prevailed upon Cinna, to
have that band of assassins surrounded and put to the sword. Marius
died in the middle of January, it would seem, a maniac, after having
been consul for sixteen days. There now followed the rule of a faction,
of which we know but little; the shedding of blood, however, was at an
end.
Whilst Cinna was drawing near to the city with his army, the senate
had given Metellus, who was stationed near Nola, full power to make
peace with the Samnites on any terms. But the Samnites tried to drive
the hardest possible bargain, not only demanding the franchise for
themselves, the Campanians, and Lucanians, but also that the Romans
should yield up their prisoners and deserters, without their doing the
same on their side: on the contrary, the deserters, who abode with
them were likewise to have the citizenship.[98] All this was granted
by Metellus, and confirmed by Marius; and thus, when by a later law
the Samnites had likewise become citizens, they were henceforth the
main props of the party of Marius. The newly formed tribes were now
done away with, and the citizens enrolled in the old tribes; whether
in all of them, or in some only, is more than we know. In Cicero’s
times, there is every reason to think that those Italian peoples which
belonged to the same stock, were huddled together into one tribe; as,
for instance, the Marsians and their neighbours in the _tribus Sergia_,
and all the _municipia_ round Arpinum in the _Æmilia_. This seems to
have been one of Sylla’s changes, who drew the Italians out of the
tribes, to take away from them their preponderance.
Three years now passed away, during which Sylla carried on the war in
Achaia and Asia, whilst in Italy, Cinna, who was at the helm of the
state, was preparing to attack him. But the latter became more and
more hated on account of his exactions; so that he mistrusted even
his own party, and began to demand hostages, which, however, were
refused him. L. Valerius Flaccus, his colleague after the death of
Marius, had gotten the command against Mithridates, and had gone to
Asia by Illyricum, Macedon, and Greece; and he himself was on the eve
of marching into Greece against Sylla, having formed a large army near
Ariminum, which was to follow. But the soldiers refused to go on this
expedition, and a mutiny broke out in which Cinna was killed. After him
ruled Cn. Papirius Carbo, who did not have a colleague chosen: he was
nominally a consul, but in reality a tyrant.
THE FIRST MITHRIDATIC WAR. SYLLA RETURNS TO ROME. HIS DICTATORSHIP AND
DEATH.
In the year 665, Sylla had gone to Achaia and Thessaly. At that time,
Archelaus and Taxiles, the generals of Mithridates, were masters of
the Peloponnesus, and of Greece south of Thermopylæ. Then Sylla won
the battle of Chæronea from a countless host of Asiatics,--a battle
which he surely could not have classed among those on which he rested
his glory; for the Asiatics, who were a hundred thousand men, showed
themselves as cowardly as ever were the troops of Indian princes.
They were indeed drawn up in phalanx; but it was true of them what
somebody has said with regard to those ingeniously prepared dishes
in Lent, that fish, even when dressed by the very best of cooks, is
after all nothing but fish. Sylla lost but a few men here and there.
A different defence was made by Archelaus in the Piræeus. The walls
between the city of Athens and its port had been destroyed, perhaps
by Demetrius Poliorcetes, and as early as the siege by Antigonus
Gonatas the communication seems not to have been free; but the huge
walls of Themistocles, as restored by Conon, were still standing. In
the Piræeus, where there was a Pontic garrison, Archelaus gallantly
held out; in the city, the tyrant withstood the enemy with hired
troops. Archelaus did everything in his power to supply Athens with
provisions; but to no purpose, as he was baffled by the vigilance of
Sylla, who far surpassed him in talent and resources. The distress in
the city rose to such a height, that the inhabitants had no strength
left; the circumference of the wall amounted to a German mile, and
there were not men enough to defend it. The town was stormed, and a
frightful slaughter ensued, as if the Athenians had been the deadliest
enemies of the Romans. Afterwards the Piræeus also was taken. In Athens
itself, few of the buildings were touched, not even the walls being
destroyed: in the Piræeus, however, the walls, the noble arsenal, and
other buildings, were completely demolished; so that from that time the
place was like the decayed towns in the north of Holland, where the
grass grows in the streets: Pausanias found only a small hamlet where
it had stood. Athens was almost depopulated, and after this the saying
of Lucan held good with regard to it, _Rarus et antiquis habitator in
urbibus errat_.
Sylla now gained several other advantages, and drove the generals of
the king of Pontus quite out of Europe into Asia. Even before him,
L. Valerius Flaccus had come thither as proconsul; but he had been
murdered by his quæstor or _legatus_, C. Flavius Fimbria, who took
upon himself the _imperium_ in his stead. Mithridates, thus hemmed
in between two armies which were hostile to each other, marched
first against Fimbria who had destroyed Ilium. Sylla now concluded a
peace which almost startles one’s belief. Mithridates abandoned all
his conquests, and renounced all claim to Paphlagonia, Cappadocia,
Bithynia, and Phrygia, thus confining himself to his hereditary
dominions; moreover, he paid down two thousand talents, and yielded
over seventy ships of war: in return for this, Sylla did not insist
upon his advisers being given up. Sylla now pressed Fimbria so hard,
that he took away his own life, and his soldiers went over to his
rival, who, however, did not trust them, as they were as _contaminati
cœde consulis_, and partizans of Marius: for most of them were
certainly Italians, enlisted against Sylla at the time that Marius
was in power. These soldiers still remained there, under the name of
Valeriani, for many a year, until the days of Pompey and Lucullus; just
as the soldiers of Cannæ had to stay so long in Sicily.
After having made this peace, he laid a fine on the Greeks and the
Hellenized inhabitants of Asia Minor, the Ionians, Lydians, and
Carians, who had murdered the Romans, even to the amount of five years’
taxes,--probably the arrears for the whole period of the war,--and a
war contribution besides. This crushed them for a long time: but the
countries in those parts may so truly be called an earthly paradise,
that even under a bad government, be it only not so barbarous as that
of the Turks, the land must, after a few generations, again be rich
and thriving, and more so perhaps than any in the south of Europe.
Thus they also then recovered, and under the emperors, they were most
flourishing; but it had taken indeed several generations to set them
up again: the first generation after the days of Sylla, was utterly
ruined. An officer once told me, how he had seen a succession of
countries, each finer than the other: first Rome; then Naples, which
is much more blooming still; then the Peloponnesus, which in fertility
and luxuriance of vegetation, is infinitely ahead of Naples; then
Smyrna, which, beyond comparison, far surpasses all the rest. The
contributions, which amounted to thirty millions (of Prussian dollars),
were collected with the greatest harshness within a wonderfully
short space. The Roman knights, who always followed in the train
of the generals, now advanced the money at the rate of twenty-four,
thirty-six, even forty-eight per cent., and afterwards enforced the
payment of principal and interest with the help of the governors. This
was the most frightful tyranny, the sword itself having wasted those
countries not near so much as usury did: but Sylla, it is true, could
not have carried on his war without money.
Sylla showed himself to be great indeed. His house was pulled down, and
his property destroyed; his family had been obliged to fly the country;
his friends were either murdered, or driven into banishment, and many
of these last came to him, entreating him to return. Mithridates,
moreover, would long since have concluded a peace which indeed would
have been less advantageous to the Romans; but Sylla wished to bring
the war quite to an end, and to get the most favourable terms possible,
first taking care of the interests of his country, before he looked to
his own. Thus he now returned with a victorious army which was proud of
him, and attached to him, being also in possession of great pecuniary
resources. He had not more than thirty thousand men, whereas there were
opposed to him in the whole of the Italian peninsula as far as Gaul,
four hundred and fifty cohorts, that is to say, more than a hundred and
eighty thousand men: (for at that time armies were counted by cohorts
of four hundred and twenty men, more rarely by legions.) And this was
a party besides, which had to fight for its very existence, containing
also the Samnites, who could not under any circumstances have concluded
a peace with Sylla. This army he attacked in full reliance on his own
strength and good fortune, and conducted the war in a manner which was
most glorious to his fame.