[Sidenote: [123-112 B.C.]]
The cruel times which followed made the best men of both parties regret
the untimely end of those who had sacrificed wealth, rank, tranquillity,
in the hope of reforming the state by peaceful methods. But Marius was
not the worst of the successors of the Gracchi. So savage were the party
quarrels which followed, that good men shrank in despair from the cause
of reform, and the conduct of the popular party was abandoned to needy
demagogues. Such is the common course of revolutions. They begin with
noble aspirations; they end in reckless violence. At length public spirit
is lost, and all men, sighing for tranquillity, seek it in the strong
rule of an armed soldier. It is a thrice-told tale.
As the murder of Tiberius had been avenged upon Nasica, so there was even
now found a tribune bold enough to indict Opimius. The accuser bore the
time-honoured name of Decius; the defender was that Carbo who was more
than suspected of Scipio’s murder, and who was now consul (120 B.C.);
his eloquence and the terror that prevailed procured an acquittal. But
Carbo, though he earned the gratitude of the nobility by defending their
champion, did not find his eloquence equally effectual in defending
himself. It was at that time the practice of young Romans who aspired to
distinction to attract public notice by indicting some great offender
before the people. L. Licinius Crassus, son of Crassus the pontifex, and
brother-in-law of C. Gracchus, though only one-and-twenty years of age,
felt within him that power of speech which in later days gained him the
appellation of the orator; and he singled out Carbo for attack. So fierce
was the invective of the young accuser that Carbo put an end to his own
life by poison.
The nobility probably cared little for the life of a worthless renegade.
The best men in the senate, indeed, regretted what they considered the
necessity of taking up arms against Gracchus. First among these was old
Metellus Macedonicus, who died full of honours and years seven years
after the death of C. Gracchus. He left four sons. Before his death three
of them had been consuls; the fourth was candidate for the consulship at
his father’s death; but his two nephews, sons of his brother Calvus, were
more distinguished than his own offspring. Quintus the younger, under
the title of Numidicus, shortly afterwards became the most eminent man
in the ranks of the nobility. In the course of twenty years the Metelli
enjoyed six consulships and four censorships, besides five triumphs. Such
an aggregation of honours in one family was without example. The worst
fault of the Metelli was pride; but if they were not beloved, they were
at least respected by the people.
A person who plays a large part in the events of the next years was
M. Æmilius Scaurus, a man of more dubious character. Horace names him
with some of the greatest men of olden time; Sallust represents him as
disgracing high qualities by an inordinate love for money. The facts we
shall have to record will show that in his earlier days he was infected
by the corruption of his compeers, while in later life his prudence
was so great as to stand for principle. He was born in 163 B.C., so
that at the fall of C. Gracchus he had reached that ripe age which was
required for the consulship. Though he belonged to a great patrician
gens, his family was so obscure that he was accounted a new man. His
father had been a charcoal merchant, and left his son so poor that the
future ruler of the empire had at one time contemplated following the
trade of a money-changer. But he was encouraged to try the chances of
political life, and in 115 B.C. he reached the consulate. By his ability
and discretion he so won the confidence of the senate that at the first
vacancy he was named princeps. He was a man less seen than felt. His
oratory wanted fire; but his talents for business, and his dexterity in
the management of parties, made him the most important person in the
field of politics from the fall of Gracchus to the rise of Sulla.
The more prudent or more severe among the senators believed that reform
in the state might be averted by a reformation of manners. But in vain.
The business of Jugurtha brought into full light the venality and
corruption of the dominant statesmen.
We have said little of the wars of Rome since the fall of Numantia and
the termination of the Servile War. They were not considerable. The
kingdom of Pergamus had formed the tenth province. The eldest son of old
Metellus earned the title of Balearicus for subduing the Balearic Isles
(121 B.C.); his eldest nephew that of Dalmaticus for putting down an
outbreak of the Dalmatians (117 B.C.).
More attention was excited by wars in the south of Gaul, and more
permanent effects followed. The success of Fulvius Flaccus, the friend
of the Gracchi, in defending Marseilles, has been already noticed. C.
Sextius, who succeeded Flaccus in 123 B.C., secured his conquests by
founding the colony of Aquæ Sextiæ, which under the name of Aix still
attracts visitors for the sake of its hot springs. These conquests
brought the Romans in contact with the Allobrogians, between the Rhone
and the Isère; and this people threw themselves on the protection of
Bituitus, chief of the Arvernians (Auvergne). Q. Fabius, while Opimius
was crushing C. Gracchus, crossed the Isère. A desperate battle ensued,
in which the proconsul, with 30,000 men, is said to have so completely
routed 200,000 Gauls that in the battle and pursuit no less than 130,000
fell. Fabius was suffering from a quartan ague, but in the heat of
conflict shook off his disease. He assumed the title of Allobrogicus
with better right than many who were decorated with these national
surnames. The war was now carried into the Arvernian country, and the
great triumphs of Cæsar might have been anticipated by some senatorial
commander, when it was brought to a sudden end. An enemy, formidable
alike to Romans and Gauls, well known a few years later under the dreaded
names of Cimbrians and Teutones, had appeared on the northeastern
frontier of Gaul, and threatened to overrun all southern Europe. But
circumstances deferred for a time the conflict between Italy and those
barbarous hordes, and for the present the dominion of Rome was firmly
established in the southern angle of Gaul, between the Alps and Pyrenees,
a district which still preserves its Roman name, “the province,” in the
French Provence. The whole northern coast of the Mediterranean, from the
Pillars of Hercules to Syria, now owned the sovereignty of Rome.[b]
THE JUGURTHINE WAR
The miserable inefficiency and complete worthlessness of the Roman
government was especially noticeable in the Jugurthine War, which on that
account, and not because of its magnitude or dangerous character, is of
interest.
Masinissa, known to us as king of Numidia, died in the year 148 and left
the government of his kingdom to be shared in common by his three sons,
Micipsa, Gulussa, and Mastanabal. The death of the last two following
soon after, Micipsa, the eldest, was left to reign alone. He was a
feeble, peacefully inclined old man, who preferred devoting himself to
Greek philosophy; and, as his two sons, Adherbal and Hiempsal, were not
yet of age, he abandoned the administration to his nephew Jugurtha, an
illegitimate son of Mastanabal. Jugurtha was a magnificent type of man,
bold and full of talent, well versed in all the arts of war, and held in
high esteem by the Numidians.
As leader of the Numidian auxiliary forces in the Numantian War, he
had distinguished himself in Scipio’s army by his bravery, and had won
many friends among the Romans of name. When he returned home he brought
Micipsa a letter from Scipio, in which the latter congratulates Micipsa
on his gallant nephew, who, he declares, has endeared himself to every
Roman by his services. Micipsa now began to fear lest this youth,
standing so high in the favour of both Romans and Numidians, might become
dangerous to his own two sons. He therefore thought it best to propitiate
him by benefits; he adopted him, and in his will provided that Jugurtha
should share his kingdom with his sons.
[Sidenote: [118-112 B.C.]]
Micipsa died in the year 118. His eyes were scarcely closed when his two
sons, grudging Jugurtha his share in the kingdom, fell out with him so
that the idea of mutual government seemed no longer feasible.
But before a division of kingdom and treasure could be arranged,
Jugurtha, who had been infuriated by irritating words which Hiempsal
had uttered in a rage, caused Hiempsal to be set upon in his house and
murdered. He then began war against Adherbal, intending to obtain mastery
over the entire kingdom. Adherbal, driven from the kingdom, fled to Rome,
where he laid his complaint before the senate, which had taken upon
itself to carry out the provisions of Micipsa’s will. Jugurtha had taken
the measure of the Romans before Numantia; he now sent an embassy with
a quantity of money to Rome, and this soon convinced those who had just
been pleading Adherbal’s cause of the injustice of his complaint.
Jugurtha was now pronounced blameless; Adherbal had himself commenced the
war, and his brother had been murdered by his own followers because of
his cruelties towards them. The Roman senate was quite willing to hand
over the whole kingdom to the open-handed Jugurtha, but the evidence
of bribery was somewhat too strong. So in order that the scandal might
not become too flagrant, the leaders of the senate decided to send a
commission of ten men to Numidia, who should divide that kingdom equally
between the two pretenders. L. Opimius, the conqueror of C. Gracchus,
was placed at the head of the commission, and neither he nor the others
let slip the opportunity of turning the occasion to their own profits.
In exchange for Jugurtha’s money, it was arranged that the western half
of Numidia, which was fertile and well populated, should be his portion;
whilst to Adherbal was assigned the eastern part, chiefly consisting of
sandy deserts. Jugurtha was not content with the half. Emboldened by his
previous successes, he made inroads into Adherbal’s territory, seeking
plunder and hoping that Adherbal by way of revenge would make an attack
on him on his own ground, and so give him a pretext for taking his lands
from him.
As, however, Adherbal contented himself with making complaints to Rome,
he began the war without pretext. He invaded Adherbal’s territory at
the head of a large force, and taking him by surprise in a night attack
near Cirta (now Constantine) defeated him utterly. Adherbal with a few
horsemen sought refuge in the capital. Whilst this was besieged by
Jugurtha, and defended by the numerous Italians resident in the town,
there appeared envoys from Rome who had been appointed to receive
Adherbal’s first complaints. These demanded that Jugurtha should
discontinue the war, and accept their mediation. The envoys were young
men who made little impression on the king; he refused their demand and
the siege was continued with redoubled vigour, without the Roman senate
appearing to take any further interest in the matter.
It was only after five months of siege--when Adherbal had sent a fresh
appeal to Rome imploring help in the most urgent manner, pointing out
that Jugurtha’s aggression affected not only him but the Roman people
also--that a decision was arrived at. They did not decide, however, as
the honour of the state required, and the minority urged a declaration
of war; but they sent a fresh embassy consisting of men of the highest
consideration. At the head they sent M. Æmilius Scaurus, at that time the
most honoured and influential man in Rome, but no better than the others,
only possessed of more charm and experienced in the art of disguising his
inward viciousness under the cloak of worth and dignity.
Jugurtha appeared in Utica at the summons of Scaurus; there were long
consultations, and finally the embassy took its departure without gaining
anything and without declaring war. The honourable Scaurus and his worthy
companions had also permitted themselves to be bribed. The siege of Cirta
was continued till Adherbal, urged by the Italian merchants who were
settled in the town, and who believed their lives to be safe, surrendered
on condition that his life and the lives of the garrison should be spared.
Scarcely was the surrender accomplished, when Jugurtha had Adherbal
tortured to death, and the inhabitants, Africans and Italians,
slaughtered. This monstrous crime of the barbarian king, which would not
have been possible but for the laxity and infamous venality of the Roman
government, raised a storm of indignation throughout Italy. In Rome the
people clamoured for war, and were loud in their denunciation of the
senate, which had so shamefully sacrificed the honour of the state and
the lives of so many Italian citizens. Still the senate hesitated to
yield to the anger of the populace and declare war against Jugurtha. It
was only when C. Memmius--a man of action and eloquence, who was elected
for the next year to the tribuneship of the people--threatened publicly
that as tribune he would call the guilty to account, that the senate
became frightened, yielded, and declared war (112).
[Sidenote: [112-111 B.C.]]
The consul L. Calpurnius Bestia undertook the direction of the war, and
preparations were made with great ardour; Scaurus himself going with
the force as legate. Bestia pressed forward into Numidia, and fortune
favoured him, so that Jugurtha lost courage and asked for a suspension of
hostilities. During the conference Jugurtha bribed Scaurus and through
him the consul, so that the matter was arranged. Jugurtha was to throw
himself on his conqueror’s mercy, and the Roman renegade, in exchange for
an insignificant sum of money and some elephants, was to give him his
freedom and to leave him in unrestricted possession of his kingdom.
When this bargain became known in Rome, C. Memmius, now tribune, insisted
on a judicial inquiry and on Jugurtha being summoned before the assembly
of the Roman people that he might give information as to the share taken
by each of the different parties in the peace conference. “If the king
really surrendered unconditionally,” said he, “he will not refuse to
appear; if he refuses, you may learn from that fact the nature of this
peace and this surrender, which has brought to Jugurtha amnesty for his
crimes, to a small number of our nobles exceeding riches, and to our
fatherland shame and disgrace.”[c] For this picturesque incident we may
turn to Sallust, the original authority.
SALLUST’S ACCOUNT OF JUGURTHA AT ROME
[Sidenote: [111-110 B.C.]]
During the course of these proceedings at Rome, those whom Bestia had
left in Numidia in command of the army, following the example of their
general, had been guilty of many scandalous transactions. Some, seduced
by gold, had restored Jugurtha his elephants; others had sold him his
deserters; others had ravaged the lands of those at peace with us; so
strong a spirit of rapacity, like the contagion of a pestilence, had
pervaded the breasts of all.
Cassius, when the measure proposed by Memmius had been carried, and
whilst all the nobility were in consternation, set out on his mission to
Jugurtha, whom, alarmed as he was, and despairing of his fortune, from a
sense of guilt, he admonished “that, since he had surrendered himself to
the Romans, he had better make trial of their mercy than their power.” He
also pledged his own word, which Jugurtha valued not less than that of
the public, for his safety. Such at that period, was the reputation of
Cassius.
Jugurtha, accordingly, accompanied Cassius to Rome, but without any mark
of royalty, and in the garb, as much as possible, of a suppliant; and,
though he felt great confidence on his own part, and was supported by all
those through whose power or villainy he had accomplished his projects,
he purchased, by a vast bribe, the aid of Caius Bæbius, a tribune of the
people, by whose audacity he hoped to be protected against the law, and
against all harm.
An assembly of the people being convoked, Memmius, although they were
violently exasperated against Jugurtha (some demanding that he should
be cast into prison, others that, unless he should name his accomplices
in guilt, he should be put to death, according to the usage of their
ancestors, as a public enemy), yet, regarding rather their character
than their resentment, endeavoured to calm their turbulence and mitigate
their rage; and assured them that, as far as depended on him, the public
faith should not be broken. At length, when silence was obtained, he
brought forward Jugurtha, and addressed them. He detailed the misdeeds
of Jugurtha at Rome and in Numidia, and set forth his crimes towards
his father and brothers; and admonished the prince, “that the Roman
people, though they were well aware by whose support and agency he had
acted, yet desired further testimony from himself; that, if he disclosed
the truth, there was great hope for him in the honour and clemency of
the Romans; but if he concealed it, he would certainly not save his
accomplices, but ruin himself and his hopes forever.”
But when Memmius had concluded his speech, and Jugurtha was expected to
give his answer, Caius Bæbius, the tribune of the people, whom I have
just noticed as having been bribed, enjoined the prince to hold his
peace; and though the multitude who formed the assembly were desperately
enraged, and endeavoured to terrify the tribune by outcries, by angry
looks, by violent gestures, and by every other act to which anger
prompts, his audacity was at last triumphant. The people, mocked and set
at naught, withdrew from the place of assembly; and the confidence of
Jugurtha, Bestia, and the others whom this investigation had alarmed, was
greatly augmented.
There was at this period in Rome a certain Numidian named Massiva, a
son of Gulussa and grandson of Masinissa, who, from having been, in the
dissensions among princes, opposed to Jugurtha, had been obliged, after
the surrender of Cirta and the murder of Adherbal, to make his escape out
of Africa. Spurius Albinus, who was consul with Quintus Minucius Rufus
the year after Bestia, prevailed upon this man, as he was of the family
of Masinissa, and as odium and terror hung over Jugurtha for his crimes,
to petition the senate for the kingdom of Numidia. Albinus, being eager
for the conduct of a war, was desirous that affairs should be disturbed,
rather than sink into tranquillity; especially as, in the division of the
provinces, Numidia had fallen to himself, and Macedonia to Minucius.
[Illustration: GODDESS ROMA
(After Hope)]
When Massiva proceeded to carry these suggestions into execution,
Jugurtha, finding that he had no sufficient support in his friends,
as a sense of guilt deterred some and evil report or timidity others
from coming forward in his behalf, directed Bomilcar, his most attached
and faithful adherent, to procure by the aid of money, by which he
had already effected so much, assassins to kill Massiva; and to do it
secretly if he could, but if secrecy should be impossible, to cut him
off in any way whatsoever. This commission Bomilcar soon found means to
execute; and, by the agency of men versed in such service, ascertained
the direction of his journeys, his hours of leaving home, and the times
at which he resorted to particular places, and, when all was ready,
placed his assassins in ambush. One of their number sprang upon Massiva,
though with too little caution, and killed him; but being himself
caught, he made at the instigation of many, and especially of Albinus
the consul, a full confession. Bomilcar was accordingly committed for
trial, though rather on the principles of reason and justice than in
accordance with the law of nations, as he was in the retinue of one who
had come to Rome on a pledge of the public faith for his safety. But
Jugurtha, though clearly guilty of the crime, did not cease to struggle
against the truth, until he perceived that the infamy of the deed was
too strong for his interest or his money. For which reason, although at
the commencement of the proceedings he had given fifty of his friends as
bail for Bomilcar, yet thinking more of his kingdom than of the sureties,
he sent him off privately into Numidia, for he feared that if such a man
should be executed, his other subjects would be deterred from obeying
him. A few days after, he himself departed, having been ordered by the
senate to quit Italy. But, as he was going from Rome, he is said, after
frequently looking back on it in silence, to have at last exclaimed that
“it was a venal city, and would soon perish, if it could but find a
purchaser!”[82][d]
A WAR OF BRIBERY
The war accordingly recommenced. Spurius Postumius Albinus took the
command. But the African force was so demoralised that nothing was to be
done with it, and moreover Albinus also allowed himself to be bribed.
Nothing was done during the whole summer. When, however, the consul went
to Rome, where the election of consuls for the ensuing year demanded
his presence, and gave the command into the hands of his brother Aulus
Postumius--the latter, a foolhardy and incompetent man, endeavoured to
make use of this short interval for his own glory and enrichment. In
the middle of winter he marched to the interior of Numidia, bent on
surprising and overthrowing the inaccessible fortress of Suthul, where
Jugurtha kept his treasures. All went well till he came in front of the
town; but as he was not able to take it, he pursued Jugurtha, who drew
him into unknown parts of the country, and suddenly, one stormy night,
having won over some of the Roman officers and men by bribes, attacked
him in his camp. The Romans fled, mostly unarmed, and took refuge on
a neighbouring hill, where they were surrounded. Nothing remained to
their leader but surrender, and under conditions dictated by Jugurtha as
follows: “The Roman army to withdraw under the yoke, and to quit Numidia;
the treaty of peace annulled by the senate to be again in force.”
The disgrace could not have been greater. In Rome the displeasure of
the people could no longer be kept within bounds. In accordance with
the proposal of the people’s tribune, C. Mamilius Limetamus, there was
instituted a judicial examination of all those through whose fault
Jugurtha had been able to defy the senate, and those generals and envoys
who had taken money from him. An extraordinary commission of inquiry was
convened, and Calpurnius Bestia, Spurius Albinus, L. Opimius--who was
especially odious to the people--as well as several less celebrated men,
were sentenced to exile.
That cunning scoundrel, Æmilius Scaurus, got off clear; he had indeed
so managed that he was one of those chosen to act on the board of the
commission of inquiry. The treaty of peace of Aulus Postumius was
naturally declared inoperative, and the war was renewed. In order
completely to put an end to the disgrace, the command was given to Q.
Cæcilius Metellus, consul for the year 109, another, certainly, of the
rigid and callous patricians, but one of the few men in the government
inaccessible to bribes, and known to be an experienced and prudent
general.
METELLUS IN COMMAND
[Sidenote: [109 B.C.]]
Accompanied by capable lieutenants such as C. Marius and P. Rutilius
Rufus, he arrived in Africa in the year 109; but he found the army in
such a state of demoralisation and confusion that he needed more time
to restore it to discipline, and by dint of severe measures render it
fit for service. When he entered Numidia, Jugurtha quickly recognised
that the condition of affairs was changed, and he repeatedly proffered
Metellus his submission, merely demanding a guarantee for his life. But
Metellus intended the war to end in one way only--with the execution of
Jugurtha, and he did not scruple during the negotiations to endeavour to
induce the servants of the king to deliver their master dead or living
into his hands. When Jugurtha realised the intentions of the Romans, he
broke off negotiations and prepared himself for a desperate resistance.
During his march to the interior of Numidia, Metellus crossed a range of
barren mountains, on the other side of which flowed the river Muthul, in
a wide plain, a few miles distant from the mountains; from the mountains
to the river a low chain of partly wooded hills traversed the plain
obliquely. On these hills Jugurtha had stationed his troops, in two
divisions, in order to surprise the Romans. One under Bomilcar waited
near the river, but the larger division, under Jugurtha himself, was
ambushed nearer the mountains.
The choice of the place and the way in which he drew up his forces
proved the king’s military talent. Metellus could not remain stationary
on the mountains; he must try to reach the river across the waterless
plain. He therefore sent a portion of his force under the legate Rufus
in a straight line to the river, there to pitch their camp; he himself
marched with the remainder of his army across the plain toward the line
of hills on the right, intending to drive the foe from their position.
But he had scarcely descended to the plain, when he was attacked on all
sides by Jugurtha’s men and prevented from advancing. At the same time
Bomilcar threw himself upon the force under Rufus. In both places the
Romans were sorely harassed, and the event long remained doubtful; at
last the ability and endurance of the Roman foot soldiers conquered. When
Metellus and Marius with part of their force reached the foot of the
chain of hills and set themselves to storm the heights held by the enemy,
the latter fled, making scarcely any resistance. Meanwhile Rufus likewise
came off conqueror; and so, late that evening, the two divisions of the
Roman army met in the glory of victory.
After this encounter at Muthul, Jugurtha dismissed the greater part of
his troops, and confined himself to guerilla warfare. Skirmishing round
Numidia, wherever the Romans were devastating the country and destroying
towns, he harassed and annoyed them in every possible way. As winter
approached, and Metellus, in order to facilitate the collection of
supplies, withdrew his troops into the Roman provinces, Jugurtha again
made overtures of peace. Metellus declared himself inclined to come to
terms. First of all he demanded the surrender of the elephants, some of
the horses and weapons and three hundred hostages; also that of the Roman
deserters, three thousand in number, who were to be executed. Next he
demanded two hundred thousand pounds of silver, and his demand was agreed
to by the king; but when finally Metellus demanded that the king himself
should become his prisoner, Jugurtha broke off the negotiations.
At the same time Bomilcar, Jugurtha’s most trusted friend, who took
an active part in the negotiations, was secretly suborned by Metellus
to deliver the king into his hands dead or alive. Bomilcar might have
feared that, in the case of peace being again concluded, Jugurtha would
denounce him to the Romans as the murderer of Massiva; and was therefore
ready to betray his master, if Metellus guaranteed him his own safety.
But Jugurtha discovered the plot and had Bomilcar executed. The war still
continued.
[Sidenote: [109-108 B.C.]]
Jugurtha, though weakened, was not at the end of his resources. In that
country--furrowed with deserts, as well as surrounded by them--he could
long maintain the war, more particularly as not only his own subjects but
the free neighbouring races were his enthusiastic followers, adoring the
hero who so bravely and with such success had defended his native country
against its hated enemies.
When in the year 108 Metellus again opened the campaign and engaged
Jugurtha in a pitched battle, Jugurtha fled far to the south, to the
confines of the great desert, where in an oasis was a fortified town
called Thala. Here he retired with his children, his treasure, and his
best troops; an arid desert, ten miles broad, was between him and the
pursuing enemy. Still Metellus marched through the desert, taking water
for his men in skins, and after forty days’ siege he took Thala. But he
failed to catch Jugurtha; at the critical moment he had escaped with his
children and his treasure. He fled through the district south of Mount
Atlas--to the Belidulgerid of to-day--and called on the hordes that dwelt
there to take arms against the national enemy.
He returned to his kingdom with a force composed of Gætulians, and still
further strengthened by a new ally--King Bocchus of Mauretania, his
father-in-law, who, after long hesitation, had finally decided to make
common cause with him against the Romans. The two monarchs led their
troops to the neighbourhood of Cirta, then in the hands of the Romans,
and Metellus advanced to meet them. But nothing decisive happened;
for meanwhile Metellus had heard from Rome that Marius, his former
lieutenant, had been chosen consul for the year 107, and had been given
the chief command in Africa by the people, and so all operations were
suspended.
MARIUS APPEARS AS COMMANDER
[Sidenote: [108-107 B.C.]]
Caius Marius, who in the next few years was to play so conspicuous a part
in Roman history, was a man of low birth, the son of a Latin peasant
from the village of Cereatæ, near Arpinum. He was lacking in all higher
culture. He was essentially a soldier, with the inborn faculty for war.
When only twenty-two, he distinguished himself in the army of Scipio
Æmilianus in Numantia by his bravery and by his soldierly bearing.
Ambition drove him into the service of the state. In 119, supported by
the powerful Metellus, he became a tribune of the people, and at that
time, with much determination and military impetuosity, he carried
through a law directed against the nobles, dealing with bribery and the
fraudulent acquisition of office. When the consul Cotta prevailed upon
the senate to oppose the law and to call Marius to account, the latter
appeared in the senate and threatened to imprison Cotta by force, if he
did not abandon his resolve. Cotta appealed to his fellow consul, L.
Cæcilius Metellus; and when the latter agreed with Cotta, Marius ordered
his servant to conduct Metellus to prison. As no tribune would intercede
on Metellus’ behalf, the senate gave way and the law took its course.
From that time Marius was established in the favour of the people; but
the nobility worked against the ambitious aspirant where they could, and
they succeeded in defeating him when he stood for the curule chair, and
again when he sought the plebeian ædileship. The prætorship he succeeded
in obtaining in the year 115, but with the greatest difficulty.
Marius remained legate to Q. Metellus in the Jugurthine War because
of the opportunities offered for showing military activity. He helped
Metellus to re-establish military discipline and to win victory for the
Roman standard. His courage and knowledge of warfare, his cunning and
intrepidity, and strict military discipline, were everywhere celebrated;
he gained the affections of the common soldiers by sharing with them all
their hardships and privations. After the battle of Muthul, where he
especially distinguished himself, his praise was in every mouth; and the
soldiers wrote home that there would be no end to the war unless Marius
was made consul and commander-in-chief. This was vexatious to Metellus,
and there seems to have been considerable friction between these two
proud men. When Marius asked for furlough from the commander-in-chief
that he might go to Rome and make application for the consulship,
Metellus with the pride of rank annoyed him with the question, “Will you
not be content if you become consul with my son?” Metellus’ son was then
twenty-two years old.
Metellus only granted Marius leave of absence twelve days before the
election to the consulship took place; but Marius travelled the whole
way from the camp to Utica in two days and one night, and from Utica he
arrived in Rome within four days. On his application for the consulship
he did not scruple to disparage Metellus’ conduct of the war, and hinted
that he was purposely protracting the struggle so as to remain longer
in command; and he promised that with even half the troops he would in
a short time deliver Jugurtha, dead or alive, into the hands of the
Romans. The people treated the election as a party question, and Marius
as one of themselves was chosen consul by unanimous acclamation, and the
conduct of the African War transferred into his hands. This was, after
a long interval, another case in which a _homo novus_ attained to the
consulate--naturally to the great annoyance of the nobility, who however
could do nothing against the will of the people, excited as they were at
the idea that after long oppression they had found in Marius a chief and
a leader of their own.
[Sidenote: [107-104 B.C.]]
Marius made use of the time before his departure for the seat of war to
irritate the people in every way against the rule of the nobility. “The
haughty nobles,” said he, “passed their youth in luxury and revelling;
then, when elected to the post of general, they would hasten to glean
from Greek books some information on the subject of the art of war. Let
the people leave them to their revels, and choose their generals from
men who are inured to heat and cold, and every hardship, who, instead of
pictures of ancestors, have honourable wounds and marks of conflict to
display.”
When levying the troops he was to lead to Africa, he chose his men
contrary to the prevailing system--from the lowest orders of the people,
the so-called proletariat. Through this innovation he gained at any rate
a number of devoted adherents; but he degraded the tone of the army by
putting swords into the hands of people without homes or property, who
would seek profit in warfare and be more eager to serve their general
than their country.
When Marius came to Africa, he received his army from the hands of the
legate Rufus; Metellus, infuriated, had already left, in order to avoid
the rival who was to supplant him. He continued the war and was favoured
by fortune, though he did not end it immediately, as he had pledged
himself to do.
He plundered and devastated the whole Numidian country, and those
towns not yet garrisoned he forced to submission; he overshadowed the
expedition Metellus had led against Thala by a still bolder and more
skilfully conducted campaign against Capsa, a fortified town further
south; took a rocky fortress on the river, Mulucha on the borders of
Numidia and Mauretania and conquered the two kings opposed to him one
after the other in sanguinary battles. But the end of the war was not to
be thought of till the person of Jugurtha should be in the hands of the
Romans. That was at last compassed in the early part of the year 106.
[Illustration: ROMAN GENERAL]
King Bocchus, discouraged by the defeats he had suffered, had visions
of peace and friendship with Rome, and in secret negotiations he
treacherously promised to deliver his son-in-law Jugurtha to Marius.
He desired that L. Sulla, the quæstor of Marius, and a favourite with
him, should be deputed to work with him and capture Jugurtha; and Sulla
had courage and determination enough to trust himself with this unknown
person, whose intentions were not yet understood.
Accompanied by a son of Bocchus, he undertook the dangerous journey
and rode boldly right through the camp of Jugurtha. He had to persuade
Bocchus by definite and detailed proposals to decide upon a treaty with
Rome. Jugurtha was enticed by Bocchus into ambush and taken prisoner,
under the pretext of taking him out of the way of Sulla. “So fell the
great traitor by the treachery of those nearest to him.” He was carried
with his children to the camp of Marius; and thus the war came to an end.
Marius remained till the following year in Africa, to inaugurate the new
order of things there. Numidia was still reckoned a kingdom; but the
new king Gauda, a half brother of Jugurtha, and the last descendant of
Masinissa, was compelled to relinquish the western portion to Bocchus.
Numidia was not converted into a Roman province, because the protection
of the border against the hordes of the deserts would always have
required a considerable standing army of Roman soldiers.[c]
Ihne[e] says that the Romans were “as ungenerous and as unjust to him
as to Hannibal and Perseus and all their great foes. On the whole he
inspires less abhorrence than Metellus or Marius or Sulla, or the
wretches who took his bribes.”
Plutarch describes the last days of Jugurtha with terrible vigour.
PLUTARCH ON JUGURTHA’S DEATH
“Marius, bringing home his army again out of Libya into Italy, took
possession of his consulship the first day of January (on which day the
Romans begin their [second] year) 104, and therewithal made his triumph
into the city of Rome, shewing that to the Romans, which they thought
never to have seen: and that was, King Jugurtha prisoner, who was so
subtile a man, and could so well frame himself unto his fortune, and
with his craft and subtlety was of so great courage besides, that none
of his enemies ever hoped to have had him alive. But it is said, that
after he was led in triumph, he fell mad straight upon it. And the pomp
of triumph being ended, he was carried into prison, where the sergeants
for haste to have the spoil of him, tore his apparel by force from off
his back: and because they would take away his rich gold earrings that
hung at his ears, they pulled away with them the tip of his ear, and then
cast him naked to the bottom of a deep dungeon, his wits being altogether
troubled. Yet when they did throw him down, laughing he said: O Hercules,
how cold are your stoves! He lived there yet six days, fighting with
hunger, and desiring always to prolong his miserable life unto the last
hour: the which was a just deserved punishment for his wicked life.”[f]
THE CIMBRIANS AND THE TEUTONS
[Sidenote: [113-105 B.C.]]
Whilst in distant Africa the Romans were engaged in making war upon
the various savage hordes of the desert, from the forests of Germany a
new danger threatened them on the borders of their empire. For reasons
unknown, the Cimbrians (_i.e._, “the combatants”), a Teutonic tribe, had
forsaken their home by the Baltic, and withdrawn to the northern Alpine
countries to seek new abiding places. Here they adopted a nomadic form of
existence, wandering hither and thither, taking their wives and children
and all their possessions with them wherever they went. That they and
the other Teutonic tribes afterwards united to them are to be classed as
Germans, and not, as the Romans formerly thought, as Celts, is proved
by their names, their stature, and others of their characteristics, and
further by the fact that still later we find mention of the Cimbrians in
the Danish or Cimbrian peninsula, and the Teutons in northeast Germany
in the vicinity of the Baltic, together no doubt constituting the last
remains of this tribe. But in the course of its long wandering there had
been added to this German nucleus not only other German-speaking rovers
in search of booty, but also numerous Celtic hordes, so that we even find
leaders with Celtic names at the head of the Cimbrians. The Cimbrians and
Teutons are described as tall and slightly built men with blue eyes and
auburn hair--strong, wild, warlike figures. In battle they fought with
impetuous bravery. After a victory they gave themselves up to the lust of
cruelty; there was a general destruction and the prisoners were either
hanged or butchered to make sacrifices for their gods. From the blood
which flowed from the sacrifices, the priestesses, old gray-haired women
in white linen garments, foretold the future.
We have no means of ascertaining for how long the Cimbrians wandered
through the north and east of Europe, nor do we know which roads
they traversed. From what is now Bohemia they wandered southward to
Noricum--the Carinthia and Carniola of to-day. Here, on the borders of
the Roman Empire, they appeared in the year 113. On being informed of
this, the Romans sent out the consul Cn. Papirius Carbo, the son of that
Carbo who was a marked figure of the Gracchian period, with an army to
guard the Alpine passes of that neighbourhood. When Carbo, approaching
from Aquileia, entered Noricum, the Cimbrians, who had heard of the
great power of the Romans, sent them envoys, who explained that they,
the Cimbrians, desired to be allowed to settle amongst the Noricans,
and had no desire to go to war with them. Carbo replied that the Roman
people were bound to the Noricans by bonds of hereditary hospitality, and
that he had not the right to grant the Cimbrians permission to settle in
Noricum. The Cimbrians decided to proceed farther. Carbo gave them guides
who were to lead them out of the country; but by his instructions these
guides brought them to a place in the neighbourhood of Noreia (now Görz),
near which he and his men were ambushed, and as the Cimbrians passed they
attacked them. But this piece of treachery recoiled upon the perpetrator.
Carbo’s force was beaten and would have been completely destroyed had not
a tremendous storm hindered the Cimbrians from pursuit. It was now in the
power of the Cimbrians to enter Italy by these Alpine passes, but they
preferred to cross the northern Alps and wander westward towards Gaul. In
this direction they persuaded two tribes of Helvetia, the Tigurini and
Tugeni, to join them, or at any rate to travel the same route. Since the
conquests made in western Gaul in the year 125 by Fulvius Flaccus, the
friend of C. Gracchus, the Romans had founded a new province between the
Alps and the Pyrenees, bounded by the Cevennes and the Mediterranean,
with a principal town, Narbo. This was now threatened by the Cimbrians
and other wandering tribes, and so in 109 the Romans sent the consul M.
Junius Silanus there at the head of an army.
The Cimbrians appealed to him to show them in what part of the country
they might be allowed to settle; but instead of answering, he attacked
them. He suffered a terrible defeat. Instead of following up their
victory, the Cimbrians despatched an embassy to Rome with an appeal to
be allowed to settle in that country, and turned to do battle with the
neighbouring Celtic tribes. Meanwhile in the year 107 the above-mentioned
Helvetian tribes invaded the Roman province under the leadership of
Divico, and springing upon the consul, Cassius Longinus, from an ambush,
utterly defeated him. The consul himself was killed, and his legate C.
Popilius, who had fled into camp with the remainder of the force, could
only save his men by a disgraceful treaty. He gave hostages, resigned
half his baggage, and withdrew under the yoke.
The position of the Romans in Gaul was so shaken by these numerous
defeats that the town of Tolosa (Toulouse) revolted and took the Roman
garrison prisoners. As, however, neither the Cimbrians nor the Helvetians
troubled the province further, Q. Servilius Cæpio, who was the consul
there in the year 106, was able to regain possession of the town by a
trick. He took advantage of this opportunity to rifle completely the
temple of the Gallic god of healing, called by the Romans Apollo; but
when the booty--alleged to be about 100,000 pounds of gold and 110,000
pounds of silver--was sent to Massilia, the convoy was attacked on the
road by bandits, who overpowered a weak resistance, and took away gold
and silver, at the instigation, it is said, of Cæpio and his officers,
who took their share of the plunder.
[Sidenote: [105-103 B.C.]]
In the next year, 105, the Cimbrians again appeared in the province,
under their king, Boiorix, this time with the serious intention of going
on into Italy. In the province, besides the troops under the proconsul
Cæpio, there was now a second force under the consul Cn. Mallius Maximus;
this occupied the right bank of the Rhone, the other force the left bank,
both being drawn up to await the enemy, without either section paying
much attention to the movements of the other. When, however, a corps
under the legate M. Aurelius Scaurus was attacked and completely defeated
by the Cimbrians, the consul ordered the proconsul to lead his force over
the Rhone and unite with his own men. Cæpio, who had a personal enmity
against Mallius, and plumed himself on his superior birth, obeyed with
reluctance, but could not bring himself to make common cause with Mallius
against the enemy and discuss operations with him.
Meantime, the imposing forces of the Romans had induced the Cimbrians to
enter into negotiations. Cæpio, seeing the consul in negotiation with the
delegates of the barbarians, and thinking that he was desirous of keeping
all the honours of victory for himself, attacked them without delay. As a
result his troops were entirely destroyed and his camp was taken. After
this the Cimbrians engaged in battle with the troop under Mallius and
utterly defeated them. The Romans suffered this terrible reverse near the
town of Arausio (Orange). On the Roman side eighty thousand soldiers and
forty thousand men belonging to the commissariat are said to have been
killed, only ten men being saved, amongst whom was Cæpio.
The earlier defeats had already so terrified the Italians that the
raising of fresh soldiers presented difficulties; but now, after the
defeat of Arausio the “Cimbrian panic” reached its height. Besides panic,
the people also felt a burning rage, particularly against the corrupt
government of the nobility which had jeopardised the state. Against
certain individuals their indignation was extreme, particularly against
Cæpio, whose insubordination had been the main cause of the defeat. By
decision of the people he was now deposed from the proconsulate, and
his property was confiscated; by a second decision of the people he was
driven from the senate, and when, long after, in consequence of the
malversation and high treason practised in Gaul, a court of judicial
inquiry was convened, on the instigation of several of the people’s
tribunes, Cæpio narrowly escaped the death sentence. He was banished,
and went to Smyrna. Mallius Maximus and several other men of distinction
were tried at the same time. The senate and their generals had lost all
confidence; only one man seemed to be able to save the state in these
perilous times--C. Marius, he who at the end of the Jugurthine War was
regarded as the greatest general of his time. Whilst he was still in
Africa he was chosen consul for the year 104, although it was against
the rule to elect any one who was absent, or any one who had already
been a consul at any time during the previous ten years. On the same
day--January 1--on which Marius celebrated his triumph over Jugurtha, he
entered upon his second consulate; and the same office was conferred upon
him every succeeding year until the Cimbrian danger was over.
[Sidenote: [103-102 B.C.]]
When Marius with his force reached the Rhone, the Cimbrians, always hasty
in their movements, had wandered off through southern Gaul towards the
west and had entered Spain. Marius accordingly spent some time restoring
the disorganised and disintegrated Gallic peoples to a sense of their
duty; he raised auxiliary troops from the allied states and by dint of
unswerving severity and unremitting exertions made his troops once more
fit for action. Once let a soldier under Marius be accustomed to his
severity of mien, his rough voice and wild looks, once let him learn
never to fail in his duty, never to be insubordinate, and his fear of
Marius would be changed into confidence; the man of terror would seem
formidable only to his enemies. But his chief attraction for his men
was his strict justice and impartiality. It was probably in the year
103, that the Cimbrians returned to Gaul from Spain, where they had
encountered a stout resistance from the Celtiberians. They marched
through the country along the Atlantic coast to the Seine on the borders
of Belgium. Here they were joined by Teuton tribes of the same family
under their king Teutobodus, tribes which, driven like the Cimbrians
from their home on the Baltic, were moving aimlessly about the world.
Notwithstanding their united forces they met with such resistance from
the brave Belgians that they gave way, and finally decided to go to
Italy. They again divided, perhaps for convenience in obtaining supplies,
into two hosts. The Cimbrians, with the Helvetian Tigurini, who seem
only recently to have joined them, went back to Noricum in order to
enter Italy at the same point as before. The Teutones with the Ambrones,
probably a Celtic people, proceeded towards the Rhone, in order to go
from thence over the western Alps.
In the summer of 102 the Teutones crossed the Rhone and proceeded down
the left bank to meet the army of Marius, which was encamped in a
strong position at the junction of the Isère and the Rhone and was well
provisioned. Here he was barring both the highroads which at that time
led to Italy, the route over the Little St. Bernard, and the route along
the coast. The barbarians encamped in countless numbers on the wide plain
in front of Marius’ camp and challenged him to battle. He, however,
following the plan of remaining strictly on the defensive, stayed quietly
in camp and let them spend their strength in daily attempts to storm
the Roman fortifications. In vain; their impetuosity was wrecked by the
arts of war as practised by the Romans and by the prudence of Marius.
At last they drew off in the direction of the south, in order to march
into Italy by the road along the coast. They were six days marching past
the Roman camp in enormous crowds with numberless heavily-laden carts.
The Romans from their walls jeered at them as they passed, asking if
they had no commands for their wives. When the procession had gone by,
Marius followed with his force, and camped always close beside them,
but behind strong entrenchments and in favourable positions, so that he
was protected against night surprises and could not be forced into an
engagement against his will. In this way they travelled until they came
to Aquæ Sextiæ (now Aix in Provence); from here it was only a little
way to the Alps, and Marius was compelled to consider the question of
a decisive battle. He pitched his camp at a place where there was no
spring of water, and when his soldiers grumbled and asked him where they
could get it, he pointed downwards to the river Canus (now the Arc) which
flowed near the enemy’s camp. They demanded that he should at once lead
them against the enemy, whilst they had still blood to spend. He answered
coolly: “First we must fortify the camp.”
Whilst the soldiers were fortifying the camp Marius sent his
camp-followers to the river to fetch water. For their defence they
carried hatchets and axes, swords and lances. Soon a scuffle arose on
the banks with the roving bands of the Ambrones who, separated from
the Teutones, covered the rear of the whole army on the march. As new
combatants constantly hurried to the assistance of both sides, the
Ambrones at last played their full strength, thirty thousand men, and
Marius was no longer able to restrain his men. In crossing the river,
the Ambrones fell into disorder and the Romans, in a rush down from the
heights attacked them in the rear with such force, that having suffered
great loss, they fled back to their camp and barricade of wagons. Here
the fight was renewed after a strange fashion, for the wives of the
Ambrones, armed with swords and hatchets, rushed with wild cries to meet
them as they fled, forcing them back towards the enemy, and those who saw
that all was lost, fell into a frenzy and threw themselves into the midst
of the combat, letting themselves be cut and hacked to pieces.
The Romans felt encouraged by this victory, but dared not give themselves
over to the joy of triumph, for by far the greater number of the enemy
had not yet been engaged. The great plain was still covered with
myriads of Teutones, who filled the air all night with threatening cries
and occupied themselves all the following day preparing for a further
encounter. It was not till three days later that the fight recommenced.
By break of day, Marius and his men had ranged themselves on the hill
in front of the camp in order for battle. As soon as the barbarians
saw them they attacked the hill with fury. The Romans waited quietly
till they came within range, then threw their lances and seized their
swords. There was a long and obstinate fight lasting till midday; then
the Germans, weakened by their own impetuosity and the heat of the
southern sun, began to give way: as they reached the plain and were in
the act of reorganising their front ranks which had fallen into disarray
three thousand men under Claudius Marcellus fell on them from an ambush
in the rear. That decided the issue; startled at the double attack the
barbarians broke up their lines and fled in wild confusion.
[Sidenote: [102-101 B.C.]]
According to Plutarch,[f] over one hundred thousand men were either
killed or taken prisoner. Livy[h] gives the numbers in the two battles
as two hundred thousand dead and ninety thousand prisoners. Among the
prisoners was the gigantic King Teutobodus, among the slain a number
of women, some of whom met their death on the wagons in a desperate
resistance, others killed themselves to avoid slavery and a life of
shame. The battle-field of Aquæ Sextiæ is said to have been so fertilised
by the amount of blood and corpses, that in the following summer it bore
an utterly disproportionate crop of fruit; the neighbouring Massiliots
fenced their vineyards with the enormous bones of the slain.
Meanwhile the Cimbrians had arrived in Noricum without hindrance and
crossed into Italy through the Alpine passes. Q. Lutatius Catulus, the
second consul of the year 102, had at first held the Alpine passes,
but when the enemy appeared in great numbers he withdrew to the Adige
and entrenched himself there on the west bank which the enemy was
approaching, at the same time securing a retreat to the other side by
means of a bridge. Here, too, he was not able to hold his position
long. When the Roman soldiers saw these giant barbarians hurling rocks
and trunks of trees into the river to make a dam, whilst others amused
themselves by sliding down the glacier on their shields as if they were
sleighs, when they saw some using great trees as battering-rams against
the supports of the bridges whilst others threw themselves into the river
and swam across, they were seized with such a panic of terror, that
heedless of their general, they fled, abandoning their camp. In order to
avoid what was becoming a shameful flight, Catulus raised the standard,
and hurrying to the front himself led the men over the bridge. He was,
however, obliged to leave a contingent behind in the camp on the left
bank. The barbarians seized the camp, but with great generosity they
permitted the garrison who had fought for their native country to depart
unharmed.
Catulus retreated along the southern bank of the river Po, and left the
Cimbrians to plunder and devastate the country north of the river. No
actual battle took place; for Catulus was waiting for the approach of
Marius, the Cimbrians for the approach of the Teutones.
After Marius, named consul for the fifth time in the year 101, had waited
a short time in Rome, whither he had been summoned from Aquæ Sextiæ by
the senate, he betook himself to Catulus in upper Italy, and left his own
troops to follow him there from Gaul in the spring of 101. After their
arrival, he and Catulus together led their troops over the Po and drew
near to the enemy. The Cimbrians desired to postpone further fighting
till the arrival of the Teutones, and sent envoys to Marius with the
demand that he should grant them and their brothers the country and towns
they might ask for. Marius asked who their “brothers” might be, and when
they named the Teutones, all present laughed, and Marius replied with
scorn: “Have no care for your brothers, we have already given them land
to dwell in, and they shall keep it forever.”
The envoys, not understanding the jest, threatened him with instant
revenge from the Cimbrians, and from the Teutones as soon as they arrived.
“They are already here,” answered Marius, “and it would not be proper
that you should go without having greeted your brothers.” And with these
words he commanded that King Teutobodus and the other captive leaders of
the Teutones should be brought before him.
[Illustration: HEAVY MARCHING ORDER OF ROMAN INFANTRY]
The Cimbrians now knew the fate of their brothers and they at once
attacked Marius, but he merely defended his camp. Then Boiorix, king of
the Cimbrians, with a few attendants came and demanded that Marius should
fix a day and hour for battle. Marius chose the third day from then
(it was the 30th of July, 101), and named for the place of battle the
fields near Vercellæ where the superior horsemanship of the Romans would
have free play. Early in the morning of the day appointed the Cimbrian
foot-soldiers drew up in a square that was over three miles in breadth
and depth. In the front rank the combatants were linked together by
chains fastened to their belts that their ranks might not be broken.[83]
Their riders, fifteen thousand in number, were, according to Plutarch’s
description, armed in most striking fashion. Their helmets were made in
the likeness of the jaws of animals or the heads of monsters; and their
great height was still further increased by feathers, which were made
to soar upwards like enormous wings. They were besides decorated with
iron coats of mail and carried shields which dazzled by their whiteness.
As missiles, each carried a spear with two barbs, and in fighting
hand-to-hand they used great heavy swords. The Roman force, fifty
thousand men in all, was so placed by Marius that the sun and the dust
came full in the faces of the enemy. Marius’ troops formed the two wings,
those under Catulus took the centre.
[Illustration: CAPTIVES PASSING UNDER THE YOKE]
The Cimbrians sent their cavalry in advance of their foot-soldiers; in
the thick fog of the early morning they suddenly fell upon the Roman
cavalry and drew them away from their foot. The battle was carried on in
some cases with great bravery, but in spite of the numbers and strength
of the barbarians the superior knowledge and endurance of the Romans
conquered. The greater part of the Cimbrians were killed on the field,
Boiorix among the number. Several put an end to their own lives. The
scenes of Aquæ Sextiæ were repeated, the women rushed with swords and
axes into the midst of the enemy and let themselves be hewn down; they
killed those they saw flying, their children and at last themselves. The
Cimbrians were destroyed, root and branch; those who were not killed, in
number over sixty thousand, were sold as slaves. The Tigurini, who had
accompanied the Cimbrians, had remained waiting on the spurs of the Alps;
when they saw their friends defeated they fled towards their own homes.
After the battle the two parties in Rome quarrelled as to which of the
two leaders could really claim the honours of the victory of Vercellæ.
The aristocrats maintained that Catulus, the man of their party, had
decided the battle in the centre, he had captured thirty-one standards,
whilst Marius had only brought away two; to him therefore the wreath of
victory. On the other hand, the people claimed for Marius the great man
who had risen from their ranks, that he was the one and only subduer of
the Cimbrians and Teutones, and called him the third founder of the city,
for the danger which he had averted had been as great as the Gallic peril
which Camillus, the “second founder of Rome,” had stamped out. The people
judged aright, for Marius fought the battle of Vercellæ as consul, whilst
Catulus was only proconsul, and so Marius was the commander-in-chief;
and further it is certain that he greatly excelled Catulus in military
ability. But most of all it must not be forgotten that but for the
victory of Aquæ Sextiæ the victory of Vercellæ could never have been.
On his return to Rome, Marius was accorded a well-deserved triumph, in
which he nevertheless insisted that Catulus should share.[c]
THE SECOND SLAVE WAR
[Sidenote: [102-101 B.C.]]
While the arms of the republic were thus triumphant in averting external
peril, the fertile province of Sicily was again a prey to the desolating
horrors of a slave war.
After the former war had been happily concluded by Piso and Rupilius,
several indications of similar troubles appeared in Italy itself. At
Capua, a spendthrift knight armed four thousand slaves and assumed the
diadem. But by prompt measures the insurrection was put down.
The rising in Sicily might have been checked with no less ease. It
originated thus: Marius had been commissioned by the senate to raise
troops in foreign countries to meet the difficulties of the Cimbrian
War. He applied to the king of Bithynia, among other persons; but the
king answered that he had no soldiers, the Roman tax-gatherers had
made slaves of them all. The senate, glad to have an opportunity of
censuring the equites, passed a decree that all persons unduly detained
in slavery should be set free. In Sicily the number of such persons was
so large that the prætor suspended the execution of the decree. Great
disappointment followed. A body of slaves rose in insurrection near
Agrigentum, and beat off the prætor. Their numbers swelled to twenty
thousand, and they chose one Salvius, a soothsayer, to be their king.
This man showed himself fit to command. He divided his followers into
three bodies, regularly officered. He enforced strict discipline. To
restrain his men from wine and debauchery, he kept them in the field.
He contrived to provide two thousand with horses. When his men seemed
sufficiently trained, he laid siege to the city of Murgantia. But the
slave-masters of Morgantium offered freedom to all slaves who would
remain faithful, and Salvius saw himself compelled to retire. The
promise, however, was not kept, and numbers of the deceived men flocked
to the insurgent camp.
This success in the east of Sicily gave birth to a similar rising in the
west, which was headed by a Cilician slave named Athenion, who pretended
to read the future in the stars. He soon found himself at the head of ten
thousand soldiers, well found with arms and provisions. He gave out that
the stars declared his sovereignty: he therefore forbade all robbery;
for, said he, “the property of our masters is now ours.” He now rashly
laid siege to the impregnable fortress of Lilybæum; but finding its
capture impossible, he drew off, alleging that an impending danger had
been revealed to him.
Meanwhile Salvius, who had assumed the name of Tryphon, fixed the seat of
his sovereignty at the fortress of Triocala, which had fallen into his
hands, and sent orders to Athenion to repair in person to that place.
Athenion obeyed the orders of King Tryphon, and appeared at Triocala with
three thousand men. The king now occupied himself with adding to the
strength of his new capital. He chose a senate out of his followers. On
public occasions he wore the _toga prætexta_ of a Roman magistrate, and
was attended by the due number of lictors.
The Romans seemed unable to make head against the insurgents, till, in
101 B.C., M. Aquillius, the colleague of Marius in his fifth consulship,
took the command. Meanwhile, Tryphon had died, and Athenion had become
chief of the insurgents. Aquillius brought them to an engagement, in
which he encountered the brave Athenion hand to hand. The consul was
severely wounded, but the slave leader was killed. Aquillius remained
as proconsul in Sicily for another year, in the course of which time
he crushed the last embers of the war. After the fall of Athenion,
the insurgents dwindled away to a band of one thousand desperate men
commanded by one Satyrus, who at length surrendered to Aquillius, and
were by him sent to Rome to serve as gladiators. The story of their end
is very touching. Being brought out into the arena to fight with wild
beasts, they slew one another at the foot of the altars which stood
there; and Satyrus, being left alone, fell upon his own sword.
It is manifest, from the humanity and discipline observed by these
unhappy men in their power, that their chiefs must have been originally
men of station and education, reduced to slavery by the horrid practice
of ancient warfare. The story of their death presents a picture not
flattering to Roman civilisation.
Strict measures were adopted in Sicily to prevent a recurrence of these
perils. It was made a standing order, confirmed by every successive
prætor, that no slave should have a weapon in his possession. Nor was the
ordinance suffered to remain a dead letter. Soon after, the prætor L.
Domitius received a fine boar as a present. He inquired who had killed
it. Finding that it was a slave employed as a shepherd, he summoned the
man to his presence. The poor fellow came with alacrity, expecting a
reward. The prætor asked him with what he had killed the animal; and
finding that it was with a hunting-spear, he ordered the unfortunate
wretch to be crucified. Such were the laws by which the masters of the
world were obliged to maintain their power.[b]
FOOTNOTES
[82] [To this famous speech the historian Florus[g] retorts: “But if it
had been purchasable, it had a purchaser in him, and since he did not
escape, it will appear certain that it is not destined to perish.”]
[83] [Such is the story as told by Plutarch (Life of Marius). Ihne[e] (v,
109), commenting on “the nonsense and lies that disfigure this campaign,”
which, he thinks, are traceable to Lutatius Catulus, and not to Sulla’s
_Memoirs_, says: “It is difficult to conceive how such stuff could find
its way into serious books of history.” To which it may be replied that
if all “such stuff” were eliminated, the story of ancient history would
take on quite too sober an aspect,--losing picturesqueness without always
gaining authenticity. Strange things are done by men in real life; and
the critic who rejects a tale simply because it tells of illogical
actions is on very dangerous ground. Moreover, it will be noted that the
most iconoclastic critics often give their sanction to incidents quite
as improbable as others which they reject. Every intelligent reader is
competent to draw his own conclusions as to the probabilities involved
in these picturesque tales; but one cannot too often be reminded that
pure invention is the rarest of human accomplishments. It is easy to
pervert or exaggerate; but it is extremely difficult to create a truly
novel situation, or to invent for mankind more incongruous actions
than are spontaneously blundered into in actual life. It may well be
doubted, then, that any Roman would ever have linked the Cimbrian
warriors together in imagination unless those warriors had done something
suggestive of this strange expedient. But, on the other hand, when we
are told, _e.g._, that after the “greater part of the Cimbrians were
killed,” 60,000 survived to be sold into slavery, the scepticism which is
disposed to make the mental reservation of a cipher or two may perhaps be
pardoned.]
[Illustration: ROMAN SEAL RINGS]
[Illustration]