INTERNAL HISTORY OF ROME FROM THE DEFEAT OF THE CIMBRI AND TEUTONES TO
THE SOCIAL WAR. B.C. 100-91.
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.
[Illustration: Beneventum in Samnium.]
[Illustration: Coin of the Eight Italian Nations taking the Oath of
Federation.]