Jugurtha in the year 106, but as his subordinate, Sulla, was the
instrument in actually taking the king, the enemies of Marius claimed
for the young aristocrat the credit of the capture, and Sulla irritated
his senior still more by constantly wearing a ring on which he had
caused to be engraved a representation of the surrender. Marius did not
immediately return to Rome, but remained to complete the subjugation of
Numidia, Sulla the meantime making every effort to ingratiate himself
with the soldiers, sharing every labor, and sitting with them about the
camp-fires as they softened the asperities of a hard life by telling
tales of past experience, and making prophesies of the future.
Sulla was not a prepossessing person. His blue eyes were keen and
glaring; but they were rendered forbidding and even terrible at times
by the bad complexion of his face, which was covered with red blotches
that told the story of his debaucheries. "Sulla is a mulberry sprinkled
over with meal," is the expression that a Greek jester is said to have
used in describing his frightful face.
It was the first of January, 104, when Marius entered Rome in triumph,
accompanied by evidences of his victories, the greatest of which was
the pitiful Numidian king himself, who followed in the grand
procession, and was afterwards ruthlessly dropped into the horrible
Tulliarium, or Mamertine prison, to perish by starvation in the watery
chill. He is said to have exclaimed as he touched the water at the
bottom of the prison, "Hercules! how cold are thy baths!"
During the absence of Marius in Africa, there had come over Rome the
shadow of a greater peril than had been known since the days when
Hannibal's advance had made the strongest hearts quail. The tumultuous
multitudes who inhabited the unexplored regions of Central Europe, the
Celts and Germans, [Footnote: The Cimbri, who formed a portion of this
invading body, had their original home in the modern peninsula of
Jutland, whence came also early invaders of Britain, and they were
probably a Celtic people.] had gathered a mass comprising, it is said,
more than three hundred thousand men capable of fighting, besides hosts
of women and children, and were marching with irresistible force
towards the Roman domains. Nine years before (B.C. 113), these
barbarians had defeated a Roman army in Noricum, north of Illyricum,
and after that they had roamed at will through Switzerland, adding to
their numbers, and ravaging every region, until at last they had poured
over into the plains of Gaul. Year after year passed, and army after
army of the Romans was cut to pieces by these terrible barbarians.
As Marius entered the city he was looked upon as the only one who could
stem the impetuous human torrent that threatened to overwhelm the
republic, for, in the face of the supreme danger, as is usual in such
cases, every party jealousy was forgotten. The proud commoner accepted
the command with alacrity, setting out for distant Gaul immediately,
and taking Sulla as one of his subordinates. After two years of
inconsequent strategy, he overcame the barbarians at a spot twelve
miles distant from _Aquæ Sextiæ_ (the Springs of Sextius, the modern
Aix, in Provence), (B.C. 102). He collected the richest of the spoil to
grace a triumph that he expected to celebrate, and was about to offer
the remainder to the gods, when, just as he stood amid the encircling
troops in a purple robe, ready to touch the torch to the pile, horsemen
dashed into the space, announcing that the Romans had for the fifth
time elected him consul! The village of Pourrières (_Campi Putridi_)
now marks the spot, and the rustics of the vicinity still celebrate a
yearly festival, at which they burn a vast heap of brushwood on the
summit of one of their hills, as they shout _Victoire! victoire!_ in
memory of Marius.
During this period Sulla gained renown by his valorous deeds, but the
jealousy that had begun in Africa increased, and in 103 or 102, he left
Marius and joined himself to his colleague Lutatius Catulus, who was
endeavoring to stem another torrent of barbarians, this time pouring
down toward Rome from the valley of the Po. When Marius reached home
after his victories in Gaul, he was offered a triumph, but refused to
celebrate it until he had marched to the help of Catulus, who, he
found, was then retreating before the invaders in a panic. After the
arrival of Marius the flight was stopped, and the barbarians totally
destroyed at a battle fought near Vercellæ. Though much credit for this
wonderful victory was awarded to both Catulus and Sulla, the whole
honor was at Rome given to Marius, who celebrated a triumph, was called
the third founder of the city (as Camillus had been the second), and
enjoyed the distinction of having his name joined with those of the
gods when offerings and libations were made. The jealousy of Sulla was
all this time growing from its small beginnings.
While Marius and Sulla were fighting the barbarians there had been a
second insurrection among the slave population of Italy, and it was not
distant Sicily only that was troubled at this time, for though the
uprising spread to that island, many towns of Campania were afflicted,
and at last the contagion had affected thousands of the slaves, who
arose and struck for freedom. The outbreak in Campania was repressed in
103, but it was not until 99 that quiet was restored on the island, and
then it was by the destruction of many thousands of lives. Large
numbers of the captives were taken to Rome to fight in the arena with
wild beasts, but they disappointed their sanguinary masters by killing
each other instead in the amphitheatre. The condition of the slaves
after this was worse than before. They were deprived of all arms, and
even the spear with which the herdsmen were wont to protect themselves
from wild beasts was taken away.
At this time the power of the optimates was rather decreasing, and
signs of promise for the people appeared. In the year 103, a law had
been passed which took from the senate the right to select the chief
pontiffs, and it had been given to the populares. [Footnote: This
important law was passed through the tribune Cneius Domitius
Ahenobarbus, in order to effect his own election as pontiff in the
place of his father, and is known as the Domitian law. The people
elected him afterward out of gratitude. The chief pontiff was an
influential factor in politics, as he pronounced the verdict of the
Sibylline books on public questions, and gave or withheld the divine
approval from public acts, besides appointing the rites and
sacrifices.] An agrarian law was proposed in the following year, a
speaker on the subject asserting that in the entire republic there were
not two thousand landholders, so rapidly had the rich been able to
concentrate in themselves the ownership of the land. The powers of the
senate were still further restricted in the year 100, by a law intended
to punish magistrates who had improperly received money, and to take
from the senators the right to try such offences. [Footnote: The exact
date of this law is uncertain. It was directed against Quintus
Servilius Cæpio, who, when the barbarians were threatening Italy,
commanded in Gaul, and enriched himself by the wealth of Tolosa, which
he took (B.C. 106), thus giving rise to the proverb, "He has gold of
Toulouse"--ill-gotten gains (_aurum Tolosanum habet_). He was also
held responsible for a terrible defeat at Arausio (Orange), where
eighty thousand Romans and forty thousand camp-followers perished,
October 6, B.C. 105. The day became another black one in the Roman
calendar.] At the same time the right of citizenship was offered to all
Italians who should succeed in convicting a magistrate of peculation or
extortion. Thus it seemed as though the reforms aimed at by the Gracchi
might be brought about if only the man for the occasion were to present
himself. Marius presented himself, but we shall find that he mistook
his means, and only cast the nation down into deeper depths of misery.
His star was at its highest when he celebrated his triumph, and it
would have been better for his fame had he died at that time.
XIII.
SOCIAL AND CIVIL WARS.
Marius was brave and strong and able to cope with any in the rush of
war, but he knew little of the arts of peace and the science of
government. Sulla, his enemy, was at Rome, living in quiet, but the
same, fiery, ambition that animated Marius, and the same jealousy of
all who seemed to be growing in popularity, burned in his bosom and
were ready to burst out at any time. The very first attempts of Marius
at government ended in shame, and he retired from the city in the year
99. He had supported two rogations, called the Appuleian laws, from the
demagogue who moved them, Lucius Appuleius Saturninus, and they were
carried by violence and treachery. They enacted that the lands acquired
from the barbarians should be divided among both the Italians and the
citizens of Rome, thus affording relief to all Italy; and that corn
should be sold to Romans by the state at a nominal price.
When Marius retired, the authority of the senate was restored, but the
state was in a deplorable condition, for the violence and bloodshed
that had been familiar for the half century since the triumph over
Greece and Carthage, were bearing their legitimate fruits. Not only was
the separation between the rich and poor constantly growing greater,
but the effect of the luxury and license of the wealthy was debauching
the public conscience, and faith was everywhere falling away. Impostors
and foreign priests had full sway.
Opposed to Saturninus was a noble of the most exalted type of
character, Marcus Livius Drusus, son of the Drusus who had opposed the
Gracchi. A genuine aristocrat, possessed of a colossal fortune, strict
in his morals and trustworthy in every position, he was a man of
acknowledged weight in the national councils. In the year 91, he was
elected tribune, and endeavored to bring about reform. He obtained the
adherence of the people by laws for distributing corn at low prices,
and by holding out to the allies hopes of the franchise. The allies had
long looked for this, and as their condition had been growing worse
year by year, their impatience increased, until at last they were no
longer willing to brook delay. The Romans (whose party cry was "Rome
for the Romans") ever opposed this measure, and now they stirred up
opposition to the conservative Drusus, who paid the penalty of his life
to his efforts at civil reform and the alleviation of oppression.
Though he tried to please all parties, the senate first rendered his
laws nugatory, and their partisans not satisfied with his civil defeat,
afterwards caused him to be assassinated. [Footnote: Velleius
Paterculus, the historian, relates that as Drusus was dying, he looked
upon the crowd of citizens who were lamenting his fortune, and said, in
conscious innocence: "My relations and friends, will the commonwealth
ever again have a citizen like me?" He adds, as illustrating the purity
of his intentions, that when Drusus was building a house on the
Palatine, his architect offered to make it so that no observer could
see into it, but he said: "Rather, build my house so that whatever I do
may be seen by all."] It was then enacted that all who favored the
allies should be considered guilty of treason to the state. Many
prominent citizens were condemned under this law, and the allies
naturally became convinced that there was no hope for them except in
revolution.
Rome was in consequence menaced by those who had before been her
helpers, and the danger was one of the greatest that she had ever
encountered. The Italians were prepared for the contest, but the Romans
were not. It was determined by the allies that Rome should be
destroyed, and a new capital erected at Corfinum, which was to be known
as Italica. On both sides it was a struggle for existence.
The Marsians were the most prominent among the allies in one division,
and the Samnites were at the head of another. [Footnote: The Marsians
were an ancient people of Central Italy, inhabiting a mountainous
district, and had won distinction among the allies for their skill and
courage in war. "The Marsic cohorts" was an almost proverbial
expression for the bravest troops in the time of Horace and Virgil.]
The whole of Central Italy became involved in the desperate struggle.
The Etruscans and Umbrians took the part of Rome, being offered the
suffrage for their allegiance. At the end of the first campaign this
was offered also to those of the other antagonistic allies who would
lay down their arms, and by this means discord was thrown into the camp
of the enemy. The campaign of 89 was favorable to the Romans, who, led
by Sulla, drove the enemy out of Campania, and captured the town of
Bovianum. The following year the war was closed, but Rome and Italy had
lost more than a quarter of a million of their citizens, while the
allies had nominally obtained the concessions that they had fought for.
Ten new tribes were formed in which the new citizens were enrolled,
thus keeping them in a body by themselves; and it was natural that
there should be much discontent among them on account of the manner in
which their privileges had been awarded. The franchise could only be
obtained by a visit to Rome, which was difficult for the inhabitants of
distant regions, and there was besides no place in the city large
enough to contain all the citizens, if they had been able to come. The
new citizens found, too, that there was still a difference between
themselves and those who had before enjoyed the suffrage, something
like that which existed between the freedmen and the men who had never
been enslaved.
Marius and Sulla, the ever-vigilant rivals, had both been engaged in
the Marsic war, but they came out of it in far differing frames of
mind. The young aristocrat boasted that fortune had permitted him to
strike the last decisive blow; and the old plebeian, now seventy years
of age, found his heart swelling with indignation because he received
only new mortifications in return for his new services to the state, in
whose behalf he had this time fought with reluctance. A spirit of dire
vengeance was agitating his heart, the results of which we are soon to
observe.
The troubles of the state now seemed to accumulate with terrible
rapidity. Two wars broke out immediately upon the close of that which
we have just considered, one at home and the other in Asia. The one was
the strife of faction, and the other an effort to repel attacks upon
allies of the republic. Mithridates the Great, King of Pontus, the
sixth of his name, was remarkable for his physical and mental
development, no less than for his great ambition and boundless
activity. Under his rule his kingdom had reached its greatest power.
This monarch had attempted to add to his dominion Cappadocia, the
country adjoining Pontus on the south, by placing his nephew on the
throne, but Sulla, who was then in Cilicia, prevented it. Mithridates
next interfered in the government of Bithynia, to the southwest,
expecting that the oppressive rule of the Roman governors would lead
the inhabitants to be friendly to him, while the troubles of the Romans
at home would make it difficult for them to interfere. The close of the
Marsian struggle, however, left Rome free to engage the Eastern
conqueror, and war was determined upon.
The success of Sulla in the East made it plain that he was the one to
lead the army, but Marius was still ambitious to gain new laurels, and
in order to prove that he was not too old to endure the hardships of a
campaign, he went daily to the Campus Martius and exercised with the
young men. His efforts proved vain, and he determined to take more
positive measures. He procured the enactment of a law distributing the
new citizens, who far out-numbered the old ones, among the tribes,
knowing that they would vote in his favor. It was not without much
opposition that this law was enacted, but Marius was then appointed,
instead of Sulla, to lead the army against Pontus. Sulla meantime
hastened to the army and obtained actual command of the soldiers, who
loved him, caused the tribunes of Marius to be murdered, and left the
old commander without support. Marius in turn raised another army by
offering freedom to slaves, and with it attempted to resist Sulla, but
in vain. He was obliged to fly, and a price was placed upon his head.
He sailed for Africa, but was thrown back upon the shores of Italy, was
cast into prison, and ordered to execution; but the slave commissioned
to carry out the judgment was frightened by the flashing eyes of the
aged warrior and refused to perform the act, as he heard a voice from
the darkness of the cell haughtily asking: "Fellow, darest thou kill
Caius Marius?" The magistrates, struck with pity and remorse, as they
reflected that Marius was the preserver of Italy, let him go to meet
his fate on other shores, and at last he found his way to Africa.
The departure of both Marius and Sulla from Rome left it exposed to a
new danger. As soon as Sulla had left for Pontus, Lucius Cornelius
Cinna, one of the consuls, began to form a popular party, composed
largely of the newly made citizens, for the purpose of overpowering the
senate and recalling Marius. A frightful conflict ensued on a day of
voting, and thousands were butchered in the struggle. Cinna was driven
from the city, but received the support of a vast number of Italians,
which enabled him to march again upon Rome.
Meantime Marius returned from Africa, captured Ostia and other places,
and joined Cinna. Then, by cutting off its supplies, he caused the city
to yield. Marius and Cinna entered the gates, and again the streets ran
blood; for every one who had given Marius cause to hate or fear him was
hunted to the death without mercy, and with no respect to rank, talent,
or former friendship. Cinna and Marius named themselves consuls for the
year 86 without the form of election, [Footnote: See note on page 64.]
but the firm constitution of the old hero was completely undermined by
his sufferings and fatigues, and he succumbed to an attack of pleurisy
after a few days, during which, as Plutarch tells us, he was terrified
by dreams and by the anticipated return of Sulla. The people rejoiced
that they were freed from the cruelty of his ruthless tyranny, little
knowing what new horrors the grim future had in store for them.
We return now to Sulla. When he had driven Marius from Rome, he was
obliged to hasten away to carry on the war in Asia, though he marched
first against Athens, which had become the head-quarters of the allies
of Mithridates in Greece. The siege of this city was long and
obstinate, and it was not until March I, 86, that it was overcome, when
Sulla gave it up to rapine and pillage. He then advanced into Boeotia,
and success continued to follow his arms until the year 84, when he
crossed the Hellespont to carry the war into Asia. Mithridates had put
to death all Roman citizens and allies, wherever found, with all the
reckless ferocity of an Asiatic tyrant, but had met many losses and was
now anxious to have peace. Sulla settled the terms at a personal
interview at Dardanus, in the Troad. Enormous sums (estimated at more
than $100,000,000) were exacted from the rich cities, and a single
settled government was restored to Greece, Macedonia, and Asia Minor.
The soldiers were compensated for their fatigues by a luxurious winter
in Asia, and, in the spring of 83, they were transferred, in 1,600
vessels, from Ephesus to the Piraeus, and thence to Brundusium. Sulla
carried with him from Athens the valuable library of Apellicon of Teos,
which contained the works of Aristotle and his disciple, Theophrastus,
then not in general circulation, for he did not forget his interest in
literature even in war. Thus it was that the rich thoughts of the great
philosopher came to the knowledge of the Roman students. [Footnote:
Aristoteles, sometimes called the Stagirite, because he was born in
Stagira, in Macedonia, lived at Athens in the fourth century before our
era. Theophrastus was his friend and disciple, both at Stagira and
Athens.]
Sulla sent a letter to the senate, announcing the close of the war and
his intention to return, in the course of which he took occasion to
recount his services to the republic, from the time of the war with
Jugurtha to the conquest of Mithridates, and announced that he should
take vengeance upon his enemies and upon those of the commonwealth. The
senate was alarmed, and proposed to treat with him for peace, but Cinna
hastened to oppose the arrogant conqueror with force. He was, however,
assassinated by his own soldiers.
On the sixth of July, after the arrival of Sulla at Brundusium (B.C.
83), Rome was thrown into a state of consternation by the burning of
the capitol and the destruction of the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus,
with the Sibylline oracles, those valuable books which had directed the
counsels of the nation for ages, and the close of a historic era
approached. [Footnote: Ambassadors were afterwards sent to various
places in Greece, Asia, and Italy, to make a fresh collection, and when
the temple was rebuilt it was put in the place occupied by the lost
books.] Sulla easily marched in triumph through lower Italy on his way
to Rome, for his opponents were not well organized, but it was not
until months had passed that the fierce struggle was decided. He was
besieging Præneste, when the Samnites, after finding that they could
not relieve it, marched directly upon Rome. Sulla followed them, and a
bloody battle was fought at the Colline gate, on the northern side of
the city. It was a fight for the very existence of Rome, for Pontius
Telesinus, commander of the Samnites, declared that he intended to raze
the city to the ground. Fifty thousand are said to have fallen on each
side, and most of the leaders of the party of Marius perished or were
afterward put to death. All the Samnites (8,000) who were taken were
collected by Sulla in the Campus Martius and ruthlessly butchered.
If the former scenes had been terrible, much more so were those that
now followed. Sulla was made dictator, an officer that had been unknown
for a century and a quarter, and proceeded to show his adhesion to the
optimates by attempting to blot out the popular party. He announced
that he would give a better government to Rome, but he found it
necessary to kill all whom he pretended to think her enemies. It was
Marius who had brought on the era of carnage by attempting to deprive
Sulla of his command in the war against Mithridates, and accordingly
the body of the great plebeian was torn from its tomb and cast into the
Anio. A list was drawn up of those whose possessions were to be
confiscated, and who were themselves to be executed in vengeance. On
this the names of the family of Marius came first. Fresh lists were
constantly posted in the forum. Each of these was called a _tabula
proscriptionis_, a list of proscription, and it presents the first
instance of a proscription in Roman history. [Footnote: A proscription
had formerly been an offering for sale of any thing by advertisement;
but Sulla gave it a new meaning,--the sale of the property of those
unfortunates who were put to death by his orders. The victims were said
to be proscribed. The meaning given by Sulla still lives in the English
word.] Sulla placed on these lists not only the names of enemies of the
state, but his personal opponents, those whose property he coveted, and
those who were enemies of friends whom he desired to please. No man was
safe, for his name might appear at any time on the terrible lists, and
then he would be an outlaw, whom any one might kill with impunity.
Especially were the rich and prominent liable to find themselves in
this position. Many thousands of unfortunate citizens perished before
Sulla was content to put a stop to the horrors. He then celebrated with
exceeding magnificence the postponed triumph on account of his victory
over Mithridates, and received from a trembling people the title
_Felix_, the lucky.