was absent in Africa a frightful peril threatened the Roman state. A
vast horde of barbarians was sweeping downward from the north. The
Germans of Central Europe had ravaged Switzerland and invaded Gaul.
Every army sent against them had been defeated with great slaughter.
Italy was in immediate danger of invasion, Rome in imminent peril.
Marius was sadly needed, and on his return from Africa was hailed as the
only man who could save the state.
Instantly he gathered an army and set out for Gaul, Sulla going with him
as a subordinate officer. Two years were spent in marches and
counter-marches, and then (B.C. 102) he met the enemy and defeated them
with immense slaughter. Reserving the richest of the spoils, he devoted
the remainder to the gods, and, as he stood in a purple robe, torch in
hand, about to apply the flame to the costly funeral pile, horsemen
dashed at full speed through the open lines of the troops, and announced
that for a fifth time he had been elected consul of Rome.
In this war Sulla also showed valor and won fame. But he had grown
jealous of the glory of Marius, and left his army to join that of the
consul Catulus, who was being driven backward by another great horde of
barbarians. Marius, having beaten his own foes, hastened to the relief
of his associate; the flight was stopped, and a battle ensued in which
the invading army was swept from the face of the earth, and Rome freed
for centuries from danger of barbarian invasion.
Sulla and Catulus had their share in this victory, but the people gave
Marius the whole honor, called him the third founder of their city (as
Camillus had been the second), and gathered in rejoicing multitudes to
witness his triumph.
While this war was going on there was dreadful work at home. The slaves
had, for the second time, broken into insurrection. This servile war was
mainly in Sicily, where thousands of slaves were slain. Of the captives,
many were taken to Rome to fight with wild beasts in the arena, but they
disappointed the eager spectators by killing each other. This outbreak
only made slavery at Rome harder and harsher than before.
Years passed on, and then another war broke out. The Italian allies, who
had helped to make Rome great, claimed rights of citizenship and
suffrage. These were denied, and what is known as the Social War began.
Sulla and Marius took part in this conflict, which ended in favor of
Rome, though the franchise fought for was in large measure gained. It
was of little value, however, since all who held it were obliged to go
to the city of Rome to vote.
During these various conflicts the rivalry between Marius and Sulla grew
steadily more declared. The old plebeian, now seventy years of age, was
jealous of the honors which his aristocratic rival had gained in the
Social War, and a spirit of bitter hatred, which was to bear dire
results, arose in his heart.
Events to come were to blow this spark of hatred into a glowing flame. A
new war threatened Rome. Mithridates the Great, king of Pontus, in Asia
Minor, was pursuing a career of conquest, and the Roman provinces in
Asia were in danger. War was determined on, and Sulla, who had already
held successful command in the East, claimed the command of the new
army. Marius, old as he was, wanted it, too, and by his influence with
the new citizens of Rome succeeded in defeating Sulla and gaining the
appointment of general in the war against Pontus.
This vote of the tribes precipitated a contest. The Social War was not
yet fully ended, and Sulla hastened to the camp where his soldiers were
besieging a Samnite town. It was his purpose to set sail for the East
before he could be superseded. He was too late. Officials from Rome
reached the camp almost as soon as he, bearing a commission from Marius
to assume the command. It was a critical moment. Sulla must either yield
or inaugurate a civil war.
He chose the latter. Calling the soldiers together, he told them that
he had been insulted and injured, and that, unless they supported him,
they would be left at home, and a new army raised by Marius would obtain
the spoils of the Mithridatic war. Stirred by this appeal to their
avarice, the legions stoned to death the officers sent by Marius, and
loudly demanded to be led to Rome.
Their coming took Marius by surprise, and threw the city into
consternation. No one had dreamed of such daring and audacity. To lead a
Roman army against Rome was unprecedented. The senate sent an embassy
asking Sulla to halt till the Fathers could come to some decision. He
promised to do so, but as soon as the envoys had gone he sent a force
that seized the Colline Gate and entered the city streets. Here their
progress was stopped by the people, who hurled tiles and stones upon
their heads from the house-tops.
The whole army soon followed, and Sulla entered the city with two
legions at his back. The people again opposed their march, but Sulla
seized a torch and threatened to burn the city if any hostility were
shown. This ended all opposition, except that made by Marius, who
retreated to the Capitol, where he proclaimed liberty to all slaves who
would join his banner. This did him much more harm than good; his
adherents dispersed; he and his chief supporters were forced to seek
safety in flight.
And now we have a story of striking interest to tell. It would need the
powers of invention of a romancer to devise a series of adventures as
remarkable as those which befell old Marius in his flight. It is one of
the strangest stories in all the annals of history, a marked
illustration of the saying that fact is often stranger than fiction.
Marius fled to Ostia, at the mouth of the Tiber, in company with
Granius, his son-in-law, and five slaves. He proposed to take ship there
for Africa, where his influence was great. His son followed him by a
different route, and arrived at Ostia to find that his father had put to
sea. There was another vessel about to sail, which the son took, and in
which he succeeded in reaching Africa.
The older fugitive had no such good fortune. The elements pronounced
against him, and a storm drove the vessel ashore near Circeii. Here the
party wandered in distress along the desolate coast, in imminent danger
of capture, for emissaries of Sulla were scouring the shores of Italy in
his pursuit. Fortunately for the old general, he was recognized by some
herdsmen, who warned him that a troop of cavalry was approaching. Not
knowing who they were, and fearing their purpose, the fugitives hastily
left the road and sought shelter in the forest that there came down near
to the coast.
Here the night was miserably passed, the fugitives suffering for want of
food and shelter. When the dawn of the next day broke, their forlorn
walk was resumed, there being no enemy in sight. By this time the whole
party, with the exception of Marius, was greatly depressed. He alone
kept up his spirits, telling his followers that he had been six times
consul of Rome, and that a seventh consulship would yet be his.
There seemed little hope of such a turn of fortune as the hungry
fugitives dragged wearily onward. For two days they kept on, making
about forty miles of distance. At the end of that time peril of capture
came frightfully near. A body of horsemen was visible at a distance,
coming rapidly on. No friendly forest here offered shelter. The only
hope of escape lay in two merchant vessels, which were moving slowly
close in shore.
Calling loudly for aid, Marius and those with him plunged into the water
and swam for these vessels. Granius reached one of them. Marius was so
exhausted that he could not swim, and was supported with difficulty
above the water by two slaves till the seamen of the other vessel drew
him on board.
He had barely reached the deck when the troop of horsemen rode to the
water's edge, and their leader called to the captain of the vessel,
telling him that it was the proscribed Marius he had rescued, and
bidding him at once to deliver him up.
What to do the captain did not know. The officer on shore threatened him
with the vengeance of Sulla if he failed to yield the fugitive. Marius,
with tears in his eyes, earnestly begged for protection from the captain
and crew. The captain wavered in purpose, but finally yielded to Marius
and sailed on. But he did so in doubt and fear, and on reaching the
mouth of the river Liris he persuaded Marius to go ashore, saying that
the vessel must lie to till the land-wind rose. The instant the boat
returned the faithless captain sailed away, leaving the aged fugitive
absolutely alone on the beach.
Walking wearily to the sorry hut of an old peasant, which stood near,
Marius told him who he was, and begged for shelter. The old man hid him
in a hole near the river, and covered him with reeds. While he lay there
the horsemen, who had followed the vessel along the shore, came up, and
asked the tenant of the hut where Marius was.
The shivering fugitive, in fear of being betrayed, rose hastily from his
hiding-place and dashed into the stream. Some of the horsemen saw him,
he was pursued, and, covered with mud and nearly naked, the old
conqueror was dragged from the river, placed on a horse, and carried as
a captive to the neighboring town of Miturnae. Here he was confined in
the house of a woman named Fannia till his fate could be determined.
A circular letter had been received by the magistrates from the consuls
at Rome, ordering them to put Marius to death if he should fall into
their hands. This was more than they cared to do on their own
responsibility, and they called a meeting of the town council to decide
the momentous question. The council decided that Marius should die, and
sent a Gaulish slave to put him to death.
It was dark when the executioner entered the house of Fannia. The slave,
little relishing the task committed to his hands, entered the room where
Marius lay. All the trembling wretch could see in the darkness were the
glaring eyes of the old man fixed fiercely on him, while a deep voice
came from the couch, "Fellow, darest thou slay Caius Marius?"
Throwing down his sword, the Gaul fled in terror from those accusing
eyes, crying out, loudly, "I cannot slay Caius Marius!"
The magistrates made no further effort to put their prisoner to death.
They managed that he should escape, and he made his way to the island of
Ischia, which Granius had already reached. Here a friendly ship took
them on board, and they sailed for Africa.
But the perils of the fugitive were not yet at an end. The ship was
forced to stop at Erycina, in Sicily, for water. Here a Roman official
recognized Marius, fell upon the party with a company of soldiers, and
slew sixteen of them. Marius was nearly taken, but managed to escape,
the vessel hastily setting sail. He now reached Africa without further
adventure.
His son and other friends had arrived earlier, and, encouraging news
being told him, he landed near the site of ancient Carthage. The praetor,
learning of his presence, and advised of the revolution at Rome, sent
him word to quit the province without delay. As the messenger spoke
Marius looked at him with silent indignation.
"What answer shall I take back to the praetor?" asked the man.
"Tell him," said the old general, with impressive dignity, "that you
have seen Caius Marius sitting among the ruins of Carthage."
Meanwhile his son had reached Numidia, where he was outwardly well
received by the king, yet held in captivity. He was at length enabled
to escape by the aid of the king's daughter, and joined his father.
Marius was not further molested.
Yet it would have been well for the fame of Caius Marius had his life
ended here. He would nave escaped the infamy of his later years, and the
flood of blood and vengeance in which his career reached its end. He had
friends still in Rome. Sulla had made many foes by his capture of the
city. Among the new consuls elected was Cornelius Cinna, who quickly
made trouble for the ruler of Rome. Sulla, finding his power abating,
and fearing assassination by friends of Marius, concluded to let the
senate fight its own battles, and shipped his troops for Greece, leaving
Rome to its own devices, while he occupied himself with fighting its
enemy in the East.
No sooner had he gone than civil war began. Fighting took place in the
streets of Rome. Cinna moved in the senate that Marius should be
restored to his rights. Failing in this, he gathered an army and
threatened his enemies in Rome.
News of all this soon reached old Marius in Africa. At the head of a
thousand desperate men he took ship and landed in Etruria. Here he
proclaimed liberty to all slaves who would join him, and soon had a
large force. He also gained a small fleet. He and Cinna now joined
forces and marched on Rome.
The senate, which stood for Sulla, had meanwhile been gathering an army
for the defence of the city. But few of those ordered from afar reached
the gates, and of the principal force the greater part deserted to
Marius. The city was soon invested on all sides. The ships of Marius
captured the corn-vessels from Sicily and Africa. A plague broke out in
the city, which decimated the army of the senate. In the end beleaguered
Rome was forced to open its gates to a new conqueror.
All the senate asked for was that Cinna would not permit a general
massacre. This he promised. But behind his chair, in which he sat in
state as consul, stood old Marius, whose face threatened disaster. He
was dressed in mean attire; his hair and beard hung down rough and long,
for neither had been cut since the day he fled from Rome; on his brow
was a sullen frown that boded only evil to his foes.
Evil it was, evil without stint. Rome was treated as a conquered city.
The slaves and desperadoes who followed Marius were let loose to plunder
at their will. Octavius, the consul who had supported the senate, was
slain in his consular chair. A series of horrible butcheries followed.
Marius was bent on dire vengeance, and his enemies fell in multitudes.
Followed by a band of ruffians known as the Bardiaei, the remorseless old
man roamed in search of victims through the city streets, and any man of
rank whom he passed without a salute was at once struck dead.
The senators who had opposed his recall from exile fell first. Others
followed in multitudes. Those who had private wrongs to revenge followed
the example of their chief. The slaves of the army killed at will all
whom they wished to plunder. So great became the licentious outrages of
these slaves that in the end Cinna, who had taken no part in the
massacres, fell upon them with a body of troops and slew several
thousands. This reprisal in some measure restored order in Rome.
Sulla, meanwhile, was winning victories in the East, and the news of
them somewhat disturbed the ruthless conquerors. But for the present
they were absolute, and the saturnalia of blood went on. It ended at
length in the death of Marius.
Since his return he had given himself to wine and riotous living. This,
after the privations and hardships he had recently suffered, sapped his
iron constitution. He was elected to the seventh consulship, which he
had predicted while wandering as a fugitive on the south Italian shores.
But he fell now into an inflammatory fever, and in two weeks after his
election he ceased to breathe. Great and successful soldier as he had
been, his late conduct had won him wide-spread detestation, and he died
hated by his enemies and feared even by his friends.
_THE PROSCRIPTION OF SULLA._
While Marius and his friends were ruling and murdering in Rome, Sulla,
their bitter enemy, was commanding and conquering in the East, biding
his time for revenge. He drove the Asiatic foe out of Greece, taking and
pillaging Athens as an episode. He carried the war into Asia, forced
Mithridates to sue for peace, and exacted enormous sums (more than one
hundred million dollars in our money) from the rich cities of the East.
Then, after giving his soldiers a winter's rest in Asia, he turned his
face towards Rome, writing to the senate that he was coming, and that he
intended to take revenge on his enemies.
It was now the year 83 B.C. Three years had passed since the death of
Marius. During the interval the party of the plebeians had been at the
head of affairs. Now Sulla, the aristocrat, was coming to call them to a
stern account, and they trembled in anticipation. They remembered
vividly the Marian carnival of blood. What retribution would his
merciless rival exact?
Cinna, who had most to fear, proposed to meet the conqueror in the
field. But his soldiers were not in the mood to fight, and settled the
question by murdering their commander. When spring was well advanced,
Sulla left Asia, and in sixteen hundred ships transported his men to
Italy, landing at the port of Brundusium.
On the 6th of July, shortly after his landing, an event occurred that
threw all Rome into consternation. The venerable buildings of the
Capitol took fire and were burned to the ground, the cherished Sibylline
books perishing in the flames. Such a disaster seemed to many Romans a
fatal prognostic. The gods were surely against them, and all things were
at risk.
Onward marched Sulla, opposed by a much greater army collected by his
opponents. But he led the veterans of the Mithridatic War, and in the
ranks of his opponents no man of equal ability appeared. Battle after
battle was fought, Sulla steadily advancing. At length an army of
Samnites, raised to defend the Marian cause, marched on Rome. Caius
Pontius, their commander, was bent on terribly avenging the sufferings
of his people on that great city.
"Rome's last day," he said to his soldiers, "is come. The city must be
annihilated. The wolves that have so long preyed upon Italy will never
cease from troubling till their lair is utterly destroyed."
Rome was in despair, for all seemed at an end. The Samnites had not
forgotten a former Pontius, who had sent a Roman army under the Caudine
Forks, and had been cruelly murdered in the Capitol They thundered on
the Colline Gate. But at that critical moment a large body of cavalry
appeared and charged the foe. It was the vanguard of Sulla's army,
marching in haste to the relief of Rome.
A fierce battle ensued. Sulla fought gallantly. He rode a white horse,
and was the mark of every javelin. But despite his efforts his men were
forced back against the wall, and when night came to their relief it
looked as if nothing remained for them but to sell their lives as dearly
as possible the next morning.
But during the night Sulla received favorable news. Crassus, who
commanded his right wing, had completely defeated a detachment of the
Marian army. With quick decision, Sulla marched during the night round
the enemy's camp, joined Crassus, and at day-break attacked the foe.
The battle that ensued was a terrible one. Fifty thousand men fell on
each side. Pontius and other Marian leaders were slain. In the end Sulla
triumphed, taking eight thousand prisoners, of whom six thousand were
Samnites. The latter were, by order of the victor, ruthlessly butchered
in cold blood.
This was but the prelude to an equally ruthless but more protracted
butchery. Sulla was at last lord of Rome, as absolute in power as any
emperor of later days. In fact, he had himself appointed dictator, an
office which had vanished more than a century before, and which raised
him above the law. He announced that he would give a better government
to Rome, but to do so he must first rid that city of its enemies.
Marius, whom Sulla hated with intense bitterness, had escaped him by
death. By his orders the bones of the old general were torn from their
tomb near the Anio and flung into that stream. The son of Marius had
slain himself to prevent being taken. His head was brought to Sulla at
Rome, who gazed on the youthful face with grim satisfaction, saying,
"Those who take the helm must first serve at the oar." As for himself,
his fortune was now accomplished, he said, and henceforth he should be
known as Felix.
The cruel work which Sulla had promised immediately began. Adherents of
the popular party were slaughtered daily and hourly at Rome. Some who
had taken no part in the late war were slain. No man knew if he was
safe. Some of the senators asked that the names of the guilty should be
made known, that the innocent might be relieved from uncertainty. The
proposition hit with Sulla's humor. He ordered that a list of those
doomed to death should be made out and published. This was called a
Proscription.
But the uncertainty continued as great as ever. The list contained but
eighty names. It was quickly followed by another containing one hundred
and twenty. Day after day new lists of the doomed were issued. To make
death sure, a reward of two talents was promised any one who should kill
a proscribed man,--even if the killer were his son or his slave. Those
who in any way aided the proscribed became themselves doomed to death.
Men who envied others their property managed to have their names put on
the list. A partisan of Sulla was exulting over the doomed, when his
eye fell on his own name in the list. He hastily fled, and the
bystanders, judging the cause, followed and cut him down. Catiline, who
afterwards became notorious in Roman history, murdered his own brother,
and to legalize the murder had the name of his victim placed on the
list.
How many were murdered we do not know. Probably little less than three
thousand in Rome. The stream of murder flowed to other cities. Several
of these defied the conqueror, but were taken one by one and their
defenders slain. To all cities which had taken part with the Marians the
proscription made its way. Of the total number slain during this reign
of terror no record exists, but the deliberate butchery of Sulla went
far beyond the ferocious but temporary slaughter of Marius.
Murder was followed by confiscation. Sulla ordered that the property of
the slain should be sold at auction and the proceeds put in the
treasury. But the favorites of the dictator were the chief bidders, the
property was sold at a tithe of its value, and the unworthy and
dissolute obtained the lion's share of the spoil.
During this period of murder and confiscation we first hear the names of
a number of afterwards famous Romans. Catiline we have named. Pompey
took part in the war on Sulla's side, was victorious in Sicily and
Africa, and on his return was hailed by his chief with the title of
Pompey the Great. Another still more famous personage was Julius Caesar.
Sulla had ordered that all persons connected by marriage with the
Marian party should divorce their wives. Pompey obeyed. Caesar, who was a
nephew of Marius and had married the daughter of Cinna, boldly refused.
He was then a youth of nineteen. His boldness would have brought him
death had not powerful friends asked for his life.
"You know not what you ask," said Sulla; "that profligate boy will be
more dangerous than many Mariuses."
Caesar, not trusting Sulla's doubtful humor, escaped from Rome, and hid
in the depths of the Sabine mountains, awaiting a time when the streets
of the capital city would be safer for those who dared speak their
minds.
Another young man of rising fame showed little less boldness. This was
Cicero, who had just returned to Rome from his studies in Greece. He
ventured to defend Roscius of Ameria against an accusation of murder
made by Chrysogonus, a prime favorite of Sulla. Cicero lashed the
favorite vigorously, and won a verdict for his client. But he found it
advisable to leave Rome immediately and resume his studies at Rhodes.
Sulla ended his work by organizing a new senate and making a new code of
laws. Three hundred new members were added to the senate, and the laws
of Rome were brought largely back to the state in which they had been
before the Gracchi.
This done, to the utter surprise of the people he laid down his power
and retired from Rome, within whose streets he never again set foot. He
had no occasion for fear. He had scattered his veterans throughout
Italy on confiscated estates, and knew that he could trust to their
support. Before his departure he gave a feast of costly meats and rich
wines to the Roman commons, in such profusion that vast quantities that
could not be eaten were cast into the Tiber. Then he dismissed his armed
attendants, and walked on foot to his house, through a multitude of whom
many had ample reason to strike him down.