Pinnock's improved edition of Dr. Goldsmith's History of Rome Part 34

8. Did the Romans suffer this treachery to pa.s.s unpunished?

9. Did Jugurtha obey this summons?

10. Were hostilities commenced against him, and what was the result?

11. What was the condition of the army when Metellus a.s.sumed the command?

12. Did this deplorable state continue?

13. Did Metellus enjoy the fruits of his victories?

14. Who was Caius Marius?

15. What resolution did he adopt?

16. By what artifices did he succeed in his design?

17. What was the conduct of Marius in his new command?

18. To whom did Jugurtha have recourse in his extremity?

19. Did Bocchus continue to befriend Jugurtha?

20. Was his request complied with?

21. Did Bocchus submit to this condition?

22. What became of Jugurtha after this?

23. How did Marius conduct himself after his victories?

24. What was the consequence of his attempts at popularity?

25. Was this war of long continuance?

26. What measure did the senate adopt to end it?

27. What was the consequence of this measure?

28. Against whom did the senate next turn their arms?

29. Who was appointed to command this expedition?

30. What was the consequence of this order?

31. Did Sylla comply with their request?

32. What was the issue of the contest?

[Ill.u.s.tration: Marius sitting among the Ruins of Carthage.]

SECTION II.

It is a vain attempt To bind th' ambitious and unjust by treaties.--_Thomson_.

1. Sylla, now finding himself master of the city, began by modelling the laws so as to favour his outrages; while Ma'rius, driven out of Rome and declared a public enemy at the age of seventy, was obliged to save himself, unattended and on foot, from the pursuit of those who sought his life. 2. After having wandered for some time in this deplorable condition, he found every day his dangers increase, and his pursuers making nearer advances. In this distress he concealed himself in the marshes of Mintur'nae, where he continued a night up to the chin in a quagmire. 3. At break of day he left this dismal place, and made towards the seaside, in hopes of finding a ship to facilitate his escape; but being known and discovered by some of the inhabitants, he was conducted to a neighbouring town, with a halter round his neck, without clothes, and covered with mud; and in this condition was sent to prison. 4. The governor of the place, willing to conform to the orders of the senate, soon after sent a Cim'brian slave to despatch him; but the barbarian no sooner entered the dungeon for this purpose than he stopped short, intimidated by the dreadful visage and awful voice of the fallen general, who sternly demanded if he had the presumption to kill Ca'ius Ma'rius? The slave, unable to reply, threw down his sword, and rushing back from the prison, cried out, that he found it impossible to kill him! 5. The governor, considering the fear of the slave as an omen in the unhappy exile's favour, gave him his freedom; and, commending him to his fortune, provided him with a ship to convey him from Italy. 6. He was forced by a tempest on the coast of Sicily. A Roman quaestor, who happened to be there, resolved to seize him; and he lost sixteen of his crew, who were killed in their endeavours to cover his retreat to the ship. He afterwards landed in Africa, near Carthage, and, overwhelmed with melancholy, sat himself down amongst the ruins of that desolate place.

He soon, however had orders from the praetor to retire. 7. Marius, who remembered his having once served this very man in necessity, could not suppress his indignation at finding ingrat.i.tude every where: and, preparing to obey, bid the messenger tell his master, that he had seen Ma'rius sitting among the ruins of Carthage; intimating the greatness of his fall, by the desolation that was around him. 8. He once more embarked, and not knowing where to land without encountering an enemy, he spent the winter at sea, expecting every hour the return of a messenger from his son, whom he had sent to solicit protection from the African prince, Mandras'tal. 9. After long expectation, instead of the messenger, his son himself arrived, having escaped from the inhospitable court of that monarch, where he had been kept, not as a friend, but as a prisoner, and had returned just time enough to prevent his father from sharing the same fate. 10. In this situation they were informed that Cinna, one of their party who had remained at Rome, had put himself at the head of a large army, collected out of the Italian states, who had espoused his cause. Nor was it long before they joined their forces at the gates of Rome. Sylla was at that time absent in his command against Mithri'dates. 11. Cinna marched into the city; but Ma'rius stopped, and refused to enter, alleging, that having been banished by a public decree, it was necessary to have another to authorise his return. It was thus that he desired to give his meditated cruelties the appearance of justice; and while he was about to destroy thousands, to pretend an implicit veneration for the laws.

12. An a.s.sembly of the people being called, they began to reverse his banishment; but they had scarcely gone through three of the tribes, when, incapable of restraining his desire of revenge, he entered the city at the head of his guards, and ma.s.sacred all who had been obnoxious to him, without remorse or pity. 13. Several who sought to propitiate the tyrant's rage, were murdered by his command in his presence; many even of those who had never offended him were put to death; and, at last, even his own officers never approached him but with terror. 14. Having in this manner satiated his revenge, he next abrogated all the laws which were enacted by his rival, and then made himself consul with Cinna. 15. Thus gratified in his two favourite pa.s.sions, vengeance and ambition, having once saved his country, and now deluged it with blood, at last, as if willing to crown the pile of slaughter which he had made, with his own body, he died the month after, not without suspicion of having hastened his end. 16. In the mean time these accounts were brought to Sylla, who had been sent against Mithrida'tes, and who was performing many signal exploits against him; hastily concluding a peace, therefore, he returned home to take vengeance on his enemies at Rome. 17. Nothing could intimidate Cinna from attempting to repel his opponent. Being joined by Car'bo, (now elected in the room of Vale'rius, who had been slain) together with young Ma'rius, who inherited all the abilities and the ambition of his father, he determined to send over part of the forces he had raised in Dalma'tia to oppose Sylla before he entered Italy. Some troops were accordingly embarked; but being dispersed by a storm, the others that had not yet put to sea, absolutely refused to go. 18. Upon this, Cinna, quite furious at their disobedience, rushed forward to persuade them to their duty. In the mean time one of the most mutinous of the soldiers being struck by an officer, returned the blow, and was apprehended for his crime. This ill-timed severity produced a tumult and a mutiny through the whole army; and, while Cinna did all he could to appease it, he was run through the body by one of the crowd. 19.

Scip'io, the consul, who commanded against Sylla, was soon after allured by proposals for a treaty; but a suspension of arms being agreed upon, Sylla's soldiers went into the opposite camp, displaying those riches which they had acquired in their expeditions, and offering to partic.i.p.ate with their fellow-citizens, in case they changed their party. 20. In consequence of this the whole army declared unanimously for Sylla; and Scip'io scarcely knew that he was forsaken and deposed, till he was informed of it by a party of the enemy, who, entering his tent, made him and his son prisoners.

21. In this manner both factions, exasperated to the highest degree, and expecting no mercy on either part, gave vent to their fury in several engagements. The forces on the side of young Ma'rius, who now succeeded his father in command, were the most numerous, but those of Sylla better united, and more under subordination. 22. Carbo, who commanded for Ma'rius in the field, sent eight legions to Praenes'te, to relieve his colleague, but they were met by Pompey, afterwards surnamed the Great, in a defile, who slew many of them, and dispersed the rest. Carbo soon after engaged Metel'lus, but was overcome, with the loss of ten thousand slain, and six thousand taken prisoners. 23.

In consequence, Urba'nus, one of the consuls, killed himself, and Carbo fled to Africa, where, after wandering a long time, he was at last delivered up to Pompey, who, to please Sylla, ordered him to be beheaded. 24. Sylla, now become undisputed master of his country, entered Rome at the head of his army. Happy, had he supported in peace the glory which he had acquired in war; or, had he ceased to live when he ceased to conquer!

25. Eight thousand men, who had escaped the general carnage, surrendered themselves to the conqueror; he ordered them to be put into the Villa Pub'lica, a large house in the Campus Mar'tius; and, at the same time, convoked the senate: there, without discovering the least emotion, he spoke with great fluency of his own exploits, and, in the mean time, gave private directions that all those wretches whom he had confined, should be slain. 26. The senate, amazed at the horrid outcries of the sufferers, at first thought that the city was given up to plunder; but Sylla, with an unembarra.s.sed air, informed them, that it was only some criminals who were punished by his order, and that the senate ought not to make themselves uneasy at their fate. 27. The day after he proscribed forty senators, and sixteen hundred knights; and after an intermission of two days, forty senators more, with an infinite number of the richest citizens. 28. He next resolved to invest himself with the dictatorship, and that for a perpetuity; and thus uniting all civil as well as military power in his own person, he thought he might thence give an air of justice to every oppression.

29. Thus he continued to govern with capricious tyranny, none daring to resist his power, until, contrary to the expectation of all mankind, he laid down the dictatorship, after having held it not quite three years.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Sylla reproaching the little image of Apollo with his defeat.]

30 After this, he retired into the country, and abandoned himself to debauchery; but he did not long survive his abdication; he was seized with a horrible distemper, and died a loathsome and mortifying object, and a melancholy proof of the futility of human ambition.[5]

The character of Sylla exhibits a singular compound of great and mean qualities. Superst.i.tion was one of its features. It is said that having suffered a defeat in the course of the Social War, in Italy, he drew from his bosom a little image of Apollo, which he had stolen from the temple of Delphi, and had ever since carried about him when engaged in war. Kissing it with great devotion, he expostulated with the G.o.d, for having brought him to perish dishonourably, with his countrymen, at the gates of his native city, after having raised him by many victories to such a height of glory and greatness.

_Questions for Examination_.

1. What were the first acts of Sylla?

2. What became of Marius?

3. To what dangers was he exposed?

4. Was an attempt made on his life?

5. How did the governor treat the fugitive general?

6. What ingrat.i.tude was shown to Marius?

7. What was his reply?

8. From what African prince did he ask aid?

9. Was it granted?

10. What opportunity was taken by the Marian party to renew the struggle?

11. To what scruple did Marius pretend?