ARTES
LIBRARY
1837
SCIENTIA
VERITAS
OF THE
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
PLATOUS HAVE
TUEBOR
SI-QUÆRIS PENINSULAM-AMⱭNAM
CIRCUMSPICE
THIS BOOK
FORMS PART OF THE
ORIGINAL LIBRARY
OF THE
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
BOUGHT IN EUROPE
1838 TO 1839
BY
ASA GRAY
¦
1
254
F
1825
THE
HISTORY
OF THE
i
PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
OF THE
ROMAN REPUBLIC.
!
i
Printed by Abernethy & Walker,
Old Bank Close, Lawnmarket.
E
1
THE
15-3
HISTORY
OF THE
PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
OF THE
ROMAN REPUBLIC.
BY ADAM FERGUSON,
LL. D. F. R. S. E.
LATE PRofessor OF MORAL PHILOSOPHY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF
EDINBURGH; MEMBER OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY AT BERLIN,
OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY AT FLORENCE, OF THE ETRUS-
CAN SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES AT CORTONA,
AND OF THE ARCADIA AT ROME.
A NEW EDITION, IN FIVE VOLUMES.
REVISED AND CORRECTED.
WITH MAPS.
VOL. II.
EDINBURGH:
PRINTED FOR BELL & BRADFUTE, EDINBURGH;
AND C. & J. RIVINGTON, T. CADELL, LONGMAN & CO.,
BALDWIN & CO., G. B. WHITTAKER, J. DUNCAN,
AND SIMPKIN & MARSHALL, LONDON.
1825.
CONTENTS
OF
VOLUME SECOND.
CHAP. X.
State of the Italian allies, and the views which now began to be
entertained by them.-Appearance of Caius Gracchus.-Re-
solution to purge the city of aliens.-Consulate and factious
motions of Fulvius Flaccus.-Conspiracy of Fregellæ sup-
pressed.-Caius Gracchus returns to Rome.-Offers himself
candidate for the tribunate.-Address of Cornelia.-Tribunate
and acts of Caius Gracchus.—Re-election.—Proposal to ad-
mit the inhabitants of Italy on the rolls of Roman citizens.—
Popular acts of Gracchus and Livius.-The Senate begin to
prevail.-Death of Caius Gracchus and Fulvius.
CHAP. XI.
Page 1
State of order and tranquillity which followed the suppression of
the late tumults.-Appearance of Caius Marius.-Foreign
wars.-Complaints against Jugurtha.-Appearance of the
Cimbri.-War with Jugurtha.—Campaign and treaty of
Piso.-Jugurtha comes to Rome with a safe-conduct.—Obli-
ged to retire from thence.-Campaign of Metellus.—Of Marius.
-Jugurtha betrayed by Bocchus.-His death, after the
triumph of Marius.-This general re-elected, in order to com-
mand against the Cimbri.
31
vi
CONTENTS.
CHAP. XII.
Review of the circumstances which revived the popular party at
Rome. Further account of laws and regulations under the ad-
ministration of this party.—State of the empire.-Fourth con-
sulate of Marius.-Continued migrations of the barbarous na-
tions.-Defeated by Marius at Aqua Sextiæ.-By Marius
and Catulus in Italy.
CHAP. XIII.
Page 74
Character and immoderate ambition of Marius.-Death of No-
nius.-Re-election of the tribune Saturninus.-His sedition
and seizing the capitol-Death of Saturninus.-Reverse in
the state of parties.-Recall of Metellus.-Violent death of
the tribune Furius.-Birth of Caius Julius Cæsar.—Lex Cæ-
cilia Didia.-Blank in the Roman history.—Sylla offers him-
self candidate for the office of prætor.-Edict of the censors
against the Latin rhetoricians.—Bullion in the Roman trea-
sury-Present of a group in golden figures from the king of
Mauritania.-Acts of Livius Drusus.-Revolt of the Italian
allies.-Policy of the Romans in yielding to the necessity of
their affairs.-The laws of Plautius....
CHAP. XIV.
Triumph of Pompeius Strabo.-Progress of Sylla.-War with
the king of Pontus.-Rise of that kingdom.-Appointment of
Sylla to command.-Policy of the tribune Sulpicius.-Sylla's
commission recalled in favour of Marius.-His march from
Campania to Rome.-Expels Marius and his faction from the
city-His operations in Greece.-Siege of Athens.-Battle
of Charonea.-Of Orchomenos.-Transactions at Rome.-
Policy of Cinna.-Marius recalled.-Cinna flees, and is de-
prived. Recovers the possession of Rome.-Treaty of Sylla
with Mithridates. He passes into Italy.-Is opposed by nu-
merous armies.— Various events of the war in Italy.-Sylla
prevails. His proscription, or massacre.-Named dictator.—
His policy-Resignation and Death
130
91
Spo
CONTENTS.
vii
CHAP. XV.
State of the Commonwealth, and numbers of the people.-Charac-
ters of persons who began to appear in the time of Sylla.—
Faction of Lepidus.-Sertorius harbours the Marian party
in Spain. - Is attacked by Metellus and Pompey.-His death,
and final suppression of the party.-First appearance of C.
Julius Cæsar.—Tribunes begin to trespass on the laws of
Sylla.-Progress of the empire.-Preparations of Mithri-
dates.-War with the Romans.-Irruption into Bithynia.-
Siege of Cyzicus.-Raised.-Flight of Mithridates.-Lucul-
lus carries the war into Pontus.—Rout and dispersion of the
army of Mithridates. His flight into Armenia.-Conduct of
Lucullus in the province of Asia.
Page 203
CHAP. XVI.
Escape and revolt of the gladiators at Capua.-Spartacus.
Action and defeat of Lentulus the Roman consul.—And of
Cassius the Prætor of Gaul.-Appointment of M. Crassus
for this service.-Destruction of the gladiators.-Triumph of
Metellus and Pompey.-Consulship of Pompey and Crassus.
-Tribunes restored to their former powers.-Consulate of
Metellus and Hortensius.-War in Crete.-Renewal of the
war in Pontus and Armenia.-Defeat of Tigranes.-Nego-
ciation with the king of Parthia.—Mutiny of the Roman ar-
my.-Complaints of piracies committed in the Roman seas.—
Commission proposed to Pompey.-His conduct against the
pirates.—His commission extended to Pontus.-Operations
against Mithridates.-Defeat and flight of that prince.-Ope-
rations of Pompey in Syria.-Siege and reduction of Jeru-
salem.-Death of Mithridates.
237
CHAP. XVII.
Growing corruption of the Roman officers of state. The love of
consideration changed for avarice, rapacity, and prodigality.-
viii
CONTENTS.
Laws against extortion.— Cataline a candidate for the consul-
ship.-Conspiracy with Autronius.-Competition for the con-
sulate.- Election of Cicero and Antonius.-Condition of the
times.-Agrarian law of Rullus.-Trial of Rabirius.—Ca-
bals of the Tribunes.-Of Cataline.-His flight from the city.
Discovery of his accomplices.-Their execution. Page 305
CHAP. XVIII.
Character of the times.-Philosophy.—Opposite tenets and vota-
ries -Proceedings of the Senate.-Tribunate of Metellus Ne-
pos, and of Cato.-Proposal to recall Pompey at the head of
his army frustrated.-His arrival in Italy.And triumph
man 344
CHAP. XIX.
Transactions at Rome, and in the provinces.—Julius Cæsar ap-
pointed, in the quality of proprætor, to his first province of Lu-
sitania.-Trial of Clodius.-Proposed adoption into a plebeian
family, to qualify him for the office of tribune. Cæsar a candi-
date for the consulship.-The triumvirate of Cæsar, Pompey,
and Crassus.- Consulship of Cæsar.-Motion of Vatinius, to
confer on Cæsar, for five years, the command in Gaul.-Mar-
riage of Pompey to Julia.-Of Cæsar to Calpurnia.-Plot of
Vettius.--Consulate of Lucius Calpurnius and A. Gabinius.–
Attack made upon Cicero.—His exile.
373
THE
HISTORY
OF THE
PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
OF THR
ROMAN REPUBLIC.
}
CHAP. X.
State of the Italian allies, and the views which now began to be
entertained by them.-Appearance of Caius Gracchus.-Re-
solution to purge the city of aliens.-Consulate and factious
motions of Fulvius Flaccus.-Conspiracy of Fregellæ sup-
pressed.-Caius Gracchus returns to Rome.-Offers himself
candidate for the tribunate.-Address of Cornelia.-Tribu-
nate and acts of Caius Gracchus.—Re-election.-Proposed
to admit the inhabitants of Italy on the rolls of Roman citi-
zens.-Popular acts of Gracchus and Livius.-The Senate
begin to prevail.-Death of Caius Gracchus and Fulvius.
THE
'HE eruption of Ætna, and other particulars re-
lating to the natural history of the earth, with
the mention of which we concluded our last chap-
ter, were considered as prodigies, or presages of evils
which were yet to afflict the republic of Rome. At
this time, indeed, the state of Italy seemed to have
received the seeds of much trouble, and to contain
VOL. II.
A
2
[c. x.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
Ever since
ample materials of civil combustion.
passing the Agrarian law, the Roman citizens, for
whom no provision had been made at their return
from military service, or who thought themselves
partially dealt with in the colonies, the leaders of
tumult and faction in the city, were now taught to
consider landed property as their joint inheritance.
They were, in imagination, distributing their lots,
and selecting their shares.
In the mean time, the inhabitants of the munici-
pia, or free towns, and their districts, who, not be-
ing Roman citizens, took part with the State as sub-
jects, had reason to dread the rapacity of such needy
and powerful sovereigns. They themselves likewise
began to repine under the inequality of their own
condition. They observed, that while they were
scarcely allowed to retain the possessions of their
fathers, Rome, aided by their arms, had gained that
extensive dominion, and obtained that territory,
about which the poor and the rich were now likely
to quarrel among themselves. And "the Italian
"allies," they said, "must bleed in this contest,
"no less than they have done in the foreign or
"more distant wars of the commonwealth." They
had been made, by the professions of Tiberius Grac-
chus, to entertain hopes that every distinction in
Italy would soon be removed, that every freeman in
the country would be enrolled as a citizen of Rome,
and be admitted to all the powers and pretensions
implied in that designation. The consideration of
this subject, therefore, could not long be delayed;
and the Roman Senators, already struggling with
c. x.]
3
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
the claims of their fellow-citizens, had an immediate
storm to apprehend from the allies.
Transitions equivalent to revolution had been so
frequent in this republic, and its progress from small
beginnings to a great empire had been so rapid, that
the changes to which men are exposed, and the ex-
ertions of which they are capable, no where appear
so conspicuous, nor are they any where so distinct-
ly marked.
In the first ages of Rome, the distinctive impor-
tance of a citizen appears not to have been sensibly
felt or understood. Conquered enemies were remo-
ved to Rome, and their captivity consisted in being
forced to be Romans, a condition to which they sub-
mitted with great reluctance. In that period it is
not to be doubted that every foreigner settling at
Rome was welcome to take his place as a Roman
citizen in the assembly of the people; that many
were admitted into the Senate *, and some even were
placed on the throne t.
It is likely also, that the
first colonies considered themselves as detached from
the city, and as forming cantons apart; for we find
them, like the other states of Italy, occasionally at
war with the Romans.
>
But when the sovereignty of Italy came to be es-
tablished at Rome, and was there actually exercised
by the collective body of the people, the inhabitants
of the colonies, it is probable, laid claim to their votes
at elections, and presented themselves to be enrolled
* The Claudian family were aliens.
+ Tarquinius Priscus was of Greek extraction, and an alien from Tarquinii,
▲ 2
4
[c. x.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
in the tribes. They felt their own consequence
and their superiority over the municipia, or free
towns in their neighbourhood, to whom, as a mark
of distinction and an act of munificence, some re-
mains of independence had been left. Even in this
state, the rolls of the people had been very negli-
gently made up or preserved. The Kings, the Con-
suls, the Censors, who were the officers in dif
ferent ages of the state, intrusted with the musters,
gave the privilege of citizens to such as presented
themselves, or to such as they were pleased to re-
ceive on the rolls. One Consul invited all the free
inhabitants of Latium to poll in the assemblies of the
people; another rejected them, and in time of elec
tions forbad them the city. But notwithstanding this
prohibition, aliens who had been brought to Rome
even as captives, were suffered by degrees to mix
with the citizens *. The inhabitants of the free
towns, removing to Rome upon any creditable foot-
ing, found easy admission among the members of
some tribe; but from the facility of this admission,
the towns complained they were depopulated; and
the Senate at last, sensible of the abuse, endeavour-
ed to shut the gates of their city by repeated scruti-
nies, and the prohibition of surreptitious enrolments;
but in vain. The practice still continued, and the
growing privilege, distinction and eminence of a
Roman citizen, made that title become the great ob-
ject of ambition to individuals and to entire cantons.
It had already been extended to districts whose in-
*This happened particularly in the case of the Campanians.
c. x.]
5
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
habitants were not distinguished by any singular me-
rit towards the Roman State. In this respect all the
allies were nearly equal; they had regularly compo-
sed at least one half in every Roman army, and had
borne an equal share in all the dangers and troubles
of the commonwealth; and, from having valued
themselves of old on their separate titles and national
distinctions, they began now to aspire to a share in
the sovereignty of the empire, and wished to sink for
ever their municipal designations under the general
title of Romans.
Not only the great power that was enjoyed in the
assembly of the people, and the serious privileges
that were bestowed by the Porcian law, but even
the title of citizen in Italy, of legionary soldier in
the field, and the permission of wearing the Roman
toga or gown, were now ardently coveted as marks
of dignity and honour. The city was frequented
by persons who hoped separately to be admitted in
the Tribes, and by numbers who crowded from the
neighbouring cantons on every remarkable day of
assembly, still flattering themselves, that the expec-
tations which Gracchus had given on this important
subject might soon be fulfilled.
U. C. 627.
M. Æmi-
In this state of affairs, the Senate authorised Ju-
nius Pennus, one of the Tribunes, to move
Consuls : the people for an edict to prohibit, on days
lius Lepi- of election, or public assembly, this con-
course of aliens, and requiring all the coun-
try towns in Italy to recall their denizens,
who had left their own corporations to act the part
of citizens at Rome.
dus, L.
Aurelius
Orestes.
6
[c. x.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
On this occasion, Caius Gracchus, the brother of
the late unfortunate Tribune, stood forth, and made
one of the first exhibitions, in which he displayed
the extent of his talents, as well as made known the
party he was likely to espouse in the commonwealth.
Being about twenty years of age when the troubles
occasioned by his elder brother had so much disturb-
ed the republic, and ended so fatally for himself,
this young man retired upon that catastrophe from
the public view, and made it uncertain whether the
sufferings of his family might not deter him, not on-
ly from embracing like dangerous counsels, but even
from entering at all on the scene of political affairs.
His retirement, however, he had employed in such
studies as were then come into repute, on account
of their importance, as a preparation for the business
of the courts of justice, of the Senate, or the popular
assemblies; and the first public appearance he made
gave evident proof of the talents he had acquired
for these several departments. His parts seemed to
be quicker, and his spirit more ardent, than those of
his brother Tiberius; and the people conceived
hopes of having their pretensions revived, and more
successfully conducted, than they had been under
any former leader. The cause of the country towns,
in which he now engaged, was specious; but as the
part he took in it was likely to form a new and a nu-
merous party, prepared for every factious attempt,
and as he professed to make way for the promiscuous
admission of strangers on the rolls of the people, a
measure which tended so much to distract the repu-
blic, to diminish the consequence of those who were
c. x.]
17
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
already citizens, the argument in favour of the reso-
lution to purge the city of aliens prevailed, and an
act to that purpose, now moved in the assembly of
the people, accordingly passed *.
It deserves to be recorded, that amidst the in-
quiries set on foot in consequence of this edict, or
about this time, Perperna, the father of a late Con-
sul †, was claimed by one of the Italian corporations,
and found not to have been a citizen of Rome. His
son, whom we have already mentioned, having van-
quished and taken Aristonicus, the pretended heir
of Attalus, died in his command at Pergamus; he is
accordingly said to have been a rare example of the
caprice of fortune, in having been a Roman Consul,
though not a Roman citizen; an example which
may farther confirm what has been already observed
of the latitude which officers took in conducting the
Census.
U. C. 628.
M. Plau-
tius Hip-
sius, M.
Fulvius
Flaccus.
The fires of sedition which had some time preyed
on the commonwealth, were likely to break out with
increasing force upon the promotion of Fulvius Flac-
cus to the dignity of first magistrate. This
factious citizen had blown up the flame
with Tiberius Gracchus, and having suc-
ceeded him in the commission for execu-
ting the Agrarian law, never failed to car-
ry the torch wherever matter of inflammation or ge-
neral combustion could be found. By his merit
with the popular party he had attained his present
*Sextus Pompeius Festus in voce Republica. Cicero in Bruto, in Officiis,
lib. iii,
+ Valerius Maximus, lib. iii, c. 4.
8
[c. x.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
Leges Ful-
viæ.
eminence, and was determined to preserve it by con-
tinuing his services. He accordingly be-
gan the functions of his office by proposing
a law to communicate the freedom of the
city to the allies or free inhabitants of Italy; a mea-
sure which tended to weaken the power of the Se-
nate, and to increase the numbers of the people
greatly beyond what could be convened in any one
collective body. Having failed in this attempt, he
substituted a proposal in appearance more moderate,
but equally dangerous, That whoever claimed the
right of citizen, in case of being cast by the Censors,
who were the proper judges, might appeal to the
popular assembly *. This might have conferred the
power of naturalization on the leaders of faction;
and the danger of such a measure called upon the
Senate to exert its authority and influence in having
this motion also rejected.
The Consul thus already entered on his popular
career, uniting the power of supreme magistrate with
that of a commissioner for the execution of the A-
grarian law, and likely to break through all the
forms which had hitherto retarded or stood in the
way of his measure, was with difficulty persuaded
to call a meeting of the Senate, and to take his
place in that body. The whole, as soon as they
were met, joined in representations against these
dangerous measures, and in a request that he would
withdraw his motions. To these expostulations he
made no reply t; but an occasion soon afterwards
Appian. de Bell. Civ. lib. i,
+ Val. Max. lib. ix, c. 5.
୯
c. x.]
9
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
offered, by which the Senate was enabled to divert
him from these factious pursuits in the city. A de-
putation arrived from Marseilles, then in alliance
with Rome, to request the support of the republic
against the Salyii, a neighbouring nation, who had
invaded their territories. The Senate gladly em-
bracing this opportunity to find employment abroad
for the Consul, decreed a speedy aid to the city of
Marseilles, and appointed M. Fulvius Flaccus to that
service. Although this incident marred or interrupted
for the present the political designs of the Consul,
yet he was induced, by the hopes of a triumph, to
accept of the command which offered, and by his
absence, to relieve the city for a while from the a-
larms which he had given. Caius Gracchus, too,
was gone in the rank of Proquæstor to Sardinia ;
and the Senate, if they could by any pretence have
kept those unquiet spirits at a distance, had hopes
of restoring the former order of the commonwealth.
In this interval some laws are said to have passed
respecting the office and conduct of the Censors.
The particulars are not mentioned; but the object
probably was, to render the magistrate more circum-
spect in the admission of those who claimed to be
numbered as citizens. Such at least was likely to be
the policy of the State in the absence of demagogues,
who, by proposing to admit the allies on the rolls of
the people, had awakened dangerous pretensions in
every corner of Italy. It soon appeared how seri-
ously these pretensions were adopted by the coun-
try towns; for the inhabitants already bestirred
themselves, and were beginning to devise how they
10
[c. x.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
might extort by force what they were not likely to ob-
tain with consent of the original citizens of Rome.
A suspicion having arisen of such treasonable con-
certs forming at Fregellæ *, the Prætor Opimius had
a special commission to inquire into the matter, and
to proceed as he should find the occasion required.
Having summoned the chief magistrate of the place
to appear before him, he received from this officer,
upon a promise of security to his own person, full
information of the combinations that had been form-
ing against the government of Rome. So instructed,
the Prætor assembled such a force as was necessary
to support him in asserting the authority of the
State; and thinking it necessary to give a striking
example in a matter of so infectious and so danger-
ous a nature, he ordered the place to be razed to
the ground t.
By this act of severity, the designs of the allies
were for a while suspended, and might
have been entirely suppressed, if the fac-
tions at Rome had not given them fresh
U. C. 629.
C. Cassius
Longinus,
C. Sextius
Calvinus.
encouragement and hopes of success or
impunity. This transaction was scarcely past, when
Caius Gracchus appeared in the city to solicit the
office of Tribune; and, by his presence, revived the
hopes of the allies. Having observed, that the Pro-
consul Aurelius Cotta, under whom he was acting
as Proquæstor in Sardinia, instead of being recalled,
was continued in his command, and furnished with
*A municipal town of the Liris, now Monte Corvo on the Garighano.
+ Liv. lib. lx. Velleius Obsequens. Cic. lib. ii, De Inventione; De Fi-
nibus, v. Ibid. Rhetorius, lib. iv.
c. x.]
11
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
reinforcements and supplies of every sort, as for a
service of long duration; and suspecting that this
measure was pointed against himself, and proceeded
from a design to keep him at a distance from the po-
pular assemblies, he quitted his station in Sardinia
and returned to Rome without leave. Being called
to account by the Censors for deserting his duty;
he defended himself with such ability and force, as
greatly raised the expectations which had already
been entertained by his party *.
The law, he said, required him only to carry arms
ten years; he had actually carried them twelve years;
although he might legally have quitted his station
of Quæstor at the expiration of one year, yet he had
remained in it three years. However willing the
Censors might have been to remove this turbulent
spirit from the commonwealth, they were too weak
to attempt any censure in this state of his cause,
and in the present humour of the people. They en-
deavoured, in vain, to load him with a share in the
plot of Fregellæ ; he still exculpated himself: and,
if he had possessed every virtue of a citizen, in pro-
portion to his resolution, application, eloquence, and
even severity of manners, he might have been a
powerful support to the State. In a speech to the
people, on his return from Sardinia, he concluded
with the following remarkable words: "The purse
"which I carried full to the province, I have brought
empty back. Others having cleared the wine
"casks which they carried from Italy, bring them
66
• Plutarch. in C. Graccho.
12
[c. x.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
"back from the provinces replenished with silver
" and gold *."
In declaring himself a candidate for the office of
Tribune, Caius Gracchus professed his intention to
propose many popular acts. The Senators exerted
all their influence to disappoint his views; but such
were the expectations now entertained in Italy, that
multitudes crowded to the election in greater num-
bers than could find place in the public square. His
partisans handed and reached out their ballots at the
windows and over the battlements; but Gracchus,
though elected, was, in consequence of the opposi-
tion he met with, only fourth in the list †.
Cornelia, the sister of one Scipio Africanus, and
the mother-in-law of the other, but still better known
as the mother of the Gracchi, who, ever since the
death of her son Tiberius, lived in retirement in
Campania, upon hearing of the career which her son
Caius was likely to run, alarmed at the renewal of
a scene which had already occasioned her so much
sorrow, expostulated with him on the course he was
taking; and, in an unaffected and passionate ad-
dress, spoke that ardent zeal for the republic, by
which the more respectable citizens of Rome had
been long distinguished.
This high-minded woman, on whom the entire
care of her family had devolved by the death of her
husband, whilst the children were yet in their in-
fancy, or under age, took care, with unusual atten-
* A. Gellius, lib. xv, c. 12.
+ Plutarch. Appian. Orosius, Eutrop. Obsequens.
c. x.]
13
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
tion, to have them educated for the rank they were
to hold in the State, and did not fail even to excite
their ambition. When Tiberius, after the disgrace
of Mancinus, appeared to withdraw from the road
of preferments and honours: "How long," she
said, “ shall I be distinguished as the mother-in-law
"of Scipio, not as the mother of the Gracchi ?”
This latter distinction, however, she came to pos-
sess; and it has remained with her name, but from
circumstances and events which this respectable per-
sonage by no means appeared to desire. In one
fragment of her letters to Caius, which is still pre-
served, "You will tell me," she said, "that it is
"glorious to be revenged of our enemies. No one
"thinks so more than I do, if we can be revenged
"without hurt to the republic; but if not, often may
our enemies escape. Long may they be safe, if the
good of the commonwealth requires their safety.
In another letter, which appears to be written after
his intention of suing for the Tribunate was declared,
she accosts him to the following purpose: "I take
"the gods to witness, that, except the persons who
"killed my son Tiberius, no one ever gave me so
"much affliction as you now do in this matter.
You, from whom I might have expected some
"consolation in my age, and who, surely, of all my
children, ought to be most careful not to distress
"me! I have not many years to live. Spare the
republic so long for my sake. Shall I never see
66
66
<<
66
CC
"the madness of my family at an end? When I am
dead, you will think to honour me with a parent's
"rites; but what honour can my memory receive
14
[c. x.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
"from you, by whom I am abandoned and disho-
"noured while I live? But may the gods forbid you
"should persist! If you do, I fear the course you
are taking leads to remorse and distraction, which
"will end only with your life *.”
These remonstrances do not appear to have had
any effect. Caius, upon his accession to the Tribu-
nate, proceeded to fulfil the expectations of his par-
ty. The Agrarian law, though still in force, had
met with continued interruption and delay in the
execution. It was even falling into neglect. Caius
thought proper, as the first act of his ma-
pronia agra- gistracy, to move a renewal and confir-
mation of it, with express injunctions, that
there should be an annual distribution of land to the
poorer citizens t. To this he subjoined, in the first
year of his office, a variety of regulations tending
either to increase his own popularity, or to distin-
guish his administration. Upon his motion, public
Lex Sem-
ria.
Lex fru-
mentaria.
granaries were erected, and a law was
made, that the corn should be issued from
thence monthly to the people, two parts in twelve
under the prime or original cost ‡.
This act gave a check to industry, which is the
best guardian of manners in populous cities, or
wherever multitudes of men are crowded together.
• Fragmenta Corn. Nepotis ab Andrea Scotto collecta, edita cum scriptis
Corn. Nepotis.
† Liv. lib. lx. Velleius, lib. ii. Hyginus de Limitibus. Appian. de ver-
sis illustribus.
Semisse et trienti, for a half and a third, &c. Liv. Plutarch, Appian. Ibid.
c. x.]
15
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
Caius likewise obtained a decree, by which the
estates of Attalus, king of Pergamus, lately be-
queathed to the Romans, should be let in the man-
ner of other lands under the inspection of the Cen-
sors; but the rents, instead of being made part of
the public revenue, should be allotted for the main-
tenance of the poorer citizens *.
Another, by which any person deposed from an
office of magistracy by the people, was to be deem-
ed for ever disqualified to serve the republic in any
other station. This act was intended to operate
against Octavius, who, by the influence of Tiberius,
had been degraded from the office of Tribune; and
the act took its title from the name of the person
against whom it was framed t.
To these were joined, an act to regulate the con-
ditions of the military service ‡, by which no one
was obliged to enter before seventeen years of age,
and by which Roman soldiers were to receive cloth-
ing as well as pay ||; possibly the first introduction
of a uniform into the Roman legions: a circum-
stance which, in modern times, is thought so essen-
tial to the character of troops, or the appearance of
an army.
By the celebrated law of Porcius, which allowed
of an appeal to the People, every citizen had a re-
medy against any oppressive sentence or proceed-
ing of the executive magistrate; but this did not
• Florus, lib. iii, c. 15.
† Privilegium in Octavium.
Cicer. in Verrem.
De militum commodis.
|| Plutarch. in C. Graccho.-Lex Sempronia de libertate civium.
16
[c. x.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
>
appear to Gracchus a sufficient restraint on the offi
cers of state. He proposed to have it enacted, that
no person, under pain of a capital punishment,
should at all proceed against a citizen without a spe-
cial commission or warrant from the people to that
effect. And he proposed to give this law a retro-
spect, in order to comprehend Popilius Lænas *
who, being Consul in the year after the troubles oc-
casioned by Tiberius Gracchus, had, under the au-
thority of the Senate alone, proceeded to try and
condemn such as were accessory to that sedition.
Lænas perceived the storm that was gathering
against him, and chose to avoid it by a voluntary
exile. This act was indeed almost an entire aboli-
tion of government, and a bar to the most ordinary
measures, required for the peace of the common-
wealth. A popular faction could withhold every
power, which, in their apprehension, might be em-
ployed against themselves; and in their most perni-
cious designs had no interruption to fear from the
Dictator named by the Senate and Consuls, nor
from the Consul armed with the authority of the Se-
nate for the suppression of disorders; a resource to
which the republic had frequently owed its preser-
vation. But as we find no change in the admini-
stration of justice upon this new regulation, it is
probable that the absurdity of the law prevented its
effect.
While Gracchus thus proposed to make all the
powers of the State depend for their existence on the
*Cicer. in Cluentio; pro Rabino; pro domo sua.
1
c. x.]
17
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
occasional will of the people, he meant also to render
the assemblies of the people themselves more demo-
cratical, by stripping the higher classes of any pre-
rogative or influence they might derive from mere
precedence, in leading the public decisions. The
Centuries being hitherto called to vote in the order
of their classes, those of the first or highest class, by
voting first, set an example which influenced the
whole *. To obviate which for the future, the Cen-
turies, by the statute of Gracchus, were required, in
every question, to draw lots for the prerogative, or
first place in the order of voting, and to declare their
suffrage in the place they had drawn.
Under this active Tribune, much public business
that used to pass through the Senate, was engrossed
by the popular assemblies. Even in the form of
these assemblies, all appearance of respect to the Se-
nate was laid aside. The Rostra, or platform on
which the presiding magistrate stood, was placed in
the middle of an area, of which one part was the
market-place, surrounded with stalls and booths for
merchandise, and the courts of justice; the other
part, called the Comitium, was open to receive the
people in their public assemblies; and on one side
of it, fronting the Rostra, or bench of the magi-
strates, stood the Curia, or Senate-house. The peo-
ple, when any one was speaking, stood partly in the
market-place, and partly in the Comitium. The
speakers directed their voice to the Comitium, so as
to be heard in the Senate. This disposition, Grac-
VOL. II.
* The first Century was called the Prerogativa.
B
18
[c. x.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
chus reversed; and directing his voice to the Forum,
or market-place, seemed to displace the Senate, and
to deprive that body of their office as watchmen and
guardians of the public order in matters that came
before the popular assemblies *.
At the time that the Tribune Caius Gracchus en-
gaged the minds of his contemporaries, and furnished
history chiefly with these effects of his factious and
turbulent spirit, it is observed, that he himself exe-
cuted works of general utility; bridges, high-ways,
and other public accommodations throughout Italy:
That the state having carried its arms, for the first
time, beyond the maritime extremity of the Alps,
happily terminated the war with the Salyii, a nation
of Gaul, whose territory in the sequel became the
first province of Rome in that country: And that,
in consequence of what passed in this quarter, Caius
Sextius, Consul of the preceding year, was authori-
sed to place a colony in the neighbourhood of the
hot springs, which, from his name, were called the
Aquæ Sextiæ, and are still known by a corruption
of the same appellation t.
From Asia, at the same time, it was reported, that
Ariarathes, the king of Cappadocia, and ally of the
Romans, was murdered, at the instigation of Mithri-
dates, king of Pontus, whose sister he had married;
that the murdered prince had left a son for whom
Mithridates affected to secure the kingdom; but
• M. Varro de Re Rustica, lib. i, c. 2. Cic. de Amicitia. Plutarch. in
vit. Caii Gracchi.
+ At Aix, in Provenco.
c. x.]
19
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
that the widowed queen having fallen into the hands
of Nicomedes, king of Bithynia, this prince, in her
right, had taken possession of Cappadocia, while
Mithridates, in name of his nephew, was hastening
to remove him from thence. On this subject a re-
solution was adopted in the assembly of the people
at Rome, that both Nicomedes and Mithridates
should be required immediately to evacuate Cappa-
docia, and to withdraw their troops. This resolu-
tion Caius Gracchus opposed with all his eloquence
and his credit, charging his antagonists aloud with
corruption, and a clandestine correspondence with
the agents, who, on different sides, were now em-
ployed at Rome in soliciting this affair. "None of
"us," he said, "stand forth in this place for no-
thing. Even I, who desire you to put money in
your own coffers, and to consult the interest of
"the state, mean to be paid, not with silver or gold
“indeed, but with your favour and a good name.
<<
CC
CC
They who oppose this resolution likewise covet,
"not honours from you, but money from Nicome-
"des; and they who support it, expect to be paid
66
by Mithridates, not by you. As for those who
"are silent, they, I believe, understand the market
"best of all. They have heard the story of the
<<
poet, who being vain that he had got a great sum
"of money for rehearsing a tragedy, was told by
"another, that it was not wonderful he had got so
"much for talking, when I, said the other, who it
seems knew more than he was wished to declare,
"have got ten times as much for holding my tongue.
""
A
B 2
20
[c. x.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
"There is nothing that a king will buy at so great
.. a price, on occasion, as silence *."
Such, at times, was the style in which this popu-
lar orator was pleased to address his audience. In-
dividuals are won by flattery, the multitude by buf-
foonery and satire. From the tendency of this speech,
it appears to have been the opinion of Gracchus,
not that the Romans should sequester the kingdom
of Cappadocia for the heirs of Ariarathes, but that
they should seize it for themselves. The question,
however, which now arose relating to the succession
to this kingdom, laid the foundation of a tedious and
bloody war, of which the operations and events will
occur in their place.
Gracchus, on the approach of the election of Con-
suls, employed all his credit and influence
to support Caius Fannius, in opposition to
Opimius, who, by his vigilance and activi-
ty in suppressing the treasonable designs.
U. C. 639.
C. Fan-
nius, Cn.
Domitius
Ahenobar-
bus.
of the allies at Fregellæ, had incurred the
displeasure of the popular party; and Fannius being
accordingly chosen, together with Cn. Domitius
Ahenobarbus, Gracchus proceeded to offer himself
as a candidate to be re-elected into the office of Tri-
bune. In this he followed the example of his bro-
ther Tiberius in a step, which, being reckoned illegal
as well as alarming, was that which hastened his ruin.
An attempt had been since made by Papirius Carbo
to have the legality of such re-elections acknowledg-
ed; but this having failed, Caius Gracchus, with great
* A. Gellius, lib. ii, c. 10.
c. x.]
21
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
address, inserted in one of his popular edicts, a clause
declaring it competent for the people to re-elect a
Tribune, in case he should need a continuation of
his power in order to fulfil his public engagements.
To avail himself of this clause, he now declared,
that his views in behalf of the people were far from
being accomplished. Under this pretence he ob-
tained a preference to one of the new candidates,
and greatly strengthened the tribunitian power by
the prospect of its repeated renewals, and duration
for an indefinite time.
After his re-election, Caius, continuing his admi-
nistration as before upon the same plan of animosity
to the Senate, obtained a law to deprive that body
of the share which his brother had left them in the
courts of justice; and ordaining, that the judges,
for the future, should be draughted from the Eques-
trian order alone, a class of men, who, being left
out of the Senate, and of course not comprehended
in the laws that prohibited commerce, had betaken
themselves, as has been observed *, to lu-
crative professions, were the farmers of
the revenue, the contractors for the army,
and, in general, the merchants who conducted the
whole trade of the republic. Though they might
be considered as neutral in the disputes of the Se-
nate and people, and therefore impartial where the
other orders were biassed, there was no class of men,
from their ordinary habits, more likely to prostitute
the character of judges for interest or actual hire.
Lex Sem-
pronia Ju-
diciaria.
Vol. i, page 381.
22
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION [c. x.
This revolution in the courts of justice accordingly
may have contributed greatly to hasten the approach-
ing corruption of manners, and the disorders of the
state.
Lex de
Provinciis
ordinandis.
The next ordinance prepared by Gracchus, or
ascribed to him, related to the nomination
of officers to govern the provinces; and, if
it had been strictly observed, might have
made some compensation for the former. The power
of naming such officers was committed to the Senate,
and the arrangements were to be annually made be-
fore the election of Consuls. This continued to be
law, but was often overruled by the people *.
1
In the same year, the boldest and most dangerous
project ever formed by any popular leader, that of
extending the roll of citizens to all the Italian allies,
already attempted by Fulvius Flaccus, was again re-
newed by Caius Gracchus ; and by the utmost exer-
tion of the vigilance and authority of the Senate,
with great difficulty prevented.
The rumour of this project having brought multi-
tudes to Rome, the Senate thought it necessary to
give the Consuls in charge, that on the day this im-
portant question was to come on, they should clear
the city of all strangers, and not suffer any aliens to
remain within four miles of the walls. While this
business remained in suspense, Gracchus flattered the
poorer citizens with the prospect of advantageous
settlements, in certain new colonies, of six thousand
* Florus, lib. iv, c. 15. Sallust. de Bell. Jugurth. No. 621. Cicero de
Provinciis Consularibus.
c. x.]
23
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
men each, which he proposed to plant in the districts
of Campania and Tarentum, the best cultivated and
most opulent parts of Italy, and in colonies, which
he likewise proposed to send abroad into some of
the richest provinces. Such settlements had been
formerly made to occupy and secure some recent
conquest abroad; they were now calculated to serve
as allurements to popular favour, and as a provision,
made by the leaders of faction, for their own friends
and adherents at Rome.
Lex Livia
de Tergo
Civium
The Senate, attacked by such popular arts, resol-
ved to retort on their adversaries; and for this pur-
pose encouraged Marcus Livius, another of the Tri-
bunes, and probably jealous of Gracchus, to take
such measures as should, if possible, supplant him
in the favour of the people. Livius, accordingly, pro-
fessing to act in concert with the Senate, proposed
a number of acts: one to conciliate the minds of
the allies, by giving them, while they served in the
army, the same exemption from corporal
punishment, which the Roman citizens had
Latini No- enjoyed. Another for the establishment
of twelve different colonies, each of three
thousand citizens. But what, possibly, had the great-
est effect, because it appeared to exceed in munifi-
cence all the edicts of Gracchus, was an exemption
of all those lands, which should be distributed in
terms of the late Sempronian Law, from all quit-rents
and public burdens, which had hitherto, in general,
been laid on all possessions that were held from the
public *. It was proposed to name ten commission-
minis.
* Plutarch, Paulus Minutius de Legibus Romanis.
24
[c. x.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
ers to distribute lands thus unencumbered to the
people; and three colonies are mentioned, Sylla-
ceum, Tarentum, and Neptunia or Pestum, as having
been actually sent abroad in this year, and probably
on these terms.
bria.
About the same time it was decreed, that the city
Lex Ru- of Carthage should be rebuilt for the recep-
tion of a colony of six thousand Roman
citizens. This decree bears the name not of Sempro-
nius or of Livius, but of Rubrius, another Tribune
of the same year.
The Senate readily agreed to the settlement of
these colonies, as likely to divide the popular favour,
to carry off a number of the more factious citizens,
and to furnish an opportunity likewise of removing
from the city, for some time, the popular leaders
themselves, under pretence of employing them to
conduct and to settle the families destined to form
those establishments. Accordingly, Caius Gracchus,
and Fulvius Flaccus, late Consul, and now deeply
engaged in all these factious measures, were destined
to take charge of the new colonists, and to superin-
tend their settlement *.
In the mean time, the Senate, in the election of
V. C. 632.
Con. L. O-
pimius, Q.
Fab. Max-
Opimius to the Consulship of the following
year, carried an object of the highest im-
portance to the reputation and interest of
imus. their party, and by the authority of this
magistrate, conceived hopes of being able to combat
the designs of Gracchus more effectually than they
* Plutarch. Appian. Orosius.
c. x.]
25
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
had hitherto done. Opimius was accordingly re-
tained in the administration of affairs in Italy, while
his colleague, Fabius, was appointed to command
in Gaul.
Caius Gracchus, having the presumption to offer
himself a third time candidate for the office of Tri-
bune, was rejected, and had the mortification to find,
that the authority of the Senate began to prevail;
and, as they had credit enough to procure his exclu-
sion from any share in the magistracy, so they might
be able to frustrate or reverse many of the acts he
had obtained in the pursuit or execution of his pro-
jects.
By the repulse of Gracchus and his associates, the
aristocratical party came to have a majority, even
in the college of Tribunes. Questions of legislation
were now likely to be determined in the assembly of
the Centuries; and this circumstance alone, while
the Senate was able to retain it, was equivalent to
an entire restitution of the aristocratical government.
The Centuries, under the leading of an active Con-
sul, were likely to annul former resolutions with the
same decision and rapidity with which they had been
passed. Much violence was expected, and the diffe-
rent parties, recollecting what had happened in the
case of Tiberius Gracchus, and careful not to be sur-
prised by their antagonists; for the most part came
to the place of assembly in bands, even under arms,
and endeavoured to possess the advantage of the
ground as in the presence of an enemy.
Minucius, one of the Tribunes, in consequence of
a resolution of the Senate, pretending that he was
26
[c. x.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
moved by some unfavourable presages, proposed a
repeal or amendment of some of the late popular
acts; and particularly, to change the destination of
the colony intended for Carthage, to some other
place. This motion was strenuously opposed by
Fulvius Flaccus and by Caius Gracchus, who treated
the report of presages from Africa as a mere fiction,
and the whole design as proceeding from the inve-
terate hatred of the nobles to the people. Before
the assembly met, in which this question was to be
decided, the popular leaders attempted to seize the
Capitol, but found themselves prevented by the Con-
sul, who had already, with an armed force, secured
that station.
In the morning after they had received this disap-
pointment, the people being assembled, and the Con-
sul being employed in offering up the customary sa-
crifices, Gracchus, with his party, came to their place
in the Comitium. One of the attendants of the Con-
sul, who was removing the entrails of a victim, re-
proached Gracchus, as he passed, with sedition, and
in the petulance of a retainer to power, bid him de-
sist from his machinations against the government
of the commonwealth. On this provocation, one of
the party of Gracchus struck the offender with his
dagger, and killed him on the spot. The cry of
murder ran through the multitude, and the assembly
began to break up. Gracchus endeavoured to speak,
but could not be heard for the tumult; and all
thoughts of business were laid aside. The Consul
immediately summoned the Senate to meet; and
having reported a murder committed in the place of
c. x.]
27
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
1
assembly, and what appeared to him the first act of
hostility in a war, which the popular faction had
prepared against the State, he received the charge
that was usual on perilous occasions, to provide, in
the manner which his own prudence should direct,
for the safety of the commonwealth. Thus autho-
rised, he commanded the Senators and the Knights
to arm, and made proper dispositions to secure the
principal streets. Being master of the Capitol and
Forum, he adjourned the assembly of the people to
the usual place on the following day, and cited the
persons accused of the murder that was recently
committed, to answer for the crime which was laid
to their charge.
In consequence of this adjournment, and the Con-
sul's instructions, numbers in arms repaired to the
Comitium at the hour of assembly, and were ready
to execute such orders as they might receive for the
public safety. Gracchus and Fulvius refused to obey
the citation they had received, and the Capitol be-
ing secured against them, they took post, with a nu-
merous party in arms, on the Aventine Hill, which
was opposite to the Capitol, and from which, though
more distant, they equally looked down on the Cir-
cus, the Forum, and the place of assembly.
Being again cited to appear at the Tribunal of the
Roman People, they sent a young man, one of the
sons of Fulvius, to capitulate with the Consul, and
to settle the terms on which they should descend
from their stronghold. To this message they were
told, in return, that they must answer at the bar of
the assembly, as criminals, not pretend to negotiate
28
[c. x.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
:
with the republic, as equals; that no party, however
numerous, was entitled to parley with the people of
Rome and to this answer the messenger was for-
bidden, at his peril, to bring any reply. The party,
however, still hoped to gain time, or to divide their
enemies; and they ventured to employ young Ful-
vius again to repeat their message. He was seized
by the Consul's order. Gracchus and Fulvius, with
their adherents, were declared public enemies; and
a reward was offered to the person who should kill
or secure them. They were instantly attacked, and,
after a little resistance, forced from their ground.
Gracchus fled by the wooden bridge to the opposite
side of the Tiber, and was there slain, either by his
own hand, or by that of a faithful servant, who had
undertaken the task of thus saving him in his last
extremity from falling into the power of his enemies.
Fulvius was dragged to execution from a bath where
he attempted to conceal himself. The heads of both
were carried to the Consul, and exchanged for the
promised reward.
In this fray the party of the Senate, being regu-
larly armed and prepared for slaughter, cut off the
adherents of Caius Gracchus and Fulvius in greater
numbers than they had done those of Tiberius; they
killed about three thousand two hundred and fifty in
the streets, and confined great numbers, who were
afterwards strangled in the prisons. The bodies of
the slain, as the law ordained in the cases of treason,
being denied the forms of a funeral, were cast into
the river, and their estates confiscated *.
Appian. Plutarch. Orosius, lib. v, c. 12. Florus, lib. iii, c. 15. Auctor
de Viris Illustribus, c. 65.
c. x.]
29
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
The house of Fulvius was razed, and the ground
on which it stood was laid open for public uses.
From these beginnings, it appeared that the Romans,
who, in the pursuit of their foreign conquests, had
so liberally shed the blood of other nations, might
become equally lavish of their own.
30
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION [C. XI.
CHAP. XI.
State of order and tranquillity which followed the suppression
of the late tumults.-Appearance of Caius Marius.-Foreign
wars.-Complaints against Jugurtha.-Appearance of the
Cimbri.-War with Jugurtha.-Campaign and treaty of
Piso.-Jugurtha comes to Rome with a safe conduct.-Obli-
ged to retire from thence.-Campaign of Metellus.-Of Ma-
rius.-Jugurtha betrayed by Bocchus.-His death after the
triumph of Marius.-This general re-elected, in order to
command against the Cimbri.
THE
HE popular party had, in the late tumults, carried
their violence to such extremes as disgusted and
alarmed every person who had any desire of do-
mestic peace; and, in their ill-advised recourse to
arms, but too well justified the measures which had
been taken against them. By this exertion of vi-
gour, the Senate and ordinary magistrates recover-
ed their former authority; affairs returned to their
usual channel, and the most perfect order seemed to
arise from the late confusions. Questions of legis-
lation were allowed to take their rise in the Senate,
and were not carried to the people, without the
sanction of the Senate's authority. The legislative
power was exercised in the assembly of the Centu-
ries, and the prohibitory or defensive function of
the Tribunes, or representatives of the people, with-
C. XI.]
81
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
out stopping the proceedings of government, or sub-
stituting a democratical usurpation, was such as to
check the abuses of executive power in the hands
of the aristocracy. Even the judicative power,
vested in the Equestrian order, promised to have a
salutary effect, by holding a balance between the
different ranks and distinctions of men in the re-
public.
Meanwhile the aristocratical party, notwithstand-
ing the ascendant they had recently gained, did not
attempt to rescind any of the regular institutions of
Gracchus; they were contented with inflicting pu-
nishments on those who had been accessory to the
late sedition, and with re-establishing such of the
Nobles as had suffered by the violence of the popu-
lar faction. Popilius Lænas, driven into exile by
one of the edicts of Gracchus, or by the persecution
to which it exposed him, was now recalled upon the
motion of Calpurnius Piso, one of the Tribunes *.
As the state of parties was in some measure re-
versed, Papirius Carbo, who wished to be
of the winning side, thought proper to
withdraw from that he had espoused; and
by the credit of those now in possession
of the government, was promoted to the station of
Consul, and yielded the first fruits of his conversion
by defending the cause of his predecessor Opimius,
who, at the expiration of his Consulate, was brought
to trial for having put Roman citizens to death
without the forms of law. Carbo, though himself
U. C. 633.
Publius
Manlius,
and C. Pa-
pirius Car-
bo.
* Cicero in Bruto.
32
[c. XI.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
connected with those who suffered in that instance,
now pleaded the justice and necessity of the late
military executions; and, upon this plea, obtained
the acquittal of his client.
This merit on the part of Carbo, however, did not
so far cancel his former offences as to prevent his
being himself tried and condemned in the following
year, as an accomplice in the sedition of Gracchus.
He was supposed to have been accessory to the mur-
der of Scipio; and his cause not being warmly es-
poused by any party, he fell a sacrifice to the impu-
tation of this heinous crime. It is said, that upon
hearing his sentence pronounced, he killed himself*.
Octavius, one of the Tribunes of the present year,
moved an amendment of the law obtained
by Gracchus, respecting the distribution
of corn from the public granaries, proba-
bly to ease the treasury in part of that burden; but
the particulars are unknown.
Lex Octa-
via Fru-
mentaria.
About this time appeared in the assemblies of the
people the celebrated Caius Marius. Born of ob-
scure parents in the town of Arpinum, on the Li-
ris t, and formed amidst the occupations of a pea-
sant ‡, and the hardships of a legionary soldier, of
rustic manners, but of a resolute spirit, and eager
ambition. Without any other apparent title than
that of being a denizen of Rome, he now laid claim
to the honours of the State. He is remarkable for
having suffered more repulses in his first attempts
Valerius Max. lib. iii, c. 7. Cicero in Bruto.
+ The Garigliano.
Juvenal. Sat. viii.
Plin. lib. xxxiii, c. 11.
2
C. XI.]
33
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
to be elected into office, and for having succeeded
more frequently afterwards, than any other Roman
citizen during the existence of the commonwealth.
Lex Maria
de Suffra-
giis.
Marius, after being disappointed in his first canvass
for the office of Tribune, succeeded in the following
year. The acts which were passed under his Tri-
bunate, and which bear his name, do not carry any
violent expressions of party-spirit, nor give
intimation of that insatiate ambition with
which he afterwards distressed his coun-
try; the first related to the conduct of elections,
and provided some remedy for an evil which was
complained of in the manner of soliciting votes.
The space between the rails, by which the citizens
passed to give in their ballots, was so broad as to
admit, not only those who came to vote, but the
candidates also, with their adherents and friends,
who came to importune and to overawe the people
in the very act of giving their suffrage. Marius
proposed to put an end to this practice, and to pro-
vide for the entire uninfluenced freedom of election,
by narrowing the entrance, so that only the voters
could pass. A party of the Nobles, with Aurelius
Cotta the Consul at their head, not knowing with
what a resolute spirit they were about to contend,
being averse to this reformation, prevailed on the
Senate to withhold its assent, without which any re-
gular question on this subject could not be put to
the people. But Marius, in the character of Tri-
bune, threatened the Consul with immediate impri-
sonment, if he did not move the Senate to recall its
vote. The matter being reconsidered, Lucius Metel-
VOL. II.
C
34
[C. XI.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
lus, who was first on the rolls, having given his voice
for affirming the first decree, was ordered by Ma-
rius into custody; and there being no Tribune to
intercede for him, must have gone to prison, if the
dispute had not terminated by the majority agree-
ing to have the matter carried before the people,
as Marius proposed, with the sanction of the Se-
nate's authority.
In another of the acts of Marius, the republic
was still more indebted to his wisdom and courage,
in withstanding an attempt of one of his colleagues
to flatter the indigent citizens at the expense of the
public treasury, by lowering the terms on which
corn, in pursuance of an order recently obtained
by Octavius, was distributed from the granaries.
This was an ordinary expedient of tribunitian fac-
tion. Marius opposed it as of dangerous conse-
quence. And his conduct in this matter marked
him out as one not to be awed by clamour, and a
person who, into whatever party he should be ad-
mitted, was destined to govern. The times indeed
were likely to give more importance to his charac-
ter as a soldier than as a citizen; and in that he was
still farther raised above the censure of those who
were inclined to revile or undervalue what were
called his upstart pretensions *.
From the time that the Romans first passed into
the Transalpine Gaul, as auxiliaries to the republic
of Marseilles, they had maintained in that neigh-
bourhood a certain military establishment; and, by
*Plutarch. in Mario.
C. XI.]
35
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
planting colonies at convenient stations, shewed
their intention of retaining possessions on that side
of the Alps. Betultus, or Betultich, a prince of the
country, who was supposed to have a force at com-
mand of two hundred thousand men, attempted to
expel these intruders, but was defeated, first by the
Proconsul Fabius, afterwards by Domitius Aheno-
barbus, who found in their conflicts with this ene-
my the occasion of their respective triumphs. This
prince himself became a captive to Domitius, and
was carried to Rome, where he was led in proces-
sion, distinguished by his painted arms and his cha-
riot of silver, the equipage in which it was said he
usually led his army to battle *.
U. C. 633.
It appears that the Romans had availed themselves
of their possessions in Africa to be sup-
plied with elephants from thence, and these
they employed in the first wars they made in Gaul
for the victory of Domitius is attributed to the effect
that was produced by these animals t.
Quintus Marcius succeeded Domitius in the com-
mand of the troops which were employed in Gaul,
and continued to gain ground on the natives, who
took arms from different cantons successively a-
gainst him. He planted a colony at Narbo, to
strengthen the frontier of the newly acquired pro-
vince on one side; and, as the Romans had hi-
therto always passed by sea into that country, he
* Velleius Pater. Ammianus Marcel. lib. xv, fine, Pædianus in Verrinam
Secundam. Val. Max. lib. V, c. 9.
+ Suetonius in vita Neronis.
L
C 2
36
[C. XI.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
endeavoured to open a passage by the Alps, in or-
der to have a communication by land with Italy on
the other. In the course of these operations, the
Stæni, an Alpine nation that obstructed his march,
was entirely cut off.
About this time the Roman generals obtained
their triumphs on different quarters, in the Baleares,
and in Dalmatia, as well as in Gaul; and the repub-
lic did not meet for some years with an enemy able
to resist her power, except on the side of Thrace
and the Ister or Danube, where a Proconsul of the
name of Cato was defeated, and where a resistance
was for some years kept up by the natives.
But of the foreign affairs which now occupied the
attention of the Romans, the most memorable was
that which arose from the contest of pretenders to
the crown of Numidia, which, by the death of Mi-
cipsa, the son and successor of Massinissa, came to
be disposed of about this time. The late king had
two sons, Adherbal and Hiempsal. He had like-
wise adopted Jugurtha, the natural son of his bro-
ther Manastabal, whom he had employed at the head
of his armies, thinking it safer to gain him by good
offices, than to provoke him by a total exclusion
from favour. This monarch had formed a project,
frequent in barbarous times, but always ruinous, to
divide his territories; and he hoped that, while he
provided for his own sons, he should secure to them,
from motives of gratitude, the protection and good
offices of Jugurtha, whom he admitted to an equal
share with them in the partition of his kingdom.
The consequences of this mistaken arrangement
1
C. XI.]
37
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
soon appeared in the distractions that followed, and
which arose from the ambition of Jugurtha, who,
not content with his part of the kingdom, aspired to
make himself master of the whole. For this purpose
he formed a secret design against the lives of both
the brothers, of whom the younger, Hiempsal, fell
into a snare which was laid for him, and was killed.
Adherbal, being more cautious, obliged his crafty
enemy to declare himself openly, took the field a-
gainst him with all the forces he could raise, but
was defeated, and obliged to take refuge in the Ro-
man province, and from thence thought proper to
pass into Italy, in order to lay his complaints before
the Senate and people of Rome.
Massinissa, the grandfather of this injured prince,
had given effectual aid to the Romans in their wars
with Carthage; and, upon the final reduction of that
republic, was rewarded with a considerable part of
its spoils. From this time forward the Romans ex-
pected, and the kings of Numidia actually paid to
them, a deference in the manner of a vassal or tri-
butary prince to his sovereign lord. Upon the faith
of this connection with Rome, Adherbal now car-
ried his complaints to that city; and Jugurtha,
knowing how ready the Romans were, in the cha-
racter of arbitrators, to consider themselves as the
sovereign among nations, thought proper to send a
deputation on his own part, to counteract the repre-
sentations of his rival.
This crafty Numidian had served under Scipio at
the siege of Numantia, where he had an opportuni-
ty of observing the manners and discipline of the
38
[C. XI.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
He
Romans, and accommodated himself to both.
was equally distinguished by his implicit submission
to command, as by his impetuous courage, and by
the ability of his conduct in every emergence. He
had even then probably directed his views to the
succession which was likely to fall into weak or in-
capable hands, and saw of what consequence the
Romans might prove in deciding his fortunes. He
had studied their character, and had already marked
out the line he was to follow in conducting his af
fairs with them. They appeared to be a number of
sovereigns assembled together, able in council, and
formidable in the field; but, in comparison to the
Africans in general, open, undesigning and simple.
With the pride of monarchs, they began, he imagi-
ned, to feel the indigence of courtiers, and were to be
moved by considerations of interest rather than force.
His commissioners were now accordingly furnished
with ample presents, and with the means of gratify-
ing the principal persons at Rome in a manner that
was suited to their respective ranks and to their in-
fluence in the State.
In the choice of this plan, Jugurtha, like most
politicians that refine too much, had formed a sys-
tem with great ingenuity, and spoke of it with a
specious wit; but had not taken into his account
the whole circumstances of the case in which he
engaged. Rome, he used to say, was a city to be
sold. But he forgot that, though many Romans
could be bought, no treasure was sufficient to buy the
republic; that to buy a few, made it necessary for
him to buy many more; that as he raised expecta-
C. XI.]
39
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
tions, the number of expectants increased without
limit; that the more he gave, the more he was still
expected to give; that in a state which was broke
into factions, if he gained one party by his gifts,
that alone would be sufficient to rouse up another
against him. And accordingly, after lavishing his
money to influence the councils of Rome, he was
obliged to have recourse to arms at last, and to con-
tend with the forces of the republic, after he had
exhausted his own treasure in attempting to corrupt
her virtue.
Although this adventurer had his abettors at
Rome, such was the injustice of his cause, or the
suspicion of treachery in those who espoused it,
that they durst not openly avow their intentions.
They endeavoured to suspend the resolutions which
were in agitation against him, and had the matter
referred to ten commissioners, who should go into
Africa, and in presence of the parties settle the dif
ferences which subsisted between them. There in-
deed he was supposed to have practised his art on
the Roman commissioners with better success than
he had experienced with the Senate and people.
He prevailed upon these commissioners to agree to
a partition of the kingdom, and to favour him in the
lot which should be assigned to himself: knowing
that force must ultimately decide every controversy
which might arise on the subject, he made choice,
not of the richest, but of the most warlike division;
and indeed, had already determined that, as soon as
the Romans were gone from Africa, he should make
an end of the contest by the death of Adherbal ;
40
[C. XI.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
trusting that, by continuing to use the specific which
it was said he had already applied, he might prevail
on the Romans to overlook what they would not,
on a previous request, have permitted.
He accordingly, soon after the departure of the
Roman commissioners, marched into the territories
of Adherbal, shut him up in the town of Cirta; and,
while the Romans sent him repeated messages to
desist, still continued the blockade, until the merce-
naries of Adherbal, tired of the hardships they were
made to endure, advised, and, by their appearing
ready to desert, forced him to commit himself to
the mercy of Jugurtha, by whom he was immediate-
ly slain.
By these events, in about seven years from the
death of Micipsa, Jugurtha attained the object which
he had so long desired; but the arts which procured
him a crown, likewise rendered his state insecure.
He was disappointed in his expectation to pacify the
Romans. The money he dealt went into the pockets,
only of a few, but his crimes roused the indignation
of the whole people. Practised statesmen or poli-
ticians are seldom directed in their conduct by mere
feelings of injustice respecting wrongs of a private
nature. They have, or affect to have, reasons of
state to set the consideration of individuals aside.
The greater part of the Roman Senate, accordingly,
whether acting on maxims of policy, or, according
to the scandal of the times, won by the presents of
Jugurtha, received the complaints which were lodg-
ed against him with indifference; but the assembly
of the people, moved by the cries of perfidy and
C. XI.]
41
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
murder which were raised by the Tribunes, received
the representations of his conduct with indignation
and rage. These passions were inflamed by opposi-
tion to the Nobles, who were supposed to favour
the murderer. Neither the most deliberate States-
man nor the most determined partisan of Jugurtha
durst appear in his cause, nor propose to decline a
war with that prince, although it was likely to be
attended with considerable difficulties, and was to
be undertaken at a time when a cloud hung over
Italy itself on the side of Gaul, a quarter from which
the Italians always expected, and often experienced,
the most terrible storms.
U. C. 627.
About the time that Adherbal laid his complaints
against Jugurtha before the Senate of
Rome, a new enemy had appeared. The
north of Europe, or of Asia, had cast off a swarm of
its people, which, spreading to the south and to the
west, was first descried by the Romans on the fron-
tier of Illyricum, and presently drew their attention
to that side. The horde thus in motion was said to
consist of three hundred thousand fighting men, ac-
companied by their families of women and children,
and covering the plains with their cattle. The Con-
sul Papirius Carbo was ordered to take post in Illy-
ricum, to observe the motions of this tremendous
host. Alarmed by their seeming to point towards
the district of Aquileia, he put himself, with too
little precaution, in their way; and, unable to with-
stand their numbers, was overwhelmed as by a tem-
pest.
42
[c. XI.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
This migrating nation the Romans have called by
the name of Cimbri, without determining from
whence they came. It is said that their cavalry
amounted to no more than fifteen thousand; that it
was their practice to despise horses, as well as the
other spoils of an enemy, which they generally de-
stroyed and from this circumstance it may be ar-
gued, that they were not of Scythian extraction, nor
sprung from those mighty plains in the northern
parts of Asia, where military force has from time
immemorial consisted of cavalry, and where the ani-
mal they mounted was valued above every other
species of acquisition or property; and that they
must have been bred rather amongst mountains and
woods, where the horse is not of equal service. On
their helmets, which were crested with plumes, they
carried the gaping jaws of wild beasts. On their
bodies they wore breastplates of iron, had shields
painted of a conspicuous colour, and carried two
missile javelins or darts, and a heavy sword. They
collected their fighting men, for the most part, into
a solid column, equally extending every way: in
one of their battles, it was reported, that the sides
of this square extended thirty stadia, or between
three and four miles. The men of the foremost
ranks were fastened together with chains locked to
their girdles, which made them impenetrable to
every attack, and gave them the force of a torrent,
in sweeping obstructions before them. Such were
the accounts, whether well or ill founded, with
which the Romans were alarmed on the approach of
this tremendous enemy.
C, XI.]
43
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
U. C. 642.
Pub. Cor-
nelius Sci-
L. Calpur-
Although, by the defeat of Carbo, Italy lay open
to their devastations, yet they turned away to the
north and to the westward, and keeping the Alps on
their left, made their appearance again in the neigh-
bourhood of Narbonne, or province of Transalpine
Gaul, and from thence passed over the Pyrenees,
alarming the Roman settlements in Spain, and keep-
ing Rome itself in suspense, by the uncertainty of
the tract they might afterwards choose to pursue.
Such was the state of affairs when the popular cry
and generous indignation of the Roman
people forced the State into a war with
pio Nasica. Jugurtha. The necessary levies and sup-
plies for this service were ordered. The
Consul Piso was destined to command,
and Jugurtha could no longer doubt that the force
of the Roman republic was to be employed against
himself; yet in hopes to avert the storm, and rely-
ing on the arts he had formerly practised, which
were said to consist in the distribution of presents
and money, he sent his own son, with two proper
assistants, in quality of ambassadors to Rome. As
soon as their arrival was announced to the Senate,
a resolution of this body passed, that unless they
brought an offer from Jugurtha to surrender his per-
son and his kingdom at discretion, they should be
required in ten days to be gone from Italy.
nius Piso,
Bestia.
This resolution being made known to the son of
Jugurtha, he presently withdrew, and was soon fol-
lowed by a Roman army, which had been already
prepared to embark for Africa. The war was con-
ducted at first with great vivacity and success but
41
[C. XI.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
Jugurtha, by offering great public concessions or
private gratifications, prevailed on the Consul to ne-
gociate. It was agreed, that upon receiving a pro-
per hostage on the part of the Romans, the king
himself should repair to their camp, in order to con-
clude the treaty. In the articles which were made
public, the king agreed to surrender himself at dis-
cretion, and to pay a large contribution in horses,
corn, elephants, and money; but in secret articles,
which were drawn up at the same time, the Consul
engaged that the person of the king should be safe,
and that the kingdom of Numidia should be secured
to him.
During these transactions the time of the expira-
tion of Piso's command drew near, and he himself
was called into Italy to preside at the approaching
elections. His report of the treaty with Jugurtha
was received with suspicion, and the cry of corrup-
tion resumed by the popular party. "Where is
"this captive ?" said the Tribune Memmius; "if
"he have surrendered himself, he will obey your
"commands; send for him; question him in re-
(C
CC
spect to what is past. If he refuse to come, we
"shall know what to think of a treaty which brings
impunity to Jugurtha, princely fortunes to a few
private persons, mortification and infamy to the
"Roman Republic." Upon this motion the Prætor
Cassius Longinus, a person of approved merit and
unshaken integrity, was hastened into Africa, with
positive instructions to bring the king of Numidia to
Rome. By the safe-conduct which Cassius brought
on the part of the republic, and by his own assuran-
C. XI.]
4.5
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
ces of protection, Jugurtha was prevailed on to com-
mit himself to the faith of the Romans. He accord-
ingly laid aside his kingly state, dismissed his atten-
dants, and set out for Italy, determined to appear
as a suppliant at Rome. Upon his arrival, being
called into the public assembly, Memmius proposed
to interrogate him on the subject of his supposed se-
cret transaction with certain members of the Senate;
but here Bebeius, another of the Tribunes, interpo-
sed his negative; and, notwithstanding that the
people exclaimed, and even menaced, this Tribune
persisted. And before this obstruction to the fur-
ther examination of Jugurtha could be removed, an
incident took place, which occasioned his sudden
departure from Italy.
Massiva, the son of Gulussa, being the grandson
and natural representative of Massinissa, and the
only person beside Jugurtha who remained of the
royal line of Numidia, had been persuaded by Al-
binus, the Consul elected for the ensuing year, to
state his own pretensions before the Roman Senate,
and to lay claim to the crown. Jugurtha, though at
Rome, and in the power of those who were likely
to resent any insult that was offered to their go-
vernment, gave a specimen of the bold and san-
guinary counsels to which he was inclined, employ-
ing against his competitor the ordinary arts of an
African court, had him assassinated. The crime
was traced to its author, but the safe-conduct he
had received could not be violated; and he was
only commanded without delay to depart from Italy.
On this occasion he left Rome with that memorable
46
[c. XI.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
saying, "Here is a city to be sold, if any buyer can
"be found.”
cius Rufus,
mius Albi-
nus.
The Consul Albinus soon followed Jugurtha, to
U. C. 645. take the command of the Roman army in
M. Minu- Africa; and being eager to perform some
and Postu- notable action before the expiration of his
year, which was fast approaching, he press-
ed on the king of Numidia with all the forces he
could assemble in the province, but found that he
had to do with an enemy who had the art to elude
his impetuosity, and from whose apparent conduct
no judgment could be formed of his real designs.
This artful warrior often advanced with a seeming
intention to hazard a battle, when he was most re-
solved to decline it; or he himself precipitantly fled,
when his design was to rally and take advantage of
any disorder his enemy might incur in a too eager
pursuit. His offers of submission, or his threats,
were equally fallacious; and he used, perhaps in
common with other African princes, means to mis-
lead his antagonist, which Europeans, ancient as
well as modern, have in general condemned. He
made solemn capitulations and treaties with a view
to break them, and considered breach of faith no
more than a feint or an ambush, as a stratagem li-
censed in war. The Europeans have always termed
it perfidy to violate the faith of a treaty, the Africans
held it stupidity to be caught in the snare.
By the artifices of Jugurtha accordingly, or by the
remissness of those who were opposed to him, the
war was protracted for another year, and the Con-
sul, as the time of election drew near, was recalled,
C. XI.]
47
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
as usual, to preside in the choice of his successor.
At his arrival the city was in great agitation. The
cry of corruption, which had been raised against
many of the Nobles, on account of their supposed
correspondence with Jugurtha, gave an advantage
to the popular party, and they determined to im-
prove it, by raising prosecutions to the ruin of per-
sons, either odious to the people, or obnoxious to
the Equestrian order, who then had the power of ju-
dicature in their hands *. Three inquisitors were
accordingly named by special commission to take
cognisance of all complaints of corruption that
should be brought before them; and this commis-
sion was instantly employed to harass the Nobility,
and to revenge the blood which had been shed in the
late popular tumults. Lucius Calpurnius Piso, Bes-
tia, C. Cato, Spurius Albinus, and L. Opimius, all
of consular dignity, fell a sacrifice on this occasion
to the popular resentment. The Tribune Mamilius,
upon whose motion this tribunal had been erected,
with his associates, apprehending that, upon the ex-
piration of their trust, the heat of the prosecutions
might abate, moved the people that they might be
continued in their office; and, upon finding them-
selves opposed by the influence of the Senate and
the ordinary magistrates, they suspended, by virtue
of their tribunitian prerogative, the election of Con-
suls, and for a whole year kept the republic in a state
of absolute anarchy.
* Cicero de Claris Oratoribus. Sallust. in Bell. Jugurth.
48
[C. XI.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
In this interval, Aulus Albinus, who had been left
by his brother, the late Consul, in the command of
the army in Africa, determined to improve the occa-
sion by some memorable action. He left his quar-
ters in the winter, and marched far into the country,
hoping that by force or surprise he might possess
himself of the Numidian treasures and military stores.
Jugurtha encouraged him in this design, affected
fear, retired with precipitation wherever the Ro-
mans presented themselves; and to increase the
presumption of their general, sent frequent messages
to implore his pity.
He at the same time endeavoured to open a cor-
respondence with Thracians and other irregulars,
by whom the Roman army was attended. Some of
these he corrupted; and, when he had drawn his
enemy into a difficult situation, and prepared his
plan for execution, he suddenly advanced in the
night; and the avenues to the Roman station being
occupied, as he expected, by the Thracians and Li-
gurians whom he had corrupted, and by whom he
was suffered to pass, he surprised the legions in their
camp, and drove them from thence in great confu-
sion to a neighbouring height, where they enjoyed,
during the night, some respite from the attacks of
the enemy; but without any resource for subsis-
tence, or hopes of recovering their baggage.
In the morning Jugurtha desired to confer with
the Prætor; and representing how much the Ro-
mans, deprived of their provision and equipage,
were then in his power, made a merit of offering
them quarter, on condition that they would con-
C. XI.]
49
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
clude a treaty of peace, and in ten days evacuate his
kingdom.
These terms were accordingly accepted; but the
capitulation, when known at Rome, gave occasion
to much indignation and clamour. It was voted by
the Senate not to be binding, and the Consul Albi-
nus, in order to repair the loss of the public, and to
restore the credit of his own family, made hasty le-
vies, with which he proposed to renew the war in
Numidia. But not having the consent of the Tri-
bunes to this measure, he was obliged to leave his
forces behind him in Italy, and joined the army in
person without being able to bring any reinforce-
ment. He found it in no condition to face the ene-
my, and was contented to remain inactive until a
successor should be named in the province.
Resentment of the disgraces incurred in Numidia,
U. C. 644.
Q. Cæcilius
Metellus
Numidicus,
M. Junius
Silanus.
and fear of invasion from the Cimbri, who,
having traversed Spain and Gaul, were still
on their march, appear to have calmed for
a little time the animosity of domestic fac-
tions at Rome. The consular elections were suffer-
ed to proceed and the choice of the people falling
on Quintus Cæcilius Metellus and M. Junius Sila-
nus, the first was appointed to the command of the
army in Numidia, the second to observe the motions
of the Cimbri on the frontiers of Gaul, and to turn
them aside, if possible, from the territory of Rome.
About this time those wandering nations had sent a
formal message to the Romans, desiring to have it
VOL. II,
D
50
[c. XI.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
understood on what lands they might settle*, or ra-
ther, over what lands they might pass, in migration
with their families and herds. No return being
made to this application by the Senate, they conti-
nued to wander, and opening their passage by force,
overcame in battle the Consul Silanus, and, proba-
bly without intending to retain any conquest, pass-
ed on their way wherever the aspect of the country
tempted their choice.
Metellus proceeded to Africa with a considerable
reinforcement; and, having spent some time in-re-
storing the discipline of the army which had been
greatly neglected, and in training his new levies to
the duties and hardships of the service, he directed
his march to the enemy's country, and in his way
had frequent messages from the king of Numidia,
with professions of submission and of a pacific dis-
position: So much, that when the Roman army en-
tered on the territory of this prince, they found the
country every where prepared to receive them in a
friendly manner; the people in tranquillity, the
gates of every city left open, and the markets ready
to supply them with necessaries.
These appearances, with the known character of
Jugurtha, creating distrust, only excited the vigi-
lance of Metellus. They even provoked him to re-
tort on the Numidian his own insidious arts. He
accordingly tampered with Bomilcar and the other
messengers of Jugurtha to betray their master, and
promised them great rewards if they would deliver
Florus, lib. iii. Liv. lib. lxv.
C. XI.]
51
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
this offender into the hands of the Romans either
living or dead.
Jugurtha, not considering that his own character
for falsehood must have destroyed the credit of all
his own professions, even if he should at any time
think proper to make them sincere, and trusting to
the effect of his submissive messages in rendering
the enemy secure, made a disposition to profit by
any errors they should commit, and hoped to cir-
cumvent and destroy them on their march. For
this purpose he waited for them on the descents of
a high mountain, over which they were to pass in
their way to the Muthul, a river which helped to
form the situation of which he was to avail himself.
He accordingly lay concealed by its banks until the
enemy actually fell into the snare he had laid for
them. And although the effect was not answerable
to his hopes, he maintained, during the greater part
of a day, with the advantage of ground and of num-
bers, a contest with troops who possessed, against
his irregulars, a great superiority of order, discipline,
and courage; but not having found the Romans, as
he expected, in any degree off their guard, he was,
in the event of that day's action, obliged to depart
with a few horse to a remote or interior part of his
kingdom.
This victory obtained over Jugurtha, appeared to
be an end of the war. His army was dispersed, and
he was left with a few horsemen, who attended his
person, to find a place of retreat, or to choose a new
station at which to re-assemble his forces, if he meant
to continue the war.
D 2
52
[C. XI.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
The Numidians were inured to action.
The fre-
quent wars of that continent, the wild and unsettled
state of their own country, made the use of horses
and of arms familiar to them: but so void was the
nation of military policy, and its people so unaccus-
tomed to any permanent order, that it was scarcely
possible for the king to fight two battles with the
same army. If victorious, they withdrew with their
plunder; if defeated, they supposed all military ob-
ligations at an end; and in either case, after an ac-
tion, every one fled where he expected to be soonest
in safety, or most at liberty to avail himself of the
spoil he had gained.
Metellus, after the late engagement, finding no
enemy in the field, was for some time uncertain to
what part of the kingdom Jugurtha had directed
his flight. But having intelligence that he was in a
new situation assembling an army, and likely to form
one still more numerous than any he had yet brought
into the field, tired of pursuing an enemy on whom
defeats had so little effect, he turned away to the
richer and more cultivated parts of the kingdom.
Here the plunder of the country might better repay
his labour, and the king, if he ventured to defend
his own territory, might more sensibly feel his de-
feats. Jugurtha perceiving this intention of the Ro-
man general, drew the forces he had assembled to-
wards the same quarter, and soon appeared in his
rear.
While Metellus was endeavouring to force the
city of Zama, Jugurtha assaulted his camp, and,
though repulsed from thence, took a post, by which
C. XI.]
53
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
he made the situation of the Romans between the
town on one side, and the Numidian army on the
other, so uneasy, as to oblige them to raise the siege.
This the Numidian prince thought a proper op-
portunity to gain some credit to his pacific profes-
sions. He made an offer accordingly to surrender
at discretion, and actually delivered up great part of
his arms and military stores; but this purpose, if ever
sincere, he soon retracted, and again had recourse to
arms.
U. C. 645.
Servius
Sulpicius
Galba, Q.
The victory which had been obtained in Africa
flattered the vanity of the Roman people,
and procured to Metellus, in the quality
of Proconsul, a continuation of his former
command. The troops he had posted in
Vacca being cut off by the inhabitants, he
Hortensius
Nepos,
Marcus
Aurelius
Scaurus.
made hasty marches in the night, surprised
the place, and, without having allowed the authors
of that outrage more than two days to enjoy the
fruits of their perfidy, amply revenged the wrong
they had done to the Roman garrison.
But the success of Metellus did not hasten the
ruin of Jugurtha so much as his own misconduct,
in the jealous and sanguinary measures which he now
took to suppress plots and conspiracies either real
or supposed to be formed against his life by persons
the most in his confidence.
Bomilcar, still carrying in his mind the offers
which had been made to him by Metellus, and will-
ing to have some merit with the Romans, into whose
hands he and all the subjects of Jugurtha were like-
ly soon to fall, formed a design against his master,
54
[C. XI.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
the Numi-
They were
and drew Nabdalsa, a principal officer in
dian armies, to take part in the plot.
discovered in time to prevent the execution of their
design, but they made Jugurtha from thenceforward
consider the camp of his own army as a place of
danger to himself, rendered him distrustful, timorous,
and unquiet; frequently changing his company and
his quarters, his guards and his bed. Under these
apprehensions, by which his mind was considerably
disordered and weakened, he endeavoured, by con-
tinual and rapid motions, to make it uncertain where
he should be found; and he experienced at last, that
private assassination and breach of faith, although
they appear to abridge the toils of ambition, are not
expedient even in war; that they render human life
itself, for the advantages of which war is undertaken,
no longer eligible or worthy of being preserved.
Weary of his anxious state, he ventured once more
to face Metellus in the field, and being again defeat-
ed, fled to Thala, where he had left his children and
the most valuable part of his treasure. This city too,
finding Metellus had followed him, he was obliged
to abandon, and, with his children and his remain-
ing effects, fled from Numidia, first to the country
of the Getuli, barbarous nations that lived among the
mountains of Atlas south of Numidia, and whom he
endeavoured to arm in his cause. From thence he
fled to Bocchus king of Mauritania, whose daughter
he had married; and having persuaded this prince
to consider his quarrel with the Romans as the com-
mon cause of all monarchies, who were likely in suc-
cession to become the prey of this arrogant and in-
C. XI.]
55
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
satiable power, he prevailed on the king of Mauri-
tania to assemble an army, and to attempt the re-
lief of Numidia.
Jugurtha, in conjunction with his new ally, di-
rected his march to Cirta, and the Roman general
perceiving his intention, took post to cover that
place. But while he was endeavouring, by threats
or persuasions, to detach the king of Mauritania
from Jugurtha, he received information from Rome,
that he himself was superseded in the command of
the army; and from thenceforward, under pretence
of messages and negotiations that were passing be-
tween the parties, protracted the war, and possibly
inclined to leave it with all its difficulties entire to
his successor. His dismission was the more galling
to himself, that it was obtained in favour of Caius
Marius, who, having served under him in this war,
had with great difficulty, and not without some ex-
pression of scorn on the part of his general, obtained
leave to depart for Rome, where he meant to stand
for the Consulship. He accordingly appeared in the
capacity of candidate for this honour, and by vaunt-
ing, instead of concealing, the obscurity of his birth
by inveighing against the whole order of Nobility,
their dress, their city manners, their Greek learning,
their family images, the stress they laid on the virtue
of their ancestors to compensate the want of it in
themselves, but more especially by arraigning the
dilatory conduct of Metellus, and by promising a
speedy issue to the war, if it should be intrusted to
himself, a promise, to which the force and ability
he had shewn in all the stations he had hitherto fill-
1
56
[C. XI.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
ed, procured him much credit; he so far won upon
the people, that, in opposition to the interest of the
Nobles, and to the influence of all the leading men
of the Senate, he prevailed in the election. His
promotion was in a particular manner offensive to
Metellus, whose reputation he had attacked, and to
whom, by an express order of the people, in con-
tempt of a different arrangement made by the Senate,
he was now to succeed.
U. C. 646.
L. Cassius
Longinus,
C. Marius.
Upon the nomination of Marius, the party who
had opposed his preferment did not at-
tempt to withhold the reinforcements
which he asked for the service in which
he was to command. They even hoped to increase
his difficulties, by suffering him to augment the mi-
litary establishment of his province. The wealthier
or more respectable class of the people alone were
yet admitted into the legions; and being averse to
such distant services, were likely to conceive a dis-
like to the persons by whom they were dragged
from home. Marius, therefore, in making his levies,
his opponents supposed, might lose some part of
the popular favour which he now enjoyed, and be-
come less formidable to his rivals in the state. But
this crafty and daring adventurer, by slighting the
laws which excluded the necessitous citizens from
serving in the legions, found in this class of the
people a numerous and willing recruit. They
crowded to his standard, and filled up his army with-
out delay, and even without offence to those of a
better condition, who were pleased with the relief
they obtained from this part of their public burdens.
c. x1.]
57
OF THE ROMAN REPublic.
This circumstance is quoted as a remarkable and
dangerous innovation in the Roman State, and is
frequently mentioned among the steps which hasten-
ed its ruin. The example, no doubt, with its conse-
quences, may instruct nations to distinguish the mi-
litary operations required at a distance, from the
more important object of preservation and home-de-
fence; so that in declining the distant service, the
more respectable orders of the people may not think
it necessary to abandon themselves to depredation
at home. In the first ages of Rome, the citizens in
political convention were styled the Army of their
Country, and such in every age is the army in whose
hands the freedom of nations is secure. From the
date of these levies at Rome, the sword began to
pass
from the hands of those who were interested in
the preservation of the republic, into the hands of
others who were willing to make it a prey. The cir-
.cumstances of the times were such, indeed, as to give
warning of the change. The service of a legionary
soldier abroad, was become too severe for those of
the people who could live at their ease, and it now
opened to the necessitous a principal road to profit
as well as honour. Marius, to facilitate his levies,
was willing to gratify both; and thus gave beginning
to the formation of armies who were ready to fight
for or against the laws of their country, and who, in
the sequel, substituted battles in the streets of Rome,
for the bloodless contests which, in the early ages of
Rome, had arisen from the divisions of party.
The new Consul, unrivalled in the favour of the
people, obtained whatever he required; and, being
1
58
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
[c. XI.
completely provided for the service to which he was
destined, embarked for Africa, and, with a great re-
inforcement, in a few days arrived at Utica. Upon
his arrival, the operations of the war were resumed,
and carried into the wealthiest provinces of Numi-
dia, where he encouraged his army with the hopes of
spoil. The new levies, though composed of persons
hitherto untrained, and even excluded from the mi-
litary service, were formed by the example of the
legions already in the field, and who were now well
apprised of their own superiority to the African ar-
mies. Bocchus and Jugurtha, upon the approach
of this enemy, thought proper to separate, and took
different routes into places of safety in the more dif
ficult and inaccessible parts of the country.
This separation was made at the suggestion of Ju-
gurtha, who alleged, that, upon their appearing to
despair, and to discontinue all offensive operations,
the Roman general would become more secure, and
more open to surprise. But Marius, without aba-
ting his vigilance, pressed where the enemy gave
way, overran the country, and took possession of
the towns they had left. To rival the glory which
Metellus had gained in the reduction of Thala, he
ventured on a like enterprise, in the face of similar
difficulties, by attacking Thapsa, a place surround-
ed with desarts, and in the midst of a land destitute
of water, and of every resource for an army. Ha-
ving succeeded in this design, he ventured, in his
return, to attack another fortress, in which, the place
being supposed impregnable, the royal treasures
were lodged. This stronghold was placed on a
1
C. XI.]
59
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
rock, which was every where, except at one path
that was fortified with ramparts and towers, faced
with steep and inaccessible cliffs. The garrison
permitted the first approaches of the Romans with
perfect security, and even derision. After some
fruitless attacks, Marius, under some imputation of
folly in having made the attempt, was about to de-
sist from the enterprise, when a Ligurian, who had
been used to pick snails on the cliffs over which this
fortress was situated, found himself, in search of his
prey, and by the growing facility of the ascent, led
to a height from which he began to have hopes of
reaching the summit. He accordingly surmounted
all the difficulties in his way; and the garrison be-
ing then intent on the opposite side of the fortress
to which the attack was directed, he returned unob-
served. This intelligence he carried to Marius, and
undertook to be the guide of a detachment of chosen
men, with an unusual number of trumpets and in-
struments of alarm, who were ordered to follow his
directions. Marius himself, to divert the attention
of the besieged, and, on receiving a signal agreed
upon from within, to be ready to make a vigorous
and decisive assault, advanced to the walls. The
Ligurian proceeded, though with much difficulty,
to fulfil the expectations he had given. The soldiers
who followed him were obliged to untie their san-
dals and their helmets, to sling their shields and their
swords, and, at difficult parts of the rock, could not
be persuaded to advance until their guide had re-
peatedly passed and repassed in their sight, or had
found stumps and points of the stone at which they
60
[C. XI.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
could fasten ropes to aid their ascent. The summit
was to be gained at last by climbing a tree, which,
being rooted in a clift of the rock, grew up to the
edge of the precipice. By the trunk of this tree the
whole party passed, and, being as high as its branches
could carry them, landed at last on the summit.
They instantly sounded their trumpets, and gave a
sudden alarm. The besieged, who had been drawn
to an opposite part of the walls to resist the enemy
who there menaced an attack, were astonished with
this sound in their rear, and soon after, greatly ter-
rified with the confused flight from behind them of
women, children, and men unarmed, and being at
the same time vigorously pressed at their gates, were
no longer able to resist, suffered the Romans to force
their way at this entrance, and in the end to become
masters of the fort.
While Marius was engaged in the siege of this
place, he was joined by the Quæstor Sylla, who had
been left in Italy to bring up the cavalry, which
were not ready to embark at the departure of the
Consul. This young man was a Patrician, but of a
family which had not, for some generations, borne
any of the higher offices of state. He himself par-
took in the learning which then spread into Italy,
from a communication with the Greeks, and had
passed the early part of his life in town-dissipation
or in literary studies, of which the last, though
coming into fashion at this time at Rome, was con-
sidered as a species of corruption almost equal to
the first. He was yet a novice in war, but having
an enterprising genius, soon became an object of re-
C. XI.]
61
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
spect to the soldiers, and of jealousy to his general,
with whom he now laid the foundation of a quarrel
still more fatal to the commonwealth than that which
had subsisted between the present and preceding
commander in this service.
The king of Numidia, stung by the sense of what
he had already lost, and expecting no advantage
from any further delays, determined, in conjunction
with his ally, to make a vigorous effort, and to oblige
Marius, who was then moving towards his winter-
quarters, yet to hazard a battle for the preservation
of what he had acquired in the preceding campaign.
The king of Mauritania, upon the late events of the
war, had been inclined to return to his neutrality,
or to enter on a separate treaty with the Romans;
but being promised a third part of the kingdom of
Numidia, in case the enemy were expelled from
thence, or if the war should be otherwise brought to
a happy conclusion, he once more advanced with his
army, and joined Jugurtha.
The prosperous state of the Romans, undisturbed
for some time by any opposition from an enemy in
the field, inspired them with some degree of negli-
gence or security, by which they were exposed to
surprise. Near the close of a careless march, and
about an hour before the setting of the sun, they
found themselves entering among scattered parties,
who, without any settled order, increased in their
numbers, occupied the fields through which the Ro-
mans were to pass, and seemed to intend, by assail-
ing them on every side, to begin the night with a
scene of confusion, of which they might afterwards
62
[C. XI.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
more effectually avail themselves in the dark. In
an action begun under these disadvantages, Jugurtha
flattered himself, that the Roman army might be
entirely defeated, or, in a country with which they
were not acquainted, and in circumstances for which
they were not at all prepared, being unable to effect
a retreat, be obliged to surrender at discretion.
The king, with his usual intrepidity and conduct,
profited by every circumstance which presented it-
self in his favour. He brought the troops of which
his army was composed, whether Getulians or Nu-
midians, horse or foot, to harass the enemy in their
different ways of fighting, and wherever they could
most easily make their attacks. Where a party was
repulsed, he took care to replace it; and sometimes
affected to remit his ardour, or to flee with every
appearance of panic, in order to tempt the Romans
to break from their ranks. Marius, notwithstanding,
with great dexterity and presence of mind, main-
tained the form of his march; and, before night,
got possession of some heights on which he could
rest with safety. He himself, with the infantry,
chose that which had the steepest ascent, and order-
ed Sylla, with the cavalry, to take his post on a
smaller and more accessible eminence below. That
his position might not be known to the enemy,
he prohibited the lighting of fires, and the usual
sounding of trumpets at the different watches of the
night. The Numidians had halted on the plain
where night overtook them, and were observed, at
break of day, reposing in great security, and with-
out any seeming apprehension of danger from an
C. XI.]
63
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
enemy,
who was supposed to be flying, and who,
on the preceding day, had, with some difficulty, es-
caped from their hands. In this situation, Marius
resolved to attack them, and gave orders, which
were passed through the ranks, that, at a general
sound of the trumpets, every man should stand to
his arms, and with a great shout, and beating on
his shield, make an impetuous assault on the enemy.
The design, accordingly, succeeded. The Numi-
dians, who on former occasions had often affected
to flee, were driven into an actual rout. Great num-
bers fell in the flight, and many ensigns and tro-
phies were taken.
After this victory, Marius, with his usual precau-
tions, and though it might be supposed that the
enemy were dispersed, without remitting his vigi-
lance, directed his march to the towns on the coast,
where he intended to fix his quarters for the winter.
Jugurtha, well apprized of his route, proposed again
to surprise him before he should reach the end of
his journey; and, for this purpose, avoided giving
him any premature or unnecessary cause of alarm.
He deferred his attack until the Roman army was
arrived in the neighbourhood of Cirta, supposed to
be the end of their labours, and near to which it was
probable they would think themselves secure from
any further attempts of their enemy. In the execu-
tion of this design, he, with the greatest ability, con-
ducted his troops to the place of action, and there
too made every effort of conduct and resolution.
But the match being unequal, he was obliged to
give up the contest; and, with his sword and his ar-
61
[C. XI.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
mour all bathed in blood, and almost alone, is said
to have left a field, in which, for the first time, he
had taken no precautions for re-assembling an army,
and on which his Numidians were accordingly rout-
ed, in appearance, to rally no more.
U. C. 647.
Seranus,
Quintus
Servilius
Catico.
Upon these repeated defeats, Bocchus despaired
of the fortunes of Jugurtha, and sent a de-
C. Attilius putation to Marius, requesting a confer-
ence with himself, or with some of his of
ficers. He obtained an interview with
Sylla and Manlius; but, upon their arrival,
had taken no fixed resolution, and was still kept in
suspense, by the persuasion of those of his court
who favoured the interest of Jugurtha. Marius,
being continued in his command, resumed the ope-
rations of the war, and was about to attack the only
place which yet remained in the hands of the ene-
my; when the king of Mauritania, alarmed by this
circumstance, took his resolution to sue for peace.
He sent a deputation of five chosen persons, first to
the quarters of Marius, and, with this general's per-
mission, ordered them to proceed from thence to
Rome. These deputies being admitted into the Se-
nate, made offers of friendship in the name of their
master; but were informed, in return, that he must
give proofs of his friendly disposition to the Romans,
before they could rely on his professions, or listen
to any terms of peace. When this answer was re-
ported to Bocchus, he was not at a loss to under-
stand that the Romans wished him to deliver up the
king of Numidia into their hands; and seems to have
conceived the design of purchasing peace, even on
2
C. XI.]
65
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
these terms. Sylla being already personally known
to him, he made choice of this officer, as the person
with whom he would treat, and desired he might be
sent to his quarters. The Roman Quæstor accord-
ingly set out with a small party. On the way he
was met by Volux, the son of the king of Maurita-
nia, with a thousand horse: him he considered as of
doubtful intention, whether destined to act as a
friend or an enemy; but coming with professions
of friendship from the king his father, and with or-
ders to escort the Roman Quæstor, they proceeded
together. On the second day after this junction,
Volux came in haste to the quarters of Sylla, and
informed him, that the advanced party had discover-
ed Jugurtha posted on their route, with numbers
through which they might not be able to force their
way, and earnestly pressed the Roman officer to en-
deavour his own escape in the night.
Sylla could no longer disguise his suspicions, and,
sensible that he had imprudently, without hostage
or other security, ventured too far on the faith of an
African prince, proudly refused to alter his march;
desired that the Mauritanian prince, if he thought
proper, should depart; but informing him, at the
same time, that the Roman people would know how
to avenge so public an insult, and would not fail to
punish the perfidy of the King his father. Volux,
in return, made strong protestations of innocence;
and as the Roman Quæstor could not be prevailed
on to save himself by flight, this prince insisted to
remain, and to share in his danger. They accord-
ingly kept on their way, passed in the view of Ju-
VOL. II.
E
66
[c. xr.
C.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
gurtha with his party, who, though disposed to offer
violence to the Romans, had yet some measures to
preserve with the king of Mauritania, whose son was
in company; and thus while, contrary to his usual
character, he remained undecided, the prey escaped
him, or got out of his reach.
Jugurtha sent persons of confidence immediately
to counteract the negotiations of Sylla at the court
of Bocchus; and each of these parties solicited the
king of Mauritania to betray the other. The Nu-
midians endeavoured to persuade him, that, with
such an hostage as Sylla in his hands, he might still
expect some honourable terms from the Romans;
and Sylla, on the other part, represented, that, as
the king of Mauritania had offended the Romans,
by abetting the crimes of Jugurtha, he must now
expiate his guilt by delivering him over to justice.
It was the inclination of this prince to favour his
Numidian ally; but it was his interest, as well as his
intention, to gain the Romans. While he was still
in suspense, he gave equal encouragement to both
parties; and, without being finally determined what
he should do, appointed the Roman Quæstor and
the King of Numidia to meet him without any escort,
or number of men in arms on either side, reserving,
for himself, to the last moment, the power of deter-
mining against the one or the other. By the time,
however, that the parties were met, he had taken his
resolution, had placed a body of his own troops in
ambush, and, before any conference took place, gave
a signal, which his men understood to be for seizing
Jugurtha. The Numidians, who attended their
C. XI.]
67
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
king, were slain; he himself was put in chains, and
delivered up to the Roman Quæstor. Sylla, with
the exultation of a successful hunter, received this
lion in his toils; and, though he lived to perform
much greater actions, still appears to have valued
himself most on the event of this transaction. He
boasted so much of his prize, that he became, from
that moment, an object of jealousy to Marius, and
was considered as a person advancing too fast in the
same career of renown *. It was understood among
the Romans, that the commander-in-chief, upon any
service, in any division or province of the empire,
enjoyed the triumph for victories gained, even in his
own absence, by his lieutenants, or by those who
served under his command; and Marius probably
thought that Sylla took more to himself than was
due upon this occasion. The desire of being the
person who put the finishing hand to any matter of
great public concern, however accomplished, was
not peculiar to these officers. It was an effect of
the Roman policy in making the rewards of, dis-
tinction depend so much on events, without re-
gard to the means which were employed to produce
them: A circumstance, from which the citizens of
this republic were as desirous of having the reputa-
tion of successful adventures affixed to their names,
as courtiers in modern Europe are desirous of titles,
or covet badges of honour and marks of their sove-
reign's favour.
The war being thus at an end, Marius appointed
* Plutarch, in Mario et in Sylla.
E 2
68
[C. XI.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
a thanksgiving; and, while he was offering the cus-
tomary sacrifices, the news arrived from Rome that
the people had dispensed with the law in his favour,
and again had elected him Consul for the following
year. This choice was determined by the great a-
larm which the Romans had taken on the approach
of the barbarous nations, who, like a meteor, had,
for some years, traversed the regions of Europe, and,
with uncertain direction, were said to destroy where-
ever they moved. The Romans had repeatedly stood
in their way, and had provoked a resentment, which
these barbarians were supposed, in haste, to wreak
upon Italy. They were at first heard of under the
name only of Cimbri; but were now known to con-
sist of many nations, under the appellations of Am-
brones, Teutones, Tectosagi, and others; and had
gained accessions of force by the junction of the Ti-
gurini, and other Gaulish nations, who, either by
choice or compulsion, were made a part in this
mighty host, whose movements the Romans consi-
dered as now chiefly directed against themselves.
Rufus, Cn.
Mallius.
Besides the armies commanded by the Consuls Car-
U. C. 648. bo and Silanus, which had fallen victims to
P. Rutilius this barbarous enemy, other considerable
bodies, under Scaurus and Cassius, had pe-
rished by their hands; and other misfortunes from
the same quarter were coming apace. At the time
that Marius had finished the war with Jugurtha,
Quintus Servius Cæpio, having the former year com-
manded in Gaul, where he destroyed or pillaged the
city of Tolosa, and made a great booty, consisting,
according to Justin, of one hundred thousand pounds
C. XI.]
69
OF THE ROMAN Republic.
weight of gold, and one million five hundred thousand
pounds weight of silver, was now, in his turn, to meet
with this torrent of wandering nations; the Consul
Mallius or Manilius had orders to join him; and all
the troops they could assemble were but too few to
withstand such an enemy. These generals united
their forces on the Rhône, but without a proper dis-
position to act in concert; they were accordingly de-
feated in battle; eighty thousand Romans, amongst
whom were the two sons of the Consul Manilius,
were killed in the action; forty thousand attendants
of the army were massacred in cold blood. Both
camps were taken.
After this victory, the lords of the Cimbri, being
assembled in council, called before them Aurelius
Scaurus, formerly a Roman Consul, lately second in
command over one of their vanquished armies, and
now a prisoner. They questioned him with respect
to the forces in Italy, and the route to be taken
across the Alps: To these questions he made an-
swer, That it would be in vain for them to invade
that country that the Romans, on their own terri-
tory, were invincible. And, in return to these
words, it is said, that a barbarian struck the prison-
er with his dagger to the heart. It is further said
of this barbarous council, that they came to a reso-
lution to spare no prisoners, to destroy the spoils of
the slain, to cast all the treasures of gold and silver
into the nearest river, to destroy all horses with their
saddles and furniture, and to save no booty whatever.
It must be confessed, that in this, their resolutions
were guided by a policy well accommodated to the
70
[C. XI.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
manner of life they had chosen. Wealthy posses-
sions frequently disqualify even settled nations for
the toils of war, but to hordes in continual migra-
tion, the accommodations of luxury and sloth would
be certain impediments, and the means of ruin *.
These accounts of impending enemies, and of the
disasters which befell the Roman armies which ven-
tured to encounter them, were received at Rome
with amazement and terror. The citizens changed
their dress, and assumed the military habit. Ruti-
lius, the Consul, who had remained in the adminis-
tration of affairs in Italy, had instructions from the
Senate to array every person that was fit to bear
arms. No one who had attained the military age.
was exempted. It is mentioned, that the son of the
Consul himself was turned into the ranks of a legion.
There was little time to train such levies; and the
usual way was thought insufficient. The fencing-
masters, employed to train gladiators for the public
shews, were brought forth, and distributed to instruct
the citizens in the use of their weapons t. But the
expedient, on which the people chiefly relied for de-
liverance from the dangers which threatened them,
was the repeated nomination of Marius to command
against this terrible enemy,
This officer, upon hearing of his re-election, set
out for Italy, and, with his legions and their captives,
made his entrance at Rome in triumph; a spectacle,
of which Jugurtha, in chains, with his unfortunate
children, were the principal figures. When the pro-
cession was over, the captive king was led to a dun-
* Orosius, lib. v, c. 16. Eutrop. lib. v.
Valer. Max. lib. ii, c. 5,
C. XI.]
71
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
geon, under orders for his immediate execution. As
he was about to be stripped of his ornaments and
robes, the executioner, in haste to pluck the pen-
dants from his ears, tore away the flesh, and thrust
him naked into a circular aperture into which he
descended with a smile, saying, “What a cold bath
"is here!" He pined about six days under ground,
and expired. A king and an able commander would,
in such a situation, have been an object of pity, if
we did not recollect that he was the murderer of Ad-
herbal and Hiempsal, the innocent children of his
benefactor; and if we did not receive some consola-
tion from being told, that his own children, who
were likewise innocent, were exempted from the lot
of their father, and honourably entertained in Italy.
Marius, in his triumph, is said to have brought
into the treasury three thousand and seven pounds,
or thirty thousand and seventy ounces of gold, and
fifty-seven thousand seven hundred and fifty ounces.
of silver; and in money, two hundred and eighty-
seven thousand denarii*. He entered the Senate,
contrary to custom, in his triumphal robes, proba-
bly to insult the nobles, who used to despise him as
a person of obscure extraction, born in a country
town, and of a mean family; but finding that this
was considered as an act of petulance, and generally
condemned, he withdrew and changed his dress.
The kingdom of Numidia was dismembered; part
was put into the possession of Bocchus as a reward
for his late services; and part reserved for the survi
ving heirs of Massinissa.
* About L. 10,000.
72
[C. XI.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
U. C. 649.
Consuls,
C. Marius
2do, C.
Flavius
Fimbria
As the law respecting the Consulate now stood,
no one could be elected in absence, nor re-
elected into this office till after an inter-
val of ten years. Both clauses were dis-
pensed with in favour of Marius, under
pretence of continuing him at the head of
the army; but as he might still have remained in his
station, and have rendered the same services to the
State in the quality of Proconsul, his re-election may
be ascribed to his own ambition, and to his jealousy of
other rising men in the State. Being reputed head
of the popular party, his personal elevation was an
object of zeal to the Tribunes of the people, and was
intended to mortify those who affected the distinc-
tions of ancient family. Contrary to the usual form,
and without casting lots for the assignation of his
province, he was preferred to his colleague in the
appointment to command in Gaul. Having his
choice of all the armies at that time in Italy, he
took the new levies, lately assembled and disciplin-
ed by Rutilius, in preference to the veterans, who
had served in Africa under Metellus and himself.
It is probable that he was determined in this choice,
more by his desire to gratify the veterans, who wish-
ed to be discharged, in order to enjoy the fruits of
their labours, than by the consideration of any sup-
posed superiority in the discipline to which the new
levies had been trained *.
Upon the arrival of Marius in the province, it ap-
peared, that the alarm taken for the safety of Italy
* Frontinus de Stragemat. lib. iv, c. 6.
C. XI.]
73
OF THE ROMAN REPublic.
was somewhat premature. The Barbarians in their
battles only meant to maintain the reputation of their
valour, or to keep open the tract of their migrations.
They had found the lands from about the higher
parts of the Danube and the Rhine, through Gaul
and across the Pyrenees into Spain and to the Ocean,
convenient for their purpose, and sufficiently exten-
sive. They had not yet meditated any war with the
Romans, or other nation in particular; but did not
decline any contest where they met with resistance.
At present they continued their migrations to the
westward, without attempting to cross the Alps, or
seeming to have knowledge of nations who inhabited
the peninsula of Italy within those mountains.
We have nothing recorded in history concerning
the movements of these wandering hordes, during the
two subsequent years, except what is related of their
adventure with Fulvius, a Roman Prætor, probably
in Spain, who, in return for hostilities committed in
his province, having made a feint to draw the atten-
tion of their warriors elsewhere, surprised and sacked
their camp. Under the apprehension, however, of
their return towards Gaul and Italy, Marius conti-
nued to be elected Consul, and was repeatedly na-
med to the command of the army that was destined
to oppose them. His party at Rome had, at this
time, besides the exigency which justified their choice
of such a leader, many other advantages against their
antagonists, and maintained the usual contest of en-
vy in the lower people against the pride of nobility
with great animosity and zeal.
74
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION [c. XII.
CHAP. XII.
Review of the circumstances which revived the popular party at
Rome. Further accounts of laws and regulations under the
administration of this party.-State of the empire.-Fourth
consulate of Marius.-Continued migrations of the barbarous
nations.—Defeated by Marius at Aquæ Sextia.—By Ma-
rius and Catulus in Italy.
THE Senate had, for some time after the suppres-
sion of the troubles which were raised by Fulvius.
and the younger Gracchus, retained its authority,
and restrained the Tribunes of the people within
ordinary bounds; but by the miscarriages of the
war in Numidia, and the suspicions which arose
against them, on the subject of their transactions
with Jugurtha, they again lost their advantage. It
is difficult to ascertain the real grounds of these sus-
picions. Sallust seems to admit them in their utmost
extent, and represents the whole order of nobility as
mercenary traders, disposed to sell what the repu-
blic intrusted to their honour. That the presents
of Jugurtha were sometimes accepted, and had their
effect, is not to be doubted; but that the aristocra-
cy of Rome, during its temporary ascendant, was
so much corrupted, as the relation of this historian
implies, is scarcely to be credited. Such a measure
c. XII.]
75
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
of corruption must have rendered the State a prey
to every rival that was in condition to mislead its
councils, and is not consistent with that superiority
which the Romans then generally possessed in their
negotiations, as well as in their wars. The charge
itself savours too much of that envy with which the
lower class of the people at all times interpret the
conduct of their superiors, and which at the time
when Sallust wrote his history, was greatly counte-
nanced by the partisans of Cæsar, in order to vilify
and traduce the Senate. We cannot, however, op-
pose mere conjecture to the positive testimony of
Sallust, corroborated by some suspicious circumstan-
ces in the transactions of the times. Among these
we may recollect the patronage which Jugurtha met
with at Rome, contrary to the general sense of the
people, and the uncommon presumption of guilt
implied in the degradation of so many members as
were about the same time, by the authority of the
Censors, Q. Cæcilius Metellus and Cn. Domitius
Ahenobarbus *, expelled from the Senate.
Whatever may have been the real occasion of the
cry then subsisting against the Nobles, we have
seen that the popular party, availing themselves of
it, and giving it all manner of countenance, found
means to recover great part of the power they had
formerly lost. The Tribunes, having obtained the
establishment of a special commission for the trial of
those who had received any bribes from Jugurtha,
*It is already mentioned, that thirty-two Senators were struck off the rolls
by these magistrates, Epitom. Liv. lib. 62.
76
[c. XII.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
the people mistook their own act in constituting a
court of inquiry, as sufficient to evince the reality of
the crime. The prosecutions which continued to
be carried on for two years, upon this supposition,
served more than the subject of any former dispute
to exasperate and to alienate the minds of men from
each other, and from the public. Questions were
more of a private than of a public nature, and occu-
pied the worst of the human passions, envy, malice,
and revenge.
One party learned to cherish false-
hood, subornation, and perjury; the other lived in
continual and degrading fear of having such engines
employed against themselves.
The people, in their zeal to attack the Nobility
under any pretence, made no distinction between
errors and crimes; and, contrary to the noble spirit
of their ancestors, treated misfortune, incapacity,
and treachery with equal rigour. One Tribune
had extended the use of the secret ballot in giving
judgment on certain offences or misdemeanors *;
another, upon this occasion, took away all distinc-
tions, or introduced the same cover of secrecy in the
trial of capital crimes † insomuch, that a judge
draughted from among the parties then at variance,
could, without being accountable, indulge his ma-
lice or partial favour, so as to affect the life as well
as the honour of a fellow citizen ‡, to whom he bore
any spite.
:
1
* Lex Cassia Tabellaria.
+ Lex Calia Tabellaria.
Cicer. de Legibus, lib. iii,
C. XII.]
77
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
Laws were made to promote the interest, as well
as to gratify the animosity, of the lower people. By
the Agrarian law of Gracchus, no one could possess
above a certain measure in land; but in order to
render the surplus of property to be surrendered
immediately useful to the people, it was permitted,
by an amendment of the law made during the low
state of the aristocratical party, that persons holding
more than the legal measure might retain their pos-
session, but subject to a rent to be collected for the
benefit of the poorer citizens; and thus it was pro-
vided, that without discontinuing the practice of
faction, or removing into what was considered as a
species of exile in the country, the favourites of the
party should be accommodated, and reap the fruits
of sedition and idleness, while they continued to pur-
sue the same course of life in the city
It was proposed, by the Consul Servilius Cæpio,
that the Senate, whose members were per-
U. C. 647.
Lex Servi-
lia de Ju-
diciis.
*
sonally so much exposed to prosecutions,
should have their share likewise in com-
posing the courts of justice, a privilege of which, by
the edict of Gracchus, they had been deprived t.
In whatever degree this proposal was adopted, it was
again expressly rejected upon the motion of Servi-
lius Glaucia. And Cæpio soon after experienced,
in his own person, the animosity of the popular fac-
tion: Being tried for miscarriage in his battle with
the Cimbri, he was condemned by the judges, and
afterwards, by a separate act obtained by Cassius,
*Appian. de Bell. Civ. lib. i.
+ Valer. Max. lib. v, c. 9.
78
[c. XII.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
one of the Tribunes, declared, in consequence of
that sentence, disqualified to hold a place in the Se-
nate
*
Besides the transactions already mentioned, the
following particulars, overlooked in the hurry of re-
cording military operations and events, may serve
still further to characterize the times. M. Junius
Silanus was tried for misconduct against the enemy;
M. Emilius Scaurus, first on the roll of the Senate,
was brought to trial for contempt of religion; but
both acquitted. The ardour for these prosecutions
and popular regulations, continued without abate-
ment, until the second Consulate of Marius, when M.
Marcius Philippus, one of the Tribunes, moved to
revive the law of Tiberius Gracchus respecting the
division of estates in land, which, from this circum-
stance, should appear had never been executed;
and, in his speech to support this motion, affirmed,
that there were not then two thousand families in
Rome possessed of any property in land whatever †.
This motion, however, was withdrawn.
Among the crimes which the populace were now
so eager to punish, fortunately that of peculation or
extortion in the provinces was one. To facilitate
complaints on this subject, not only persons having
an immediate interest in the case, but all to whom
any money or effects injuriously taken might have
otherwise come by inheritance, were entitled to pro-
secute for this offence: and any alien, who convict-
• Asconius Pædianus in Corneliana Ciceronis.
+ Cicero de Officiis, lib. ii.
c. XII.]
79
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
ed a Roman citizen of this crime, so as to have him
struck off the rolls of the people, was entitled him-
self to be enrolled instead of the citizen displaced
Domitius, one of the Tribunes, attacked the ari-
stocratical constitution even of the priesthood, and
endeavoured to transfer the right of election to va-
cant places from the order itself to the people; but
superstition, which often continues to influence the
bulk of mankind after reason has failed, here stood
in his way. The custom was against him; and in
such matters, religion and custom are the same.
The people, therefore, it was confessed by the mo-
Lex Domi-
tia de Sa-
cerdotiis.
ver of this reform, could not without pro-
fanation pretend to elect a priest; but a
certain part of the people might judge of
the candidates, and instruct the college itself in the
choice to be made t. The same artifice, or verbal
evasion, had been already admitted in the form of
electing the Pontifex Maximus, presented to the or-
der, not by the people at large, but by seventeen of
the Tribes who were drawn by lot t.
During this period, a charge of depravity, worse
than that which was brought against those who were
employed in the State, might with equal justice be
directed against those who were loudest in raising
the
cry of corruption; for liberty on the part of the
populace, was conceived to imply a freedom from
every restraint, and to justify licence and contempt
of the laws. The gratuitous aids which were given
Cicero in Balbiana.
+ Asconius in Corneliana Ciceronis.
+ Cicero de Lege Agraria,
80
[c. XII.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
to the people, enabled them to subsist in idleness
and sloth; the wealth that was passing to Rome in
the hands of traders, contractors, and farmers of the
revenue, was spent in profusion. That which was
acquired by officers in one station of command in
the provinces, was lavished in public shows, in the
baiting of wild beasts and fights of gladiators, to gain
the people in the canvass for further preferments:
And from all these circumstances we may conclude,
that if there be reason to regret or detest the abuses
incident to monarchy, and the luxury of courts,
there is surely no less in the brutal taste and disso-
lute manners incident to a populace, acknowledged
in democracy the sovereign or supreme disposer of
preferments and honours.
The severities which were practised in certain
cases, the sumptuary laws which were provided to
restrain dissipation, were but feeble aids to stop up
the source of so much disorder. It is mentioned, as
an instance of severity which the times required,
that some Vestals were questioned for a breach of
that sacred obligation to chastity, under which they
were held up as a pattern of manners to the sex at
Rome; that three of them were condemned, and,
together with so many Roman knights, the supposed
partners in their guilt, suffered extreme punishment;
but no two things are more consistent than supersti-
tion and vice. A temple was on this occasion erect-
ed to the goddess Venus, under what may to us ap-
pear a new title, that of the Reformer *; prayers
* Venus Verticordia.
C. XII.]
81
OF THE ROMAN REPublic.
were to be offered up in this temple, that it might
please the goddess of Love to guard the chastity of
Roman women * And from this we may appre-
hend, that the devotions paid to this deity were in
some instances of a purer kind than we are apt to
imagine.
The term luxury is somewhat ambiguous; it is
put for sensuality or excess in what relates to the
uses or gratifications of animal nature; and for the
effect of vanity, in what relates to the decorations
of rank and fortune. The luxury of the Romans,
in the present age, was probably of the former kind,
and sumptuary laws were provided, not to restrain
vanity, but to govern the appetites for mere debauch.
About the time that Jugurtha was at Rome, the
sumptuary law of Fannius received an addition, by
which Roman citizens were not only restricted in
their ordinary expense, but the legal quantities and
species of food were distinctly prescribed. The whole
expense of the table was restricted to thirty asses†
a-day, and the meat to be served up, to three or four
pounds, dried or salted. There was no restriction
in the use of herbs or vegetables of any sort ‡. Ac-
cording to A. Gellius, the law permitted, on certain
days, an expense of an hundred asses; on wedding-
days, two hundred. It is remarkable, that this law
continued to have its effect on the tables of Roman
citizens after Cicero was a man . The Epicures of
* Orosius, lib. v, c. 15. Jul. Obsequens. Ovid. Fast. lib. v.
+ About two shillings.
Macrobius Satur. lib. ii, c. 17.
Epist. ad Familiar. lib. vii, ad Gallum.
VOL. II.
F
82
[c. XII.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
his time were obliged to make up, in the cookery of
their vegetable diet, what was defective in that spe-
cies of food.
About the time of the commencement of the Nu-
midian war, the people, according to the Census,
amounted to four hundred and three thousand four
hundred and thirty-six citizens, fit to carry arms.
At this time it was that the Censors, Quintus Cæci-
lius Metellus, and Cn. Domitius Ahenobarbus, as
already mentioned, expelled thirty-two members
from the Senate.
While the Romans were intent on the war which
subsisted in Africa, they were not exempted from
like trouble in other parts of their empire. In Spain
particularly, hostilities at intervals were still renew-
ed. There, in trying to quell a revolt of the na-
tives, a Roman Prætor was killed; in another en-
counter, the forces employed against the natives
were cut off; and a fresh army was transported from
Italy, to secure the Roman possessions.
Hostilities were likewise continued on the fron-
tier of Macedonia, by the Scordisci, Triballi, and
other Thracian nations; and the Proconsul Rufus,
by his victories in this quarter, obtained a triumph.
During this period, in the Consulship of Attilius
Serranus, and Q. Servilius Cæpio, the year after the
first Consulship of Marius, were born two illustrious
citizens, M. Tullius Cicero, and Cneius Pompeius
Strabo, afterwards distinguished by the appellation
of Pompey the Great. And with the mention of
these names we are now to open the scene in which
persons, on whom the fate of the Roman empire
c. XII.]
83
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
was to depend, made their several entries into life,
or into public business, and in which they began to
pass through an infancy or a youth of danger, to an
old age
of extreme trouble, which closed with the
subversion of that constitution of government under
which they were born.
Caius Ma-
rius 3tio.
us Orestes.
Marius having, without any memorable event,
U. C. 650. passed the year of his second Consulship,
on the frontier of Narbonne Gaul, was, by
L. Aureli- the people, still under the same apprehen-
sion of the Cimbric invasion, re-elected,
and destined to remain in his station. This year,
likewise, the Barbarians turned aside from the Ro-
man province, and left the republic at leisure to
contend with enemies of less consideration, who ap-
peared in a different quarter. Athenio, a slave in
Sicily, having murdered his master, and broken open
the prisons or walled inclosures in which slaves
were commonly confined at work, assembled a num-
ber together, and being himself clothed in a purple
robe, with a crown and sceptre, affected a species of
royalty, while he invited all the slaves of the island
to assume their freedom under his protection. He
acquired strength sufficient to cope with Servilius
Casca, the Roman Prætor, and actually forced him
in his camp. He likewise defeated the succeeding
Prætor, Licinius Lucullus * ; and was, in the third
year of his insurrection, with great difficulty, redu-
ced by the Consul Aquilius. This revolt was at its
height in this year of the third Consulship of Ma-
Florus, lib. iii, c. 19.
F 2
84
[c. XII.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
rius, and the rebels being surrounded in their strong-
holds, and obliged to surrender for want of provi-
sions, it was quelled in the second year after this
Consulship*. The whole is mentioned now, that it
may not recur hereafter to interrupt the series of
matters more important.
About the same time the Romans had been obliged
to equip a naval armament under Marcus Antonius,
known by the appellation of the Orator, against the
Cilician pirates, who had lately infested the seas. All
that we know of this service is, in general, that it
was performed with ability and success t.
From Macedonia, Calpurnius Piso reported, that
the victory he had gained over the Thracians had
enabled him to penetrate to the mountains of Rho-
dope and Caucasus.
Such was the state of the empire when Caius Ma-
rius arrived from his province in Gaul, to preside at
a new election of Consuls. He was himself again,
by the voice of the people, called upon to resume
his trust; but he affected, with an appearance of
modesty, to decline the honour. His partisans were
apprised of the part he was to act, and were accord-
ingly prepared, by their importunities, to force him
into an office which he certainly did not mean to
decline. Among these, Apuleius Saturninus, at
this time himself candidate for the office of Tribune,
charged Marius with treachery to his country in pro-
posing to desert the republic in times of so much
* Florus, lib. iv, c. 19.
+ Ibid. lib. iii, c. 6.
Cicero de Orator. lib. i.
C. XII.]
85
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
danger; and with his reproaches seemed to prevail
so far as to render this favourite of the people pas-
sive to the will of his fellow-citizens, who wished to
reinstate him in his former command.
U. C. 651.
Caius Ma-
rius 4to, L.
Lutatius
Catulus.
*
In this fourth Consulate, the courage and military
skill of Marius came to be actually exert-
ed in his province. The barbarous na-
tions, after their return from Spain, began
to appear in separate bodies, each forming
a numerous and formidable army. In one division
the Cimbri and Tectosages had passed through the
whole length of Gaul to the Rhine; from thence
proceeded by the Danube to Noricum or Austria,
and, by the passes of Carinthia, or by the valley of
Trent, might have an easy access to Italy. The
Consul Lutatius Catulus was stationed on the Athe-
sis, near the descent † of the Alps, to observe the
motions of this body.
In another division, the Ambrones and the Teu-
tones, between the Garonne and the Rhône, hung
on the frontier of the Roman province, and gave
out, that they meant, by another route of the moun-
tains, to join their allies who were expected on the
Po.
Upon the approach of this formidable enemy in
the division to which he was opposed, Marius took
post on the Rhône at the confluence of this river
with the Isere, and fortified his camp in the most
effectual manner. The Barbarians, reproaching him
with cowardice for having taken these precautions,
Plutarch. in Mario.
† Now the Adigé.
86
[c. XII.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
sent, agreeably to their own notions of war, a formal
challenge to meet them in battle; and having had
for answer, That the Romans did not consult their
enemies to know when it was proper to fight, they
were confirmed in their usual contempt, ventured
to leave the Roman army behind, and proceeded in
separate divisions to look out for a passage into
Italy. Marius followed; with rapid marches, over-
took them in their progress, and even dispersed over
the country, without precaution or order; some of
them near to the Roman colony of Sextius*, and
far removed from each other. Having found them
under such disadvantage, and in such condition as
exposed them to slaughter, with scarcely any means
of resistance, he put the greater part to the sword.
Thus, one part of the hordes, who had for years
been so formidable to the Romans, were now en-
tirely cut off. Ninety thousand prisoners, with Teu-
tobochus, one of their kings, were taken, and two
hundred thousand were said to be slain in the field†;
accounts which, with some others relating to this
war, we may suspect to be exaggerated.
• The news of this victory arriving at Rome, while
it was known that a second swarm of the same hive,
not less formidable than the first, still hung on the
approaches to Italy, it was not to be doubted that
the command and office of Consul would still be
continued to Marius.
The populace, incited by
Now Aix, in Provence.
+ Plutarch, in Mario. Orosius, lib. v, c. 16. Florus, lib. iii, c. 3. Vel-
lcius. Eutropius.
C. XII.]
87
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
some of the factious Tribunes, joined, with the
other usual marks of their attachment to this fa-
vourite leader, that of disrespect and insolence to
those who were supposed to be his opponents and
rivals. Of these, Metellus Numidicus, whom he
had supplanted in the command of the army against
Jugurtha, was the chief. This respectable citizen,
being now in the office of Censor, one Equitius, an
impostor of obscure or slavish extraction, offered
himself to be enrolled as a citizen, under the popu-
lar designation and name of Caius Gracchus, the
son of Tiberius. The Censor, doubting his title,
called upon Sempronia, the sister of Gracchus, to
testify what she knew of this pretended relation;
and, upon her giving evidence against him, rejected
his claim. But the populace, ill-disposed to Metel-
lus, on account of his supposed disagreement with
Marius, took this opportunity to insult the Censor
in the discharge of his office; attacked his house,
and obliged him to take refuge in the Capitol.
Even there the Tribune Saturninus would have
laid violent hands on his person, if he had not been
protected by a body of the Roman Knights, who
had assembled in arms to defend him. This tumult
was suppressed, but not without bloodshed.
While the popular faction was indulging in these
U. C. 653.
Caius Ma
rius 5to, M.
Aquilius.
marks of dislike to Metellus, they proceed-
ed to bestow the honours which they in-
tended for Marius, and chose him for a
fifth time Consul, in conjunction with M. Aquilius.
His late splendid successes against one division of the
wandering Barbarians justified this choice, and point-
88
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION [C. XII.
i
ed him out as the fittest person to combat the other,
which was still expected from the banks of the Da-
nube, to attempt the invasion of Italy. Catulus, the
late colleague of Marius, commanding the troops that
were stationed on the Athesis, to cover the access to
Italy from what is now called the Tyrol and the val-
ley of Trent, was destined to act in subordination
to the Consul, who had given orders to hasten the
passage of his victorious army from the other extre-
mity of the Alps and the Rhône.
Catulus had taken post near Verona, thrown a
bridge over the Athesis, and, in order to command
the passage of that river, had fortified stations on
both its banks. While he was in this posture, and
before the junction of Marius, the enemy arrived in
his neighbourhood. The amazing works which they
performed might serve to confirm the report of their
numbers. They obstructed with mounds of timber
and earth the channel of the Athesis, so as to force
it to change its course; and by this means, instead
of themselves passing the river, they threw it be-
hind them in their march. They continued to float
such quantities of wood towards the bridge which
Catulus had constructed, that the stream being ob-
structed, the bridge itself, unable to sustain such a
pressure, with all the timber which was accumula-
ted before it, was entirely carried off. The troops
of Rome, on seeing such proofs of the numbers and
strength of their enemy, were seized with a panic.
Many deserted their colours, some fled even to the
city itself, without halting. The Proconsul, to hide
his disgrace, thought proper to order a retreat; and
C. XII.]
89
OF THE ROMAN REPublic.
by this order, seeming to authorise what he could
not prevent, endeavoured to save in part the credit
of his army.
The level country on the Po was in this manner
laid open to the incursions of the Barbarians. The
inhabitants of Italy were greatly alarmed: and the
Roman people passed an act of attainder against all
those who had abandoned their colours. Marius,
who had been at Rome while he expected the arri-
val of his army from Gaul, suspended the triumph
which had been decreed to himself by the Senate,
now went to receive the legions on their approach,
and hastened to rally and to reinforce the army of
Catulus.
Upon their junction, those who had lately fled
from the plains of Verona recovered their courage,
and the generals determined, without loss of time,
to hazard a battle. It is said that the Barbarians of
this division were still ignorant of the disaster which
had befallen their confederates on the other side of
the Alps, and had sent the Roman army a defiance
or a challenge to fight; but that, being informed of
their loss when they were about to engage, they
made their attack with less than their usual ferocity
or confidence. Catulus received them in front.
Marius made a movement to assail them in flank;
but as the field was darkened by the clouds of dust
which every where rose from the plain, he missed
his way, or could not fall in with the enemy till af-
ter they had been repulsed by Catulus, and were al-
ready put to flight. The route, as usual, was ex-
tremely bloody; an hundred and fifty thousand were
90
[c. XII.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
said to be slain; sixty thousand submitted to be ta-
ken. The remainder of this mighty host, even the
women and children, perished by their own hands;
and in this manner, a race of barbarous nations, who
had migrated through Europe, perhaps for ages be-
fore they encountered with the Romans, now appear
to have been entirely cut off*.
On receiving the news of this victory at Rome, the
city resounded with joy, and the people, in every sa-
crifice they offered up, addressed themselves to Ma-
rius as to a god. He had been constantly attended
in this war by Sylla, who, though already an object
of his jealousy, still chose to neglect the preferments
of the city, and to serve in the camp. In the victory,
now to be celebrated, Marius was no more than
partner with Catulus, and, impatient as he will soon
appear of any competition for power, did justice to
his colleague in this particular, admitting him equal-
ly to partake in the triumph which ensued. In this
procession there were not any carriages loaded with
gold, silver, or precious spoils of any sort; but, in-
stead of them, the shattered armour and broken
swords of a ferocious enemy; the surer marks of an
honour justly won, and of a more important service
performed. These were transported in waggon-
loads, and piled up in the Capitol.
* Plutarch. in Mario et Sylla. Orosius. lib. v, c. 16. Florus, lib. iii, c. 3,
Velleius. Eutrop. Appian. in Celtica.
1
'
J
c. XIII.]
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
91
CHAP. XIII.
Character and immoderate ambition of Marius.-Death of
Nonius.-Re-election of the Tribune Saturninus.-His sedi-
tions and seizing the Capitol.-Death of Saturninus.—Re-
verse in the state of parties.-Recall of Metellus.-Violent
death of the Tribune Furius.-Birth of Caius Julius Cæsar.
-Lex Cæcilia Didia.-Blank in the Roman history.—Syl-
la offers himself candidate for the office of Prætor.—Edict
of the Censors against the Latin rhetoricians.-Bullion in
the Roman treasury.-Present of a group in golden figures
from the king of Mauritania.—Acts of Livius Drusus.-
Revolt of the Italian allies.-Policy of the Romans in yield-
ing to the necessity of their affairs.—The laws of Plautius.
UPON the extinction of the wandering nations which
had now for some time molested the empire, there
was no foreign enemy to endanger the peace of Italy.
The wars in Thrace and in Spain had no effect be-
yond the provinces in which they subsisted. The
insurrection of the slaves in Sicily, by the good con-
duct of Aquilius the Consul, to whom that service
had been committed, was near being quelled.
Marius, being now returned to the city, might
have quitted the paths of ambition with uncommon
distinction and honour. An ordinary Consulate, af-
ter his having been so often called upon, in times of
extreme danger, as the person most likely to save
92
[c. XIII.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
his country, could make no addition to his glory.
His being set aside in times of security and leisure,
on the contrary, must have been the most honourable
and flattering comment that could have been made
on his former elections.
But there is reason to believe, that immoderate
thirst of power, and extreme animosity to his rivals,
not genuine elevation of mind, were the characteris-
tics of Marius. His ambition had hitherto passed
for an aversion to aristocratical usurpations. But
his affected and furious contempt of family distinc-
tions, too often the offspring of sensibility to the
want of such honours, by clashing with the establish-
ed subordination of ranks in his country, became a
source of disaffection to the State itself. He formed
views upon the Consulate yet a sixth time ; and in-
stead of the moderation, or the satiety of honours
with which he formerly pretended to be actuated,
when he hoped to be pressed into office, he now
openly employed all his influence, even his money,
to procure a re-election; and in the event prevailed,
together with Valerius Flaccus. He had warmly
espoused the interest of this candidate against Me-
tellus, from animosity to the competitor, whose great
authority, placed in opposition to himself, he dread-
ed, more than from any regard or predilec-
tion for Flaccus. And now being chosen,
in order the more to strengthen himself in
the exercise of his power, he entered into
concert with the Tribune Apuleius Saturninus, and,
it is probable, agreed to support this factious dema-
gogue in his pretensions to remain in office for ano-
U. C. 653.
Caius Ma-
rius 6to,
L. Val.
Flaccus.
1
c. XIII.]
93
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
ther year; a precedent which had taken place only
in the most factious times of the republic,' and which
was in itself more dangerous than any other re-elec-
tion whatever. The person of the Tribune being
sacred, his will was absolute; there was no check to
his power besides the fear of being called to account
at the expiration of his term; and if this fear were
removed by the perpetuity of office, it was a power
yet more formidable than that of the Dictator, and
to be restrained only by the divisions which might
arise among those who were joined together in the
exercise of it.
The faction now formed by Marius and the Tri-
bune Saturninus, with their adherents, was farther
strengthened by the accession of the Prætor Glau-
cia. This person, while in office, and as he sat in
judgment, had received an affront from Saturninus,
in having his chair of state broken down for presum-
ing to occupy any part in the attention of the peo-
ple while an assembly called by the Tribune was
He nevertheless chose to overlook this insult,
in order to be admitted a partner in the considera-
tion and power which was likely to devolve on these
popular leaders.
met.
Upon the approach of the tribunitian elections,
the Senate and Nobles exerted themselves to pre-
vent the re-election of Saturninus; and nine of the
new candidates were, without any question, declared
to be duly elected in preference to him. The tenth
place too was actually filled by the election of No-
nius Sufenas, whom the aristocracy had supported
with all its influence. But the party of Apuleius,
94
[c. XIII.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
enraged at their disappointment, had recourse to
violence, forced Nonius, though already vested with
the sacred character of Tribune, to take refuge in a
work-shop, from whence he was dragged by some of
the late soldiery attached to Marius, and slain. The
assembly broke up with the cry of murder, and every
sober person, though reputed of the popular party,
retired from the scene under the strongest impres-
sions of affliction and terror.
Marius had reason to apprehend some violent re-
solution from the Senate, and was in no haste to as-
semble that body. Meantime his associate Glaucia,
in the night, at the head of a party armed with dag-
gers, took possession of the Capitol and place of as-
sembly, and, at an early hour in the morning, pre-
tending to observe all the forms of election, announ-
ced Apuleius again Tribune, in the place that was va-
cated by the murder of Nonius. This furious dema-
gogue was accordingly reinstated in the sacred cha-
racter, which, though recently violated by himself,
was still revered by the bulk of the people. He
was continually attended by a new set of men who
infested the streets, freemen of desperate fortune,
whom Marius, contrary to the established forms of
the constitution, had admitted into the legions. These
were grown fierce and insolent, as partners in the
victories of their general, and were now made to ex-
pect that, in case the popular party should prevail,
they themselves were to have comfortable settle-
ments, and estates in land.
Under the dread of so many assassins, who consi-
dered the Nobles as enemies to their cause, Marius
c. XIII.]
95
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
with his faction was become master of the common-
wealth. The better sort of the people was deterred
from frequenting the public assemblies, and no one
had courage to propose, that any inquiry should be
made into the death of the Tribune Nonius, in whose
person the sacred law had been again set at nought *.
Apuleius hastened to gratify his party by moving
Lex Agra- popular acts. One to seize, in name of
the public, those lands beyond the Po,
which had lately been overrun and desolated by the
barbarous nations, and to distribute them in lots to
the poorer citizens †.
ria.
S
Another, by which it was enacted, that in the
province of Africa a hundred jugera a man should
be distributed to the veterans : that new settle-
ments should be made in Greece, Macedonia, and
Sicily; and that the money taken from the temple
at Tolosa § should be employed in the purchase of
lands for a like purpose: that wherever these colo-
nies should be planted, Marius should have a power
to inscribe, at each of the settlements, the names
Lex Fru- of any three aliens into the list of citizen || :
That the price, hitherto paid at the public
granaries, should be discontinued, and that corn
should be distributed gratis to the people.
mentaria.
Upon the intention to obtain the last of those laws
being known, Q. Servilius Cæpio, one of the Quæs-
Appian. de Bell. Civil. lib. i.
lib. ix, c. 7. Orosius, lib. v, c. 57.
† Appian. de Bell. Civil, lib. i.
$ Now Thoulouse.
Plutarch in Mario, lib. lxix. Valer. Max.
Florus, lib. iii, c. 16.
Aut. de Viris Illustribus in Saturnino.
Aut. de Viris Illustribus in Saturnino.
96
the progress AND TERMINATION [C. XIII.
tors, represented, that if such a law should pass,
there would be an end to industry, good order and
government in the city; and that the treasury of
Rome would not be sufficient to defray the expense.
He exhorted the Senate to employ every measure.to
defeat this ruinous project. And this body accord-
ingly made a resolution, that whoever attempted to
obtain the law in question should be deemed an ene-
my to his country. But Apuleius was not to be re-
strained by the terrors of this resolution. He pro-
ceeded to propose the law in the usual form, and
had planted the rails and balloting urns for the peo-
ple to give their votes, when Cæpio, with a body of
his attendants, had the courage to attack the Tri-
bune, broke down the steps, and overset the ballot-
ing urns; an action for which he was afterwards im-
peached upon an accusation of treason, but by which,
for the present, he disappointed the designs of the
faction *
Apuleius, to extend the power of the popular as-
semblies, and to remove every obstruction from his
own designs, brought forward a number of new re-
gulations. One to confirm a former statute, by
which the acts of the Tribes were declared to have
the force of laws. Another, declaring it to be trea-
son for any person to interrupt a Tribune in putting
a question to the people. A third, obliging the Se-
nate to confirm every act of the Tribes within five
days after such act had passed, and requiring every
Senator, under pain of a fine, and of being struck
Aut. Rhetoricorum ad Herennium.
4
1
c. XIII.]
97
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
off the rolls, to take an oath to abide by these reĝu-
lations. While these motions were under debate,
some one of the party who opposed them, in order
to stop the career of this factious Tribune, observed
that it thundered; a circumstance which, upon the
ordinary maxims of the Roman Augurs, was suffi-
cient to suspend any business in which the people
were engaged, and to break up their assembly. "If
you be not silent," said Apuleius to the person
who observed that it thundered, "you will also find
"that it hails." The assembly accordingly, without
being deterred by this interposition of the auspices,
passed acts to the several purposes now mentioned.
The power of the Senate was thus entirely suppress-
ed, their part of the legislature being reduced to a
mere form, and even this form they were not at liber-
ty to withhold. Marius called them together, and
proposed that they should consider what resolution
they were to take with respect to a change of so
much importance, and particularly with respect to
the oath which was to be exacted from the Senators,
binding or obliging themselves to abide by the re-
gulations now made. The old warrior is said, on
this occasion, to have practised an artifice by which
he imposed on many of those who were present, and
which afterwards furnished him with a pretence for
removing his enemy Metellus from the councils of
state. He declared himself with great warmth a-
gainst taking the oath, and by his example led other
Senators to express their dislike. Metellus, in par-
ticular, assured the assembly, that it was his own re-
solution never to come under any such engagement.
VOL. II.
G
98
[c. XIII.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
While the Senators relied on the concurrence of
Marius in refusing the oath, the time appointed for
administering it nearly approached; and this Con-
sul, after the third day was far spent, assembled the
Senate, set forth the dangerous state of the common-
wealth; at the same time expressed his own fears of
the disturbances that might arise if the Senate re-
fused to gratify the people in this matter, and, while
multitudes were assembled in the streets to know
the issue of their councils, he required that the oath
should be administered. He himself took it, to the
astonishment of the Senate, and to the joy of the po-
pulace, who, being assembled by Apuleius, sounded
applause through the streets. Metellus alone, of all
who were present, refused to comply, and withstood
all the entreaties of his friends, who represented the
danger with which he was threatened. If it were
"always safe to do right," he said, "who would ever
"do wrong? But good men are distinguished, by choo-
"sing to do right even when it is least for their safety
" to do so."
66
On the following day the Tribune Saturninus en-
tered the Senate, and, not being stopped by the ne-
gative of any of his own colleagues, the only power
that could restrain him, dragged Metellus from his
place, and proffered an act of attainder and banish-
ment against him, for having refused the oath which
was enjoined by the people. Many of the most re-
spectable citizens offered their aid to defend this il-
lustrious Senator by force, but he himself declined
being the subject of any civil commotion, and went
into exile.
c. XIII.]
99
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
While the act, which afterwards passed for his
banishment, was preparing, he was heard to say,
"If
"the times should mend, I shall recover my station;
"if not, it is good to be absent from hence." He
fixed his abode at Smyrna, conducted his retirement
with great dignity during his exile, and probably
felt as he ought, that any censure inflicted by men
of a vile or profligate character, whatever title they
assumed, whether of Nobles or People, or of the
State itself, was an honour.
In these transactions elapsed the second year, in
which Apuleius filled the office of Tribune; and,
being favoured by a supineness of the opposite party
contracted in a seeming despair of the republic, he
prevailed yet a third time in being vested with this
formidable power. To court the favour of the peo-
ple, he affected to credit what was alleged concern-
ing the birth of Equitius; and, under the name of
Caius Gracchus, son of Tiberius, had this impostor
associated with himself in the office of Tribune. The
name of Gracchus, in this situation, awakened the
memory of former hopes and of former resentments.
The popular party had destined Glaucia for the Con-
sulate, and appear to have left Marius out of their
councils. This will perhaps account for the conduct
with which he concluded his administration in the
present year.
At the election which followed, the interest of
the Nobles was exerted for Marcus Antonius and
C. Memmius. The first was declared Consul, and
the second was likely to prevail over Glaucia; when,
in the midst of the crowds that were assembled to
vote, a sudden tumult arose; Memmius was beset
G 2
100
[c. XIII.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
and murdered; and the greater part of the people,
alarmed at so strange an outrage, were seized with a
panic, and fled.
In the night, it being known that Glaucia, Satur-
ninus, and the Quæstor Saufeius, were together in
secret conference, all the citizens who yet retained
any regard for the commonwealth assembled, in
dread of what so desperate a faction might at-
tempt. All the voices were united against Saturni-
nus, the supposed author of so many disorders and
murders. It was proposed, without delay, to seize
his person, either living or dead; but being put upon
his guard, by the appearance of a storm so likely
to break on his head, he thought proper, with the
other leaders of his party and their retainers in arms,
to seize the Capitol, there to secure themselves, and
to overawe the assembly of the people. It was no
longer to be doubted that the republic was in a state
of war. Marius, who had fomented these troubles
from aversion to the Nobles, would have remained
undetermined what part he should act. But the Se-
nate being met, gave the usual charge to himself
and his colleague to avert the danger with which the
republic was threatened; and both these officers,
however much they were disposed to favour the se-
dition, being in this manner armed with the sword
of the commonwealth, were obliged to employ it in
support of the public authority. The Senators, the
Knights, and all the citizens of rank, repaired in
arms to their standard. Antonius, Consul elected
for the following year, in order to prevent the entry
of disorderly persons from the country to join the
C. XIII.]
101
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
faction, was stationed in the suburbs with an armed
force*. The Capitol was invested in form, and ap-
pears to have held out some days; at the end of
which, in order to oblige the rebels to surrender, the
pipes that supplied them with water were cut off t.
This had the intended effect. They submitted on
such terms as were proposed to them; and Marius
being inclined to favour, had them only confined to
the hall of the Senate till farther orders. In the
mean time, a great party of citizens, who were in arms
for the defence of their families, impatient of delay,
and thinking it dangerous to spare such daring of
fenders, beset them instantly in their place of con-
finement, and put the whole to the sword ‡.
It was reported, though afterwards questioned up-
on a solemn occasion |, that Caius Rabirius, a Sena-
tor of distinction, having cut off the head of Apu-
leius, according to the manners of the times, carried
it as a trophy, and had it presented for some days at
all the entertainments which were given on this oc-
casion, or at which he himself was a guest.
This was the fourth tribunitian sedition raised to
a dangerous height, and quelled by the vigour and
resolution of the Senate. Marius, who had been ob-
* Cicero pro C. Rabirio. "Et si Caius Marius quod fistulas quibus aqua sup-
petabatur Jovis optimi maximi templis ac sedibus præcidi imperarat.'
+ Plutarch. in Caio Mario; 185 yag oxetɣs axexofev.
Plut. in Mario. Appian. de Bell. Civil. lib. i. Oros. lib. v, c. 17. Flor.
lib. iii. Aut. de Viris Illust. Cicero in Sextiana in Catal. lib. i. Philip. lib. viii,
et pro Caio Rabirio.
At the trial of Rabirius, when, some years afterwards, he was accused of
having killed Saturninus.
102
[c. XIII.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
liged to act as the instrument of government on this
occasion, saw his projects baffled, and his credit
greatly impaired. Plutarch relates, that he soon af
ter withdrew from the city for some time, on pre-
tence of a desire to visit the province of Asia, where
his active spirit became busy in forming the project
of new wars, for the conduct of which he was much
better qualified than for the administration of affairs
in peace.
U. C. 652.
nius, A.
A
Upon the suppression of this dangerous sedition,
the commonwealth was restored to a state which,
compared to the late mixture of civil contention and
military execution, may have deserved the name of
public order. One office of Consul was
M. Anto- still vacant; and the election proceeding
Posthumius without disturbance, Posthumius Albinus.
Albinus. was joined to Antonius. Most of the other
elections had also been favourable to the Nobles ;
and the majority even of the Tribunes of the people,
recovered from the late disorders, were inclined to
respect the Senate and the Aristocracy, as principal
supports of the commonwealth.
The first effect of this happy disposition was a
motion to recall Metellus from banishment. In this
measure, two of the Tribunes, Q. Pompeius Rufus
and L. Porcius Cato concurred. But Marius ha-
ving opposed it with all his influence, and Publius
Furius, another of the Tribunes, having interposed
his negative, it could not at that time be carried in-
to execution. Soon after, however, the same mo-
tion being renewed by the Tribune Callidius, and
Furius having repeated his negative, Metellus, son
C. XIII.] OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
103
of the exile, in presence of the people, threw himself
upon the ground, and embracing the Tribune's
knees, beseeched him not to withstand the recall of
his father. The young man, from this action, after-
wards acquired the surname of Pius; and the Tri-
bune, insolently spurning this suppliant, as he lay
on the ground, served his cause by that act of in-
dignity perhaps more effectually than he could have
done by lending a favourable ear to his request.
The people, ever governed by their present passions,
were moved with tenderness and with indignation.
They proceeded, without regard to the negative of
Furius, under emotions of sympathy for the son, to
recall the exiled father. The messenger of the re-
public sent to announce this act of the people to
Metellus, found him at Tralles in Lydia, among the
spectators at a public show. When the letters were
delivered to him, he continued to the end of the en-
tertainment without breaking the seals; by this
mark of indifference, treating the favour of a disor-
derly populace with as much contempt as he had
shown to their censure.
The Senate, in consequence of the distaste which
all reasonable men had taken to the violence of the
opposite party, having got the ascendant at Rome,
were gratified, not only with the test of superiority
they had gained in the recall of Metellus, but in the
downfall also of some of the tribunes, who had been
active in the late disorders. Publius Furius, now
become an object of general detestation, fell a sacri-
fice to the law of Apuleius, which declared it treason
to interrupt a Tribune in putting a question to the
104 THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION [C. XIII.
11
people. Being accused by Canuleius, one of his col-
leagues of violating this law, he was by the populace,
who are ever carried by the torrent, and prompt for
execution, prevented from making his defence; and,
though a Tribune in office, was put to death. De-
cianus, another of these officers, in supporting the
charge against Furius, happened to speak with re-
gret of the death of Saturninus, a crime for which
he incurred a prosecution, and was banished *. So
strong was the tide of popularity now opposite to its
late direction, and so fatal as precedents, even to
their own cause, frequently are the rules by which
violent men think to obtain discretionary power to
themselves. The murder of Nonius was a prece-
dent to justify the execution of Apuleius, and both
were followed by that of Furius. The law which
had for its object the support of Apuleius in any
measure of disorder or licence, was now employed
to support his enemies against himself and his fac-
tion.
Amidst these triumphs of the aristocratical party,
Sextus Titius, one of the Tribunes, still had the cou-
rage to move a revival of the Agrarian law of Grac-
chus. The proposal was acceptable in the assembly
of the people t: And the edict was accordingly
passed. But it was observed, that while the people
were met on this business, two ravens were fighting
in the air above the place of assembly, and the Col-
lege of Augurs, on pretence of this unfavourable
Val. Max. lib. viii, c. 1.
+ Julius Obsequens.
c. XIII.]
105
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
omen, annulled the decree *. Titius, the author of
it, was soon after condemned for having in his house
the statue of Saturninus t.
The Consul Aquilius returned from Sicily; and
having had an ovation or procession on foot for the
reduction of the Sicilian slaves, was on the following
year brought to trial for extortion in his province.
He called no exculpatory evidence, nor deigned to
court the favour of his judges. But when about to
receive sentence, M. Antonius, who had pleaded his
cause, tore open the vest of his client, and displayed
to the court and the audience the scars which he
bore in his breast, and which were the marks of
wounds received in the service of his country. Up-
on this spectacle, a sudden emotion of pity or re-
spect decided against the former conviction of the
court, and unfixed the resolution which, a few mo-
ments before, they had taken to condemn the ac-
cused.
Among the events which distinguished the Con-
sulate of M. Antonius and A. Posthumius Albinus,
may be reckoned the birth of Caius Julius Cæsar,
for whose ambition the seeds of tribunitian disorder
now sown were preparing a plentiful harvest. This
birth, it is said, was ushered in with many presa-
ges and tokens of future greatness. If, indeed, we
were to believe, that nature in this manner gives in-
timation of impending events, we should not be sur-
prised that her most ominous signs were employed
* Cicero de Legibus, lib. ii.
† Ibid. pro C. Rabirio. Ibid. de Orator. lib. ii, c. 28.
106
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION [C. XIII.
to mark the birth of a personage who was destined
to change the whole face of the political world, and
to lay Rome herself, with all the nations she had
conquered, prostrate under the dominion of caprice
and force,—a state of degradation which, by its na-
tural effects, served to turn back into the lowest ebb
of ignorance and meanness the tide of mental attain-
ment which had flowed for some ages in an opposite
direction.
U. C. 655.
Q. Cæcili-
us Metellus
Nepo, T.
Didius.
Antonius and Albinus were succeeded in office
by Q. Cæcilius Metellus and Titus Didius.
The war still continued in Spain, and the
conduct of it fell to the lot of Didius.
Upon his arrival in the province, Dolabel-
la, the Proprætor, set out on his return to Rome,
and, for his victories in Spain, obtained a triumph.
Metellus remained in the administration of affairs in
Italy.
lia Didia.
The legislation of the present year is distinguish-
Lex Cæci- ed by an act in which both Consuls con-
curred, and which is therefore marked in
the title with their joint names. The Roman peo-
ple had frequently experienced the defect of their
forms in the manner of enacting laws. Factious
Tribunes had it in their power to carry motions by
surprise, to include in the same law a variety of re-
gulations, and by obliging the people to pass or re-
ject the whole in one vote, frequently obtained, un-
der the favour of some popular clause, acts of a very
dangerous tendency. To prevent this abuse, it was
now enacted, upon the joint motion of the Consuls
Cæcilius and Didius, that every proposed law should
c. XIII.]
107
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
be made public three market days before it could
receive the assent of the people: that all its diffe-
rent clauses should be separately voted: and that it
should be lawful for the people to select a part, if
they were not inclined to adopt the whole *.
This law had a salutary tendency; and, though
far from sufficient to prevent a return of the late
evils, it served for a time to obstruct the course
of tribunitian violence: but while the source was
open, any mere temporary obstruction could only
tend to increase the force with which it occasion-
ally burst over every impediment of law or good
order that was placed in its way. And the ineffi-
cacy of measures taken upon the suppression of
the late dangerous sedition to eradicate the evil,
shews the extreme difficulty with which men are
led, in most cases, to make any great or just refor-
mation.
It is somewhat singular, that about this time, in
the midst of so much animosity of the people to the
Senate and Nobles, this superior and probably more
opulent class of the citizens were the patrons of au-
sterity, and contended for sumptuary laws, while the
popular Tribunes contended for license and the abo-
lition of former restraints. "What is your liberty,"
said the Tribune Duronius to the people, (while he
moved for a repeal of the sumptuary law of Fan-
nius)," if you may not enjoy what is your own; if
you must be directed by rule and measure;
; if
you must be stinted in your pleasures ?-Let us
<6
Cic. Philip. v. Pro domo sua. Epist. ad Atticum. lib. ii.
108
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION [C. XIII.
1
"shake off, I pray you, these musty remains of an-
"tiquity, and make free to profit by what we and
"our fathers have gained *."
Cn. Corne-
For the petulance of these expressions, this Tri-
U. C. 656. bune was, by the judgment of the Censors,
lius Lentu. on the following year, expelled from the
lus, P. Li- Senate; and he took his revenge by prose-
cuting the Censor Antonius for bribery in
canvassing for the very office he now held.
cinius Cras-
sus.
Cn. Cornelius Lentulus and Publius Licinius Cras-
sus being raised to the Consulate, the latter was ap-
pointed to relieve Didius in Spain, and the other to
succeed Metellus in Italy. There is, during some
years, a considerable deficiency in the materials from
which our accounts are collected; little more is re-
corded than the succession of Consuls, with the
number of years that elapsed, and a few particu-
lars that ill supply the interval of what passed in
the city, or in the series of important affairs abroad.
So far as these particulars, however, can be referred
to their respective dates, it will be proper, while we
endeavour to mark the lapse of time, to record them
in the order in which they are supposed to have hap-
pened.
In the present year are dated two remarkable
acts of the Senate; one to prohibit re-
U. C. 656.
course to magic, another to abolish the
practice of human sacrifices t: the first proceeding,
perhaps, from credulity in the authors of the law;
the other implying some remains of a gross and in-
* Val. Max. lib. ii, c. 9.
+ Plin. lib. xxx, c. 1.
C. XIII.]
109
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
human superstition, which was still entertained by
the people, though rejected by the government *.
In the following Consulate the kingdom of Cy-
rené was bequeathed to the Romans by Ptolemy
Appion, the late king. But, as this people profess-
ed themselves to be the general patrons of liberty,
where this blessing was not forfeited by some act
of ingratitude or perfidy in their allies, they did not
avail themselves of this legacy, leaving the subjects
of Cyrené to retain for some time the independence
of their nation, with a species of popular govern-
ment; and in this condition they were allowed to
act the part of a separate state, until, under a gene-
ral arrangement respecting all the dependencies of
the Roman empire, the territories of Cyrené, among
the rest, were reduced to the form of a province.
The following Consuls gave its name and its date
to an act of the people, nearly of the same
tenor with some of those which were for-
Q. Mucius merly passed for the exclusion of aliens.
The inhabitants of Italy still continued
de Civibus the practice of repairing in great numbers
to Rome, if not in expectation of obtain-
ing in a body the prerogative of citizens, at least in
hopes of intruding themselves individually, as many
of them separately did, into some of the Tribes, by
which persons of this extraction came by degrees,
from voting at elections, to be themselves elected
into the higher offices of state.
U. C. 658.
L. Licini-
us Crassus,
Scævola.
Lex Lici-
nia Mucia
regendis.
Times of faction were extremely favourable to
* Dion. Cassius, lib. xlii, p. 226.
110
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION [c. XIII.
+
op-
this intrusion of strangers. Different leaders con-
nived at the enrolment of those who were likely to
favour their respective parties. And the factious
Tribunes, however little they may have favoured
the general claim of the allies to be admitted as Ro-
mans, fondly espoused their cause, as matter of
position to the Senate, and as likely to open a more
spacious field for their own operations; as they ex-
pected to raise the storm of popular animosity and
tumult with the more ease, in proportion as the
numbers of the people increased. By the act of
Licinius and Mucius, nevertheless, a scrutiny was
set on foot, and all who, without a just title, ven-
tured to exercise any privilege of Roman citizens,
were remitted to their several boroughs*.
In this consulate is likewise dated the trial of
Servilius Cæpio, for his supposed misconduct about
ten years before in his command of the army against
the Cimbri. He had exasperated the popular fac-
tion by opposing the act of Saturninus for the gra-
tuitous distribution of corn, and his enemies were
now encouraged to raise this prosecution against
him. The people gave sentence of condemnation,
and violently drove from the place of assembly two
of the Tribunes who ventured to interpose their
negative in his favour. Authors, according to Va-
lerius Maximus, have differed in their accounts of
the sequel; some affirming that Cæpio, being put to
death in prison, his body was dragged through the
streets as that of a traitor, and cast into the river;
* Ascon. in Orat. pro Cornelio Majest. rea
c. XIII.]
111
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
others, that he was, by the favour of Antistius, one
of the Tribunes, rescued, or enabled to make his es-
cape *.
C. Norbanus, who was said to be author of the
riot, which occasioned the condemnation of Cæpio,
and the supposed cruel execution of that citizen,
was, on the following year, brought to trial himself
for mal-administration and sedition in office; but,
by his own popularity, and the address of the orator
Antonius, who pleaded his cause, was acquitted t.
The war in Spain still continued; and the Ro-
mans, having gained considerable victories, sent ten
commissioners, to endeavour, in concert with Cras-
sus and Didius, to make such arrangements as might
tend to the future peace of those provinces; but in
vain: hostilities were again renewed in the following
year.
L. Cornelius Sylla, who had been Quæstor in the
year of Rome six hundred and forty-six,
now, after an interval of about fourteen
years, and without having been Edile,
U. C. 660.
C. Val.
Flaccus,
M. Hier-
rennius.
stood candidate for the office of Prætor.
Whether his neglect of political honours, during this
period, proceeded from idleness, or from want of
ambition, is uncertain. His character will justify
either construction, being equally susceptible of dis-
sipation and of the disdain of ordinary distinctions.
The people, however, refused to gratify him in his
desire of passing on to the office of Prætor without
being Edile; as they were resolved to be gratified
* Val. Max. lib. iv, c. 7.
↑ Cicero de Orator. lib. ii.
112
[c. XIII.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
with the magnificent shows of wild beasts, which his
supposed correspondence with the king of Mauritania
enabled him to furnish. But to remove this objec-
tion to his preferment, he gave out, that as Prætor
he should exhibit the same shows which were ex-
pected from him as Edile; and having, in the fol-
lowing year, persisted in his suit, he was according-
ly elected, and fulfilled the expectations of the peo-
ple; insomuch, that he is said to have let loose in
the Circus one hundred maned or male lions, and to
have exhibited the method of baiting or fighting
them by Mauritanian huntsmen *. Such was the
price which candidates for preferment at Rome were
obliged to pay for the suffrage of the people.
In this variable scene, where so many particular
men excelled in genius and magnanimity, while
measures of state were affected by the caprice of a
disorderly multitude, P. Rutilius, late Quæstor in
Asia, exhibited a spectacle more than sufficient to
counterbalance the lions of Sylla; and, if it were
permitted in any case whatever to treat our country
with disdain, furnished an instance to be applauded
of the just contempt with which the undeserved re-
sentments of corrupt and malicious men may be
slighted. Having reformed many abuses of the
equestrian tax-gatherers in the province which he
governed, he was himself brought before the tribu-
nal of an equestrian jury, to be tried for the crime
he had restrained in others. In this situation he
declined the aid of any friend, told the judges he
* Plin. lib. viii, c. 16.
c. XIII.]
113
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
would make no defence; but stated the particulars
by which he had offended his prosecutors, left the
court to decide, and, being condemned, retired to
Smyrna, where he ever after lived in great tranquil-
lity, and could not be prevailed on, even by Sylla
in the height of his power, to return to Rome *.
Great as the state and republic of Rome was be-
come, unmerited disgrace was certainly a just object
of contempt or indifference, to the worthy person on
whom it was inflicted.
The Proconsuls, Didius and Crassus, were per-
mitted to triumph for victories obtained in Spain,
but had not been able to establish the peace of that
country. The conduct of the war which broke out
afresh in one of the provinces was committed to Va-
lerius Flaccus, and that of the other to Perperna, one
of the Consuls. Flaccus, near the town of Belgida,
obtained a great victory, in which were slain about
twenty thousand of the enemy; but he could not
prevail on the canton to submit. Such of the people
as were inclined to capitulate, having met to delibe-
rate on terms, were beset by their fellow-citizens, and
the house in which they were assembled being set on
fire, they perished in the flames.
The war having been likewise renewed with the
Thracians on the frontiers of Macedonia,
U. C. 661.
C. Claudius Geminius, who commanded there in the
Pulcher, M.
Perperna. quality of Proprætor, was defeated, and the
province overrun by the enemy.
* Val. Max. lib. vi, c. 17. Liv. lib. lxx. Orosius, lib. v, c. 17. Cic. de
Orator. et in Bruto. Pædianus in Divinationem. Velleius, lib. ii.
VOL. II.
H
114
[c. XIII.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
The Prætor Sylla, at the expiration of his office,
was sent into Asia with a commission to restore
Ariarathes to the kingdom of Cappadocia, which
had been seized by Mithridates, and to restore Py-
lamenes to that of Paphlagonia, from which he had
been expelled by Nicomedes king of Bithynia. The
Prætor having successfully executed both these com-
missions, continued his journey to the Euphrates,
where he had a conference, and concluded a treaty
with an ambassador from Ariarathes king of the Par-
thians *.
From an edict of the Censors, Cn. Domitius Ahe-
nobarbus and C. Licinius Crassus, condemning the
schools of Latin rhetoric †, it appears that the Ro-
mans, during this period, still received with reluc-
tance the refinements which were gradually taking
place in the literary as well as in the other arts.
"Whereas information," said the Censors in their
edict, "has been lodged before us, that schools
"are kept by certain persons under the title of La-
"tin rhetoricians, to which the youth of this city
"resort, and at which they pass entire days in fri-
volity and sloth; and whereas our ancestors have
"determined what their children should learn, and
"what exercises they ought to frequent: these in-
"novations on the customs and manners of our
"forefathers being, in our opinion, offensive and
"wrong, we publish these presents, that both mas-
* Plutarch. in Sylla. Appian. in Mithridatico. Justin. lib. xxxiii. Stra-
bo, lib. xii.
+ Cicer. de Orator. lib. iii, c. 24.
C. XIII.]
115
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
"ters and scholars, given to these illicit practices,
may be duly apprised of our displeasure *."
66
Ci-
cero being now fourteen years of age, and employed
in acquiring that eloquence for which he became so
famous, was probably involved in this censure, as
frequenting the schools, which, by this formal edict
of the magistrate, were condemned.
Lucius Mar-
pus, Sextus
Julius Cæ-
sar.
In the Consulate of Marcius Philippus and Sext.
U. C. 662. Julius Cæsar, according to Pliny, there
cius Philip were in the Roman treasury sixteen hun-
dred and twenty-eight thousand eight hun-
dred and twenty-nine pondo † of gold ‡, or
between sixty and seventy or eighty millions Ster-
ling. In the same year a present sent from the
king of Mauritania had nearly produced a civil war
in the commonwealth, or at least inflamed the pas-
sions from which that calamity soon after arose.
Bocchus, in order to remind the Romans of the me-
rit he had acquired by delivering Jugurtha into their
hands, had caused this scene to be represented in a
groupe of images of gold, containing his own figure,
that of Jugurtha, and that of Sylla, to whom the
unhappy prince was delivered up. Marius, under
whose auspices this transaction had passed, being
provoked at having no place in the groupe by which
it was represented, attempted to pull down the ima-
ges after they had been erected in the place of their
destination in the Capitol. Sylla was equally soli
citous to have them remain; and the contest was
* A. Gellius, lib. xv, c. 11. + The Roman pondo of ten ounces.
Plin. Harduen, lib. xxxiii, c. 3.
H 2
116
[c. XIII.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
likely to end in violence, if matters of greater mo-
ment had not arisen to occupy the ardent and vehe-
ment spirit of these rivals.
Lex de Ju- ture.
The expectations of all parties at Rome, and
throughout Italy, were now raised by the projects
of Livius Drusus, an active Tribune, who, in order
to distinguish himself, brought forward many sub-
jects of the greatest concern to the public. He act-
ed at first in concert with the leading men of the
Senate, and was supported by them in order to ob-
tain some amendment in the law as it then stood re-
specting the courts of justice. The Equestrian or-
der had acquired exclusive possession of the judica-
The Senators wished to recover at
diciis. least a share in that prerogative; and Dru-
sus, in order to gratify them, moved for an act of
which the tendency was, to restore the Senators to
their place in forming the courts of justice; and to
prevent opposition from the Equestrian order, he
proposed, at once, to enrol three hundred knights
into the Senate; and that the Senators, who appear
at this time to have amounted to no more than three
hundred, might not withstand this increase of their
numbers, he left to each the nomination of one of
the new members; proposing, that from the six
hundred so constituted, the list of judges should be
taken *. Many of the knights were reconciled to
this arrangement, by the hopes of becoming Sena-
tors; but the order, in general, seem to have consi-
* Appian. de Bell. Civ. lib. i. Aut. de Viris Illustribus, c. 66. Cicero pro
Clientio.
c. XIII.]
117
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
dered it as a snare laid to deprive them of their con-
sequence in the government of their country; and
individuals refused to accept of a place in the Se-
nate, at the hazard of so great and so sudden a
change in the constitution of the state, and in the
condition of an order from which they derived their
consequence *.
This Tribune likewise proposed an act to debase
Lex Num- the silver coin, by mixing an eighth of alloy.
maria. But the part of his project which gave the
greatest alarm, was that which related to the indi-
gent citizens of Rome, and to the inhabitants of Italy
in general.
With a view to gratify the poorer citizens he pro-
Lex de Co- posed, that all the new settlements, pro-
loniis. jected by the law of Caius Gracchus, should
now be carried into execution. The Consul Marcus
Perperna, having ventured to oppose this proposal,
was, by order of the Tribune, taken into custody;
and so roughly treated in the execution of this order,
that, while he struggled to disengage himself, the
blood was made to spring from his nostrils.
"It is
"no more than the pickle of the turtle-fish t," said
the Tribune; a species of delicacy, in which, it seems,
among other luxuries of the table, this Consul was
supposed frequently to indulge himself.
Appian. de Bell. Civ. lib. i. Aut. de Viris Illustribus, c. 66. Cicero
pro Clientio.
+
"Ex turdis maria." Aut. de Viris Illustribus, in L. Drus. Val. Max.
lib. ix, c. 4.
Florus.
118
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION [c. XIII.
For the allies of Italy, Livius Drusus proposed to
obtain the favourite object on which they
had been so long intent, their admission.
Lex de Ci-
vitate Sociis
danda.
4
on the rolls of Roman citizens. In all his
other proposals, he had the concurrence of some
party in the commonwealth, and by persuasion, or
force, had obtained his purpose; but in this he struck
at the personal consideration of every citizen, and
was opposed by the general voice of the people.
This Tribune used to boast, that he would exhaust
every fund from which any order of men could be
gratified, and leave to those who came after him
nothing to give but the air and the earth *. The
citizens, however, in general, were become tired of
his favours, and the people of Italy were ill disposed
to requit the merit of a project, which, though in
their favour, he had not been able to execute.
Soon after the motion which Drusus made for
this great and alarming innovation, he was suddenly
taken ill in the public assembly, and Papirius Carbo,
another of the Tribunes, made a short speech on the
occasion, which, among a people prone to supersti-
tion, and ready to execute whatever they conceived
to be awarded by the gods, probably hastened the
fate of his falling colleague: "O Marcus Drusus !"
he said, "the father I call, not this degenerate son;
"thou who usedst to say, The commonwealth is sa-
"cred, whoever violates it is sure to be punished.
"The temerity of the son may soon evince the wis-
"dom of the father." A great shout arose in the
* Florus, lib. iii, c. 17.
c. XIII.]
119
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
assembly, and Drusus, being attended to his own
house by a numerous multitude, received in the
crowd a secret wound of which he died t. All his
laws were soon after repealed, as having passed un-
der unfavourable auspices. But the inhabitants of
Italy were not to be appeased under their late dis-
appointment, and discontents were breaking out in
every part of the country, which threatened to end
in some great convulsion.
In this state of public alarm, some prosecutions
were raised by the Tribunes, calculated merely to
gratify their own private resentments, and tending
at the same time to excite extreme animosities. Q.
Varius Hybrida obtained a decree of the people,
directing, that inquiry should be made by whose fault
the allies had been made to expect the freedom of the
city. In consequence of an inquest set on foot for
this purpose, L. Calpurnius Bestia, late Consul, and
M. Aurelius Orator, and other eminent men, were
condemned ‡. Mummius Achaicus was banished to
Delos. Emilius Scaurus, who had long maintained
his dignity as Princeps, or first on the roll of the Se-
nate, was cited on this occasion before the people
as a person involved in the same guilt. Quintus
Varius, the Tribune who accused him, being a na-
tive of Spain, Scaurus was acquitted upon the follow-
ing short defence: "Q. Varius, from the banks of
"the Sucro, in Spain, says, That M. Emilius Scau-
rus, first in the roll of the Senate, has encouraged
<<
* Cicero in Bruto, p. 63.
+ Velleius, lib. ii, c. 13, 14. Appian. Florus, lib. iii, c. 17.
‡ Appian. Val. Max. lib. viii, c. 4. Cicero in Bruto.
120
[c. XIII.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
your subjects to revolt; Varius maintains the
"charge; Scaurus denies it; there is no other evi-
dence in this matter; choose whom you will be-
"lieve *."
The year following, Varius himself was tried, and
condemned in terms of his own act; and while these
prosecutions suspended all other civil affairs, and
even interrupted the measures required for the safe-
ty of the public, the inhabitants of Italy were form-
ing dangerous combinations, and were ready to break
out in actual rebellion. They were exasperated with
having their suit not only refused, but in having the
abettors of it at Rome considered as criminals. They
deputed commissioners to meet at a convenient
place, to concert their measures, and were speedily
advancing to the effect of some violent resolutions.
The Romans took their first suspicion of a danger-
ous design in agitation among their allies, from ob-
serving that they were exchanging hostages among
themselves. The Proconsul Servilius, who command-
ed in the Picenum, having intelligence of such pro-
ceedings from Asculum, repaired thither, in order,
by his presence, to prevent any commotion; but his
coming, in reality, hastened the revolt. His remon-
strances and his threats made the inhabitants sensi-
ble that their designs were known, and that the exe-
cution of them could no longer be in safety delayed.
They accordingly took arms, and put to the sword
the Proconsul Servilius himself, with his lieutenant,
* Cicero pro M. Scauro filio. Aut. de Viris Illustribus, c. 72. Quinti-
Jian, lib. v, c. 12. Val. Max. lib. iii, c. 7.
c. XIII.]
121
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
and all the Roman citizens who happened to be in
the place. The alarm immediately spread through-
out all the towns that were concerned in the plot;
and, as upon a signal agreed, the Marsi, Peligni, Ves-
tini, Marcini, Picentes, Ferentanæ, Hirpini, Pom-
peiani, Venusini, Apuli, Lucani, and Samnites, took
arms, and in this menacing posture sent a joint de-
putation to Rome, to demand a participation in the
privilege of citizens; of which they had, by their ser-
vices, contributed so largely to increase the value.
In answer to this demand they were told by the
Senate, That they must discontinue their assemblies,
and renounce their pretensions; otherwise, that they
must not presume to send any other message to
Rome.
U. C. 366.
L. Julius
Cæsar, P.
Rutilius
Lupus.
War being thus declared, both parties prepared
for the contest. The allies pitched upon
Corfinium for the capital of what they de-
nominated the Italian Republic: they in-
stituted a Senate of five hundred members;
elected two Consuls, with other civil and military
officers of state, to replace the political government
at Rome, from which they now withdrew their alle-
giance. They mustered in separate bodies, and un-
der different leaders, one hundred thousand men in
arms *. The Romans now found themselves in an
instant brought back to the condition in which they
had been about three hundred years before; reduced
to a few miles of territory round their walls, and be-
set with enemies more united, and more numerous
* Diodorus, lib. xxxvii, Eclog, 1.
122
[c. XIII.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
than ever had assailed them at once on the same
ground. But their city was likewise enlarged, their
numbers increased, and every individual excellently
formed to occupy his place in the state, either as a
warrior or a citizen. All of them assumed, upon
this occasion, the sagum or military dress; and be-
ing joined by such of the Latins as remained in their
allegiance, and by such of their colonies, from dif
ferent parts of Italy, as continued to be faithful, to-
gether with some mercenaries from Gaul and Nu-
midia, they assembled a force equal to that of their
revolted subjects.
The Consuls were placed at the head of the two
principal armies; Lucius Julius Cæsar, in the coun-
try of the Samnites *, and Rutilius, in that of the
Marsit. They had under their command the most
celebrated and experienced officers of the republic;
but little more is preserved to furnish an account of
the war besides the names of the Roman comman-
ders, and those of the persons opposed to them.
Rutilius was attended by Pompeius Strabo, the fa-
ther of him who afterwards bore the title of Pompey
the Great; Cæpio, Perperna, Messala, and Caius
Marius, of whom the last had already so often been
Consul. Lucius Cæsar had, in the army which he
commanded, Lentulus, Didius, Crassus, and Mar-
cellus. They were opposed by T. Afranius, P.
Ventidius, Marcus Egnatius, Q. Pompedius, C. Pa-
pius, M. Lamponius, C. Judacilius, Hircus, Assinius,
Now part of the kingdom of Naples.
+ Contiguous part of the Ecclesiastical State.
c. XIII.]
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
123
The
and Vetius Cato, at the head of the allies.
forces were similar in discipline and in arms. The
Romans were likely to be inferior in numbers and
in resources, but had the advantage in reputation,
authority, and in the fame of their leaders, employ-
ed in the highest stations, and inured to command.
But so well had the allies taken their measures, and
with so much animosity did they enter into a quar-
rel which they had been meditating for some years,
that the Romans appeared at first unequal to the
contest, and were surprised and overcome in sundry
encounters.
The detail of these operations is imperfectly re-
corded, and does not furnish the materials of a re-
lation either interesting or instructive. We must
therefore content ourselves with little more than a
list of actions and events, together with the general
result.
One of the Consuls, Lucius Cæsar, in the first
operation of the war, was defeated by Vetius Cato
near Esernia, and had two thousand men killed in
the field. The town of Esernia was immediately in-
vested, and some Roman officers of distinction were
obliged to make their escape in the disguise of
slaves. Two Roman cohorts were cut off at Vena-
frum, and that colony fell into the hands of the ene-
my. The other Consul, Rutilius, was likewise de-
feated by the Marsi, and fell in the field, with eight
thousand men of his army. His colleague was call-
ed to the city to preside at the election of a succes-
sor; but being necessarily detained with the army,
the office continued vacant for the remainder of the
124
The progress AND TERMINATION [C. XIII.
M
campaign, while the army acted under the direction
of the late Consuls, Marius and Cæpio.
The corpse of Rutilius, and of other persons of
rank, being brought to the city in order to have the
honours of a public funeral, seemed to spread such
a gloom, as to suggest a resolution in the Senate,
which is probably wise on all such occasions, that
for the future the dead should be buried where they
fell.
In the mean time, Lucius Cæsar obtained a vic-
tory in the country of the Samnites; and the Se-
nate, in order to compose the minds of the people,
which in this war were agitated to an uncommon de-
gree, as if this victory had suppressed the revolt, re-
solved, that the sagum, or military dress, should be
laid aside *.
The usual time of the Consular elections being
come, Cn. Pompeius Strabo and Porcius
Cato were named. The first gained a
U. C. 664.
Cn. Pomp.
Strabo, L.
Porcius
Cato,
complete victory over the Marsi; and not-
withstanding an obstinate defence, reduced
the city of Asculum, where the first hostilities took
place, and where the Romans had suffered the great-
est outrage. The principal inhabitants of the place
were put to death; the remainder were sold for
slaves. The other Consul, Cato, was killed in an at-
tack upon the entrenchments of the Marsi; and al-
though Marius and Sylla, in different quarters, had
turned the fortune of the war against the allies, yet
the event still continued to be extremely doubtful.
• Liv. lib. lxxiv. Appian. Orosius, lib. v, c. 18. Florus, lib. iii, c. 18.
Velleius. Eutropius.
c. XIII.]
125
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
The Umbrians, Etruscans, and inhabitants of
other districts of Italy, who had hitherto hesitated
in the choice of their party, took courage from the
perseverance and success of their neighbours, and
openly joined the revolt. The more distant parts
of the empire were soon likely to receive the con-
tagion they were already, by the obstruction they
met with in carrying supplies of provisions or reve-
nue, severed from the capital, and they were likely
to withdraw, on the first opportunity, the allegiance
which they were supposed to owe as conquered pro-
vinces.
Mithridates, the king of Pontus, did not neglect
the occasion that was offered to him, in this distrac-
tion of affairs in Italy; he put all his forces in mo-
tion, expelled Nicomedes from Bithynia, and Ario-
barzanes from Cappadocia, and thus himself became
master of the greater part of Lesser Asia.
In this extremity it appeared necessary at Rome
to compose the disorders of Italy, and no longer to
withstand the request of the allies; but the Senate
had the address to make the intended concessions
seem to be an act of munificence and generosity, not
of weakness or fear.
The Latins, who had continued in their allegiance,
were, in consideration of their fidelity, admitted to
all the privileges of Roman citizens. The Umbri
and Tuscans, who either had not yet declared, or
who had appeared the least active in the quarrel,
were next comprehended; and some other inhabi-
tants of Italy, observing, that they were likely to ob-
tain by favour what they endeavoured at so great a
126 THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION [C. XIII.
risk to extort by force, grew remiss in the war, or
withdrew from the league, that they might appear
to be forward in the general return to peace.
The Marsi, Samnites, and Lucanians, who had
been the principal authors of the revolt, or who had
acted with most animosity in the conduct of it, con-
tinued for some time to be excluded from the privi
lege to which they aspired, and which the Romans
would not be forced to bestow. But the civil war
which soon after broke out among the citizens them-
selves, terminated either in the extirpation of those
obstinate aliens, and in the settlement of Roman co-
lonies in their stead, or gave them an opportunity,
under favour of the party they espoused, of gaining
admittance to the freedom of Rome: so that, in a
few years, all the inhabitants of Italy, from the Ru-
bicon to the Straits of Messina, were inscribed on
the rolls of the people, and a constitution of state,
which had been already overcharged by the numbers
who partook of the sovereignty, was now altogether
overwhelmed; or if this change alone were not suf
ficient to destroy it, was not likely long to remain
without some notable or fatal reverse. Assemblies
of the people, already sufficiently tumultuary, being
now considered as the collective body of all the Ita-
lians, were become altogether impracticable, or for
the most part could be no more than partial tumults,
which, for particular purposes, assumed this title, in
the streets of Rome, or the contiguous fields; inso-
much, that when we read of the authority of the Se-
nate being set aside by an order of the people, we
may venture to conceive all government suspended
c. XIII.]
127
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
at the suit of the party or faction who had the popu-
lace of the town at their call, rather than any regu-
lar transaction of state.
Licinius Crassus and L. Julius Cæsar were chosen
Censors, in order to make up the new rolls of the
people. This, it is likely, was found to be a diffi-
cult and tedious work. It became necessary to scru-
tinize the rolls of every separate borough, in order
to know who were entitled to be added to the list of
Roman citizens; and this difficulty was further in-
creased in consequence of a law devised about this
time by Papirius Carbo, in which it was enacted,
that not only the natives and ancient denizens of
Italy, but all who should, for the future, obtain the
freedom of any Italian borough, if they had a resi-
dence in Italy, and lodged their claim to the Prætor
sixty days, should, by that act, become citizens of
Rome*; so that the prerogative of the Roman peo-
ple continued to be in the gift of every separate cor-
poration, as well as in that of the state itself.
The number of the aliens admitted on the rolls,
at this muster, is not recorded; but it was probably
equal to that of the ancient citizens, and might have
instantly formed a very powerful and dangerous fac-
tion in the state, if effectual measures had not been
taken to diminish or guard against the effect of their
influence. For this
For this purpose, the new citizens were
not mixed promiscuously with the mass of the peo-
ple, but confined to eight particular Tribes t; and
of consequence, could influence only eight votes in
* Cicero pro Archia Poeta. + Velleius Paterculus, lib. ii, c. 20.
128 THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
[c. XIII.
thirty-five*; and the ancient citizens were still pos-
sessed of a great majority. But this artifice did not
long escape the attention of those who were aggrie-
ved by it, and became, in the sequel, subject of far-
ther dispute.
Meantime, while the Romans were meditating, or
actually making, this important change in the state
of their commonwealth, they found leisure for mat-
ters of less moment, in which they endeavoured to
provide for the peace of the city, and the admini-
stration of justice.
Lex Plotia
de Judiciis.
Plautius, one of the Tribunes, obtained a new law
for the selection of judges, by which it was
enacted, that each Tribe should annually
set apart fifteen citizens, without any distinction of
rank; and that, from the whole so named, the judges
in all trials that occurred within the year should
be taken t. This law appeared to be equitable, as
it gave, with great propriety, to all the different
classes of men in the commonwealth, an equal right
to be named of the juries: and to every party con-
cerned an equal chance of being tried by his peers.
The same Tribune likewise obtained a law for the
preservation of the public peace, by which
it was declared capital to be seen in any
place of public resort, with a weapon or instrument
of death to occupy any place of strength in the
Lex Plotia
de Vi.
• Historians mention this particular, as if eight new Tribes were added to
the former thirty-five; but the continual allusion of Roman writers to the
number thirty-five, will not allow us to suppose any augmentation. Cicero de
lege Agraria 2da, c. 8.
Pædianus in Cornelianam Ciceronis.
1
c. XIII.]
129
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
city; to offer violence to the house of any person;
to disturb any private company; to interrupt any
meeting of the Senate, assembly of the people, or
court of justice. To these clauses Catulus subjoined
another, in which he comprehended persons sur
rounding the Senate with an armed force, or offering
violence to any magistrate *.
• Cicero pro Cælio, et de Auruspicum Responso.
VOL. II.
I
130
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION [c. XIV.
CHAP. XIV.
Triumph of Pompeius Strabo.-Progress of Sylla.—War with
the king of Pontus.-Rise of that kingdom.-Appointment
of Sylla to command.-Policy of the Tribune Sulpicius.-
Sylla's commission recalled in favour of Marius.-His march
from Campania to Rome.-Expels Marius and his faction
from the city. His operations in Greece.-Siege of Athens.
-Battle of Charonea.Of Orchomenos.Transactions at
Rome.-Policy of Cinna.-Marius recalled.-Cinna flies,
and is deprived.-Recovers the possession of Rome.-Treaty
of Sylla with Mithridates.—He passes into Italy.—Is op-
posed by numerous armies. Various events of the war in
Italy.-Sylla prevails.-His proscription, or massacre.—
Named Dictator.-His policy,-resignation,—and death.
THE Social war, though far from being successful
on the part of the Romans, concluded with a tri-
umphal procession; and the Senate, though actually
obliged to yield the point for which they contended,
thought proper, under pretence of advantages gained
on some particular occasions, to erect a trophy. They
singled out Pompeius Strabo for the pageant in this
ceremony; either because he had reduced Asculum
where the rebellion first broke out, or because a vic-
tory obtained by him had most immediately preced-
ed the peace. But the most remarkable circumstance
in this procession was, its being, in show, a triumph
of the old citizens over the new, but in reality a tri-
c. XIV.]
131
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
umph of the latter. Ventidius Bassus, being a pri-
soner in the war, and led as such in the present tri-
umph, was now, though in the form of a captive, in
fact introduced to share in the prerogatives of a Ro-
man; he was, in the sequel, promoted to all the ho-
nours of the state; and, in the quality of a victo-
rious general, came to lead a procession of the same
kind with that in which he himself had made his first
entry at Rome as a captive
Sylla, by his conduct and his successes wherever
he had borne a separate command in this war, gave
proof of that superior genius by which he now be-
gan to be distinguished. By his magnanimity on
all occasions, by his great courage in danger, by his
imperious exactions from the enemy, and by his la-
vish profusion to his own troops, he obtained, in a
very high degree, the confidence and attachment of
soldiers; and yet in this, it is probable, that he acted
merely from temper, and not from design, or with
any view to the consequence. With so careless and
so bold a hand did this man already hold the reins
of military discipline, that Albinus, an officer of high
rank, and next in command to himself, being killed
by the soldiers in a mutiny, he treated this outrage
as a trifle, saying, when the matter was reported to
him, That the troops would atone for it
when they met with the enemy †. With
Pomp. Ru- great merits recently displayed, he repair-
ed to the city, laid claim to the Consulate,
U. C. 665.
L. Corn.
Sylla, Q.
fus, Coss.
* Val. lib. vi, c. 9: Gellius, lib. xv, c. 4. Plin. lib. vii, c. 43. Dio Cassius,
43, finc.
+ Plutarch. in Sylla.
I 2
132
[c. XIV.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
and was accordingly chosen, in conjunction with
Quintus Pompeius Rufus.
It was thought necessary still to keep a proper
force under arms in Italy, until the public tranquil-
lity should be fully established. The
The army, which
had acted under Cneius Pompeius Strabo, Consul of
the preceding year, was destined for this service;
and Quintus Rufus was appointed to the command
of it.
The war with Mithridates, king of Pontus, how-
ever, was the principal object of attention; and this
province, together with the army then lying in Cam-
pania, fell to the lot of Sylla.
The monarchy of Pontus had sprung from the
ruins of the Macedonian establishments in Asia; and,
upon their entire suppression, was become one of
the most considerable kingdoms of the East.
Mithridates had inherited from his ancestors a
great extent of territory, reaching in length, accord-
ing to the representation of his ambassador quoted
by Appian, twenty thousand stadia, above two thou-
sand miles. He himself had joined to it the king-
dom of Colchis, and other provinces on the coasts
of the Euxine sea. His military establishment a-
mounted to three hundred thousand foot, and forty
thousand horse, besides auxiliaries from Thrace, and
from that part of Scythia which lies on the Mootis
and the Tanais, countries over which he had acqui-
red an ascendant approaching to sovereignty. He
had pretensions likewise on the kingdoms of Bithy-
nia and Cappadocia, which he had hitherto relin-
quished from deference to the Romans; or of which
c. XIV.]
133
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
he had postponed the effect until he should be pre-
pared to cope with this formidable power. All his
pretensions, indeed, like those of other monarchies
or states of any denomination, were likely to extend
with his force, and to receive no limitation but from
the defect of his power. And such were his resour-
ces, and his personal character, that if he had en-
countered on the side of Europe with an enemy less
able than the Romans were to withstand his progress,
it is probable that in his hands the empire of Pontus
might have vied with that of the greatest conquerors
recorded in history.
About the time that the social war broke out in
Italy, Cassius Longinus, Manius Acquilius, and C.
Oppius, were, in different characters, stationed in
the province of Asia, and had taken under their
protection every power in the country that was like-
ly to oppose the king of Pontus in his progress to
empire.
Nicomedes, who had been recently restored to the
crown of Bithynia, made hostile incursions under the
encouragement of his Roman allies, even into the
kingdom of Pontus itself. And the king, having
made fruitless complaints on this subject to the Ro-
man governors in Asia, and thinking that the dis-
tracted state of Italy furnished him with a favour-
able opportunity to slight their resentment, he sent
his son Ariarathes into Cappadocia with a force to
expel Ariobarzanes, though an ally of the Romans,
and to possess that kingdom. He took the field
himself, and sent powerful armies, under his gene-
rals, against Nicomedes, and his Italian confederates,
134
[c. XIV.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
who, on their part, had assembled all the force of
their province and of their allies, to the amount of
an hundred and twenty thousand men, in different
bodies, to defend their own frontier, or to annoy
their enemy.
Mithridates fell separately upon the different par-
ties which were thus forming against him; and ha-
ving defeated Nicomedes, and afterwards Manius,
obliged the Roman officers, with their ally, to re-
tire; Cassius to Apamea, Manius towards Rhodes,
and Nicomedes to Pergamus. His fleet, likewise,
consisting of three hundred galleys, opened the
passage of the Hellespont, took all the ships which
the Romans had stationed in those straits; and he
himself soon after in person traversed Phrygia and
the Lesser Asia, to the sea of Cilicia and Greece,
In all the cities of the Lesser Asia, where the peo-
ple, as usual, upon a change of masters, now open-
ly declared their detestation of the Roman domi-
nion, he was received with open gates. He got pos-
session of the person of Oppius, by means of the
inhabitants of Laodicea, where this general had
taken refuge with a body of mercenaries. These
were allowed to disband; but Oppius himself was
conducted as a prisoner to the head-quarters of Mi-
thridates, and, in mockery of his state as a Roman
governor, was made to pass through the cities in his
way, with his fasces or ensigns of magistracy carried
before him.
Manius Acquilius likewise fell into the hands of
the enemy, was treated with similar scorn, and with
a barbarity which nothing but the most criminal
c. XIV.]
135
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC,
abuse of the power he lately possessed could have
deserved or provoked. Being carried round the ci-
ties of Asia mounted on an ass, he was obliged at
every place to declare, that his own avarice had
been the cause of the war; and he was at last put
to death by the pouring of melted gold into his
throat.
While Mithridates thus overwhelmed his enemies,
and was endeavouring to complete his conquest of
Asia by the reduction of Rhôdes, he ordered his ge-
neral Archelaus to penetrate by the way of Thrace
and Macedonia into Greece.
Such was the alarming state of the war, when the
Romans having scarcely appeased the troubles in
Italy, appointed L. Cornelius Sylla, with six legions
that lay in Campania, to embark for Greece, in order,
if possible, to stem the torrent which no ordinary
bars were likely to withstand.
But before Sylla or his colleague could depart for
their provinces, disorders arose in the city, which,
however secure from the approach of foreign ene-
mies, brought armies to battle in the streets, and
covered the pavements of Rome with the slain.
Publius Sulpicius, Tribune of the People, with a
singular boldness and profligacy, ventured to tamper
with the dangerous humours which were but ill sup-
pressed in the event of the late troubles; and, unre-
strained by the sad experience of civil wars and do-
mestic tumults, lighted the torch anew, and kindled
the former animosity of the popular and senatorian
parties. The severe measures hitherto taken by the
Senate and Magistrates against the authors of sedi
136
[c. XIV.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
tion, had, in some instances, been effectual to snatch
the republic out of the hands of lawless men, and to
suspend for a while the ruin which threatened the
commonwealth; but the examples so given, instead
of deterring others from a repetition of the same
crimes, appear only to have admonished the factious
leaders to take more effectual precautions, and to
make the necessary provision of armed force before
they embarked in designs against the state. They
accordingly improved and refined by degrees on the
measures which they successively took against the
Senate; and when the Tribune Sulpicius began to
act, the arrangements he made were equal to a sys-
tem of formal war. This Tribune, according to
Plutarch, had three thousand gladiators in his pay,
and, in despite of the law of Plautius, had ever at his
beck a numerous company of retainers armed with
daggers and other offensive weapons; these he call-
ed his Anti-senate; and kept in readiness to be em-
ployed in attempts, which he was at no pains to dis-
guise, against the authority of the Senate itself. He
moved the people to recall from exile all those who
had withdrawn from the city on occasion of the for-
mer disorders, and to admit the new citizens, and
enfranchised slaves, to be enrolled promiscuously in
all the Tribes, without regard to the late wise li-
mitation of the Senate's decree, by which they were
restricted to a few. By the change which he now
proposed, the citizens of least consideration might
come to have a majority, or irresistible sway in the
public deliberations. The Tribunes would become
masters in every question, and fill up the rolls of
C. XIV.] OF The roman republic.
137
the people in the manner that most suited their in-
terest.
This presumptuous man himself undertook to pro-
cure the freedom of the city for every person who
applied to him, and boldly received premiums in
the streets for this prostitution of the privileges and
powers of his own constituents.
The more respectable citizens, and even the magis-
trates, in vain withstood these abuses. They were
overpowered by force, and frequently driven from
the place of assembly. In this extremity, they had
recourse to superstition, and by multiplying holy-
days, endeavoured to stop or to disconcert their an-
tagonists. But Sulpicius, with his party, laid vio-
lent hands on the Consuls, in order to force them to
recall these appointments. Young Pompey, the son
of the present Consul, and son-in-law to Sylla, was
killed in the fray. Sylla himself, though withdrawn
from the tumult, feeling that he was in the power of
this desperate faction, and being impatient to get
into a situation in which he could more effectually
counteract their fury, chose for the present to com-
ply with their demands *.
In the midst of these violences, the city being
under an actual usurpation or tyranny, Sylla repair-
ed to the army in Campania, with a resolution to
pursue the object of his destination to Asia, and
to leave the tribunitian storms at Rome to spend
their force. But soon after his departure, it appear-
ed that Marius was no stranger to the councils of
* Plutarch, in Mario, p. 526, edit. Lond, 4to.
138
[c. XIV.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
Sulpicius; and that he hoped, by means of this Tri-
bune, to gratify an ambition which outlived the vi-
gour of his faculties, and the strength of his body.
His first object was to mortify his rival Sylla, in re-
voking, by a decree of the people, the appointment
of the Senate, and to supersede him in the com-
mand of the army against Mithridates. A decree
to this purpose was accordingly with ease obtained
by Sulpicius, in one of those partial conventions,
which took upon them to represent the people of
Italy in the streets of Rome; and Marius, now
appointed general of the army in Campania, that
was destined for the Asiatic war, sent the pro-
per officers to notify his appointment to Sylla, and
to receive from him, in behalf of his successor, the
charge of the army, and the delivery of the stores.
Sylla had the address to make the troops apprehend
that this change was equally prejudicial to them as
to himself; that Marius had his favourite legions
whom he would naturally employ; and that the
same act of violence, by which he had supplanted
the general, would bring other officers and other
men to reap the fruits of this lucrative service in
Asia. This persuasion, as well as the attachment
which the army already bore to their general, pro-
duced its effect *.
The officers who were charged to make known
the appointment of Marius, on declaring their com-
mission, found that violence could take place in the
camp as well as in the city. Their orders were re-
Appian. de Bell. Civil. lib. i.
c. XIV.]
139
OF THE ROMAN REPUblic.
ceived with scorn. A tumult arose among the sol-
diers; and citizens vested with a public character,
formally commissioned to communicate an order of
the Roman people, and in the exercise of their duty,
were slain in the camp.
In return to this outrage, some relations and friends.
of Sylla were murdered at Rome, and such retalia-
tions were not soon likely to end on either side *.
Faction is generally blind, and does not see the use
that may be made of its own violent precedents a-
gainst itself. Although Sylla is said to have hesita-
ted, yet he was not a person likely to shrink from
the contest, in which his private enemies, and those
of the state, had engaged him. Stung with rage,
and probably thinking that force would be justified
in snatching the republic out of such violent hands,
he proposed to the army that they should march to
Rome. The proposal was received with joy; and
the army, without any of the scruples, or any de-
gree of that hesitation which in adopting this mea-
sure is ascribed to their commander, followed where
he thought proper to lead them.
On this new and dangerous appearance of things,
not only Marius and Sulpicius, with the persons
most obnoxious on account of the insults offered
to Sylla and to other respectable citizens, were sei-
zed with consternation; but even the Senate and the
Nobles, seeing questions of state likely to be deci-
ded by military force, were justly alarmed.
A faction, it is true, had assumed the authority of
* Plutarch. in Mario, edit, Lond. p. 526.
140
[c. XIV.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
the Roman people, to violate the laws, and to over-
awe the state; but armies, it was thought, are dan-
gerous tools in the quarrels of party; and no good
intention on the part of their leaders, no magnani-
mity or moderation in the execution of their plans,
can compensate the ruinous tendency of a prece-
dent which brings force to be employed as an ordi-
nary resource in political contests. Even the pre-
sent state of the republic did not appear so despe-
rate as to justify such a measure.
The Senate accordingly sent a deputation to
Sylla, with entreaties, and with commands, that he
would not advance to the city. This deputation
was received by him within a few miles of the gates.
He heard the remonstrance that was made to him
with patience, and seemed to be moved: gave or-
ders, in the hearing of the deputies, that the army
should halt; sent the proper officers to mark out a
camp,
and suffered the commissioners to return to
their employers, full of the persuasion that he was
to comply with their request. But in this he only
meant to deceive his antagonists; and having lulled
them into a state of security, he sent a detachment
close on the heels of the deputies of the Senate,
with orders to seize the nearest gate, while he him-
self, with the whole army, speedily followed to sup-
port them.
The gate was accordingly seized. The people,
in tumult, endeavoured to recover it; Marius se-
cured the Capitol, summoned every person, whether
freeman or slave, to repair to his standard; and mul-
titudes assembled, as in a military station, to form
c. XIV.]
141
of the rOMAN REPUBLIC.
on the parade. Sylla, in the mean time, at the
head of his army, rushed through the gate, of which
his vanguard, though pressed by multitudes by whom
they were attacked, were still in possession. He
was greatly annoyed from the battlements and win-
dows as he passed, and might have been repulsed
by the more numerous army of Roman citizens in
the streets, if he had not commanded the city to be
set on fire, in order to profit by the confusion into
which the people were likely to be thrown in avoid-
ing or in extinguishing the flames. By this expe-
dient he drove Marius from all the stations he had
occupied, and obliged his adherents to disperse.
While the army was distributed in different quar-
ters of a city, deformed with recent marks of blood-
shed and fire, their general assembled the Senate,
and called on them to consider the present state of
affairs. Among the measures he suggested on this
occasion, was a law by which Marius, with his son,
and twelve of his faction, who had secreted them-
selves, were declared enemies of their country.
This sentence was accompanied with a public in-
junction to seize or to kill them wherever they could
be found. The reasons upon which this act of at-
tainder was granted, were, that they had violated
the laws, and seduced the slaves to desert from their
masters, and to take arms against the republic *.
Appian. de Bell. Civil. lib. i, p. 587. The names mentioned in this act
of attainder or outlawry, were Sulpicius, Marius, father and son, P. Cethegus,
Junius Brutus, Cneius and Pub. Granii, Albinovanus, Marcus Suetonius.
142
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION [c. XIV.
While the officers of justice were employed in
execution of this decree, and many others were
busy in search of their private enemies, thus laid at
their mercy, the Tribune Sulpicius, having fled to
the marshes on the coast near Laurentum, was
dragged from thence and slain. His head, severed
from the body, as that of a traitor, who had surpass-
ed every leader of faction in the outrages done to
the laws and the government of his country, was ex-
posed on one of the rostra; an example afterwards
frequently imitated, and which, though it could not
enhance the evils of the times, became an additional
expression of the animosity and rancour of parties
against each other *.
The
Marius, upon his expulsion from Rome, retired
to his own villa at Salonium; and being unprovided
for a longer flight, sent his son to the farm of one
Mutius, a friend in the neighbourhood, to procure
what might be necessary for a voyage by sea.
young man was discovered at this place, and nar-
rowly escaped in a waggon loaded with straw, which,
the better to deceive his pursuers, he had ordered
to take the road to Rome. The father fled to Ostia,
and there embarked on board a vessel which was
provided for him by Numerius, who had been one
of his partisans in the preceding disorders. Having
put to sea, he was forced by stress of weather to
Circeii, there landed in want of every necessary,
and made himself known to some herdsmen, of
* Velleius Paterculus, lib. ii, c; 19.
c. XIV.]
143
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
whom he implored relief. Being informed of the
parties that were abroad in pursuit of him, he con-
cealed himself for the night in a neighbouring wood.
Afterwards, continuing his flight by the coast, and
on his way to the town of Minturnæ, he was alarm-
ed at the sight of some horsemen who seemed to be
in search; made for the shore, and with much diffi-
culty, got on board of a boat which was passing.
The persons with whom he thus took refuge resisted
the threats and importunities of the pursuers to have
him delivered up to them, or thrown into the sea;
but having rowed him to a supposed place of safety
at the mouth of the Liris, they put him on shore,
and left him to his fate. Here he first took refuge
in a cottage, afterwards under a hollow bank of the
river, and, last of all, on hearing the tread of the
horsemen, who still pursued him, he plunged him-
self to the chin in a marsh; but, though concealed
by the reeds and the depth of the water, he was dis-
covered and dragged from thence all covered with
mud.
He was carried to Minturnæ, and doomed
by the magistrates of the place to suffer in execution
of the sentence which had been denounced against
himself and his partisans at Rome. He was, how-
ever, by some connivance, allowed to escape from
hence, again put to sea, and, at the island Ænaria,
joined some associates of his flight. Being after-
wards obliged to land in Sicily for a supply of wa-
ter, and being known, he narrowly escaped with the
loss of some of the crew that navigated his vessel.
From thence he arrived on the coast of Africa, but,
being forbid the province by the Prætor Sextilius,
144
[c. xv.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
continued to shift his abode among the islands or
places of retirement on the coast *.
This adventurer was in his seventieth year, when,
by means of popular tumults, he made this attempt
to overturn the Roman republic, and when he strove
to obtain the command of an army in the busiest
and most arduous service which the Roman empire
had then to offer. Being forced, by his miscarriage
in this attempt, into the state of an outlaw, he still
amused the world with adventures and escapes,
which historians record with the embellishments of
a picturesque and even romantic description. A
Gaulish or German soldier, who was employed at
Minturnæ to put him to death, it is said, overawed
by his aspect, recoiled from the task; and the peo-
ple of the place, as if moved by this miracle of the
terrified soldier, concurred in aiding his escape †.
The presence of such an exile on the ground where
Carthage had stood, was supposed to increase the
majesty and the melancholy of the scene.
"Go,"
he said to the lictor who brought him the orders of
the Prætor to depart, " tell him that you have seen
"Marius sitting on the ruins of Carthage +."
The Senate, thus restored to its authority, and,
by the suppression of the late sedition, masters of
the city, took the proper measures to prevent, for
the future, such violations of order from being in-
troduced under pretence of popular government.
They resolved that no question of legislation should
• Plutarch. in Mario, edit. Lond. p. 534.
+ Velleius Pater. lib. ii, c. 19.
Plutarch. in Mario.
c. XIV.]
145
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
; and
be agitated in the assembly of the Tribes*
Sylla, before he left the city, thought proper to dis-
patch the election of Consuls for the following year,
but did not employ the power, which he now pos-
sessed, to make the choice fall on persons who were
both of the senatorian party. Together with Octa-
vius, who had the authority of the Senate at heart,
he suffered Cinna, though of the opposite faction,
to be vested with the powers of Consul, and only
exacted a promise from him not to disturb the pub-
lic tranquillity; nor, in his absence, to attempt any
thing derogatory of his own honour †.
Having in this manner restored the city to an ap-
pearance of peace, Sylla set out with his army for
its destination in Greece. Quintus Rufus, the other
Consul of the preceding year, at the same time re-
paired to his province in the country of the Marsi,
where, as has been mentioned, he was to succeed
Cn. Strabo in the command of some legions; but
being less agreeable to these troops than his prede-
cessor had been, the soldiers mutinied upon his ar-
rival and put him to death. Cn. Strabo, though sus-
pected of having connived with them in this horrid
transaction, was permitted to profit by it in keeping
his station. So quick was the succession of crimes
which distressed the republic, that one disorder es-
caped with impunity, under the more atrocious ef
fects of another which followed.
* Appian. de Bell. Civ. lib. i.
+ L. Florus, lib. iii, c. 21. Appian. de Bell. Civil. lib. i.
VOL. II.
K
146
[c. XIV.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
U. C. 666.
L. Corn.
Cinna, Cn.
Octavius,
Coss.
When Sylla was about to depart from the city,
Virgilius, one of the Tribunes, moved an
impeachment against him for the illegal
steps he had lately taken. But the state
of the war with Mithridates was urgent,
and Sylla took the benefit of the law of Memmius,
by which persons named to command had a privi-
lege when going on service to decline answering
any charge which should be brought against them,
to impede their departure.
The king of Pontus, notwithstanding he had been
disappointed in his attempt upon Rhôdes, was be-
come master of the Lesser Asia, had fixed his resi-
dence at Pergamus, and employed his officers, with
numerous fleets and armies, to continue his opera-
tions in different quarters, making rapid acquisitions
at once on the side of the Scythian and Thracian
Bosphorus in Macedonia and in Greece. His ge-
neral, Archelaus, had reduced most of the Greek
islands, and was hastening to make himself master
of the continent also. Delos had revolted, and had
thrown off the yoke of Athens, at the time that it
fell into the hands of this general. The king pro-
posed to make use of it as a decoy to bring the A-
thenians themselves under his power. For this pur-
pose, pretending veneration for the god to whom
this island was sacred, he expressed a desire to re-
store it, with the treasure he had seized there, to its
former condition; and sent Aristion, a native of A-
thens, but now an officer in his own service, with
an escort of two thousand men, to deliver this trea-
sure into the hands of the Athenians. Aristion be-
C. XIV.]
147
of the rOMAN REPUBLIC.
ing, under this pretence, received into the Pyræus,
took possession of the place, and continued to hold
it, with the city of Athens itself, for Mithridates,
who, by means of the reinforcements sent into At-
tica, soon after enabled him to overrun Bœotia, A-
chaia, and Laconia.
This
To these alarming encroachments on the Roman
territory, and to the personal injuries done to such
of their generals as had fallen into his hands, Mi-
thridates had joined a barbarous outrage, which
roused, in the highest degree, the resentment of the
Roman people. He had sent orders to all his com-
manders in every town and station in Asia, on a day
fixed, to begin a massacre of the Roman citizens
that were any where settled in that country, and to
publish a reward for the slaves of any Roman who
should succeed in destroying their master.
order was executed with marks of insult, in which
the vile instruments of cruelty, for the most part,
are apt to exceed their instructions. It is particu-
larly mentioned, that at Ephesus, Pergamus, and
other cities of Asia, entire families, without distinc-
tion of sex or age, infants with their parents, taking
refuge in the temples, and embracing the altars,
were dragged from thence and murdered. But the
number of persons who perished in this massacre, if
ever known, is no where mentioned *.
The resentment which was natural on this occa-
sion, together with the real danger that threatened
the empire, fully justified the contempt with which
Appian. de Bell. Mithrid. p. 585, 586.
K 2
148
[c. XIV.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
Sylla treated the impeachment of Virgilius, and the
celerity with which he left the city of Rome. Ha-
ving transported to Dyrrachium an army of six le-
gions, he took the route of Thessaly and Ætolia;
and having raised in these countries contributions
for the pay and subsistence of his army, he received
the submission of the Boeotians, who had lately been
obliged to declare for Mithridates, and advanced to
Athens, where Aristion in the city, and Archelaus
in the Pyræus, were prepared to make a vigorous
resistance. Mithridates, who was master of the sea,
collected together all the troops which he had dis-
tributed in the islands, and ordered a great rein-
forcement from Asia to form an army on the side of
Boeotia for the relief of Athens.
Sylla, to prevent the enemy, hastened the siege
of this place. He first made an attempt to force his
way into the Pyræus by scaling the walls; but be-
ing repulsed, had recourse to the ordinary means of
attack. He erected towers, and raising them to
the height of the battlements, got upon the same
level with the besieged, and plied his missiles from
thence. He shook the walls with battering engines,
or undermined them with galleries, and made places
of arms for his men near to where he expected to
open a breach. But the defence of the place was
vigorous and obstinate, and so well conducted, that
he was obliged, after many fruitless efforts, to turn
the siege into a blockade, or to await the effects of
famine, by which the city began already to be press-
ed, and by which it was in a little time brought to
the last extremity. Those who were confined in the
C. XIV.]
149
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
place, had consumed all the herbage, and killed all
the animals that were to be found within the circuit
of the walls; they were reduced to feed on the im-
plements of leather, or other materials that could
be turned into sustenance, and came at last to prey
upon the carcases of the dead. The garrison was
greatly diminished in numbers; and of those who
remained, the greater part was dispirited and weak :
but Aristion, on account of the treacherous manner
in which he had seized the place, expecting for him-
self no quarter from the Roman general, still with-
stood the desire of his troops to capitulate; when
Sylla, knowing the weak state to which the besieged
were reduced, made a vigorous effort, stormed and
forced the walls with great slaughter. Aristion, who
had retired into the Acropolis, was soon afterwards
taken and slain.
Archelaus, likewise greatly distressed in the Py-
ræus, found means to escape by water, and leaving
the post he abandoned to be occupied by Sylla, who
razed its fortifications to the ground, he hastened
to join the army that was forming by order of his
master on the side of Thessaly.
The army of Mithridates advanced into Boeotia.
Every part of it was sumptuously provided with all
that was necessary for subsistence or parade. There
was a numerous cavalry richly caparisoned; an in-
fantry of every description, variously armed, some
to use missile weapons, others to engage in close
fight; a large train of armed chariots, which, being
winged with scythes, threatened to sweep the plains.
The whole army amounted to about an hundred and
150
[c. XIV.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
twenty thousand men. But their master, with all
his ability, it appears, in the manner of barbarous
nations, relied on the numbers of his host, to the
neglect of its order, or the proper conduct of its
strength. Sylla was to oppose this multitude with
no more than thirty thousand men.
On this inferior enemy, Archelaus continually
pressed with all his forces, and endeavoured to bring
on a general action, which Sylla cautiously avoided
waiting for an opportunity that might deprive the
enemy of the advantage he had in the superiority of
his numbers. The armies being both in Boeotia, Ar-
chelaus inadvertently took post near Chæronea, on
the ascent of a steep hill that was formed into natu-
ral terraces by ledges of rocks, and which terminated
at last in a peak or narrow summit. On the face of
this hill he had crowded his infantry, his cavalry,
and his chariots, and trusted that, although the
ground was unfavourable to the operations of such
an army, it was still inaccessible, and they could not
be attacked.
While the Asiatic general, therefore, believed
himself secure in this position, the Roman conti-
nued to observe him from the post he had fortified
at a little distance; and was told by some natives of
the country, that the hill which Archelaus had oc-
cupied might be ascended in his rear, and that a
body of men might be conducted safely and unob-
served to the summit. Upon this information Sylla
formed his plan to engage the enemy, sent a power-
ful detachment with proper guides to seize on the
heights above their encampment, while he himself
c. XIV.]
151
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
advanced with his main body in front of their sta-
tion, and by this means diverted their attention from
what was passing on the opposite quarter, while he
himself was prepared to profit by any confusion which
might be occasioned by an alarm from thence.
A
The unexpected appearance of an enemy in the
rear, produced the alarm that was intended in the
Asiatic camp. The impetuous descent they were
ordered to make from the hill, drove all in confusion
before them. The rear fell down on the front.
great uproar and tumult arose in every part. In
this critical moment, Sylla, with the main body, be-
gan his attack in front, and soon broke into the
midst of enemies, who were altogether unprepared
to receive him; or who being crowded in a narrow
space, and mixed with little distinction of separate
bodies, of officers or men, and, under the disadvan-
tage of their ground, could neither resist nor retire.
In the centre, numbers were trod under foot by those
who pressed upon them from every side, and perished
by violence or suffocation; or, while they endeavour-
ed to open a way to escape, employed their swords
against one another. Of an hundred and twenty
thousand men, scarcely ten thousand could be as-
sembled at Chalcis in Euboea, the place to which
Archelaus directed his flight. Of the Romans, at
the end of the action, only fifteen men were missing,
and of these two returned on the following day *.
Archelaus, even after this rout of his army, being
still master at sea, drew supplies from Asia and from
*For this particular, Plutarch quotes the Memoirs of Sylla himself.
152
[c. XIV.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
the neighbouring islands; and, being secure in his
retreat in Euboea, made frequent descents on the
neighbouring coasts. While Sylla endeavoured to
cover the lands of Boeotia and Attica from these in-
cursions, Mithridates made great efforts to replace
his army in that country; and in a little time had
transported thither eighty thousand fresh troops un-
der Dorilaus, to whom Archelaus joined himself
with those he had saved from the late disaster. The
new army of Mithridates, consisting chiefly of caval-
ry, was greatly favoured by the nature of the ground
in Boeotia, which was flat, and abounding in forage.
Sylla, though inclined to keep the heights on which
he was least exposed to the enemy's cavalry, was, in
order to cover the country from which he drew his
subsistence, obliged to descend to the plains in the
neighbourhood of Orchomenos. There he took
post among the marshes, and endeavoured to fortify
himself with ditches against the enemy's horse.
While his works were yet unfinished, being attacked
by the Asiatic cavalry, not only the labourers, but
the troops that were placed under arms to cover the
workmen, were seized with a panic, and fled. Sylla,
having for some time in vain endeavoured to rally
them, laid hold of an ensign, and rushed in despair
on the enemy. "To me," he said, "it is glorious
❝ to fall in this place; but for you, if
you are asked
"where you deserted your leader, you may say at
"Orchomenos." Numbers who heard this reproach,
returned to the charge with their general; and where-
ever they presented themselves, stopped the career
of the enemy, and put them to flight. The Roman
c. XIV.]
153
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
army at length recovered itself in every part of the
field; and Sylla, remounting his horse, took the full
advantage of the change of his fortune, pursued the
enemy to their camp, and forced them to abandon
it with great slaughter.
After the loss of this second army, Mithridates
appears to have despaired of his affairs in Greece:
he suffered Sylla to enter into quiet possession of
his winter quarters in Thessaly, and authorised Ar-
chelaus to treat of peace.
Both parties were equally inclined to a conference;
the king of Pontus urged by his losses, and the Ro-
man Proconsul by the state of affairs in Italy. There,
though commanding in Greece by authority from
the Roman Senate, Sylla had been degraded, and
declared a public enemy, by a formal sentence or
resolution of the people at Rome. An officer had
been sent from Italy to supersede him; and a Ro-
man army, independent of his orders, was actually
employed in the province. Mithridates too, while
he had sustained such losses in Greece, was pressed
by the other army in Asia, under the command of
Fimbria, who, with intentions equally hostile to
Sylla as to Mithridates, advanced with a rapid pace,
reduced several towns on the coast, and had lately
made himself master of Pergamus, where the king
himself had narrowly escaped falling into his hands.
In these circumstances, a treaty was equally season-
able to both.
Sylla had been absent from Rome about two years,
during which time, having no supplies from thence,
he had supported the war by the contributions which
154
[c. xiv.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
he had raised in Greece, Ætolia, and Thessaly, and
with the money he had coined from the plate and
treasure of the Grecian temples*. The republic,
in the mean time, had been in the possession of his
personal enemies, and the authority of the Senate
was, in a great measure, suppressed. For soon af-
ter his departure from Rome, his antagonist Cinna,
notwithstanding the engagements he had come un-
der, revived the project of keeping the more respect-
able citizens in subjection, under pretence of regu-
lations enacted by the collective body of the people.
The designation of a party now in power was the
same with that which had distinguished the follow-
ers of Tiberius and Caius Gracchus; but the object
was changed, and that which was termed the popu-
lar faction was itself differently composed. Former-
ly this faction consisted of the populace of Rome
and of the poorer citizens, opposed to the noble and
the rich. The objects for which they at that time
contended, were the distribution of corn, new set-
tlements, or the division of lands. At present the
parties consisted of the inhabitants of the country
towns lately admitted, or still claiming to be admit-
ted, on the rolls of the people on one side, and of the
Senate and ancient citizens on the other. The ob-
ject to which the former aspired, was a full and e-
qual participation in all the powers that belonged to
the Roman people. They were far from being sa-
tisfied with the manner of their enrolment into a few
particular Tribes, and laid claim to be admitted with-
* Plutarch. in Sylla et Lucullo.
c. XIV.]
155
of the Roman republic.
¿
out distinction among the ancient citizens, and like
them to have consideration and power proportioned
to their numbers. In this they were supported by
Cinna, who made a motion in their favour in the as-
sembly of the people, and at the same time propo-
sed to recall Marius and the other exiles of that par-
ty from their banishment. The Consul Octavius,
with the majority of the Senate and ancient citizens,
opposed their designs; but Cinna was likely to have
a powerful support in the friends of the exiles, and
in the new citizens, who flocked from every town
in the country. On the day appointed for the dis-
cussion of this question, his partisans, in great num-
bers, took possession of the place of assembly, and
were observed to be armed with daggers or short
swords. Octavius was attended at his own house
by a numerous company of the ancient citizens, who
were armed in the same manner, and waited to take
such measures as the necessity of the case might re-
quire. Being told that the Tribunes who had for-
bidden the question were violently attacked, and
likely to be driven from the place; these adherents
of the Senate came forth into the streets, and drove
their antagonists, with some bloodshed, through the
gates of the city. Cinna endeavouring to make head
against his colleague, invited the slaves, under a pro-
mise of liberty, to his standard. But finding it im-
possible within a city, that was occupied by his op-
ponents, to withstand their force, he withdrew to the
country towns, and solicited supplies from thence.
He passed through Tibur and Præneste to Nola, and
openly implored the inhabitants to aid him against
156
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
[c. XIV.
their common enemies. On this occasion he was
attended by Sertorius, and by some other Senators
who had embarked in the same ruinous faction. Their
solicitations at any other time might, perhaps, have
been fruitless; but now, to the misfortune of the re-
public, a number of armies were still kept on foot in
Italy, to finish the remains of the social war. Cn.
Strabo commanded one army in Umbria, Metellus
another on the confines of Lucania and Samnium,
and Appius Claudius a third in Campania. These
armies consisted chiefly of indigent citizens, become
soldiers of fortune, very much at the disposal of the
leaders in whose name they had been levied, to
whom, as usual, they had sworn the military oath,
and on whom they depended for the settlements and
rewards which they were taught to expect at the
end of their services. Such men were inclined to
take part in the cause of any faction that was likely,
by the expulsion and forfeiture of any one class of the
citizens, to make way for preferments and fortunes
to those who were employed to expel them.
Cinna distrusted Pompey and Metellus; but ho-
ping for a better reception from Appius Claudius,
he repaired to the camp of this general, and had the
address to gain the troops who were under his com-
mand.
Octavius
Meantime the Senate, without entering into any
particular discussion of the guilt which
and Meru- Cinna had incurred in the late tumult at
Rome, found that, by having deserted his
station, he had actually divested himself of his of
fice as Consul, and they obtained the election of
la.
c. XIV.]
157
of the ROMAN REPublic.
L. Cornelius Merula, to supply the vacancy which
his desertion had occasioned.
Marius, being informed that one of the armies in
Italy, with a Roman Consul at its head, was prepa-
red to support him, made haste from his exile in A-
frica: he landed in Tuscany, was joined by numbers,
and on his approach to Rome had an offer of being
vested with the ensigns of Proconsul. But intend-
ing to move commiseration or pity, he declined eve-
ry privilege of a Roman citizen, until the sentence
of attainder or banishment, which had been pro-
nounced against him, should be formally reversed.
He accordingly presented himself to the people as
he passed, in the manner practised by suppliants,
with a mean habit, and in the ghastly figure to which
he was reduced by the distress of his exile; but with
a countenance, says his historian, which, being na-
turally stern, now rather moved terror than pity
He implored the protection of the country-towns, in
whose cause he pretended to have suffered, and
whose interests were now embarked on the same
bottom with his own. He had many partisans a-
mong those who had composed the legions which
formerly served under his own orders, had reputa-
tion and authority, and soon assembled a considera-
ble force, with which, in concert with Cinna, Serto-
rius and Carbo, he advanced towards Rome.
These adventurers invested the city in three se-
parate divisions. Cinna and Carbo lay before it :
On the Appian way, Sertorius took post on the ri-
*Plutarch, in Mario.
158
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
[c. XIV.
}
ver above, and Marius below it. The last, to pre-
vent supplies from the sea, made himself master of
the port of Ostia: Sertorius had sent a detachment
to Ariminum, to prevent any relief from the side of
Gaul.
In this extremity the Senate applied to Metellus,
requesting that he would make any possible accom-
modation with such of the Italian allies as were still
under arms, and hasten to the relief of the city. The
delays which he made in the execution of these or-
ders enabled Cinna and Marius to prevent him in
gaining the allies, who at this time had it in their
option to accept the privileges they claimed from
either party; and, having chosen to join themselves
with the popular faction, they threw their weight
into that scale.
Metellus, however, advanced into Latium; and,
being joined by the Consul Octavius, took post on
the Alban Hill. From thence they found that the
troops, being inclined to favour their enemies, de-
serted apace. The commander himself being left
with a few attendants, despaired of the cause, and
withdrew into Africa. Octavius found means to en-
ter the city, and resumed his station.
The army lately commanded by Pompeius Stra-
bo was now deprived of its general, he having been
killed by lightning in his camp. And the Senate
was not inclined to repose any confidence in the
men he had commanded. He himself had some
time hesitated between the parties; and the troops,
at his death, were still supposed undecided in their
choice. With so uncertain a prospect of support,
c. XIV.] OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
159
the Senate thinking it more safe to capitulate with
Cinna and Marius, than to remain exposed to the
horrors of a storm; offered to reinstate Cinna in the
office of Consul, and to restore Marius, with the
other exiles, to their condition of Roman citizens ;
only stipulating that they would spare the blood of
their opponents, or proceed in their complaints a-
gainst them according to the laws of the common-
wealth.
While this treaty was in dependence, Marius, af-
fecting the modesty of a person whom the law, ac-
cording to his late sentence of banishment, had dis-
qualified to take any part in the state, observed a
sullen and obstinate silence. Even when the terms
were settled, and the gates were laid open to him-
self and his followers, he refused to enter until the
attainder under which he lay should be taken off,
and until he were replaced in his condition as a
citizen of Rome. The people were accordingly as-
sembled to repeal their former decree. But Marius,
in the character of a practised soldier, proposing to
take his enemies by surprise, did not wait for the
completion of the ceremony he himself had exacted.
While the ballots were collecting, he entered the
city with a band of armed men, whom he instantly
employed in taking vengeance on those who had
concurred in the late measures against him. Al-
though the gates, by his orders, were secured, many
of the Senators found means to withdraw. The
house of Sylla was demolished; such as were repu-
ted his friends were slain; his wife and his children
narrowly escaped. Among the signals by which
100-
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION [c. XIV.
Marius directed the execution of particular persons,
it was understood that if he did not return a salute
which was offered him, this was to be considered as
a warrant for immediate death. In compliance with
these instructions, some citizens of note were laid
dead at his feet. And as the meanest retainers of
his party had their resentments as well as himself,
and took this opportunity to indulge their passions,
the city resembled a place that was taken by storm,
and every quarter resounded with the cries of rage
or of terror; a horrid scene, which continued with-
out intermission during five days and five nights.
The Consul Octavius was murdered in his robes of
office, and in presence of his lictors; two Senators
of the name of Cæsar, Caius and Lucius; two of
the name of Crassus, the father and the son, attempt-
ing to escape, but likely to be taken, fell by their own
hands; Attilius Serranus, Publius Lentulus, C. Nu-
mitorius, and M. Bæbius, being murdered by persons
who bore them a particular hatred, the bodies were
fastened on a hook, and dragged by a rope through
the streets; Marcus Antonius, one of the first Ro-
man Senators who had betaken himself entirely or
chiefly to the practice of a pleader at the bar and in
the Senate, from which he is known by the name of
the Qrator, being discovered in a place of conceal-
ment, was killed by assassins sent for the purpose.
The heads of the others were exposed on the ros-
tra; that of Antonius was placed on the table of
Marius, to whom the sight, from peculiar motives of
envy or resentment, was singularly gratifying. Ca-
tulus, once the colleague of Marius himself in the
2
c. XIV.]
161
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
Consulate, and partner in his last and most decisive
victory over the Cimbri, without question one of
the most respectable Senators of the age, being in-
cluded in the warrant for general execution, had
numbers to solicit for his life; but Marius, exaspe-
rated the more by this appearance of popular regard
in his favour, made a short answer, He must die.
And this victim, choosing to avoid by a voluntary
death the insults likely to be offered to his person,
having shut himself up in a close chamber, with a
brasier of burning charcoal, perished by suffocation.
Merula, the Flamen Dialis, or Priest of Jupiter,
whose name, without his own knowledge, had been
inscribed Consul upon the degradation of Cinna,
now likewise willing to maintain to the last the dig-
nity of his station, opened his own arteries at the
shrine of his god, sprinkling the idol with his blood.
As he felt the approach of death, he tore from his
head the apex or crest of the order, which he bore,
and with which, by the maxims of his religion, he
could not part while in life, but with which on his
head it would have been impious, and ominous of
evil, to have died. In observing this ceremony, he
called upon those who were present to witness the
exactness with which he performed his duty.
The horrors of this massacre are to be imputed
chiefly, if not entirely to the fury of Marius, acting
from the original asperity of his own mind, stung
with animosity to every distinction of birth, educa-
tion, or manners, which marked the superior order
of citizens, and now wrought up by recent disap-
pointments of ambition, and by his sufferings in ex-
VOL. II.
L
162
[c. XIV.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
ile, into a detestation and rancour, which nothing
short of such a scene could assuage. In most other
places, indeed, instruments would have been want-
ing for the execution of such a work: But at Rome
were found in sufficient numbers, fugitive slaves,
eager to avenge their own sufferings, in the blood
of their masters; parties in private quarrels; thieves,
expecting plunder in the murder of the wealthy; a
populace, such as every where is capable of the wild-
est disorder, when assembled in occasional tumults,
but here peculiarly nursed in scenes of licence, with
pretensions to political importance, and even to so-
vereignty, detesting the superior orders of the state,
by whom they felt themselves restrained; indigent,
but looking for relief, not to their own industry or
honest arts, but to gratuities, obtained by corruption
or public profusion. In their very entertainments
or sports, whether fights of gladiators, or baiting of
wild beasts, trained to a ruthless insensibility and in-
difference to blood: Such men, having the example
and authority of a leader, whom they had long consi-
dered as the champion of their cause, and having the
several objects of their fury at mercy, burst out into
a scene of wild devastation, attended with murders,
rapes, and every species of outrage, which could
arise from the suspension of government in a state,
where the disorderly were found in such numbers,
and the most powerful restraints were necessary.
Cinna himself, though equally bent with his as-
sociate on measures to recover his power, and to
restore his party, but having fewer resentments to
gratify, was shocked with these enormities, and in-
c. XIV.]
163
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
terposed his authority to restrain them. The man-
dates of office being insufficient for this purpose, he
had recourse to military force, and driving all who
were found in the perpetration of such crimes into
places inclosed, or into the recess of squares or nar-
row streets, had them in great numbers, without in-
quiry or distinction, put to the sword.
Some degree of respite or calm being obtained by
these means, it was proposed to resume the appear-
ance of regular government, as far as the times could
allow. The Consulate of Cinna was accordingly
restored; and Marius, though without any form of
election, associated in the office. In such a season
of terror, there could not be any risk to the party
in recurring to the ordinary suffrage of the people;
but an election was deemed unnecessary, and the
ensigns of office were assumed without it.
Marius, though now preceded in form by the
Lictors, could not return to the habits of a legal
magistrate. The objects of his resentment were
still sacrificed to his fury, without any trial, and un-
der his own inspection. But, in the midst of cries
which were occasioned by these executions, the
name of Sylla, and the fame of his victories in Greece,
gave continual presage of a retribution, no way
likely to fall short of the provocation which was now
given in the subversion of public order at Rome.
And although the principal author of these wrongs
was not destined to abide the future consequences
in his own person, the immediate effect to him was
sufficiently awful. Even the obdurate soul of Ma-
rius, unable to endure such a load of guilt and re-
L 2
164 THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION [C. XIV.
morse, passed from the agitation of fury to that of
terror and nocturnal fears, which gave evident signs
or indications of a disordered mind. Some one, he
imagined, continually sounded in his ears the words
of a poet, Horrid is the dying lion's den; and these
words being applied to himself, seemed to announce
his approaching dissolution. He took to the use of
wine in excess, contracted a pleurisy, and died on
the seventh day of his illness, in the seventeenth
day of his last or seventh consulate, and in the seven-
tieth year of his age; leaving the tools he had em-
ployed in subverting the government of his country
to pay the forfeit of his crimes.
Livy, it appears *, from the remaining epitome of
this part of his work, had made it a question, whe-
ther this celebrated personage had been most useful
to his country as a soldier, or pernicious as a citizen.
It has happened unfortunately for his fame, that he
closed the scene of life with examples of the lat-
ter kind. In what degree he retained his genius or
abilities cannot be known. His insatiable thirst of
power, like avarice in the case of the superannuated
miser, seemed to grow with age. His hatred of the
Nobles, contracted in the obscurity of his early life,
remained with him after he himself had laid the am-
plest foundations of nobility in his own family. And
he died in an attempt to extinguish all just or regu-
lar government, in the blood of those who were most
eminently qualified or disposed to sustain it.
Livy, Epitome, lib. viii.
rio. Florus, lib. iii, c. 21.
Fragmentis.
Appian. de Bell. Civil. lib. i. Plutarch. in Ma-
Velleius Pater. lib. ii, c. 19, &c. Dio. Cass. in
c. XIV.]
165
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
Upon the death of Marius, the government re-
mained in the hands of Cinna. While many of the
Senators, and other citizens obnoxious to the pre-
vailing party, had taken refuge with Sylla; this ge-
neral himself was declared a public enemy; his ef
fects were seized; his children, with their mother,
having narrowly escaped the pursuit of his enemies,
were fled to the father in Greece. In these circum-
stances he made not any change in his conduct of
the war, nor made any concessions to the enemy
against whom he was employed. He talked fami-
liarly every day of his intention to suppress the dis-
orders at Rome, and to avenge the blood of his
friends, but not till he had forced Mithridates to
make reparation for the wrongs he had done to the
Romans and to their allies in Asia.
Alarmed by the report of such threats, Cinna
took measures to strengthen his own party; assumed,
upon the death of Marius, Valerius Flaccus as his
colleague in the office of Consul; and, having as-
signed him the command in Asia, with two additional
legions, trusted, that with this force he might obtain
possession of the province, and furnish to Sylla suffi-
cient occupation beyond the limits of Italy.
But Flaccus, upon his arrival in Thessaly, was de-
serted by part of the army he was destined to em-
ploy; and passing through Macedonia in his route
to Asia with the remainder, a dispute arose between
himself and his lieutenant Fimbria, which ended in
the murder of the Consul, and in the succession of
Fimbria to the command. So little deference or
respect did soldiers of fortune pay, in the disorder
166
[c. XIV.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
of those unhappy times, even to the heads of a party
they professed to serve.
Fimbria, with the troops he had seduced to his
standard, after he had assassinated their general,
made a rapid progress in Asia, and hastened, as has
been observed, the resolution to which Mithridates
was come, of applying for peace. To this stately
but crafty prince, urged by the necessity of his own
affairs, the conjuncture appeared to be favourable,
when so much distraction took place in the councils
of Rome. He had experienced the abilities of Sylla;
he knew his eager desire to be gone for Italy, and
to be revenged of his enemies; and he expected to
gain him by proffering assistance in the war he was
about to wage with the opposite party at Rome.
Upon a message from Archelaus, Sylla readily
agreed to an interview in the island of Delos; and
here being told, in the name of Mithridates, that he
should have money, troops, and shipping to make a
descent upon Italy, provided he would enter into a
confederacy with the king of Pontus, or join him in
a war with the Romans, by whom he himself was
now proscribed, Sylla, in his turn, proposed to Ar-
chelaus to desert Mithridates, to deliver up the fleet
and army
which was under his command, and to re-
ly for protection and reward on the faith of the Ro-
mans. They will speedily seat you, he said, on the
throne of Pontus. Archelaus having rejected this
proposal with horror, " And you," says Sylla, "the
"slave, or (if you prefer that title) the friend of a
"barbarous tyrant, will not betray your trust, and
"yet, to me, have the presumption to propose an
C. XIV.]
167
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
"act of perfidy. The fields of Chæronea and Or-
"chomenos should have made you better acquaint-
"ed with the character of a Roman."
Upon this reply Archelaus saw the necessity of
purchasing the treaty he was instructed to obtain,
and accordingly made the following concessions:
That the fleet of Pontus, consisting of seventy gal-
leys, should be delivered up to the Romans.
That the garrisons should be withdrawn from all
places which had been seized in the course of this
war.
That the Roman province in Asia, together with
Paphlagonia, Bithynia, and Cappadocia, should be
evacuated, and the frontier of Pontus, for the future,
be the boundary of Mithridates's territory.
That the Romans should receive two thousand ta-
lents *, to reimburse their expense in the war.
That prisoners should be restored, and all desert-
ers delivered up.
While these articles were sent to Mithridates for
his ratification, Sylla in no degree relaxed the mea-
sures he had taken to secure and to facilitate the
passage of his army into Asia. He sent Lucullus t
round every station on the coast to procure an as-
semblage of shipping; and he himself, after having
made some incursions into Thrace, to gratify his ar-
my with the spoil of nations who had often plunder-
ed the Roman province, continued his route to the
Hellespont; but on his way he was met by the mes-
sengers of Mithridates, who informed him that their
* About L.386,000.
+ Vide Plutarch, in Lucullo.
168
[c. XIV.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
master agreed to all the articles proposed, except to
that which related to the cession of Paphlagonia;
and at the same time made a merit of the preference
he had given to Sylla in this treaty, as he might
have obtained more favourable terms from Fimbria.
"That is a traitor," said Sylla, "whom I shall
speedily punish for his crimes. As for your mas-
"ter, I shall know, upon my descent in Asia, whe-
"ther he chooses to have peace or war.”
66
Being arrived at the Hellespont, he was joined by
Lucullus with a number of vessels, which enabled
him to pass the strait. Here he was met by another
message from Mithridates, desiring a personal inter-
view; which was accordingly held in the presence
of both armies, and at which the king of Pontus, af-
ter some expostulations, agreed to all the conditions
already mentioned. In this he probably acted from
policy, as well as from the necessity he felt in the
present state of his affairs. He still hoped, that in
consequence of this treaty, he might turn the arms
of Sylla against the Romans, and trusted that the
peace he obtained for himself in Asia was to be the
beginning of a war in Italy, more likely to distress.
his enemies than any efforts he himself could make
against them. With this reasonable prospect he re-
tired into his own kingdom of Pontus; and there,
strengthening himself by alliances and the acquisi-
tion of territory on the northern coasts of the Euxine,
he prepared to take advantage of future emergen-
cies, and to profit by the state of confusion into
which the affairs of the Romans were likely to fall.
c. XIV.]
169
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
Sylla having brought the Mithridatic war to an
issue so honourable for himself, and having every
where gratified his army with the spoils of their
enemies, being possessed of a considerable sum of
money and a numerous fleet, and being secure of
the attachment of the legions, who had experienced
his liberality, and rested their hopes in future on the
success of his enterprise, prepared to take vengeance
on his enemies, and those of the republic in Italy.
He proceeded, however, with great deliberation and
caution; and, as if the state at Rome were in per-
fect tranquillity, staid to reduce the army of Fim-
bria, to resettle the Roman province, and to effect
the restoration of the allies, Nicomedes and Ario-
barzanes, to their respective kingdoms of Cappado-
cia and Bithynia.
Fimbria being required by Sylla to resign a com-
mand which he had illegally usurped, retorted the
charge of usurpation, and treated Sylla himself as an
outlaw but upon the approach of this general, be-
ing deserted by his army, he fled to Pergamus, and
there had an end put to his life by the hands of a
slave, of whom he exacted this service. To punish
the province of Asia for its defection to Mithridates,
Sylla obliged the inhabitants to pay down a sum
equal to five years' ordinary tax. He sent Curio to
replace on their thrones the kings of Cappadocia
and Bithynia, who had persevered in their alliance
with Rome, and sent an account of these particulars
to the Senate, without taking any notice of the edict
by which he himself had been stripped of his com-
170 THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION [C. XIV.
息
​mand, and declared an enemy *. Before he set sail,
however, for Italy, he thought proper to transmit a
memorial, setting forth his services and his wrongs,
as well as the injury done to many Senators who had
taken refuge in his camp, and concluding with me-
naces of justice against his own enemies and those
of the republic, but assuring the citizens in general
of protection and security. This paper, being read
in the Senate, appeared to alarm many of the mem-
bers: even those who had least to fear from the
threats it contained, wished for expedients to recon-
cile the parties, and to avert the evils which the re-
public must suffer from their repeated contentions.
A soothing answer was accordingly sent to the me-
morial of Sylla, and earnest entreaties were made to
Cinna, that he would suspend his levies until a reply
could be obtained from his antagonist. But Cinna,
U. C. 669. in contempt of these pacific intentions,
took measures to sustain the war; divided
the fasces with Cn. Papirius Carbo, whom,
without any form of election, he assumed
for his colleague in the Consulate; and, in the par-
tition of provinces, retained for himself the admi-
nistration in Italy, while he assigned to Carbo the
command in the neighbouring Gaul. These titular
magistrates, with all the adherents of their faction,
betook themselves in haste to the forming of troops,
and securing the fidelity of the towns within the se-
veral divisions which they had received in charge.
L. Corne-
lius Cinna
4to, Cn.
Papirius
Carbo.
* Appian. in Bell. Mithridat. Plutarch. in Syll.
c. XIV.]
171
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
Carbo exacted hostages for their good behaviour
from all the towns in his district; but as he had not
any regular authority from the Senate for this mea-
sure, he found himself unable to give it effect. To
Te
Castricius, the chief magistrate of Placentia, a per-
son of great age, who refused to comply with his or-
ders, "Have not I your life in my power ?" he said.
"And have not I," said the other," already had
"life enough* ?"
Cinna, however, having mustered a considerable
force, and intending to make head against Sylla in
Thessaly, through which he was expected to pass in
his way to Italy, was about to transport his army thi-
ther; when the troops being averse to embark, he
himself, endeavouring to force them, was killed in a
mutiny. A general disorder and anarchy pervaded
the party. The election of a successor to Cinna was
twice interrupted by supposed unfavourable presa-
ges, and Carbo remained sole Consul.
66
At this time an answer was received from Sylla to
the proposals made by the Senate towards a recon-
ciliation of parties. In this, he declared, "That
" he never could return into friendship with persons
guilty of so many and such enormous crimes. If
"the Roman people, however, were pleased to
grant an indemnity, he would not interpose, but
"should venture to affirm, that such of the citizens
as chose, in the present disorders, to take refuge
"in his camp, would find themselves safer than in
"that of his enemy's." He had embarked his ar-
<<
* Val. Max. lib. vi, c. 2.
172
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
1
[c. XIV.
my at Ephesus, and in three days reached the Py-
ræus, the port of Athens. Here he was taken ill of
the gout, and was advised to use the hot baths at
Adipsus; at which he accordingly passed some time,
and with singular force of mind, as if divested of all
public or private distress, amused himself, in his
usual way, with persons of humour, and ordinary
company. His fleet, in the meantime, consisting of
twelve hundred ships, coasted round the Peloponne-
sus, and took on board the army which had march-
ed by Thessaly to Dyrrachium. Being apprehensive
that some part of the legions, upon landing in Italy,
and with so near a prospect of returning to their
homes, might desert, or, trusting to their conse-
quence in a civil war, might become disorderly and
distress the inhabitants, he exacted a special oath,
by which every man bound himself, upon his arrival
in Italy, to abide by his colours, and to observe the
strictest order in his march through the country.
The troops, wishing to remove all the remains of a
distrust which had suggested this precaution, not
only took the oath, but made voluntary offer of a
contribution towards the support of the war; and
Sylla, without accepting the aid which was proffered
to him, set sail with the additional confidence which
this proof of attachment in the army inspired.
He had, according to Appian, five Roman legions,
with six thousand Italian horse, and considerable le-
vies from Macedonia and Greece, amounting, in all,
to about sixty thousand men. With this force he
landed in Italy, in the face of many different ar-
c. XIV.]
173
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
mies, each of them equal or superior in number to
his own.
U. C. 670.
L. Corn.
Scipio, C.
Jun. Nor-
banus.
#
Those now at the head of the commonwealth were
supposed to have on foot, at different sta-
tions, above two hundred thousand men.
L. Cornelius Scipio and C. Junius Norba-
nus, who were leaders of the party, be-
ing in possession of the capital and of the place of
election, were named for Consuls. Norbanus, as act-
ing for the republic, commanded a great army in
Apulia; Scipio, another on the confines of Campa-
nia. Sertorius, young Marius, with Carbo, in the
quality of Proconsul, and others, (as Plutarch quotes
from the memoirs of Sylla,) to the number of fifteen
commanders, had each of them armies, amounting
in all to four hundred and fifty cohorts *; but of
these different bodies none attempted to dispute the
landing of Sylla, nor, for some days, to interrupt his
march. He accordingly continued to advance as in
a friendly country, and in the midst of profound
peace. The inhabitants of Italy, considering the
superior class of the people at Rome, in whose
cause now Sylla appeared, as averse to the claim
they had made of being promiscuously enrolled in
the Tribes, were likely to oppose him, and to favour
the faction which had for some time prevailed in the
state. To allay their fears, or to prevent their ta-
king an active part against himself, Sylla summon-
ed the leading men of the country towns as he pass-
ed, and gave them assurances that he would con-
* About 225,000 men.
174
[c. XIV.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
firm the grants which had been made to them, if
they did not forfeit these and every other title to
favour, by abetting the faction which had subverted
the government.
On his march he was joined by Metellus Pius,
who, as has been observed, after a fruitless attempt,
in conjunction with the Consul Octavius, to cover
Rome from the attack of the elder Marius and Cin-
na, had withdrawn to Africa; and being forced
from thence by Fabius, returned into Italy. This
officer being in Liguria, where he still retained the
ensigns of Proconsul, had some forces on foot, and
was sustaining the hopes of his party, when so great
a change was made in their favour as was produced
by the arrival of an army from Greece.
Sylla was likewise, about the same time, joined by
Cneius Pompeius, son to the late Consul Pompeius
Strabo, who, though too young for any formal com-
mission, had assembled a considerable body of men,
and already made himself of importance in the pre-
sent struggle. Being now only about nineteen
years of age, he was remarked for engaging man-
ners, and a manly aspect, which procured him a ge-
neral favour and an uncommon degree of respect *.
This distinction being unsought for, was possibly
felt by him as a birth-right, or gave him an early
impression of that superiority to his fellow-citizens
which he continued to bear through the whole of
his life. He had served in those legions with which
Cinna intended to have carried the war against Syl-
*Plutarch, in Mario,
c. XIV.]
175
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
la into Asia or Greece; but, being averse to the
party, had withdrawn when that army was about to
embark, and disappearing suddenly, was supposed
to have been murdered by the order of Cinna, a sus-
picion, which, among other circumstances, incited
his soldiers to the mutiny in which their general
was killed. Sylla appears himself to have been won
by the promising aspect of the young Pompey, and
received him with distinguished marks of regard.
Numbers of the Senate and Nobles, who had hi-
therto remained exposed at Rome to the insults of
their enemies, now repaired to the camp of Sylla.
The Consul Norbanus, being joined by young Ma-
rius, lay at Canusium. Sylla, while he was prepa-
ring to attack them, sent an officer with overtures of
peace; these they rejected with marks of contempt.
This circumstance had an effect which Sylla per-
haps foresaw or intended. It roused the indigna-
tion of his army, and, in the action which followed,
had some effect in obtaining a victory, in which six
thousand** of the enemy were killed, with the loss
of only seventy men to himself.
Norbanus, after this defeat, retreated to Capua ;
and, being covered by the walls of that place, wait-
ed the arrival of Scipio, who intended to join him
with the army under his command. Sylla marched
to Tianum to prevent their junction; and, on the
approach of Scipio, proposed to negotiate. The
leaders, with a few attendants, met between the two
armies, and were nearly agreed upon terms of
}
*Plutarch. in Syll. edit. Lond. p. 85.
!
176
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
[c. XIV.
peace; but Scipio delayed his final consent until he
should consult with Norbanus at Capua. Sertorius
was accordingly dispatched to inform Norbanus of
what had passed, and hostilities were to be suspend-
ed until his return; but this messenger, probably a-
verse to the treaty, broke the truce, by seizing a
post at Suessa which had been occupied by Sylla;
and the negotiation had no other effect than that of
giving the troops of both armies, as well as their
leaders, an opportunity of conferring together; a
circumstance which, in civil wars, is always danger-
ous to one or other of the parties. In this case the
popularity of Sylla prevailed; and the soldiers of his
army, boasting of the wealth which they had acqui-
red under their general, infected their enemies, and
seduced them to desert their leader. Scipio was left
almost alone in his camp; but Sylla, receiving the
troops who deserted to him, made no attempt to
seize their commander, suffered him to escape, and,
with the accession of strength he had acquired by
the junction of this army, continued his march to-
wards Rome. Norbanus at the same time evacuated
Capua, and, by forced marches in a different route,
arrived at the city before him.
About this time, Sertorius, who, before the war
broke out, had, in the distribution of provinces,
been appointed Proprætor of Spain, despairing of
affairs in Italy, in which probably he was not suffi-
ciently consulted, repaired to his province, and de-
termined to try what the skill of a Roman leader
could effect at the head of the warlike natives of
that country.
I
c. XIV.]
177
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
The chiefs of the Marian party, who remained in
Italy, made efforts to collect all the forces they
could at Rome. Carbo, upon hearing that the ar-
my of Scipio had been seduced to desert their lead-
er, said,
"We have to do with a lion and a fox, of
"which the fox is probably the more dangerous
enemy of the two."
66
Norbanus, soon after his arrival at Rome, procu-
red an edict of the people, by which Metellus, and
the others who had joined their forces with Sylla,
were declared enemies to their country. About the
same time a fire broke out in the Capitol, and the
buildings were burnt to the ground. Various sus-
picions were entertained of the cause; but as no
party had any interest in this event, it was probably
accidental, and served only to agitate the minds of
the people, prone to superstition, and apt to find in
every calamity alarming presages, as well as present
distress.
U. C. 671.
C. Marius,
Cn. Pap.
Carbo.
The remainder of the season was spent by both
parties in collecting their forces from every quarter
of Italy; and the term of the Consuls in office being
nearly expired, Carbo procured his own
nomination to succeed them, and inscri-
bed the name of the young Marius, scarce-
ly twenty years of age, as his colleague. This person
is by some said to have been the nephew, by others
the adopted son, of the late celebrated C. Marius,
whose name had so long been terrible to the ene-
mies, and at length not less so to the friends, of Rome.
At this time the Senate consented to have the
plate and ornaments of the temples coined for the
VOL. II.
M
178
[c. XIV.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
pay of the supposed consular armies. The majority
of its members, however, notwithstanding this act
of obsequiousness, were believed to favour the op-
posite party, and not fit to be trusted in case the city
were attacked. In consequence of this suspicion,
the whole being assembled together by orders of the
Prætors, Damasippus and Brutus, numbers were ta-
ken aside and put to death; of those destined to die,
Quintus Mucius Scævola, Pontifex Maximus, flying
to the temple in which he was accustomed to dis-
charge his sacred office, was killed in the porch.
The military operations of the following spring
began with an obstinate fight between two consider-
able armies, one commanded by Metellus, the other
by Carinas. The latter being defeated with great
loss, Carbo hastened to the scene of action, in order
to cover the remains of the vanquished party.
In the mean time Sylla, being encamped at Setia,
and having intelligence that the young Marius was
advancing against him, put his army in motion to
meet him, forced him back to Sacriportum, near to
Præneste, where an action soon after ensued, in
which Marius was defeated.
The routed army having fled in disorder to Præ-
neste, the first who arrived were received into the
place; but as it was apprehended that the enemy al-
so might enter in the tumult, the gates were shut,
and many, being excluded, were slaughtered under
the ramparts. Marius himself escaped, by means of
a rope which was let down from the battlements, and
by which he was enabled to scale the walls.
In consequence of this victory, Sylla invested Præ-
C. XIV.] OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
179
neste; and as great numbers were thus suddenly
cooped up in a town, which was not prepared to
subsist them, he had an immediate prospect of seeing
them reduced to the necessity of surrendering at dis-
cretion. Committing the charge of a blockade for
this purpose to Lucretius Offella, he himself, with
part of the army, proceeded to Rome. Metellus, in
a second action, had defeated the army of Carbo,
and Pompey, another of the same party near Sena;
and thus the forces of Sylla being victorious in
every part of Italy, the city was prepared to receive
their leader as soon as he should appear at the gates.
Upon his approach the partisans of the opposite fac-
tion withdrew, and left him master of the capital.
Sylla having posted his army in the field of Mars,
he himself entered the city, and calling an assembly
of the people, delivered an harangue, in which he
imputed the disorder of the times to the injustice
and cruelty of a few factious men, who had overturn-
ed the government, and sacrificed the best blood of
the republic to their ambition and to their personal
resentments. He exhorted the well-disposed to be
of good courage, and assured them that they should
soon have their freedom restored. In the mean time,
he gratified his own army with the spoils of the op-
posite party, declaring the effects of all those to be
forfeited who had been accessary to the crimes late-
ly committed against the State. After this first spe-
cimen of his policy in the city, leaving a sufficient
force to execute his orders, he hastened to Clusium,
where Carbo, being joined by a considerable rein-
forcement from Spain, was preparing to recover the
M 2
180
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION [c. XIV.
metropolis, or to relieve his colleague Marius, who
was reduced to great distress in Præneste.
The events which followed the arrival and opera-
tions of Sylla in Tuscany were various, but for the
most part unfavourable to Carbo, whose force, by
desertion and the sword, was declining apace. The
issue of the war seemed to depend on the fate of Præ-
neste, and the whole force of the party was therefore
directed to the relief of that place. The Lucanians
and Samnites, who had espoused the cause of the late
Caius Marius, and who, by his favour, had obtained
the promiscuous enrolment to which they aspired,
apprehending immediate ruin to themselves, in the
suppression of a party by whom alone they had been
favoured, determined to make one great effort for
the relief of Præneste.
They were joined in Latium by a large detach-
ment sent by Carbo, under Carinas and Marcius, and
made an attempt to force the lines of the besiegers
at Præneste, and to open the blockade of that place.
But having failed in this design, they turned, with
desperation, on the city of Rome itself, which was
but slightly guarded by a small detachment which
had been left for that purpose. Sylla being inform-
ed of their intention, with hasty marches returned
to the city, and found the enemy already in posses-
sion of the suburbs, and preparing to force the gates.
It was about four in the afternoon when he arri-
ved, after a long march. Some of his officers propo-
sed, that the troops, being fatigued, should have a
little time to repose themselves; and that, for this
purpose, they should remain under cover of the walls
c. XIV.
181
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
until the following day. Sylla, however, proposing,
rather by his unexpected presence, and by coming
to action at an unusual hour, to surprise the enemy,
gave orders for an immediate attack. The event for
some time was doubtful; the wing that was led by
himself was repulsed, or did not make the impression
expected; but the other wing under Crassus had
a better fortune, put the enemy to flight, and drove
them to Antemnæ.
The action, though thus various in the different
parts of it, became, in the event, completely deci-
sive. Eighty thousand of the Marian party were kill-
ed in their flight, and eight thousand taken. Carbo,
in despair of the cause, fled into Sicily. The troops
who were blocked up in Præneste, having no long-
er any hopes of relief, surrendered themselves, and
the whole party was dispersed or cut off. The young
Marius attempted to escape by the galleries of a
mine, of which there were many under the place * ;
and being prevented, killed himself. His head was
carried to Sylla, and by his order exposed in the
market-place. "That boy," he said, "should have
"learnt to row before he attempted to steer!"
The leader of the victorious party having now re-
moved all impediments from his way, proceeded to
retaliate on the authors of the late disorders with a
force equal to the violence with which it had been
provoked. About six or eight thousand of those
who were supposed to have been the busiest instru-
ments of the late usurpations and murders, being ta-
* Vid. Strabo, lib. v, p. 239.
182
[c. XIV.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
ken prisoners in the war, or surprised in the city,
were, by his direction, shut up in the circus, and in-
stantly put to death.
While this horrid scene was acting, he had assem-
bled the Senate, at a little distance, in the temple of
Bellona; and as many of the members then present
had either favoured, or at least tamely submitted to
the late usurpation, he made them a speech on the
state of the republic, in which he reproached them
as accessary to the late disorders, and admonished
them, for the future, to respect the legal government
and constitution of their country. In the midst of
these admonitions, the cries of those who were slaugh-
tered in the circus reaching their ears, the assembly
was greatly alarmed, and many of the members start-
ed from their seats. Sylla, with a countenance stern,
but undisturbed, checked them as for an instance of
levity. "Be composed," he said, "and attend to
"the business for which you are called. What
What you
"hear are no more than the cries of a few wretches,
"who are suffering the punishment due to their
"crimes." From this interruption he resumed his
subject, and continued speaking till the massacre of
these unhappy victims was completed.
In a harangue which he afterwards delivered to
the people, he spoke of his own services to the re-
public, and of the misdemeanour of others, in terms
that struck all who heard him with terror. "The
"republic,” he said, (if his opinion were followed),
"should be purged; but whether it were so or no,
"the injuries done to himself and his friends should
"be punished." He accordingly ordered military
+
C. XIV.]
183
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
i
execution against every person who had been acces-
sary to the late massacres and usurpations; and while
the sword was yet reeking in his hands, passed great
part of his time, as usual, in mirth and dissipation
with men of humorous and singular characters. He
deigned not even to inquire into the abuses that
were committed in the execution of his general plan.
Many of the disorders which took place in the for-
mer massacre were accordingly renewed. The per-
sons who were employed in it, frequently indulged
their own private resentment and their avarice in
the choice of victims. Among these, Cataline, then
a young man, had joined the victorious party; and
plunged, with a singular impetuosity, into the midst
of a storm which now overwhelmed a part of the
city. He is said, among other persons to whom he
bore an aversion, or whose effects he intended to
seize, to have murdered his own brother, with strange
circumstances of cruelty and horror.
While these dreadful murders, though mixed with
examples of a just execution, were perpetrated, a
young man, C. Metellus, had the courage to address
himself to Sylla in the Senate, and desired he would
make known the extent of his design, and how far
these executions were to be carried?" We intercede
"not," he said, "for the condemned; we only en-
"treat that you would relieve out of this dreadful
"state of uncertainty all those whom in reality you
mean to spare."
(C
Sylla, without being offended at this freedom, pub-
lished a list of those he had doomed to destruction,
offering a reward of two talents for the head of each,
184 THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION [C. XIV.
and denouncing severe penalties against every per
son who should harbour or conceal them. Hence
arose the practice of publishing lists of the persons
to be massacred, which, under the odious name of
Proscription, was afterwards imitated with such fatal
effects in the subsequent convulsions of the state.
The present proscription, although it promised
some security to all who were not comprehended in
the fatal list, opened a scene, in some respects more
dreadful than that which had been formerly acted
in this massacre. By the promised reward, the hands
of servants were hired against their masters, and
even those of children against their parents. The
mercenary of every denomination were encouraged,
by a great premium, to commit what before only
the executioners of public justice thought themselves
entitled to perform; and there followed a scene, in
which human nature had full scope to exert all the
evil of which it is susceptible, treachery, ingratitude,
distrust, malice, and revenge; and would have re-
tained no claim to our esteem or commiseration, if
its character had not been redeemed by contrary in-
stances of fidelity, generosity, and courage, display-
ed by those who, to preserve their friends and bene-
factors, or even to preserve mere objects of pity,
who took refuge under their protection, risked all
the dangers with which the proscribed themselves
were threatened.
In consequence of these measures, about five
thousand persons of consideration were put to death,
among whom were reckoned forty Senators, and
sixteen hundred of the Equestrian order.
C. XIV.]
185
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
"s
"
From these beginnings the Romans had reason to
apprehend a tyranny more sanguinary perhaps than
any that ever afflicted mankind. "If in the field
you slay all who are found in arms against you,"
said Catulus * "and in the city you slay even the
"unarmed; over whom do you propose to reign?"
These reproaches were by Sylla received as jests;
and the freedom and ease of his manners, as well as
the professions he made of regard to the common-
wealth, were imputed to insensibility, or to a bar-
barous dissimulation, which rendered his character
more odious, and the prospect of his future inten-
tions more terrifying.
In comparing the present with the late usurpation
and massacre, men recollected, that Marius from
his infancy had been of a severe and an inexorable
temper; that his resentments were sanguinary, and
even his frowns were deadly; but that his cruelties
were the effect of real passions, and had the apology
of not being perpetrated in cold blood; that every
person on whom he looked with indifference was
safe; and that even when he usurped the govern-
ment of the state, as soon as his personal resent-
ments were gratified, the sword in his hand became
an innocent pageant, and the mere ensign or badge
of his power. But that Sylla directed a massacre in
the midst of composure and ease; that as a private
man he had been affable and pleasant, even noted
for humanity and candourt; that the change of his
Probably the son of him who perished in the tyranny of Marius.
Plutarch. in Sylla.
186
[c. XIV.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
temper having commenced with his exaltation, there
were no hopes that the issues of blood could be stop-
ped while he was suffered to retain his
power. His
daring spirit, his address, his cunning, and his as-
cendant over the minds of men, rendered the pro-
spect of a deliverance, if not desperate, extremely
remote. The republic seemed to be extinguished
for ever; and if the rage for blood seemed to abate,
after the first heats of execution were over, it appear-
ed to be stayed only for want of victims, not from
any principle of moderation, or sentiment of cle-
mency.
Such was the aspect of affairs, and the grounds of
terror conceived even by those who were innocent
of the late disorders; but to those who had reason
to fear the resentment of the victor, the prospect
was altogether desperate. Norbanus, having fled to
Rhôdes, received at that place an account of the
proscriptions, and, to avoid being delivered up, kill-
ed himself. Carbo, being in Sicily, endeavoured to
make his escape from thence, but was apprehended
by Pompey, and killed. Thus all the ordinary of-
fices of state were vacated by the desertion or death
of those who had filled or usurped them.
Sylla had hitherto acted as master, without any
other title than that of the sword; and it was now
thought necessary to supply the defect. He retired
from the city, that the Senate might assemble with
the more appearance of freedom. To name an In-
terrex was the usual expedient for restoring the con-
stitution; and for proceeding to elections in a legal
form after the usual time had elapsed, or when by
c. XIV.]
187
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
any accident the ordinary succession to office had
been interrupted. Valerius Flaccus was named.
To him Sylla gave intimation, that, to resettle the
commonwealth, a Dictator, for an indefinite term,
should be appointed, and made offer of his own ser-
vices for this purpose. These intimations were re-
ceived as commands. And Flaccus, having assem-
bled the people, moved for an act to vest Sylla with
the title of Dictator, giving him a discretionary
power over the persons, fortunes, and lives of all the
citizens.
No example of this kind had taken place for one
hundred and twenty years preceding this date. In
the former part of that period, the jealousy of the
aristocracy, and in the latter part of it, the negative
of the Tribunes, had always prevented a measure
from which the parties severally apprehended some
danger to themselves. It was now revived in the per-
son of Sylla, with unusual solemnity, and ratified by
an act of the people, in which they yielded up at
once all their own claims to the sovereignty, and
submitted to monarchy for an indefinite time. Sylla
having named Valerius Flaccus for his lieutenant or
commander of the horse, returned to the city, pre-
senting a sight that was then unusual, a single per-
son, preceded by four-and-twenty Lictors, armed
with the axe and the rods; and the Dictator being
likewise attended by a numerous military guard, it
was not doubted that these ensigns of magistracy
were to be employed, not for parade, but for serious
execution, and were speedily to be stained with the
blood of many citizens, whom the sword had spa-
188
[c. XIV.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
red. Unwilling to be troubled with ordinary affairs,
and that the city, in all matters in which it was not
necessary for himself to interpose, might still enjoy
the benefit of its usual forms, he directed the peo-
ple to assemble, and to fill up the customary lists of
office.
Lucretius Offella, the officer who had command-
ed in the reduction of Præneste, presuming on his
favour with the Dictator, and on his consequence
with the army, offered himself for the Consulate.
Being commanded by Sylla to desist, he still conti-
nued his canvass, and while he solicited votes in the
street, was, by order of the Dictator, put to death.
A tumult immediately arose; the Centurion, who
executed this order against Offella, was seized, and
attended by a great concourse of people, was carried
before the Dictator. Sylla heard the complaint
with composure, told the multitude who crowded
around him, that Offella had been slain by his or-
ders, and that the Centurion must therefore be re-
leased. He then dismissed them, with this homely
but menacing apologue: "A countryman at his
plough, feeling himself troubled with vermin,
"once and again made a halt to pick them off his
jacket; but being molested a third time, he threw
"the jacket, with all its contents, into the fire. Be-
"ware," he said, of the fire; provoke me not a
"third time *.”
Such was the tone of a govern-
ment, which, from this example, was likely to be fa-
66
<<
• Appian. in Bell. Civil. lib. i. Plutarch, in Sylla,
C. XIV.]
189
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
tal to many who had concurred in establishing of it,
as well as to those of the opposite party.
U. C. 672.
M. Tullius
Decula,
Cn. Corn.
Dolabella,
Sylla, soon after his elevation to the state of Dic-
tator, proceeded to make his arrangements
and to new-model the commonwealth. The
army* appeared to have the first or pre-
ferable claim to his attention. He accord-
ingly proposed to reward them by a gift of all the
lands which had been forfeited by the adherents of
the opposite party. Spoletum, Interamna, Præ-
neste, Fluentia, Nola, Sulmo, Volaterra, together
with the countries of Samnium and Lucania, were
depopulated to make way for the legions who had
served under himself in the reduction of his enemies.
In these new inhabitants of Italy, whose prosperity
depended on his safety, he had a guard to his per-
son, and a sure support to his power. By changing
their condition from that of soldiers to landholders
and peasants, he dispelled, at the same time, that
dangerous cloud of military power, which he him-
self or his antagonists had raised over the common-
wealth, and provided for the permanency of any re-
formations he was to introduce into the civil esta-
blishment. The troops, from soldiers of fortune,
became proprietors of land, and interested in the
preservation of peace. In this manner, whatever
may have been his intention in this arbitrary act of
power, so cruel to the innocent sufferers, if there
were any such, the measure had an immediate ten-
dency to terminate the public confusion. Its future
* It appears that Livy reckoned forty-seven legions. Epitom. lib. lxxxix.
190
[c. XIV.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
consequences, in pointing out to new armies, and to
their ambitious leaders, a way to supplant their fel-
low-citizens in their property, and to practise usur-
pations more permanent than that of Sylla, were pro-
bably not then foreseen.
The next act of the Dictator appears more entire-
ly calculated for the security of his own person. A
body of ten thousand slaves, lately the property of
persons involved in the ruin of the vanquished party,
having their freedom and the right of citizens con-
ferred on them, were enrolled promiscuously in all
the Tribes; and as the enfranchised slave took the
name of the person from whom he received his free-
dom, these new citizens became an accession to the
family of the Cornelii, and in every tumult were
likely to be the sure partisans of Sylla, and the abet-
tors of his power. They had received a freedom
which was connected with the permanency of his
government, and foresaw, that, if the leaders of the
opposite party, in whose houses they had served,
should be restored, they themselves must return in-
to servitude; and they accordingly became an addi-
tional security to the government which their patron
was about to establish.
So far the Dictator seemed to intend the security
of his own person, and the stability of his govern-
ment; but in all his subsequent institutions, there
appears an intention to restore the constitution in
its legislative and judicative departments, to provide
a proper supply of officers for conducting the accu-
mulated affairs of the commonwealth, to stop the
source of former disorders, and to guard against the
c. XIV.]
191
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
growing depravity of the times, by extending and
securing the execution of the laws. He began with
filling up the rolls of the Senate which had been
greatly reduced by the war, and by the sanguinary
policy of the parties who had prevailed in their
turns. He augmented the number of this body to
five hundred; taking the new members from the
Equestrian order, but leaving the choice of them to
the people.
Lex de ju-
The legislative power of the Senate, and the judi-
cative power of its members, were resto-
diciis. red. The law that was provided for the
last of these purposes consisted of different clauses.
By the first clause it was enacted, that none but Se-
nators, or those who were entitled to give their
opinion in the Senate *, should be put upon any
jury or list of the judges t. By the second it was
provided, that, of the judges so placed on the roll,
the parties should not be allowed to challenge or
reject above three.
By a third clause it was allowed, that judgment,
in trials at law, should be given either by secret
ballot, or openly, at the option of the defendant;
and, by a separate regulation, that the nomination
of officers to command in the provinces, with the
title of Proconsul, should be committed to the Se-
nate.
During the late tribunitian usurpation, the whole
legislative and executive power had, under pretence
* All the officers of state, even before they were put upon the rolls, were
entitled to speak in the Senate.
+ Tacit. Anual, lib. xi. Cic. pro Cliento.
192
[c. XIV.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
of vesting those prerogatives in the assembly of the
Tribes, been seized by the Tribunes. But Sylla re-
stored the ancient form of assembling the people by
Centuries, and reduced the Tribunes to their defen-
sive privilege of interposing by a negative against
any act of oppression; and he deprived them of
their pretended right to propose laws, or to harangue
the people. He moreover subjoined, that none but
Senators could be elected into the office of Tribune;
and, to the end that no person of a factious ambi-
tion might choose this station, he procured it to be
enacted, that no one who had borne the office of
Tribune could afterwards be promoted into any
other rank of the magistracy.
With respect to the offices of state, this new
founder of the commonwealth revived the obsolete
law which prohibited the re-election of any person
into the Consulate, till after an interval of ten years;
and enacted, that none could be elected Consul till
after he had been Quæstor, Ædile, and Prætor. He
augmented the number of Prætors from six to eight;
that of Quæstors to twenty; and, to guard against
the disorders which had recently afflicted the repub-
lic, declared it to be treason for any Roman officer,
without the authority of the Senate and people, to
go beyond the limits of his own province, whether
with or without an army, to make war, or to invade
any foreign nation whatever.
He repealed the law of Domitius relating to the
election of priests, and restored to the college the
entire choice of their own members.
2
07
C. XIV.]
193
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
He made several additions to the penal code, by
statutes against subornation, forgery, wilful fire,
poisoning, rape, assault, extortion, and forcibly en-
tering the house of a citizen; with a statute, decla-
ring it criminal to be found in places of public re-
sort with a deadly weapon of any kind. To all
these he added a sumptuary law, of which the tenor
is not precisely known; but it appears to have re-
gulated the expense at ordinary meals and at fu-
nerals, and to have likewise settled the price of
visions.
*
pro-
These laws were promulgated at certain inter-
vals, and intermixed with the measures which were
taken to restore the peace of the empire. In order
to finish the remains of the civil war, Pompey had
been sent into Sicily and Africa, and C. Annius
Luscus into Spain. In this province, Sertorius had
taken arms for the Marian faction; but being at-
tacked by the forces of Sylla, and ill supported at
first by the natives of Spain, he fled into Africa.
From thence, hearing that the Lusitanians were dis-
posed to take arms against the reigning party at
Rome, he repassed the sea, put himself at their
head, and in this situation was able, for some years,
to find occupation for the arms of the republic, and
for its most experienced commanders.
Soon after the departure of Sylla from Asia, Mu-
rena, whom he had left to command in that pro-
vince, found a pretence to renew the war with Mi-
thridates; and, having ventured to pass the Halys,
VOL. II.
* Gellius, lib. ii, c. 24.
N
194 THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
[c. XIV.
was defeated by that prince, and afterwards arraign-
ed as having infringed the late treaty of peace. This
accusation was favourably received at Rome, the
conduct of Murena censured, and first A. Gabinius,
and afterwards Minucius Thermus, were sent to su-
persede him in the province.
Meantime Sylla, with all his disdain of personal
distinction, exhibited a triumph on account of his
victories in Asia and Greece. Processions were
continued for two days. On the first, he deposited
in the treasury fifteen thousand pondo of gold *,
and an hundred and fifteen thousand pondo of sil-
vert; on the second day, thirteen thousand pondo
of gold ‡, and seven thousand pondo of silver ]].
There was nothing that had any reference to his
victory in the civil war, except a numerous train of
Senators, and other citizens of rank, who having re-
sorted to his camp for protection, had been re-
stored by him to their estates and their dignities,
and now followed his chariot, calling him Father,
and the deliverer of his country.
U. C. 673.
L. Corn.
Sylla, Q.
Cæcil. Me-
tell. Pius.
Upon the return of the election, Sylla was again
chosen Consul, together with Q. Cæcilius
Metellus. The latter was destined, at the
expiration of his office, to command a-
gainst Sertorius in Spain. Sylla himself
still retained the dictatorial power, and was employ-
ed in promulgating some of the acts of which the
chief have been mentioned.
*Reckoning the pondo at ten ounces, and L. 4 an ounce, this will make
about L. 600,000.
+ About L. 287,500.
About L. 520,000.
About L. 140,000. Plin. lib. xxxiii, înitio.
c. XIV.]
195
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
Pompey having, in the preceding year, by the
death of Carbo, and the dispersion of his party,
finished the remains of the civil war in Sicily, was
now ordered by the Senate to transport his army
into Africa. There Domitius, a leader of the oppo-
site faction, had erected his standard, assembled some
remains of the vanquished party, and received all
the fugitives who crowded for refuge to his camp.
Pompey accordingly being to depart from Sicily,
left the command of that island to Memmius, and
embarked his army, consisting of six legions, in two
divisions; of which one landed at Utica, the other
in the bay of Carthage. Having soon after come to
an engagement with Domitius, who had been join-
ed by Jarbas, an African prince, he obtained a com-
plete victory over their united forces, and pursuing
his advantage, penetrated, without any resistance,
into the kingdom of Numidia, which, though de-
pendent on the Romans, had not yet been reduced
to the form of a province.
The war being ended in this quarter, Sylla thought
proper to supersede Pompey in the province, and
ordered him to disband his army, reserving only one
legion, with which he was to wait for his successor.
The troops were greatly incensed at this order; and
thinking themselves equally entitled to settlements
with the legions who were lately provided for in
Italy, refused to lay down their arms. They earnest-
ly entreated their general to embark for Rome,
where they promised to make him master of the go-
vernment. This young man, with a moderation
which he continued to support in the height of his
N 2
196
[c. XIV.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
ambition, withstood the temptation, and declared to
the army, that, if they persisted in their purpose, he
must certainly die by his own hands; that he would
not do violence to the government of his country,
nor be the object or pretence of a civil war. From
this conduct we have reason to conclude, that if in
reality he had encouraged the mutiny, it was only
that he might thus have the honour of reclaiming
the soldiers, and of rejecting their offer. The am-
bition of this singular person, as will appear from
many passages of his life, led him to aim at consi-
deration more than power.
While Pompey was endeavouring to bring the
troops to their duty, a report was carried to Rome,
that he had actually revolted, and was preparing
with his army to make a descent upon Italy.
66 It
66
appears to be my fate," said Sylla, " in my old age
"to fight with boys ;" and he was about to recall
the veterans to his standard, when the truth was
made known, and the part which Pompey had acted
was properly represented. The merit of this young
man on that occasion was the greater, that he him-
self was unwilling to disband the army before they
should return to Italy to attend a triumph, which
he hoped to obtain; and that the resolution he took
to comply with his orders, proceeded from respect
to the Senate, and deference to the authority of the
State.
Sylla, won by the behaviour of Pompey on this oc-
casion, was inclined to dispense with his former
commands, and accordingly moved in the assembly
C. XIV.]
197
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
of the people, that the legions serving in Africa
might return with their arms into Italy.
This motion was opposed by C. Herennius, Tri-
bune of the people, who ventured to employ the
prerogative of his office, however impaired, against
the power of the Dictator. But Sylla persisted;
obtained a law to authorise Pompey to enter with
his army into Italy; and when he drew near the ci-
ty, went forth with a numerous body of the Senate
to receive him. On this occasion, it is said, that,
by calling him the Great Pompey, Sylla fixed a de-
signation upon him, which, in the Roman way of
distinguishing persons by casual additions, whether
of contempt or respect, continued to furnish him
with a title for life. The times were wretched when
armies stated themselves in the commonwealth as
the partisans of a leader, and when the leader, by not
making war on his country, was supposed to have
laid up a store of merit.
Pompey, upon this occasion, laid claim to a tri-
umph. Sylla at first opposed it, as being contrary
to the rule and order of the commonwealth, which
reserved this honour for persons who had attained
to the rank either of Consul or Prætor; but he after-
wards complied, being struck, it is said, with a mu-
tinous saying of this aspiring young man, bidding
him recollect, that there were more persons dispo-
sed to worship the rising than the setting sun.
In the triumph which Pompey accordingly ob-
tained, he meant to have entered the city on a car-
riage drawn by elephants; but these animals could
not pass abreast through the gates. His donation
198
[c. XIV.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
to the troops falling short of their expectation, and
they having murmured, and even threatened to mu-
tiny, he said, the fear of losing his triumph should
not affect him; that he would instantly disband the
legions, rather than comply with their unreasonable
demands. This check, given to the presumption
of the army by an officer so young and so aspiring,
gave a general satisfaction. P. Servilius, a Senator
of advanced age, said, upon this occasion, "That
"the young man had at last deserved his triumph
" and his title."
Pompey, by his vanity in demanding a triumph
contrary to the established order of the common-
wealth, had impaired the lustre of his former ac-
tions. By this last act of magnanimity, in restrain-
ing the insolence of the troops, he forfeited the af-
fections of the army; and in both these circumstances
together, gave a complete specimen and image of
his whole life. With too much respect for the re-
public to employ violent means for its ruin, he was
possessed by a vanity and a jealousy of his own per-
sonal consideration, which, in detail, perpetually led
him to undermine its foundations.
Upon the return of the elections, Sylla was again
U. C. €74.
P. Servi-
lius, Ap.
Claudius.
destined for one of the Consuls; but he
declined this piece of flattery, and directed
the choice to fall on P. Servilius and Ap-
pius Claudius.
Soon after these magistrates en-
tered on the discharge of their trust, the Dictator
appeared, as usual, in the Forum, attended by twen-
ty-four Lictors; but, instead of proceeding to any
exercise of his power, made a formal resignation of
c. XIV.]
199
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
it, dismissed his Lictors, and, having declared to the
people, that, if any one had matter of charge against
him, he was ready to answer it, continued to walk
in the streets in the character of a private man, and
afterwards retired to his villa near Cumæ, where he
exercised himself in hunting *, and other country
amusements.
This resignation, it must be confessed, throws a
new light on the character of Sylla, and removes
him far from the herd of common usurpers, who sa-
crifice their fellow-creatures merely to their own lust
of dominion. The sacrifices he made, shocking as
they were to the feelings of humanity, now appear
to have been offered at the shrine of public order,
to provide, for the future, peace to his country.
His ruling passion appears to have been disdain of
what the vulgar admire, whether distinction or power.
When tired of youthful pursuits, he sued for prefer-
ment, but with so little animosity or jealousy of com-
petition, that if he had not been hurried by extreme
provocation into the violent course he pursued, it
is probable that he never would have been heard of
but upon the roll of Consuls, or the record of his
triumphs, and would have disdained any encroach-
ment on the right of his fellow-citizens, as much as
he resented the encroachments which were made
on his own.
In his first attack of the city with a military force,
his whole action showed, that he meant to rescue
the republic from the usurpation of Marius, not to
• Appian. Bell. Civil. lib. i.
200
[c. XIV.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
usurp the government for himself. At his return
into Italy from the Mithridatic war, the state of par-
ties already engaged in hostilities, and the violence
done to the republic by those who pretended to go-
vern it, will abundantly justify his having had re-
course to arms.
During the short period in which he retained his
power of Dictator, without neglecting precautions
for the security of his own person in the retirement
he was meditating, he took the measures already
mentioned, to tear up the roots of future disorder,
and effect some reform in the state: but as the past
had shown, what are the evils to which an overgrown
and corrupted republic is exposed; so the correc-
tions he attempted, although they served to prolong
the struggles of virtuous men for the preservation of
their country, yet were not sufficient to prevent its
ruin.
For some particulars of this description, which
have not entered into the preceding narration, it
may be observed, that he was among the few Ro-
mans of his time who made any considerable ad-
vance in literary studies; and that he wrote memoirs
of his own life, continued to within a few days of
his death, often quoted by Plutarch; that he never-
theless appeared superior to the reputation of his
own most splendid performances, and from simpli-
city or disdain, mixed perhaps with superstition, not
from affected modesty, attributed his success to good
fortune or to the favour of the gods; so much, that
c. XIV.]
201
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
while he bestowed on Pompey the title of Great, he
himself was content with that of the Fortunate *.
With respect to such a personage, circumstances
of a trivial nature become subjects of attention. His
hair and eyes, it is said, were of a light colour, his
complexion fair, and his countenance blotched. He
was, by the most probable accounts, four years old
at the time of the sedition of Tiberius Gracchus,
and seventeen at the death of Caius, the younger
brother of Tiberius; so that he might have percei-
ved at this date the effect of tribunitian disorders,
and taken the impressions from which he acted
against them. He served the office of Quæstor un-
der Marius in Africa at thirty-one; was Consul for
the first time at forty-nine or fifty t; was Dictator
at fifty-six; resigned when turned of fifty-eight;
and died yet under sixty, in the year which follow-
ed that of his resignation.
There remained in the city, at his death, a nume-
rous body of new citizens, who having been manu-
mised by his order, bore his name: in the country
a still more numerous body of veteran officers and
soldiers, who held estates by his gift: numbers
throughout the empire, who owed their safety to his
protection, and who ascribed the existence of the
commonwealth itself to the exertions of his great
ability and courage; numbers who, although they
were offended with the severe and bloody exercise
of his power, yet admired the magnanimity of his re-
signation.
* Felix.
Vel. Pater. lib. ii, c. 17.
202
[c. XIV.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
When he was no longer an object of flattery, his
corpse was carried in procession through Italy at
the public expense. The fasces, and every other
ensign of honour, were restored to the dead. Above
two thousand golden crowns were fabricated in
haste, by order of the towns and provinces he had
protected, or of the private persons he had pre-
served, to testify their veneration for his memory.
Roman matrons, whom it might be expected his
cruelties would have affected with horror, lost every
other sentiment in that of admiration, crowded to
his funeral, and heaped the pile with perfumes *.
His obsequies were performed in the Campus Mar-
tius. The tomb was marked by his own directions
with a characteristical inscription, to the following
effect: "Here lies Sylla, who never was outdone in
"good offices by his friend, nor in acts of hostility
"by his enemy t."
* Appian. de Bell. Civ. lib. i. Plutarch. in Sylla.
+ Plutarch. in Sylla, finç.
c. xv.]
203
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
CHAP. XV.
State of the commonwealth and numbers of the people.-Cha-
racters of persons who began to appear in the times of Syl-
la.-Faction of Lepidus.-Sertorius harbours the Marian
party in Spain.-Is attacked by Metellus and Pompey.-
His death, and final suppression of the party.—First ap-
pearance of C. Julius Cæsar.-Tribunes begin to trespass
on the laws of Sylla.-Progress of the empire.-Preparations
of Mithridates.-War with the Romans.-Irruption into
Bithynia.-Siege of Cyzicus.-Raised.-Flight of Mithri-
dates.—Lucullus carries the war into Pontus.-Route and
dispersion of the army of Mithridates. His flight into Ar-
menia.-Conduct of Lucullus in the province of Asia.
THE public was so much occupied with the contest
of Sylla and his antagonists, that little else is record-
ed of the period in which it took place. Writers
have not given us any distinct account of the con-
dition of the city, or of the number of citizens. As
the state was divided into two principal factions, the
office of Censor was become too important for either
party to intrust it with their opponents, or even in
neutral hands. The leaders of every faction, in their
turn, made up the rolls of the people, and disposed,
at their pleasure, of the equestrian and senatorian
dignities.
At a survey of the city, which is mentioned by
204
[C. xv.
the progress and TERMINATION
Livy *, preceding the admission of the Italians, the
number of citizens was three hundred and ninety-
four thousand three hundred and thirty-six. At
another survey, which followed soon after that event,
they amounted, according to Eusebius, to four hun-
dred and sixty-three thousand t; and it seems that
the whole accession of citizens from the country
made no more than sixty-eight thousand six hun-
dred and sixty-four. The great slaughter of Romans
and Italians, in which it is said that three hundred
thousand men were killed, preceding the last of these
musters, and the difficulty of making complete and
accurate lists when the citizens were so much dis-
persed, will account for the seemingly small increase
of their numbers.
In this period were born, and began to enter on
the scene of public affairs, those persons whose con-
duct was now to determine the fate of the Republic.
Pompey had already distinguished himself, and stood
high in the public esteem. He had been educated
in the camp of his father, and, by accident, at a very
early age, or before he had attained to any of the
ordinary civil or political preferments, commanded
an army. Cicero, being of the same age, began to
be distinguished at the bar. He pleaded, in the se-
cond consulate of Sylla, the cause of Roscius Ame-
rinus, and having occasion to censure the actions of
Chrysogonus and other favourites of the Dictator,
by his freedom in that instance incurred no resent-
ment from Sylla, and gained much honour to himself.
* Liv. lib. lxiii.
+ Euseb. in Chronico.
c. xv.]
205
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
J
Caius Cæsar, now connected with the family of
Cinna, whose daughter he had married, and being
nearly related to the elder Marius, who had married
his aunt, narrowly escaped the sword of the prevail-
ing party. Being commanded to separate from his
wife, he retained her in defiance of this order, and
for his contumacy was put in the list of the proscri-
bed. He was saved, however, by the intercession
of common friends, whose request in his favour Sylla
granted, with that memorable saying, "Beware of
"him there is many a Marius in the person of that
young man :"-a circumstance which marked at
once the penetration of Sylla, and the early appear-
ances of an extraordinary character in Cæsar.
66
Marcus Porcius, afterwards named Cato of Utica,
was about three years younger than Cæsar, and being
early an orphan, was educated in the house of an
uncle, Livius Drusus. While yet a child, listening
to the conversation of the times, he learned that the
pretensions of the Italian allies, then in agitation,
were dangerous to the Roman state. Pompedius
Silo, who managed the claim for the Italians, amu-
sing himself with the young Cato, pressed him with
caresses to intercede with his uncle in their behalf;
and, finding that he was not to be won by flattery,
next tried in vain to intimidate, by threatening to
throw him from the window. "If this were a man,"
he said, "I believe we should obtain no such favour,'
In the height of Sylla's military executions, when
his portico was crowded with persons who brought
the heads of the proscribed to be exchanged for the
reward which had been published, Cato being car-
"
206
[c. xv.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
ried by his tutor to pay his court, asked, "if no one
"hated this man enough to kill him ?" Yes, "but
66
they fear him still more than they hate him."
"Then give me a sword," said the boy, "and I will
"kill him." Such were the early indications of cha-
racters which afterwards became so conspicuous in
the commonwealth.
With the unprecedented degradation of the Tri-
bune Octavius, and the subsequent murder of Tibe-
rius Gracchus, began, among the parties at Rome,
a scene of injuries and retaliations, with alternate
periods of anarchy and violent usurpation, which
must have speedily ended in the ruin of the com-
monwealth, if the sword had not passed at last into
hands which employed it for the restoration of pub-
lic order, as well as for the avenging of private
wrongs.
It is indeed probable that none of the parties in
these horrid scenes had a deliberate intention to sub-
vert the government, but all of them treated the forms
of the commonwealth with too little respect; and,
to obtain some revenge of the wrongs which they
themselves apprehended or endured, did not scruple
in their turn to violate the laws of their country. But
to those who wished to preserve the commonwealth,
the experience of fifty years was now sufficient to
show, that attempts to restore the laws by illegal me-
thods, and to terminate animosities by retorted in-
juries and provocations, were extremely vain. The
excess of the evil had a tendency to exhaust its
source, and parties began to nauseate the draught of
which they had been made to drink so largely. There
c. xv.]
207
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
were, nevertheless, some dregs in the bottom of the
cup, and the supplies of faction which were brought
by the rising generation, were of a mixture more dan-
gerous than those of the former age. The example
of Sylla, who made himself lord of the commonwealth
by means of a military force, and the security with
which he held his usurpation during pleasure, had a
more powerful effect in exciting the thirst of domi-
nion, than the political uses which he made of his
power, or his magnanimity in resigning it, had to re-
strain or to correct the effects of that dangerous pre-
cedent. Adventurers accordingly arose, who, with-
out provocation, and equally indifferent to the inte-
rests of party as they were to those of the republic,
proceeded, with a cool and deliberate purpose, to
gratify their own ambition and avarice, by subvert-
ing the government of their country.
U. C. 675.
M. Æm.
Lepidus,
Q.Lut. Ca-
tulus, Coss.
While Sylla was yet alive, Æmilius Lepidus, a man
of a profligate ambition, but of mean capa-
city, supported by the remains of the popu-
lar faction, stood for the Consulate, and
was chosen, together with Q. Lutatius Ca-
tulus, the son of him who, with Marius, triumphed
for their joint victory over the Cimbri, and who af-
terwards perished by the orders of that usurper.
Pompey had openly joined the popular faction in
support of Lepidus, and was told upon that occasion
by Sylla, that he was stirring the embers of a fire
which would in the end consume the republic. Af
ter the death of Sylla, from a mark of disapprobation
well known to the Romans, that of not being men-
tioned in his will, it appeared that Pompey had lost.
208
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION [c. xv.
his esteem. In opposition to Lepidus, however, and
others, who wished to insult the memory of Sylla,
this prudent young man was among the first in re-
commending and performing the honours that were
paid to his remains.
Lepidus, upon his accession to the Consulate,
moved for a recall of the proscribed exiles, a resti-
tution of the forfeited lands, and a repeal of all the
ordinances of the late Dictator. This motion was
formally opposed by Catulus; and there ensued be-
tween the two Consuls a debate which divided the
city. But the party of the Senate prevailed to have
the motion rejected.
In the allotment of provinces, the Transalpine
Gaul had fallen to Lepidus; and, upon his motion
being rejected in the assembly of the people, al-
though it had been some time the practice for Con-
suls to remain at Rome during their continuance in
office, he prepared to leave the city, in order to take
possession of his province. This resolution, as it im-
plied great impatience to be at the head of an army,
gave some jealousy to the Senate, who dreaded the
designs of a Consul desirous to join military power
with his civil authority. They recollected the pro-
gress of sedition which began with the Gracchi and
Apuleius raising popular tumults, and ended with
Marius and Sylla leading consular armies into the
city, and fighting their battles in the streets. And
in this point the decisive spirit of Sylla, although it
may have snatched the commonwealth from the
flames by which it began to be consumed, yet show-
ed the way to its ruin in the means which he em-
1
c. xv.]
209
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
ployed to preserve it. The Senators were willing
that Lepidus should depart from the city; but they
had the precaution to exact from him an oath, that
he should not disturb the public peace. This oath,
to avoid the appearance of any particular distrust of
the person for whom it was projected, they likewise
administered to his colleague t.
Lepidus, notwithstanding his oath, being arrived
in his province, made preparations for war; and,
thinking that his faith was pledged only while he
was Consul, determined to remain in Gaul at the
head of his forces until his term in office expired.
The Senate, in order to remove him from the army
he had raised, appointed him to preside at the elec-
tion of his successor. But he neglected the summons
which was sent to him for this purpose; and the year
of the present Consuls was by this means suffered to
elapse before any election was made.
The ordinary succession being thus interrupted,
the Senate named Appius Claudius, as Interrex, to
hold the elections, and at the same time deprived
Lepidus of his command in Gaul. Upon this infor-
mation he hastened to Italy with the troops he had
already assembled, and greatly alarmed the republic.
The Senate gave to Appius Claudius, and to Catulus,
in the quality of Proconsul, the usual charge to watch
over the safety of the state. These officers accord-
ingly, without delay, collected a military force, while
Lepidus advanced through Etruria, and published a
manifesto, in which he invited all the friends of li-
* Appian. de Bell. Civ. lib. i.
VOL. II.
+ Ibid.
210
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION [c. xv.
berty to join him, and made a formal demand of
being re-invested with the consular power. In oppo-
sition to this treasonable act of Lepidus, the Senate
republished the law of Plautius, by which the Præ-
tors were required, in the ordinary course of justice,
to take cognisance of all attempts to levy war against
the republic, and joined to it an additional clause or
resolution of their own, obliging those magistrates
to receive accusations of treason on holidays, as well
as on ordinary days of business.
Meantime Lepidus advanced to the very gates of
Rome, seized the Janiculum and one of the bridges.
But in his farther attempt to force the city, was met
by Catulus, repulsed and routed. All his party dis-
persed; he himself fled to Sardinia, and soon after
died. His son, a young man, with part of the ar-
my, retired to Alba, was there soon after taken, and
suffered for a treason in which he had been engaged
by his father.
Marcus Brutus, the father of him who, in the con-
tinuation of these troubles, afterwards fell at Philip-
pi, having joined with Lepidus in this rash and pro-
fligate attempt against the republic, was obliged at
Mantua to surrender himself to Pompey, and, by his
order, was put to death. But the most considerable
part of the army of Lepidus penetrated, under the
conduct of Perperna, into Spain, and joined Serto-
rius, who was now become the refuge of one party
in its distress, as Sylla had formerly been of the
other. In this province accordingly, while peace
began to be restored in Italy, a source of new trou-
bles was opening for the state. The prevailing par-
c. xv.]
211
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
ty in the city was willing to grant an indemnity, and
to suffer all prosecution, on account of the late of
fences, to drop; the extreme to which Sylla had
carried the severity of his executions, disposing the
minds of men to the opposite course of indulgence
and mercy.
Before the arrival of Lepidus with his army in
Italy, Mithridates had sent to obtain from the Se-
nate a ratification of the treaty he had concluded
with Sylla: but, upon a complaint from Ariobarza-
nes, that the king of Pontus had not himself per-
formed his part of that treaty by the complete resti-
tution of Cappadocia, he was directed to give full
satisfaction on this point before his negotiation at
Rome could proceed. He accordingly complied;
but by the time his ambassador had brought the re-
port, the Romans were so much occupied by the
war they had to maintain against Lepidus and his
adherents, that they had no leisure for concerns
so remote. This intelligence encouraged Mithri-
dates to think of renewing the war. Sensible that
he could not rely on a permanent peace with the
Romans, he had already provided an army, not so
considerable in respect to numbers as that which he
had formerly employed against them, but more for-
midable by the order and discipline he had endea-
voured to introduce on the model of their own le-
gion. He flattered himself, that the distraction un-
der which the republic now laboured at home, would
render it unable to resist his forces in Asia, and give
him an opportunity to remove the only obstruction
that remained to his own conquests. He avoided,
20
212
[c. xv.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
however, during the dependence of a negotiation,
and without the pretext of a new provocation, to
break out into open hostilities; but he encouraged
his son-in-law, Tigranes, king of Armenia, to make
war on the Roman allies in his neighbourhood, and
thereby laid the foundation of a quarrel which he
might either adopt or decline at pleasure. This
prince, accordingly, being then building a city, un-
der the name of Trigranocerta, for which he wanted
inhabitants, made an incursion into the kingdom of
Cappadocia, and is said to have carried off from
thence three hundred thousand of the people to re-
plenish his new settlement.
Soon after this infraction of the peace, Mithri-
dates, in order to have the co-operation of some of
the parties into which the Roman state was divided,
entered into a treaty with Sertorius, and wished, in
concert with this adventurer, to execute the project
of a march, by the route which was afterwards fre-
quented by the barbarous nations in their successful
attempts to invade and dismember the empire of
Rome. From the shores of the Euxine it appeared
easy to pass overland to the Adriatic, and once
more to repeat the operations of Pyrrhus and of
Hannibal, by making war on the Romans in their
own country.
Sertorius, who had erected the standard of the re-
public in Spain, gave refuge to the Roman exiles
from every quarter, and was now at the head of a
formidable power, composed of Italians as well as
natives of that country. By his birth and abilities
he had pretensions to the highest preferments of the
c. xv.]
213
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
state, and had been early distinguished as a soldier,
qualified either to plan or to execute. He was at-
tached to Marius in the time of the Cimbric war,
and became a party with this leader in his quarrel
with Sylla. His animosity to the latter was increa-
sed by the mutual opposition of their interests in the
pursuit of civil preferments. At the beginning of
the civil war, Sertorius took an active part, but
shewed more respect to the constitution of his coun-
try, and more mercy to those who were opposed to
him, than either of his associates Marius or Cinna.
When his faction was in possession of the govern-
ment, he was appointed to command in Spain; and,
after the ruin of its affairs in Italy, withdrew intọ
that province. He was received as a Roman gover-
nor; but, soon after, when his enemies had prevail-
ed in Italy, was attacked on their part by Caius An-
nius, who came with a proper force to dislodge him.
He had established posts on the Pyrenees for the
security of his province; but the officer to whom
they were intrusted being assassinated, and the sta
tions deserted, the enemy had free access on that
side. Not in condition to maintain himself any
longer in Spain, he embarked with what forces he
could assemble at Carthagena, and continued for
some years, with a small squadron of Cilician gal-
leys, to subsist by the spoils of Africa and the con-
tiguous coasts. In this state of his fortunes, Serto-
rius formed a project to visit the Fortunate Islands,
and if a settlement could be effected there, to bid
farewell for ever to the Roman world, with all its
factions, its divisions, and its troubles. But while
214
[c. xv.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
he was about to set sail in search of this famous re-
treat in the ocean, he received an invitation from the
unsubdued natives of Lusitania to become their
leader. At their head his abilities soon made him
conspicuous. He affected to consider his new par-
tisans as the Senate and People of Rome, treating
the establishment of Sylla in Italy as a mere usurpa-
tion. He himself took the ensigns of a Roman of-
ficer of state, selected three hundred of his follow-
ers, to whom he gave the title of Senate, and, in all
his transactions with foreign nations, assumed the
name and style of the Roman Republic. In treating
with Mithridates, he refused to cede the province
of Asia, or to purchase the alliance of that prince
by any concessions injurious to the Roman empire,
of which he affected to consider himself and his Se-
nate as the legal head.
While Sertorius was acting this farce, the report
of his formidable power, the late accession he had
gained by the junction of some of the Marian forces
under the command of Perperna, and his supposed
preparations to make a descent upon Italy, gave an
alarm at Rome. Metellus had been some time em-
ployed against him in Spain; but being scarcely able
to keep the field, the opposition he gave tended on-
ly to augment the reputation of his enemy. The
Consuls lately elected were judged unequal
to this war, and the thoughts of all men
were turned on Pompey, who, though yet
in no public character, nor arrived at the
legal age of state preferments, had the address on
this, as on many other occasions, to make himself
U. C. 676.
D. Junius
Brutus,
Mam. E-
milianus
Livianus.
c. xv.]
215
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
be pointed at as the only person who could effec-
tually serve the republic. He was accordingly,
with the title of Proconsul, joined to Metellus in
the conduct of the war in Spain *. It no doubt fa-
cilitated the career of this young man's pretensions,
that few men of distinguished abilities were now in
the way to sustain the fortunes of the republic.
Such persons, of whatever party, had, in their turns,
been the first victims of the late violent massacres;
and the party of Sylla, which was now the republic,
when considered as a nursery of eminent men, had
some disadvantage, perhaps, in the superiority of its
leader, who was himself equal to all its affairs, and
taught others to confide and obey, rather than to
act for themselves. Pompey was not of an age to
have suffered from this influence. He came into the
party in its busiest time, and had been intrusted with
separate commands. He had already obtained for
himself a considerable measure of that artificial con-
sideration, which, though it cannot be supported
without abilities, often exceeds the degree of merit
on which it is founded; and this consideration to
the end of his life he continued to augment with
much attention and many concerted intrigues. His
genius, however, for war was real, and was now
about to be exercised and improved in the contest
with Sertorius, an excellent master, whose lessons
were rough but instructive.
* Claudius, in making this motion, alluding to the supposed insignificance
of both Consuls, said, that Pompey should be sent not Proconsul, but " pro
"Consulibus."
216
[c. xv.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
Pompey having made the levies destined for this
service took his departure from Italy by a new route,
and was the first Roman general who made his way
into Spain by the Alps through Gaul and the Pyre-
nees *. Soon after his arrival, a legion that covered
the foragers of his army was intercepted and cut off
by the enemy. Sertorius was engaged in the siege
of Laura. Pompey advanced to relieve it. Serto-
rius, upon his approach, took post on an eminence.
Pompey prepared to attack him, and the besieged
had hopes of immediate relief. But Sertorius had
made his disposition in such a manner, that Pompey
could not advance without exposing his own rear to
a party that was placed to attack him. " I will
"teach this pupil of Sylla," he said, "to look be-
"hind as well as before him ;" and Pompey, see-
ing his danger, chose to withdraw, leaving the town
of Laura to fall into the enemy's hands, while he
himself continued a spectator of the siege, and of
the destruction of the place. After this unsuccess-
ful beginning of the war, he was obliged to retire
into Gaul for the winter †.
U. C. 677.
The following year, Cn. Octavius and C. Scribo-
nius Curio being Consuls, Pompey still re-
Cn. Octa- tained his command; and having repass-
Scribonius ed the Pyrenees, directed his march to
Sertorius lay on the Su-
vius, C.
Curio.
join Metellus.
• The communication with Spain had hitherto been carried on by sca; and
in contradiction to this communication, Pompey was said to have taken Han-
nibal's route.
Plutarch. in Pompeio et Sertorio. Appian. Liv. Obsequens. Frontinus
Stratagem. lib. ii, c. 5.
c. xv.]
217
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
cro *, and wished to engage one or other of these
parties before their junction; and Pompey, on his
part, being desirous to reap the glory of a separate
victory, an action ensued, in which the wing on
which Pompey fought was defeated by Sertorius;
but the other wing had the victory over Perperna.
As Sertorius was about to renew the action on the
following day, he was prevented by the arrival of
Metellus." If the old woman had not interposed,"
he said, "I should have whipt the boy, and sent
"him back to his schools at Rome."
This war continued about two years longer with
various success, but without any memorable event,
until it ended by the death of Sertorius, who, at the
instigation of his associate Perperna, was betrayed
and assassinated by a few of his own attendants.
Perperna, having removed Sertorius by this base ac-
tion, put himself at the head of both their adherents,
and endeavoured to keep them united, at least until
he should be able to purchase his peace at Rome.
He was, however, deserted by numbers of those who
had been attached to Sertorius, and at last surprised
by Pompey, and slain. He had made offers to dis-
close the secrets of the party, and to produce the
correspondence which many of the principal citi-
zens at Rome held with Sertorius, inviting him to
return into Italy, and promising to join him with a
considerable force. The letters which had passed
in this correspondence were secured by Pompey,
and, without being opened, were burned. So mas-
* The Xucar, which falls into the bay of Valentia.
218
[c. xv.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
terly an act of prudence, in a person who was yet
considered as a young man, has been deservedly ad-
mired. It served to extinguish the remains of the
Marian faction, and reconciled men, otherwise disaf-
fected, to a situation in which they were now assured
of impunity and even of concealment.
While Pompey was thus gathering laurels in the
field, C. Julius Cæsar, being about seven years
younger, that is, twenty-three years of age, was re-
turned from Asia; and, to make some trial of his
parts, lodged a complaint against Dolabella, late
Proconsul of Macedonia, for oppression and extor-
tion in his province. Cotta and Hortensius appear-
ing for the defendant, procured his acquittal. Ci-
cero says, that he himself was then returned from a
journey he had made into Asia, and was present at
this trial. The following year Cæsar left Rome,
with intention to pass some time under a celebrated
master of rhetoric at Rhôdes. In his way he was
taken by pirates, and remained their prisoner about
forty days, until he found means to procure from
Metellus a sum of fifty talents*, which was paid for
his ransom. He had frequently warned the pirates,
while yet in their hands, that he should punish their
insolence; and at parting, he told them to expect
the performance of his promise. Upon being set on
shore, he assembled and armed some vessels on the
coast, pursued his late captors, took and brought
them into port. From thence he hastened to Ju-
nius Silanus, the Proconsul of Bithynia, and applied
* Near to L. 10,000.
c. xv.]
219
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
for an order to have them executed; but being re-
fused by this officer, he made his way back with still
greater dispatch, and, before any instructions could
arrive to the contrary, had his prisoners nailed to
the cross. Such lawless banditti had long infested
the seas of Asia and of Greece, and furnished at
times no inconsiderable employment to the arms of
the republic. Servilius Vatia, who afterwards bore
the title of Isauricus, had lately been employed
against them; and, after clearing the seas, endea-
voured likewise to destroy or to secure their sea-
ports and strongholds on shore. They, nevertheless,
recovered from this blow they had received from
Isauricus, and continued to appear at intervals in
new swarms, to the great interruption of commerce
and of all the communications by sea, in the em-
pire.
Under the reformations of Sylla, which, by dis-
arming the tribunitian power, in a great measure
shut up the source of former disorders, the republic
was now restored to some degree of tranquillity, and
resumed its attention to the ordinary affairs of peace.
The bridge on the Tiber, which had been erected
of wood, was taken down and rebuilt with stone;
bearing the name of Æmilius, one of the Quæstors
under whose inspection the fabric had been reared;
and as a public concern of still greater importance,
it is mentioned, that a treatise on agriculture, the
production of Mago a Carthaginian, and in the lan-
guage of Carthage, was, by the express orders of the
Senate, now translated into Latin. At the reduc-
tion of Carthage, the Romans were yet governed
220
[c. XV.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
by husbandmen, and, amidst the literary spoils of
that city, this book alone, consisting of twenty-eight
rolls or volumes, was supposed to merit so much of
the public attention as to be secured for the state.
A number of persons skilled in the Punic language,
together with Silanus, who had the principal charge
of the business, were now employed in translating
it *.
The calm, however, which the republic enjoyed
under this period of regular government and pacific
pursuits, was not altogether undisturbed. In the
Consulate of Cn. Octavius and C. Scribonius Curio,
the Tribune Licinius made an attempt to recover
the former powers of the office. He ventured, in
presence of both the Consuls, to harangue the peo-
ple, and exhorted them to reassume their ancient
rights. As a circumstance which serves to mark
the petulant boldness of these men, it is mentioned
that the Consul Octavius, on this occasion, being ill,
was muffled up, and covered with a dressing which
brought flies in great numbers about him. The
Consuls being placed together, Curio made a vehe-
ment speech, at the close of which, the Tribune
called out to Octavius, "You never can repay your
colleague's service of this day; if he had not been
66 near you,
while he spoke, and beat the air so much
"with his gesticulations, the flies must by this time
"have eaten you up t." The sequel is imperfectly
known; but the dispute appears to have been car-
ried to a great height, and to have ended in a tu-
mult, in which the Tribune Licinius was killed.
* Plin. lib. xviii, c. 5.
Cicero de Claris Oratoribus,
c. xv.]
221
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
P
Upon a review of Sylla's acts intended to restore
the authority of the Senate, it may be questioned,
whether that clause in the law relating to the Tri-
bunes, by which all persons having accepted of this
office were excluded from any further preferment in
the state, may not have had an ill effect, and requi-
red correction. It rendered the Tribunate an object
only to the meanest of the Senators, who, upon their
acceptance of it, ceasing to have any pretensions to
the higher offices of state, were, by this means, de-
prived of any interest in the government, and exas-
perated of course against the higher dignities of the
commonwealth, from which they were themselves
U. C. 678. excluded. Aurelius Cotta, one of the
L. Octa-
vius, C.
Aurelius
Cotta.
Consuls that succeeded Cn. Octavius and
Curio, moved perhaps by this considera-
tion, proposed to have that clause repeal-
ed, and was warmly supported by the Tribune Opi-
mius, who, contrary to the prohibition lately enact-
ed, ventured to harangue the people; and for this
offence, at the expiration of his office, was tried and
condemned *.
By the defects which the people began to appre-
hend in their present institutions, or by the part
which their demagogues began to take against the
Aristocracy, the Roman state, after a very short re-
spite, began to relapse into its former troubles, and
was again to exhibit the curious spectacle of a nation
divided against itself, broken and distracted in its
councils at home, but victorious in all its operations
* Cicero. 5tio, in Verram, et Pædianus, ibid.
222
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
P
1
[c. xv.
abroad, and gaining continual accessions of empire,
under the effect of convulsions which shook the
commonwealth itself to its base; and, what is still
less to be paralleled in the history of mankind, ex-
hibiting the spectacle of a nation, which continued
from the earliest ages to proceed in its affairs abroad
with a success that may be imputed in a great mea-
sure to its divisions at home.
War, in the detail of its operations, if not even in
the formation of its plans, is more likely to succeed
under single men than under numerous councils.
The Roman constitution, though far from an ar-
rangement proper to preserve domestic peace and
tranquillity, was an excellent nursery of statesmen
and warriors. To individuals trained in this school,
all foreign affairs were committed with little respon-
sibility and less control. The ruling passion, even
of the least virtuous citizens, during some ages, was
the ambition of being considerable, and of rising to
the highest dignities of the state at home. In the
provinces they enjoyed the condition of monarchs;
but they valued this condition only as it furnished
them with the occasion of triumphs, and contributed
to their importance at Rome. They were factious
and turbulent in their competition for preferment
and honours in the capital; but, in order the better
to support that very contest at home, were faithful
and inflexible in maintaining all the pretensions
of the state abroad. Thus Sylla, though deprived
of his command by an act of the opposite faction at
Rome, and with many of his friends, who escaped
from the bloody hands of their persecutors, con-
c. xv.]
223
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
demned and outlawed, still maintained the part of
an officer of state, and prescribed to Mithridates,
in the terms which might have been expected from
a Roman Magistrate in the most undisturbed exer-
cise of his trust. Sertorius, in the same manner,
acting for the opposite faction, in some measure
preserved a similar dignity of character, and on the
proposals which were made to him by the same
Prince, refused to make concessions unworthy of the
Roman republic. Contrary to the fate of other na-
tions, where the state is weak, while the conduct of
individuals is regular; here the state was in vigour,
while the conduct of individuals was in the highest
degree irregular and wild.
The reputation of the Romans, even in the in-
tervals of war, procured them accessions of terri-
tory without labour, and without expense. Thus,
kingdoms were bequeathed to them by will; as that
of Pergamus formerly by the testament of Attalus;
that of Cyrene, at the bequest of Ptolemy Appion;
and that of Bithynia, about this time, by the will of
Nicomedes. To the same effect, princes and states,
where they did not make any formal cession of their
sovereignty, did somewhat equivalent, by submit-
ting their rights to discussion at Rome, and by so-
liciting from the Romans, grants of which the world
now seemed to acknowledge the validity, by having
recourse to them as the basis of tenures by which
they were to hold their possessions. To the same
effect also, the sons of the last Antiochus, king of
Syria, having passed two years at Rome, waiting de-
cisions of the Senate, and soliciting a grant of the
224
[c. xv.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
kingdom of Egypt, on which they formed their op-
posite pretensions, thus stated themselves as subjects
or dependents on the republic of Rome.
In Asia, by these means, the Roman empire ad-
vanced on the ruin of those who had formerly op-
posed its progress. The Macedonian line, in the
monarchy of Syria, was now broken off, or extinct.
The monarchy itself was no more. For on the de-
feat of Antiochus at Sipylus, followed by the defec-
tion of provincial governors and tributary princes,
who, no longer awed by the power of their former
master, entered into a correspondence with the Ro-
mans, and were by them acknowledged as sove-
reigns, the empire of Syria, once so entire, was split
and dismembered. In this manner also the states of
Armenia, long subject to the Persians, and after-
wards to the Macedonians, now became the seat of
a new monarchy under Tigranes. And, to complete
these revolutions of empire, the natives of the last
district to which the name of Syria was affixed, weary
of the degeneracy and weakness of their own court,
of the irregularity of the succession to the throne of
their own kingdom; weary of the frequent compe-
titions which involved them in blood, invited Ti-
granes the king of Armenia to wield a sceptre which
the descendants of Seleucus were no longer in con-
dition to hold. This prince, accordingly, extended
his kingdom to both sides of the Euphrates, and held
the remains of Assyria itself as one of its divisions *.
In these circumstances, the Romans were left un-
* Strabo, lib. xi, fine.
~
c. xv.]
225
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
disturbed to re-establish their province in the Les-
ser Asia: and under the auspices of Servilius, who,
from his principal acquisition in those parts, had the
name of Isauricus, were extending their limits on
the side of Cilicia, and were hastening to the sove-
reignty of that coast, when their progress was sud-
denly checked by the re-appearance of an enemy,
who had already given them much trouble in the
eastern part of the empire.
Mithridates, king of Pontus, who appears to have
revived in his own breast the animosities of Pyrrhus
and of Hannibal against the Romans, had never cea-
sed, since the date of his last mortifying treaty with
Sylla, to devise the means of renewing the war. Ha-
ving attempted in vain to engage Sylla in a league
with himself against the Romans, he made a similar
attempt on Sertorius, to which we have already re-
ferred. Affecting to consider this fugitive, with his
little Senate, as head of the republic, he pressed for
a cession of the Roman province in Asia in his own
favour, and in return offered to assist the followers
of Sertorius with all his forces in the recovery of
Italy. In this negotiation, however, he found, as
has been already remarked, that whoever assumed
the character of a Roman officer of state, supported
it with a like inflexible dignity. Sertorius refused
to dismember the empire, but accepted of the prof
fered aid from Mithridates, and agreed to supply
him with officers of the Roman establishment to as-
sist in the formation and discipline of his troops.
The king of Pontus, now bent on correcting the
error which is common in extensive and barbarous
VOL. II.
P
i
226
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION [C. XV.
monarchies, of relying entirely on numbers, with
less attention to discipline or military skill, proposed
to form a more regular army than that which he had
assembled in the former war; and however little
successful in his attempts, he endeavoured to rival
his enemy in every particular of their discipline, in
the choice and use of their weapons, and in the
form of their legion. With troops beginning to
make these reformations, and amounting to one hun-
dred and twenty thousand foot, and sixteen thousand
horse, he made an open declaration of war, and,
without resistance, took possession of Cappadocia
and Phrygia, beyond the bounds which the Romans
had prescribed to his kingdom. As he was to act
both by sea and by land, he began with customary
oblations to Neptune and to Mars. To the first he
made an offering of a splendid carriage, drawn by
white horses, which he precipitated from a cliff, and
sunk in the sea; to the other, he made a sacrifice,
which, as described by the historian *, filled the ima-
gination more than any of the rites usually practi-
sed by ancient nations. The king, with his army,
ascended the highest mountain on their route, form-
ed on its summit a great pile of wood, of which he
himself laid the first materials, and ordered the fa-
bric to be raised in a pyramidical form to a great
height. The top was loaded with offerings of ho-
ney, milk, oil, wine, and perfumes. As soon as it
was finished, the army around it began the solemni-
ty with a feast, at the end of which the pile was set
* Appian.
c. xv.]
227
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
}
on fire, and in proportion as the heat increased, the
host extended its circle, and came down from the
mountain. The smoke and the flames continued to
ascend for many days, and were seen, it is said, at
the distance of a thousand stadia, or above an hun-
dred miles *.
After this solemnity was over, Mithridates endea-
voured to animate and to unite in a common zeal
for his cause the different nations which, in forming
his army, had been collected from the most distant
parts of the empire. For this purpose he enumera-
ted the successes by which he himself had raised his
kingdom to its present pitch of greatness, and repre-
sented the numerous vices or defects of the enemy
with whom he was now to contend, reciting their
divisions at home, their oppression abroad, their ava-
rice and their insatiable lust of dominion.
The Romans were some time undetermined in
the choice of a person to be employed against this
formidable enemy. Pompey, being still in Spain,
saw with regret a service of this importance likely
to fall to the share of another; and he had his par-
tisans at Rome who would have gladly put off the
nomination of any general to this command, until
he himself could arrive with his army to receive it.
He had about this time, impatient of his absence
from Rome, wrote a letter to the Senate, complain-
ing, in petulant terms, of their neglect, and of the
straits to which the troops under his command were
reduced for want of pay and provisions, and threat-
Appian, de Bell. Mithridat.
P 2
228
[c. xv.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
ening, if not speedily supplied, to fall back upon
Italy. The Consul Lucullus, apprehending what
might be the consequence of Pompey's arrival with
a military force, and wishing not to furnish him with
any pretence for leaving his province, had the army
in Spain completely supplied, and at the same time
took proper measures to support his own pretensions
to the command in Asia. From his rank as Consul
in office, he had a natural claim to this station; and
from his knowledge of the country, and of the war *
with this very enemy, in which he had already borne
some part under Sylla †, he was well entitled to
plead his qualifications and his merits.
When the provinces came to be distributed, the
difficulties which presented themselves in Asia were
thought to require the presence of both the Consuls.
The kingdom of Bithynia, which had been lately be-
queathed to the Romans, was in danger of being in-
vaded before they could obtain a formal possession
of this inheritance; at the same time that the ene-
• Vide Cicer. in Lucullo, c. 1, et 2.
+ Plutarch. in Lucul. initio, edit. Lond. 4to, vol. iii, p. 137.
Cicero is often quoted to prove, that Lucullus, at this time, was a mere no-
vice in war, and owed the knowledge by which he came to be distinguished,
to speculation and study, not to experience. It is observed by Lord Boling-
broke, that Cicero, who, among his other pretensions to fame, aspired to that
of a military commander, had an interest in having it believed that great offi-
cers might be formed in this manner: But as he could not be ignorant that
Lucullus had acted under Sylla, it is probable that he affected to consider the
part which was assigned to him by Sylla as a mere civil employment. He is
indeed mentioned as having charge of the coinage with which Sylla paid his
army, and of the fleet with which he transported them into Asia; but it is not
to be supposed that these were the only operations confided by Sylla to a lieu-
tenant of so much ability.
c. xv.]
229
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
my, by whom they were threatened, was not likely
to limit his operations to the attack of that country.
Of the Consuls, Cotta was appointed to seize on the
kingdom of Bithynia, and Lucullus, to lead the ar-
my against Mithridates wherever else he should car-
ry the war. Cotta set out immediately for his pro-
vince. Lucullus, being detained in making the ne-
cessary levies, followed some time afterwards; but
before his arrival in Asia, Cotta had been obliged to
evacuate Bithynia, and to take refuge in Chalcedo-
nia. The king of Pontus, being superior both by
sea and by land, had overrun the country in the
neighbourhood of this place; and, having broke the
chain which shut up the mouth of the harbour, en-
tered and burnt some Roman galleys which were
stationed there. Not thinking it advisable to attack
the town of Chalcedonia, he turned his forces against
Cyzicus, a port on the Propontis, and blocked up
the place both by sea and by land; being well pro-
vided with battering engines, and the other neces-
saries of a siege, he had hopes of being soon able to
reduce it by storm. The inhabitants, nevertheless,
were prepared to resist, and were in expectation of
being speedily relieved by the Romans.
Such was the state of affairs when Lucullus arri-
ved in Asia; and having joined his new levies to the
legions which had served under Fimbria, and to the
other troops already in the province, he assembled
an army of about thirty thousand men, with which
he advanced to re-establish Cotta in his province,
and to relieve the town of Cyzicus.
Mithridates being elated by his own successes,
230
THE FROGRESS AND TERMINATION
[c. xv.
and by the superiority of his numbers, did not suffi-
ciently attend to the motions of Lucullus, suffered
him to get possession of the heights in his rear, and
to cut off his principal supplies of provisions and
forage. Trusting, however, that his magazines would
not be exhausted before he should have forced the
town of Cyzicus to surrender, he continued the siege.
But his engines not being well served, and the de-
fence being obstinate, his army began to be distress-
ed for want of provisions, and it became necessary
to lessen his consumption. For this purpose he se-
cretly detached some part of his cavalry, which be-
ing intercepted by the Romans on their march, were
cut off or dispersed; and the king, now seeing the
remainder of his troops unable to subsist any longer
in their present situation, embarked on board one
of his galleys, ordered the army to force their way to
Lampsacus, while he himself endeavoured to escape
with his fleet. In this retreat, being harassed by
Lucullus, the greater part of the late besiegers of
Cyzicus perished in passing the Asopus and the Gran-
nicus. The king himself, having put into Nicome-
dia, and from thence continuing his voyage through
the Bosphorus to the Euxine, was overtaken on that
sea by a storm, and lost the greatest part of his ship-
ping. His own galley being sunk, he himself nar-
rowly escaped in a barge.
The whole force with which the king of Pontus
had invaded Bithynia, being thus dispelled like a
cloud, Lucullus employed some time in reducing the
towns into which any of the troops of Mithridates
had been received; and having effectually destroyed
c. xv.]
231
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
the remains of the vanquished army, took his route
by Bithynia and Galatia towards Pontus. At the
entrance into this kingdom was situate the town of
Amysus, a considerable fortress on the coast of the
Euxine, into which had been thrown a sufficient
force to retard the progress of an enemy. Mithri-
dates, under favour of the delays obtained by the
defence of this place, assembled a new army at Ca-
bira, near the frontier of Armenia. Here he mus-
tered about forty thousand foot, and a considerable
body of horse, and was soliciting the Scythians, Ar-
menians, and all the nations of that continent to his
aid.
Lucullus, in order to prevent, if possible, any fur-
ther reinforcements to the enemy, committed the
siege of Amysus to Murena, and advanced with his
army into the plains of Cabira. On this ground the
Roman horse received repeated checks from those
of the enemy, and were kept in continual alarm, un-
til their general, having time to observe the coun-
try, avoided the plains on which the king of Pontus,
by means of his cavalry, was greatly superior. In
pursuit of this plan, though very much straitened
for provisions, Lucullus kept his position on the
heights, until the enemy could be attacked with ad-
vantage. The skirmishes which happened between
the foraging parties, brought into action consider-
able numbers from the respective armies; and the
troops of Mithridates, having been routed in one of
these partial encounters, the king took a resolution
to decamp in the night, and remove to a greater dis-
tance from his enemy. As soon as it was dark, the
232
[c. xv.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
equipage and the attendants of the leading men in
the camp to whom he had communicated this reso-
lution began to withdraw; and the army, greatly
alarmed with that appearance, was seized with a pa-
nic, and could not be restrained from flight. Horse
and foot, and bodies of every description, crowded
in disorder into the outlets from the camp, and were
trod under foot, or in great numbers perished by
each other's hands. Mithridates himself, endea-
vouring to stop and to undeceive them, was carried
off as by the torrent, which could not be withstood.
The noise of this tumult being heard to a great
distance, and the occasion being known in the Ro-
man camp, Lucullus advanced with his army to
profit by the confusion into which the enemy were
fallen, and by a vigorous attack, having put many
to the sword, hastened their total rout and disper-
sion.
The king himself was, by one of his servants, with
difficulty mounted on horseback, and must have been
taken, if the pursuing party had not been amused
in seizing some plunder, which he had ordered on
purpose to be left in their way. A mule, loaded
with some part of the royal treasure, turned the at-
tention of his pursuers, while he himself made his
escape.
In his flight the king appeared to be most affect-
ed with the fate of his women. The greatest num-
ber of them were left at the palace of Pharnacea, a
place that must soon fall into the hands of the ene-
my. He therefore dispatched a faithful eunuch with
orders to put them to death, leaving the choice of
c. xv.]
283
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
the manner to themselves. A few are particularly
mentioned. Of two, who were his own sisters,
Roxana and Statira, one died uttering execrations
against her brother's cruelty, the other extolling, in
that extremity of his own fortune, the generous care
he took of their honour. Monimé, a Greek of Mi-
letus, celebrated for her beauty, whom the king had
long wooed in vain with proffers of great riches, and
whom he won at last only by the participation of
his crown, and the earnest of the nuptial rites, had
ever lamented her fortune, which, instead of a royal
husband and a palace, had given her a prison, and
a barbarous keeper. Being now told that she must
die, but that the manner of her death was left to
her own choice, she unbound the royal fillet from
her hair, and, using it as a bandage, endeavoured to
strangle herself. It broke in the attempt: "Bau-
"ble," she said, "it is not fit even for this!" then
stretching out her neck to the eunuch, bid him ful-
fil his master's purpose. Berenice of Chios, another
Grecian beauty, had likewise been honoured with
the nuptial crown, and, having been attended in her
state of melancholy elevation by her mother, who,
on this occasion, likewise resolved to partake of her
daughter's fate; they chose to die by poison. The
mother entreated that she might have the first
draught; and died before her daughter. The re-
mainder of the dose not being sufficient for the
queen, she put herself likewise into the hands of the
executioner, and was strangled. By these deaths,
the barbarous jealousy of the king was gratified, and
234
[c. xv.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
the future triumph of the Roman general deprived
of its principal ornaments.
}
Lucullus, after his victory, having no enemy in
the field to oppose him, overran the country, and
passed without interruption through most of the
towns in the kingdom of Pontus. He found many
palaces enriched with treasure, and adorned with
barbarous magnificence; and, as might be expected
under such a violent and distrustful government,
every where places of confinement crowded with
prisoners of state, whom the jealousy of the king had
secured, and whom his supercilious neglect had suf-
fered to remain in custody, even after his jealousy
was allayed.
Mithridates, from his late defeat, fled into Arme-
nia, and claimed the protection of Tigranes, who
being married to his daughter, had already favoured
him in his designs against the Romans.
This powerful prince, now become sovereign of
Syria as well as Armenia, still continued his resi-
dence in the last of these kingdoms, at Tigranocerta,
a city he himself had built, stocked with inhabitants,
and distinguished by his own name. On the arrival
of Mithridates to sue for his protection, Tigranes de-
clined to see him, but ordered him a princely recep-
tion in one of the palaces.
Lucullus continued his pursuit of this flying ene-
my only to the frontier of Armenia, and from thence,
sending Publius Clodius, who was his brother-in-law,
to the court of Tigranes, with instructions to require
that Mithridates should be delivered up as a lawful
prey, he himself fell back into the kingdom of Pon-
c. xv.]
235
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
tus, and soon after reduced Amysus, together with
Sinopé, and other places of strength, which were
held by the troops of the king.
The inhabitants of these places had been original-
ly colonies from Greece, and having been subdued
by the Persians, were, on the arrival of Alexander
the Great, from respect to their origin, restored to
their freedom. In imitation of this example, and
agreeably to the profession which the Romans ever
made of protecting the liberties of Greece, Lucullus
once more declared those cities to be free.
In his quality of Proconsul, having now sufficient
leisure to attend to the general state of the Roman
affairs that were committed to his government, he
found the following particulars, from which we may
collect the measure of abuse to which the conquer-
ed provinces were exposed. The collectors of reve-
nue, under pretext of levying the tax imposed by
Sylla, had been guilty of the greatest oppressions.
The inhabitants, in order to pay this tax, borrow-
ed money of the Roman officers and merchants at
exorbitant interest; and, when they no longer had
any credit, their effects were distrained for payment,
or themselves threatened with imprisonment and
tortures: private persons were reduced to the ne-
cessity of exposing their children to sale, and cor-
porations of selling the pictures, images, and other
ornaments of their temples, in order to satisfy these
inhuman creditors. Willing to restrain, or to cor-
rect these abuses, Lucullus ordained, that where the
sum exacted for usury was equal to the capital, the
debt should be cancelled; and in other cases, fixed
236
[c. xv.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
the interest at a moderate rate. These acts of be-
neficence or justice to the provinces, were, by the
farmers of the revenue, represented as acts of op-
pression and cruelty to themselves, and were, among
their connections, and the sharers of their profits at
Rome, stated against Lucullus as subjects of com-
plaint and reproach.
c. XVI.]
237
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
$
CHAP. XVI.
Escape and revolt of the gladiators at Capua.-Spartacus.
Action and defeat of Lentulus the Roman Consul.—And of
Cassius the Prætor of Gaul.-Appointment of M. Crassus
for this service.-Destruction of the gladiators.-Triumph
of Metellus and Pompey.-Consulship of Pompey and Cras-
sus.-Tribunes restored to their former powers.-Consulate
of Metellus and Hortensius.-War in Crete.-Renewal of
the war in Pontus and Armenia.-Defeat of Tigranes.-
Negotiation with the king of Parthia.-Mutiny of the Ro-
man army.-Complaints of piracies committed in the Roman
seas. Commission proposed to Pompey. His conduct
against the pirates.-His commission extended to Pontus.-
Operations against Mithridates.-Defeat and flight of that
prince.-Operations of Pompey in Syria.-Siege and reduc-
tion of Jerusalem.-Death of Mithridates.
U. C. 680.
M. Teren.
Varro, C.
Cass. Va-
rus.
Soon after the war, of which we have thus stated
the event, had commenced in Asia, Italy
was thrown into great confusion by the
accidental escape of a few gladiators from
the place of their confinement at Capua.
These were slaves trained up to furnish their masters
with a spectacle, which, though cruel and barbarous,
drew numerous crowds of beholders. It was at first
introduced as a species of human sacrifice at fune-
rals, and such victims were now kept by the wealthy
238
[c. xvI.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
in great numbers for the entertainment of the pub-
lic, and even for private amusement. The hand-
somest, the most active, and the boldest of the slaves
or captives were selected for this purpose. They
were sworn to decline no combat, and to shun no
hardship, to which they were exposed by their mas-
ters; they were of different denominations, and ac-
customed to fight in different ways; but those from
whom the whole received their designation, em-
ployed the sword and buckler, or target; and they
commonly fought naked, that the place and nature
of the wounds they received might the more plainly
appear.
Even in this prostitution of valour, refinements of
honour were introduced. There were certain gra-
ces of attitude which the gladiator was not permit-
ted to quit, even to avoid a wound. There was a
manner which he studied to preserve in his fall, in
his bleeding posture, and even in his death. He was
applauded, or hissed, according as he succeeded or
failed in any of these particulars. When, after a te-
dious struggle, he was spent with labour and with
the loss of blood, he still endeavoured to preserve
the dignity of his character, dropt or resumed the
sword at his master's pleasure, and looked round to
the spectators for marks of their satisfaction and ap-
plause *.
Persons of every age, condition and sex, attended
at these exhibitions; and when the pair who were
engaged began to strain and to bleed, the spectators,
* Cic. Tusculanarum, lib. ii, c. 17.
c. XVI.]
239
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
being divided in their inclinations, endeavoured to
excite, by their cries and acclamations, the party
they favoured; and when the contest was ended,
called to the victor to strike, or to spare, according
as the vanquished was supposed to have forfeited or
to have deserved his life *. With spectacles of this
sort, which must create so much disgust and horror
in the recital, the Romans were more intoxicated
than any populace in modern Europe now are with
the baiting of bulls, or the running of horses, proba-
bly because they were more deeply affected, and
more intensely moved by the scene.
Spartacus, a Thracian captive, who, on account
of his strength and activity, had been destined for
this barbarous profession, with about seventy or
eighty of his companions, having escaped from their
place of confinement, armed themselves with such
weapons as accident presented to them, and retiring
to some fastness on the ascents of Vesuvius, from
thence harassed the country with robberies and mur-
ders. "If we are to fight," said the leader of this
desperate band," let us fight against our oppressors,
"and in behalf of our own liberties, not to make
"sport for this petulant and cruel race of men.”
Multitudes of slaves from every quarter flocked to
his standard. The Præfect of Capua turned out the
inhabitants of his district against them, but was de-
feated.
This feeble and unsuccessful attempt to quell the
insurrection, furnished the rebels with arms, and rai-
sed their reputation and their courage. Their leader,
* Cicero pro Sexto, c. 27. Tuscul. Quæst. Spartacus, lib. ii, c. 17.
240
[c. XVI.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
by his generosity in rejecting his own share of any
booty he made by his conduct and his valour, ac-
quired the authority of a legal commander; and,
having named Crixus and Enomaus, two other gla-
diators, for his subordinate officers, he formed the
multitudes that resorted to him into regular bodies,
employed a certain number to fabricate arms, and to
procure the necessary accommodations of a camp, till
at length he collected an army of seventy thousand
men, with which he commanded the country to a
great extent. He had already successively defeated
the Prætors Clodius, Varinus, and Cossinius, who
had been sent against him with considerable forces,
so that it became necessary to order proper levies,
and to give to the Consuls the charge of repressing
this formidable enemy.
Spartacus had too much prudence to think himself
fit to contend with the force of the Roman State,
which he perceived must soon be assembled against
him. He contented himself, therefore, with a more
rational scheme, of conducting his army by the ridge
of the Appenines, till he should gain the Alps, from
whence his followers, whether Gauls, Germans, or
Thracians, might separate, each into the country of
which he was a native, or from which he had been
brought into the state of bondage, from which they
now endeavoured to extricate themselves.
U. C. 681.
L. Gell.
Poplicola,
Cn. Corn.
While he began his progress by the mountains, in
order to execute this project, the Consuls,
Gellius and Lentulus, had already taken
the field against him. They at first sur-
prised and cut off a considerable body un-
Lent. Clo-
dianus.
1
c. XVI.] OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
241
der Crixus, who had fallen down from the heights
in order to pillage the country. But Lentulus after-
wards pressing hard upon Spartacus, who led the
main body of the rebels, brought on an action, in
which the consular army was defeated with consi-
derable loss. Cassius too, the Prætor of Cisalpine
Gaul, having advanced upon him with an army of
ten thousand men, was repulsed with great slaugh-
ter.
In consequence of these advantages, Spartacus
might no doubt have effected his retreat to the Alps;
but his army being elated with victory, and consi-
dering themselves as masters of Italy, were unwill-
ing to abandon their conquest. He himself formed
a new project of marching to Rome; and for this
purpose destroyed all his superfluous baggage and
cattle, put his captives to death, and refused to re-
ceive any more of the slaves who were still in mul-
titudes resorting to his standard. He probably ex-
pected to elude or to pass the Roman armies with-
out a battle, and to force the city of Rome itself by
an unexpected assault. In this he was disappoint-
ed by the Consuls, with whom he was obliged to
fight in the Picenum; and, though victorious in the
action, he lost hopes of surprising the city. But still
thinking himself in condition to keep his ground in
Italy, he only altered his route, and directed his
march towards Lucania.
The Romans greatly embarrassed, and thrown
into some degree of consternation, by the unexpect-
ed continuance of an insurrection which had given
them much trouble, and which exposed their armies
VOL. II.
Q
QFQ
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
[C. XVI.
to much danger, with little prospect of honour; not
being courted, as usual, for the command in this
service, they imposed, rather than conferred it on
Marcus Crassus, then in the rank of Prætor, and
considered as a person of consequence, more on ac-
count of his wealth, than of his abilities; though in
this service, after others had failed, he laid the foun-
dation of a more favourable judgment. They at the
same time sent orders to Pompey, who had finished
the war in Spain, to hasten into Italy with his army;
and to the Proconsul of Macedonia, to embark with
what forces could be spared from his province.
Crassus assembled no less than six legions, with
which he joined the army which had been already
so unsuccessful against the revolt. Of the troops
who had miscarried, he is said to have executed,
perhaps only decimated, four thousand, as an exam-
ple to the new levies, and as a warning of the seve-
rities they were to expect for any failure in the re-
maining part of the service.
Upon his arrival in Lucania he cut off ten thou-
sand of the rebels, who were stationed at a distance
from the main body of their army, and he endea-
voured to shut up Spartacus in the peninsula of Bru-
tium, or head of land which extends to the Straits
of Messina. The gladiators desired to pass into Si-
cily, where their fellow-sufferers, the slaves of that isl
and, were not yet entirely subdued, and where great
numbers at all times were prepared to revolt; but
they were prevented by the want of shipping. Cras-
sus at the same time undertook a work of great la-
bour, that of intrenching the land from sea to sea
c. XVI.]
243
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
with a ditch fifteen feet wide, and as many deep,
extending, according to Plutarch, three hundred
stadia, or above thirty miles. Spartacus endeavour-
ing to interrupt the execution of this work, was fre-
quently repulsed; and his followers beginning to
despond, entertained thoughts of surrender. But,
in order to supply by despair what they lost in
courage, he put them in mind that they fought not
upon equal terms with their enemies; that they
must either conquer or be treated as fugitive slaves;
and, to enforce his admonitions, he ordered one of
his captives to be nailed to the cross in sight of both
This," he said to his own people, " is an
example of what you are to suffer if you fall into
"the enemy's hands."
armies.
66
Whilst Crassus was busy completing his line of
countervallation, Spartacus prepared to force it;
and, having provided faggots and other materials
for this purpose, filled up the ditch at a convenient
place, and passed it in the night with the whole bo-
dy of his followers. Directing his flight to Apulia,
he was pursued and greatly harassed in his march.
Accounts being received at once in the camp of
Crassus and in that of Spartacus, that fresh troops
were landed at Brundisium from Macedonia, and
that Pompey was arrived in Italy, and on his march
to join Crassus, both armies were equally disposed to
hazard a battle; the gladiators, that they might not
be attacked at once by so many enemies as were
collecting against them; and the Romans under
Crassus, that Pompey might not arrive to snatch
out of their hands the glory of terminating the war.
Q Q
244 THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION [c. XVI.
66
Under the influence of these different motives, both
leaders drew forth their armies; and when they were
ready to engage, Spartacus, with the valour rather
of a gladiator than of a general, alighting from his
horse, and saying aloud, in the hearing of his fol-
lowers, "If I conquer to-day, I shall be better
"mounted; if not, I shall not have occasion for a
horse," he plunged his sword into the body of the
animal. With this earnest of a resolution to con-
quer or to die, he advanced towards the enemy; di-
recting the division in which he himself command-
ed, to make their attack where he understood the
Roman general was posted. He intended to decide
the action by forcing the Romans in that quarter;
but after much bloodshed, being mangled with
wounds, and still almost alone in the midst of his
enemies, he continued to fight till he was killed;
and the victory of course declared for his enemy.
About a thousand of the Romans were slain of the
vanquished the greatest slaughter, as usual in an-
cient battles, took place after the flight began. The
dead were not numbered; about six thousand were
taken, and, in the manner of executing the sentence
of death on slaves, they were nailed to the cross in
rows, that almost lined the way from Capua to Rome.
Such as escaped from the field of battle, being a-
bout five thousand, fell into the hands of Pompey,
and furnished a pretence to his flatterers for ascri-
bing to him the honour of terminating the war.
:
The mean quality of the enemy, however, in the
present case, precluded even Crassus from the ho-
nour of a triumph; he could have only an ovation
c. XVI.]
245
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
or military procession on foot. But instead of the
myrtle wreath, usual on such occasions, he had cre-
dit enough with the Senate to obtain the laurel
crown*.
Pompey too arrived at the same time in the city
with new and uncommon pretensions, requiring a
dispensation from the law and established forms of
the commonwealth. The service he had conducted
in Spain being of the nature of a civil war of Ro-
man citizens against one another, or against subjects
of the empire, with a Roman general at their head,
did not give a regular claim to a triumph: The vic-
tor himself was yet under the legal age, and had not
passed through any of the previous steps of Quæstor,
Edile and Prætor; yet on the present occasion he
not only insisted on a triumph, but put in his claim
likewise to an immediate nomination to the office of
Consul.
It now became extremely evident, that the esta-
blished honours of the state, conferred in the usual
way, were not adequate to the pretensions of this
young man that he must have new and singular
appointments, or those already known bestowed on
him in some new and singular manner.
His ene-
mies observed, that he avoided every occasion of
fair competition with his fellow-citizens; that he
took a rank of importance to himself, which he did
not submit to have examined; and that he ever as-
pired to an eminence in which he might stand alone,
or in the first place of public consideration and ho-
→ Aul. Gellius, lib. v.
246
[c. XVI.
THE PROGRESS and TERMINATION
nour.
His partisans, on the contrary, stated the ex-
traordinary favours bestowed on him, as the founda-
tion of still farther distinctions *. In enumerating
his services upon his return from Spain, they rec-
koned up, according to Pliny, eight hundred and
seventy-one towns, from the Pyrenees to the extre-
mities of that country, which he had reduced; ob-
served that he had surpassed the glory of all the offi-
cers who had gone before him in that service; and,
in consequence of these representations, though still
in a private station, he was admitted to a triumph,
or partook with Metellus in this honour.
Pompey had hitherto, in all the late disputes, ta-
ken part with the aristocracy; but not without sus-
picion of aiming too high for republican government
of any sort. While he supported the Senate, he af-
fected a kind of distinction superior to those who
composed it, and was not content with equality,
even among the first ranks of his country. He ac-
quiesced, nevertheless, in the mere show of impor-
tance, and did not insist on prerogatives which
might have engaged him in contests, and exposed
his pretensions to too near an inspection. Upon his
approach at the head of an army from Spain, the Se-
nate was greatly alarmed; but he gave the most un-
feigned assurances of his intention to disband his
army as soon as they should have attended his tri-
umph. The Senate accordingly gave way to this
irregular pretension, and afterwards to the preten-
sion, still more dangerous, which, without any of
* Vid. Cicer. pro Lege Manilia.
C. XVI.]
247
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
U. C. 683.
M. Licin.
Crassus,
Cn. Pomp.
the previous conditions which the law required, he
made to the Consulate. Crassus, who ha-
ving been Prætor in the preceding year,
now stood for the same office, entered in-
Magnus. to a concert with Pompey, by which, not-
withstanding their mutual jealousy of each other,
they joined their interests, and were elected toge-
ther.
Under the administration of these officers, some
important laws are said to have passed, although
most of the particulars have escaped the notice of
those from whom our accounts are taken. It ap-
pears that Pompey now began to pay his court to
the popular faction: and, though he professed to
support the authority of the Senate, wished to have
it in his power, on occasion, to take the sense of
what was called the assembly of the people against
them, or, in other words, to counteract them by
means of the popular tumults which bore this name.
The Tribunes, Quinctius and Palicanus, had for
two years successively laboured to remove the bars
which had, by the constitution of Sylla, been oppo-
sed to the abuses of the tribunitian power. They
had been strenuously resisted by Lucullus and others,
who held the office of Consul, during the dependence
of the questions which had arisen on that subject.
By the favour of Pompey and Crassus, however, the
Tribunes obtained a restitution of the privileges
which their predecessors, in former times of the re-
public, had so often abused; and, together with the
security of their sacred and inviolable character, and
their negative in all proceedings of the state, they
218
[c. XVI.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
were again permitted to propose laws, and to ha-
rangue the people; a dangerous measure, by which
Pompey at once rendered fruitless that reformation
which was the only apology for the blood so lavish-
ly shed, not only by Sylla, but likewise by himself.
Caius Julius Cæsar, at the same time, having the
rank of Legionary Tribune conferred upon him by
the public choice, was extremely active in procu-
ring those popular acts; a policy in which he was
more consistent with himself than Pompey, and on-
ly pursued the course of that party with which he
had been associated in his earliest years *.
Lex Aurc-
lia Judici-
aria.
Under this Consulate, and probably with the en-
couragement of Pompey, the law of Sylla, respect-
ing the judicatures, was, upon the motion of the
Prætor Aurelius Cotta, likewise repealed; and it
was permitted to the Prætors to draught the judges
in equal numbers from the Senate, the
Knights, and a certain class of the people †,
whose description is not clearly ascertain-
ed. This was, perhaps, a just correction of Sylla's.
partiality to the Nobles: and, if it had not been ac-
companied by the former act, which restored to the
Tribunes powers which they had so often abused,
might have merited applause.
In the mean time, corruption spread with a hasty
pace; among the lower ranks, in contempt of go-
vernment; among the higher, in covetousness and
prodigality, with an ardour for lucrative appoint-
ments, and the opportunity of extortion in the pro-
* Suetonius in C. Jul. Cæsar, lib. i.
† Tribuni Ærarii.
c. XVI.]
249
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
vinces. As the offices of state at Rome began to
be coveted with a view to the employments abroad,
to which they conducted, Pompey, in order to dis-
play his own disinterestedness, with an oblique re-
proof to the nobility who aspired to magistracy with
such mercenary views, took a formal oath in enter-
ing on his Consulate, that he would not, at the ex-
piration of his office, accept of any government in
the provinces. By this example of generosity in
himself, and by the censure it implied of others, he
obtained great credit with the people, and furnished
his emissaries, who were ever busy in sounding his
praise, with a pretence for enhancing his merit. It
may, however, from his character and policy in other
instances, be suspected, that he remained at Rome
with intention to watch opportunities of raising his
own consideration, and of obtaining, by the strength
of his party, any extraordinary trust or commission
of which the occasion should arise.
This adventurer, in the administration of his Con-
sulate, had procured the revival of the Censors' func-
tions. These had been intermitted about sixteen
years, during great part of which time the republic
had been in a state of civil war; and the prevail-
ing parties, in their turns, mutually had recourse to
acts of banishment, confiscations, and military exe-
cutions against each other. In such times, even af-
ter the sword was sheathed, the power of Censor,
in the first heat of party-resentment, could not be
safely intrusted with any of the citizens; and the at-
tempts which were now made to revive it, though
in appearance successful, could not give it a perma-
250
[c. xvI.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
nent footing in the commonwealth. The public was
arrived at a state in which men complain of evils,
but cannot endure their remedies.
L. Gellius Poplicola and Cn. Cornelius Lentulus,
being intrusted, in the character of Censors, with
the making up of the rolls of the people, mustered
four hundred and fifty thousand citizens. They
purged the Senate with great severity, having ex-
punged sixty-four from the number, and among these
C. Antonius, afterwards Consul, assigning as their
reason, that he, having the command on the coasts
of Asia and Greece, had pillaged the allies, and
mortgaged and squandered his own estate. But
what most distinguished this Censorship was an in-
cident, for the sake of which, it is likely, the solem-
nity of the Census had been now revived.
It was customary on such occasions for the Knights
to pass in review, each leading his horse before the
Censors. They were questioned respecting their
age, the number of their campaigns, and the persons
under whose command they had served; and if they
had been already on the military list the ten years
prescribed by law, they received an exemption for
the future, and were vested with the privileges which
were annexed to this circumstance. At this part of
the ceremony the people were surprised to see their
Consul, Pompey the Great, descending into the mar-
ket-place, leading his horse in quality of a simple
Knight, but dressed in his Consular robes, and pre-
ceded by the Lictors. Being questioned by the Cen-
sors, whether he had served the stated number of
years, he answered that he had, and all of them in ar-
c. XVI.]
251
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
mies commanded by himself. This farce was recei-
ved with loud acclamations of the people; and the
Censors having granted the customary exemption,
rose from their seats, and, followed by a great mul-
titude of the people, attended this Equestrian Con-
sul to his own house *.
It is observed that Crassus and Pompey, although
they entered on office in concert, yet differed in the
course of their administration on subjects which are
not particularly mentioned. As Crassus was in pos-
session of great wealth, he endeavoured, by his libe-
ralities, to vie with the imposing state and popular
arts of his colleague. In this view he gave a pub-
lic entertainment at ten thousand tables, and distri-
buted three months' provision of corn to the more
indigent citizens. To account for his being able to
court the people in so sumptuous a manner, it is
said, that having inherited from his father a fortune
of three hundred talents, or near sixty thousand
pounds; he increased it, by purchasing at a low price
the estates of those who were prescribed in the late
troubles, and by letting for hire the labour of a nu-
merous family of slaves, instructed in various arts
and callings; and by these means was become so
rich, that when, some time after this date, he was
about to depart for Asia, and consecrated the tenth
part of his estate to Hercules, he was found to pos-
sess seven thousand one hundred talents, or about
* Plutarch. in Pompeio. Pompey, it is probable, was still no more than a
Knight, having a seat in the Senate as magistrate, without being yet placed
on the rolls.
252
[c. XVI.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
one million three hundred and seventy thousand and
three hundred pounds Sterling *.
Pompey, at the expiration of his year in the Con-
sulship, agreeably to the oath he had taken, remain-
ed at Rome in a private station; but, still unchan-
ged in his manner, maintained the reserve and state-
liness of a person raised above the condition of a
mere citizen, or even above that of the first Senators
of consular rank. Other candidates for consideration
and public honours endeavoured, by their talents and
eloquence, to make themselves necessary to those who
had affairs to solicit with the public, or even to make
themselves feared by those who were obnoxious to
the law. They laboured to distinguish themselves as
able advocates or formidable accusers at the bar,
and to strengthen their interest by procuring the
support of those to whom their talents either were
or might become of importance. Pompey, on the
contrary, stating himself as an exception to common
rules, avoided the courts of justice and other places
of ordinary resort, did not commit his talents to the
public judgment, nor present his person to the pub-
lic view; took the respect that was paid to him as a
right; seldom went abroad, and never without a nu-
merous train of attendants t. He was formed for
the state of a prince, and might have stolen into that
high station even at Rome, if men, borne to equali-
ty, could have suffered an elevation which no mea-
*Plutarch. in Crasso.
As the interest of money was prohibited at Rome
under the denomination of usury being clandestine, was in fact unlimited, the
annual return for such a capital must have been immense.
S
+ Plutarch. in vit. Pomp.
C. XVI.]
253
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
sure of personal merit could at once have procured;
or had been willing, when troubled with faction, to
forego their own importance, in order to obtain peace
and the comforts of a moderate government. The
pretensions of Pompey, however, were extremely dis-
agreeable to the Senate, and not otherwise accept-
able, even to the people, than as they tended to
mortify the pride of that order of men.
U. C. 684.
Q. Horten-
sius, Q. Cæ-
cil. Metel-
lus Creticus.
The Consulate of Crassus and Pompey was suc-
ceeded by that of Q. Hortensius and Q.
Cæcilius Metellus. In the distribution of
provinces, Crete, with the command of an
armament to be sent into that island, fell
to the lot of Hortensius; but this citizen, having ac-
quired his consideration by his eloquence in plead-
ing the causes of his friends, and being accustomed
to the bar, perhaps in a degree that interfered with
the ordinary military character of a Roman officer of
state, declined to accept of this government; lea-
ving it, together with the command of the army that
was to be employed in the reduction of the island,
to his colleague Metellus, who afterwards received
the appellation of Creticus, from the distinction he
acquired in this service.
The Cretans, and most of the other seafaring peo-
ple on the confines of Asia and Europe, had in the
late war taken an active part against the Romans.
They had, by the influence of Mithridates, and by
their own disposition to rapine and piracy, been led
to prey upon the traders, and upon the carriers of
revenue who were frequently passing to Rome from
the provinces. The desire of sharing in the profits
254
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
[c. XVI.
that were made by this species of war, had filled the
sea with pirates and freebooters, against whom the
Senate had employed a succession of officers with
extensive commands, on the coasts both of Asia and
Europe. Among others, M. Antonius had been sent
on this service, and was accused of abusing his
power, by oppressing the Sicilians, and the people of
other maritime provinces, who were innocent of the
crimes he was charged to repress. In a descent on
the island of Crete he was defeated and killed
*. and
left the Romans engaged with the people of that isl-
and in a war which was thought to require the pre-
sence of one of the Consuls. And the lot, as has
been observed, having fallen on Hortensius, was
transferred to his colleague Metellus.
U. C. 685.
L. Cæc.
Metellus,
Q. Mar,
Rex.
>
Such was the state of affairs, and such the destina-
tion of the Roman officers, when Lucullus
received from Tigranes a return to the de-
mand which he made of having Mithrida-
tes delivered up as his prisoner. This
prince, at the arrival of Clodius, who bore the mes-
sage, had made a progress to the coasts of Phoenicia,
and to the farther extremities of his empire. To ve-
rify the state and title which he assumed of King of
Kings, he affected, when he mounted on horseback,
to have four captive sovereigns to walk by his stir-
rup, and obliged them, on other occasions, to per-
form every office of menial duty and servile attend-
ance on his person. Lucullus, instead of the style
which was affected by this prince, had accosted him
* Pædianus in Orat. in Verrem.
c. XVI.]
255
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
in his letter only with the simple title of king. His
messenger, however, was admitted to an audience,
and made his demand that Mithridates, a vanquish-
ed enemy, whose territories were already in the pos-
session of the Romans, should be delivered up to
adorn the victor's triumph. This, if refused, said
the bearer of the message, the Roman general would
be entitled to extort by force, and would not fail,
with a mighty army for that purpose, to pursue his
fugitive wherever he was received and protected.
The king of Armenia, unused even to a plain ad-
dress, much less to insult and threats, heard this de-
mand with real indignation; and though, with an
appearance of temper, he made offer of the customa-
ry presents and honours to the person who deliver-
ed the message, he took his resolution against those
from whom it came, and from having barely permit-
ted Mithridates to take refuge in his kingdom, de-
termined to espouse his cause. He gave for answer
to Clodius, that he would not deliver up the unfor-
tunate king, and that, if the Romans invaded his
territories, he knew how to defend them. He soon
afterwards admitted Mithridates into his presence,
and determined to support him with the necessary
force against his enemies.
Upon receiving this answer from Tigranes, Lu-
cullus resolved without delay to march into Arme-
nia. He chose for this expedition two legions and
a body of horse, on whom he prevailed, though with
some difficulty, to enter on a new war at a time
when they flattered themselves that their labours
were ended, and that the rewards they expected
256 THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION [C. XVI.
were within their reach. With hasty marches he ar-
rived on the Euphrates, and passed that river before
the enemy were aware of his approach. Tigranes
treated the first reports of his coming with contempt,
and ordered the person who presumed to bring such
accounts to be punished. But being assured, be-
yond a possibility of doubt, that an enemy was ac-
tually on his territories, he sent Metrodorus, one of
his generals, at the head of a considerable force, with
orders to take alive the person of Lucullus, whom
he was desirous to see, but not to spare a man of the
whole army besides.
With these orders, the Armenian general set out
on the road by which the Romans were known to
advance, and hastened to meet them. Both armies,
on the march, had intelligence of each other. Lu-
cullus, upon the approach of the enemy, halted, be-
gan to intrench, and, in order to gain time, detach-
ed Sextilius, with about three thousand men, to ob-
serve the Armenians, and, if possible, without risk-
ing an action, to amuse them till his works were
completed. But such was the incapacity and pre-
sumption of the enemy, that Sextilius, being attack-
ed by them, gained an entire victory with but a part
of the Roman army; Metrodorus himself being kill-
ed, his army was put to the rout with great slaugh-
ter.
After this victory, Lucullus, in order the more ef-
fectually to alarm and to distract the Armenians, se-
parated his army into three divisions. With one he
intercepted and dispersed a body of Arabs, who were
marching to join the king; with another he sur-
2
C. XVI.]
257
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
prised Tigranes himself, in a disadvantageous situa-
tion, and obliged him to fly with the loss of his at-
tendants, equipage, and the baggage of his army.
At the head of the third division he himself advan-
ced to Tigranocerta, and invested that place.
After these disasters, Tigranes made an effort to
assemble the force of his kingdom; and bringing
into the field all the troops of his allies, as well as
his own, mustered an army of one hundred and fif-
ty thousand heavy-armed foot, fifty-five thousand
horse, and twenty thousand archers and slingers.
He was advised by Mithridates not to risk a battle,
but to lay waste the country from which the Ro-
mans were supplied with provisions, and thereby ob-
lige them to raise the siege of Tigranocerta, and re-
pass the Euphrates, with the disadvantage of having
an enemy still in force to hang on their rear. This
counsel of Mithridates, founded in the experience
he had so dearly bought, was ill suited to the pre-
sumption of the king. He therefore advanced to-
wards the Romans, impatient to relieve his capital,
and the principal seat of his magnificence. Lucul-
lus, trusting to the specimens he had already seen of
the Armenian armies, ventured to divide his force,
and without raising the siege, marched with one di-
vision to meet this numerous enemy. In the action
that followed, the Armenian horse being in the van,
were defeated and driven back on the foot of their
own army, threw them into confusion, and gave the
Romans an easy victory, in which, with very incon-
siderable loss to themselves, they made a great
slaughter of the enemy. The king, himself, to avoid
VOL. II.
R
*
258 THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION [C. XVI.
being known in his flight, unbound the royal diadem
from his head, and left it to become a part in the
spoils of the day.
Mariæus, who commanded in Tigranocerta, hear-
ing of his master's defeat, and fearing a revolt of
the Greeks and other foreigners, who had been as-
sembled by force in that settlement, ordered them
to be searched and disarmed. This order they look-
ed on as the prelude to a massacre, and crowding
together defended themselves with the clubs and
other weapons they could seize. They surrounded
a party that was sent to disperse them, and having
by that means got a supply of arms, they took pos-
session of a tower which commanded one of the
principal gates, and from thence invited the Romans
to enter the place. Lucullus accordingly seized the
opportunity, and became master of the city. The
spoil was great; Tigranes having collected here, as
at the principal seat of his vanity, the wealth and
magnificence of his court.
Mithridates, who had been present in the late ac-
tion, met the king of Armenia in his flight; and,
having endeavoured to re-establish his equipage and
his retinue by a participation of his own, exhorted
him not to despair, but to assemble his army anew,
and to persist in the war. They agreed, at the same
time, on an embassy to the king of Parthia, with of
fers of reconciliation on the part of Tigranes, who,
at this time, was at war with that prince, and of sa-
tisfaction on the subjects in contest between them,
provided the Parthians would join in the confedera-
cy against the Romans. They endeavoured to per-
C, XVI.]
259
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
suade the king of Parthia, that he was by no means
an unconcerned spectator in the present contest;
that the quarrel which the Romans now had with
the kings of Armenia and Pontus, was the same
with that which they formerly had with Philip and
with Antiochus, and which, if not prevented, they
would soon have with Arsaces, and was no other
than his being possessed of a rich territory, which
tempted their ambition and avarice. Those repub-
licans, they said, originally had not any possessions
of their own, and were grown rich and great only
by the spoils of their neighbours. From their strong-
hold in Italy, they had extended their empire on the
West to the coast of the ocean; and if not inter-
rupted by the powerful monarchies which lay in
their way, were hastening to reach a similar boun-
dary on the East. The king of Parthia, they added,
might expect to be invaded by these insatiable con-
querors, and must now determine whether he would
engage in a war joined with such powerful allies, of
whom one by his experience, the other by his re-
sources, might enable him to keep the danger at a
distance from his own kingdom*, or wait until these
powers being overthrown, and become an accession
to the Roman force, he should have the contest to
maintain in his own territory singly and unsupport-
ed from abroad. To these representations Arsaces
seemed to give a favourable ear, agreed to the pro-
posed confederacy, on condition that Mesopotamia,
which he had formerly claimed, was now delivered
* Letter of Mithridates in the fragments of Sallust.
R 2
260
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION [C. XVI.
J
up to him. At the same time he endeavoured to
amuse Lucullus with offers of alliance against the
king of Armenia.
In this conjuncture, it probably was, that Lucul-
lus, in the apprehension of being superseded and de-
prived of the honour of terminating the war, made
his report that the kingdom of Mithridates was now
in his possession, and that the kingdom of Tigranes
was also in his power; and therefore, that the Se-
nate should, instead of a successor, send the usual
commission to settle the form of the province, and
to make a proper establishment to preserve the ter-
ritories which he had already subdued. But after
these representations were dispatched by Lucullus,
it became apparent that the king of Parthia had de-
ceived him with false professions, while he actually
made great progress in a treaty with his enemies the
kings of Armenia and Pontus, and meant to support
them with all his force. In resentment of this act
of treachery, or to prevent the effects of it, Lucullus
proposed to carry the war into Parthia; and, for
this purpose, ordered the legions that were stationed
in Pontus to march without delay into Armenia.
These troops, however, already tired of the ser-
vice, and suspecting that they were intended for
some distant and hazardous enterprise, broke out
into open mutiny, aud refused to obey their officers.
This example was soon afterwards followed by other
parts of the army; and the general was obliged to
confine his operations to the kingdom of Armenia.
He endeavoured, by passing the mountains near to
the sources of the Euphrates and the Tigris, to pe-
Y
C. XVI.] OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
261
netrate as far as Artaxata, the capital of the king-
dom. By this march he forced Tigranes once more
to hazard a battle, and obtained a victory; but his
own army, notwithstanding their success, were so
much discouraged with the change of climate, which
they experienced in ascending the mountains of Ar-
menia, and with the early and severe approach of
winter in those high lands, that they again mutinied,
and obliged their general to change his plan of the
war. He accordingly turned his march to the south-
ward, fell down on Mesopotamia, and, after a short
siege, made himself master of Nisibis, a rich city in
that territory, where, with other captives, he took
Guras, brother to the king, who commanded in the
place.
Here, however, the mutinous spirit still continu-
ing to operate in the Roman army, it began to ap-
pear, that the general, who had so often overcome
the kings of Pontus and Armenia, was better quali
fied to contend with an enemy, than to win or to
preserve the good-will of his own troops. A report
being spread that he was soon to be recalled, he,
from that moment, lost the small remains of his
authority; the legions deserted their colours, and
treated with scorn or indifference all the attempts
which he made to retain them.
This mutiny began in that part of the army, which,
having been transported into Asia with the Consul
Valerius Flaccus at their head, had murdered this
general, to put themselves under the command of
Fimbria, and afterwards deserted their new leader
to join with Sylla. Such crimes, under the late un-
262 the progress AND TERMINATION [C. XVI.
happy divisions of the republic, either remained un-
punished, or were stated as merits with the party in
whose favour the crime was committed. These le-
gions, however, were, by Sylla, who was not willing
to employ such instruments, or to intrust his own
fate, or that of the commonwealth, in such hands,
left in Asia, under pretence of securing the province;
and they accordingly made a considerable part in
the armies successively commanded by Murena and
by Lucullus. The disposition which they now exhi-
bited, and that of the army in general, to disorder and
mutiny, was greatly excited by the factious spirit of
Publius Clodius, the relation of Lucullus, who, ha-
ving himself taken offence at the general, gave this
earnest of his future conduct in the state, by endea-
vouring to stir up rebellion among the troops.
"We,
"who have already undergone so many hardships,"
he said," are still kept on foot to escort the camels
"which carry the treasures of our general, and are
"made to pursue, without end, a couple of barba-
"rous fugitives over barren desarts and uncultivated
s's wastes; while the soldiers of Pompey, after a few
"campaigns in Spain, or in Italy, are enjoying the
"fruits of their labour in comfortable settlements,
"procured by the favour of their leader."
Lucullus was so much aware of the decline of his
authority, that he did not venture to hazard an affront
by attempting to effect even a mere change of posi-
tion. He hoped, that while he did not issue any or-
ders of moment, the resolution of his army not to
obey him might remain a secret to the enemy. This
state of his affairs, however, soon became known to
c. XVI.]
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
Mithridates, and encouraged him to hope he might
be able to recover his kingdom. That he might not
suffer the opportunity to escape him, he fell back
into Pontus, with what troops he had then under his
command, and, by his authority and influence over
his own subjects, soon augmented his force, pene-
trated among the scattered quarters of the Romans,
who were left to occupy the country, and separately
surprised or destroyed considerable bodies of their
troops. Among these, he attacked and defeated
Fabius, the officer who was intrusted with the ge
neral command; and this king, though now turned
of seventy, exposing his own person in the action,
received a wound which stopped him in the pursuit
of his victory, and by that means prevented its full
effect.
Lucullus, being informed of what had passed in
Pontus, had influence enough with the army, now
anxious for their own safety, to put them in motion
towards that kingdom; but before his arrival, Mi-
thridates had shut up Fabius in Cabira, and defeated
Triarius with considerable slaughter. Here again
the veteran monarch was wounded; and, to satisfy
the troops that he was not dead, was raised up on a
platform, where he remained in sight of the army
while his wound was dressed. In this last defeat the
Romans lost twenty-four legionary Tribunes, one
hundred and fifty Centurions, and seven thousand
men.
It was not doubted, however, that Lucullus, on
his arrival, if the men had been disposed to act un-
der his command, would have been able soon to re-
trieve his affairs; but he was at this time superseded;
264
[c. XVI.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
and it was known in the army, that Acilius Glabrio
was set out from Rome on his way to succeed him.
The legions, therefore, under pretence that Lucul
lus was no longer their general, or that they them-
selves, by a decree of the people, had received their
dismission, refused to obey him; and numbers, in
fact, began to disband, taking the route of Cappa-
docia on their return to Italy.
This was the state of affairs when the commission-
ers, who, upon the report of Lucullus, had been sent
by the Senate to settle the kingdom of Pontus in the
form of a province, actually arrived. They found
the Proconsul destitute of power in his own camp,
and Mithridates, whom they believed to be vanquish-
ed, again in possession of his kingdom, and joining
to the experience of old age all the ardour and en-
terprise of youth *.
The Roman army in Asia, as a prelude to their
present defection, had been taught to contrast the
parsimony of Lucullus with the liberality and muni-
ficence of Pompey, and from the comparison they
made, were impatient to change their leader,-a dis-
position, which, it is not doubted, Pompey, by his
intrigues, and with the aid of his agents, greatly en-
couraged. He could in reality ill brook the private
station to which, by his late oath, in entering on
the Consulate, he had bound himself. As he ever
studied to support the public opinion of his own im-
portance, he wished for occasions to derive some ad-
vantage from that opinion; but nothing had occur-
Appian. Bell. Mithridat. Plutarch, in Lucullo. Dio Cassius.
C. xvI.]
265
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
red for two years that was worthy of the high dis-
tinction to which he aspired. The command in Asia
he coveted the more, that it seemed to be secured
to Lucullus by the splendour of his successes, and
by the unanimous judgment of the Senate and No-
bles, who knew his faithful attachment to their or-
der, and his fidelity to the aristocratical part of the
constitution. The difficulties in that service were
over, and nothing but the glory of terminating the
war remained. Pompey, either from envy to Lucul-
lus, or from a design to open a way to this glory for
himself, contributed to the appointment of Glabrio,
and to the nomination of the Prætors, who were sent
with separate commands into the provinces of Asia
and Bithynia. If, upon the change he had thus pro-
duced, the war should become unsuccessful, or lan-
guish, he had hopes to be called for by the general
voice of the people, as the only person fit to bring
it to a happy conclusion. Meanwhile a project was
started, which was to place him near to this scene
of action, and, if judged expedient, was likely to fa-
cilitate his farther removal, to the command of the
army in Pontus.
The pirates still continued to infest the seas, and
were daily rising in their presumption, and increa-
sing in their strength. They were receiving con-
tinual accession of numbers from those, who, by the
unsettled state of Asia, were forced to join them for
subsistence. The impunity which they enjoyed
during the distraction of councils at Rome, and the
profits they made by their depredations, encouraged
many who frequented the seas to engage in the same
266
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
[c. XVI.
way of life. They had been chaced, and numbers of
them taken, by M. Antonius the orator, by Servilius
Isauricus, and last of all, by C. Antonius the father
of him who, in the quality of Triumvir, is to become
so conspicuous in the sequel of this history. But
they had their retreats; and, upon the least remis-
sion of vigilance in the Roman officers, they again
multiplied apace, put to sea in formidable squadrons,
and embarked such numbers of men, as not only en-
abled them to scour the seas, but likewise to make
descents on the coasts, to enter harbours, destroy
shipping, and pillage the maritime towns. They
even ventured to appear off the mouth of the Tiber,
and to plunder the town of Ostia itself. All the
coasts of the empire were open to their depreda-
tions. Roman magistrates were made prisoners in
passing to and from their provinces; and citizens of
every denomination, when taken by them, were
forced to pay ransom, kept in captivity, or put to
death. The supply of provisions to Italy was inter-
cepted, or rendered precarious and difficult, and the
price in proportion enhanced. Every report on
these subjects was exaggerated by the intrigues of
Pompey, who perceived, in this occasion of public
distress, the object of a new and extraordinary com-
mission to himself.
Frequent complaints having been made, and fre-
quent deliberations held on this subject in the Se-
nate, Gabinius, one of the Tribunes, at last propo-
sed, that some officer of consular rank should be
vested, during three years, with absolute powers, in
order to put an effectual stop to these outrages, and
C. XVI.]
OF THE ROMAN REPUBlic.
267
to eradicate the cause of them, so as to secure for
the future the inhabitants of the coast, as well as to
protect the navigation of the seas. As Gabinius
was known to be in concert with Pompey, the de-
sign of the proposition was manifest; and it was re-
ceived in the Senate with a general aversion. "For
this," it was said, "has Pompey declined the or-
"dinary turn of consular duty upon the expiration
"of his office, that he might lie in wait for extraor
"dinary and illegal appointments." Gabinius be-
ing threatened with violence if he should persist in
his motion, thought proper to withdraw from the as-
sembly.
A report was immediately spread in the city, that
the person of the Tribune Gabinius had been actual-
ly violated; multitudes assembled at the doors of
the Senate-house, and great disorders were likely to
follow: it was judged prudent for the Senate to ad-
journ; and the members, dreading some insult from
the populace, retired by separate ways to their own
houses. Gabinius, without farther regard to the
dissent of the Senate, prepared to carry his motion
to the people; but the other nine Tribunes were in-
clined to oppose him. Trebellius and Roscius, in
particular, were engaged to put a stop by their ne-
gative to any further proceedings on that business.
Pompey, in the mean time, with a dissimulation
which constituted part of his character, affected to
disapprove the motion of Gabinius, and to decline
the commission with which it was proposed to invest
him. He had recourse to this affectation, not mere-
ly as the fittest means on the present occasion to dis-
arm the envy of the nobles, and to confirm the peo-
268 THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION [C. XVI.
ple in their choice; but still more as a manner of
proceeding which suited his own disposition, being
no less desirous to appear forced and courted into
high situations, than solicited to gain and to hold
them. He thus provoked the citizens of his own
rank, no less by the shallow arts which he practised
to impose on the public, than by the state which he
assumed. He could scarcely expect to find a sup-
port in the order of nobles, and least of all among
those who were likely to become the personal rivals
of his fortune in the commonwealth: and yet it is
mentioned, that Julius Cæsar, now about two-and-
thirty years of age, and old enough to distinguish
his natural antagonists in the career of ambition,
took part with the creatures of Pompey on this oc-
casion. He was disposed to court the popular fac-
tion, and to oppose the aristocracy; either of which
principles may explain his conduct in this instance.
He had himself already incurred the displeasure of
the Senate, but more as a libertine than as a disturber
of the state, in which he had not hitherto taken any
material part. In common with the youth of his
time, he disliked the Senators, on account of the re-
maining austerity of their manners, no less than the
inferior people disliked them on account of their
aristocratical claims to authority and power. But
whatever we may suppose to have been his motives,
Cæsar, even before he seemed to have formed any
ambitious designs of his own, was ever ready to abet
those of any desperate adventurer who counteract-
ed the Senate, or set the orders of government at
nought; and seemed to be actuated by a species of
instinct, which set him at variance with every form
C. XVI.]
269
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
of a civil or political nature, if it checked the li-
cence of faction, or bore hard on disorderly citizens
of any sort *.
On the day in which the question respecting the
motion of Gabinius was to be put to the people,
Pompey appeared in the Comitium; and, if we may
judge from the speech which is ascribed to him,
employed a dissimulation and artifice somewhat
too gross even for the audience to which it was ad-
dressed. He took occasion to thank the people for
the honours he had received; but complained, that,
having already toiled so much in the public service,
he still should be destined for new labours. "You
"have forgotten," he said, "the dangers I encoun-
66
tered, and the fatigues I underwent, while yet
"almost a boy, in the war with Cinna, in the wars
"in Sicily and in Africa, and what I suffered in
""
Spain, before I was honoured with any magis-
tracy, or was of age to have a place in the Senate.
"But I mean not to accuse you of ingratitude; on
"the contrary, I have been fully repaid. Your no-
"mination of me to conduct the war with Sertorius,
"when every one else declined the danger, I consider
"as a favour; and the extraordinary triumph you
"bestowed in consequence of it, as a very great ho-
66 nour. But I must entreat you to consider, that
"continued application and labour exhaust the
powers of the mind as well as those of the body.
"Trust not to my time of life alone, nor imagine
"that I am still a young man, merely because my
"number of years is short of what others have at-
66
* Zonaras, Ar. lib. x, c. 3.
270
[c. XVI.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
"tained. Reckon my services and the dangers to
"which I have been exposed; they will exceed the
"number of my years, and satisfy you, that I can-
"not much longer endure the labours and cares
"which are now proposed for me. But if this be
"not granted me, I must beg of you to consider
"what loads of envy such appointments are likely
"to draw upon me, from men, whose displeasure, I
"know, you neither do, nor ought to regard, al-
though to me their envy might be fatal and I
"confess, that, of all the difficulties and dangers of
"war, I fear nothing so much as this. To live with
"envious persons; to be called to account for mis-
"carriage, if one fails in the public service; and
"to be envied, if one succeeds; who would choose
"to be employed on such conditions? For these,
"and many other reasons, I pray you to leave me
"at rest; leave me to the care of my family, and
"of my private affairs. As for the present service,
"I pray you to choose, among those who desire the
"employment, some person more proper; among
so many you cannot surely be at a loss. I am
"not the only person that loves you, or that has
"experience in military affairs. There are many,
"whose names, to avoid the imputation of flattery,
"I will not mention."
66
To this speech Gabinius replied; and, affecting
to believe the sincerity of Pompey's declarations, ob-
served, that it was agreeable to the character of this
great man, neither to desire command, nor rashly to
accept of what was pressed upon him. "They who
"are best able to surmount difficulties," he said,
c. XVI.]
271
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
"are likewise least inclined to engage in them. But
"it is your business, fellow-citizens, to consider not
"what is agreeable to Pompey, but what is neces-
CC
<C
sary to your own affairs; not to accept of those
"who court you for offices, but of those who are fit
"to discharge the duties of them. I wish we had
many persons of this description, besides the man
"I have proposed to your choice. Did we not all
"wish for such persons likewise, when we searched
"among the young and the old for some one to be
"opposed to Sertorius, and found none but himself?
"But wishes cannot avail us; we must take men as
FC
they are; we cannot create them. If there be but
"one man formed for our purpose, with knowledge,
"experience and good fortune, we must lay hold of
"him, and seize him, if necessary, even by force.
Compulsion here is expedient and honourable for
"both parties; for those who employ it, because it
"is to find them a person who can conduct their af-
fairs; for him who suffers it, because he is to have
cc
CC
an opportunity of serving his country, an object
"for which no good citizen will refuse to expose his
person, or to sacrifice his life.
<C
66
"Do you think that Pompey, while yet a boy,
was fit to command armies, to protect your allies,
"to reduce your enemies, to extend your empire;
"but that now in the prime of life, ripe in wisdom
" and experience, he can serve you no longer? You
employed the boy; you suffer the man to be idle.
"When a private citizen of Equestrian rank, he was
"fit for war and affairs of state; now he is a Se-
"nator, forsooth he is fit for nothing! Before you
66
272 THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
[c. XVI.
"had any trial of him, you made choice of him for
"the most important trust; now that you have ex-
"perience of his ability, of his conduct, and of his
"success, you hesitate. Is the present occasion less
"pressing than the former? Is the antagonist of Ser-
❝torius not fit to contend with pirates? But such
"absurdities cannot be received by the Roman peo-
"ple. As for you, Pompey, submit to the will of
your fellow-citizens. For this you was born,-for
"this you was educated. I call upon you as the
property of your country; I call upon you as
"its safeguard and its defence: I call upon you to
lay down your life, if necessary. This I know, if
your country require it, you will not, you cannot
"refuse.
66
66
"But it is ridiculous to accost you in this man-
"ner; you who have proved your courage and your
love to your country in so many and such arduous
"trials. Be ruled by this great assembly. Despise
"the envy of a few, or study the more to deserve
"the general favour. Let the envious pine when
66
they hear of your actions; it is what they deserve.
"Let us be delivered from the evils by which we
"are surrounded, while you proceed to end your life
66
as you began it, with success and with glory."
When Gabinius had finished his speech, Trebel-
lius, another of the Tribunes, attempted to reply;
but such a clamour was immediately raised by the
multitude that he could not be heard. He then, by
the authority of his office, forbad the question; and
Gabinius instantly proposed to have the sense of the
Tribes, Whether Trebellius had not forfeited the
1
c. XVI.]
273
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
character of Tribune? Seventeen Tribes were of this
opinion, and the eighteenth would have made the ma-
jority, when Trebellius thought proper to withdraw
his negative. Roscius, another of the Tribunes, in-
timated by signs (for he could not be heard) that a
second should be joined with Pompey in this com-
mission. But the clamour was renewed, and the
meeting likely to end in riot and violence. Then
all opposition to the motion was dropped. And, in
this state of the business, Gabinius, trusting that, in
the present humour of the people, no man would
dare to oppose the measure, or wishing to increase
the honour of Pompey's nomination, by the seeming
concurrence of some of the more respectable citi-
zens, called upon Catulus, who was then first on the
roll of the Senate, to deliver his opinion, and led him
up into the rostra for this purpose.
This citizen, by the equability of his conduct, and
by his moderation, though in support of the aristo-
cracy, had great authority even with the opposite
party. He began his speech to the people with pro-
fessions of public zeal, which obliged him to deliver
with plainness what he thought was conducive to
their good, and which entitled him to a deliberate
hearing before they should pronounce on the merits
of what he was about to deliver. "If you listen,"
he said, "something may still be offered to inform
your judgment; if you break forth again into dis-
"orders and tumults, your capacity and good un-
derstanding will avail you nothing. I must begin
"with declaring my opinion, that powers so great,
"and for so long a time as are now proposed for
CC
66
VOL. II.
S
274
[c. XVI.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
66
Pompey, should not be committed to any single
" citizen whatever.
"The precedent is contrary to law, and in itself
"in the highest degree dangerous to the state.
"Whence came the usurpations of Marius, but from
"the habit of continual command; from his being
"put at the head of every army, intrusted with every
66 war, and no less than six times re-elected Consul
"in the space of a few years? What inflamed to such
a degree the arrogant spirit of Sylla, but the con-
"tinual command of armies, and the exorbitant
power of Dictator? Such is human nature, that in
age, as well as in youth, we are debauched with
power; and if inured for any time to act as supe-
"riors, we cannot submit afterwards to the equal
" and moderate station of citizens.
66
66
66
"I speak not with any particular reference to
"Pompey; I speak what the law requires, and what
"I am sure is for your good. If high office and
public trust be an honour, every one who has pre-
"tensions should enjoy them in his turn; if they be
"a load or a burden, every one ought to bear his
CC
66
part. These are the laws of justice and of repub.
"lican government. By observing them, republics
"have an advantage over most other states. By
" employing many men in their turns, they educate
"and train many citizens for every department, and
"have numbers amongst whom they may choose
"the fittest to serve on every particular emergence.
"But if we suffer one or a few to engross every of
"fice or service of moment, the list of those who
"are qualified for any such trust will decrease in
C. XVI.] OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
275
66
"proportion. If we always recur to the same per-
"son in every trying occasion, we shall soon have
"no other person to employ. Why were we so
"much at a loss for experienced commanders, when
"Sertorius appeared to threaten Italy with an inva-
"sion? Because command, for a considerable time
"before that period, had been engrossed by a few,
"and those few alone had any experience. Al-
"though, therefore, I have the highest opinion of
Pompey's abilities and qualification for this ser-
"vice, I must prefer to his pretensions the public
“utility, and the express declaration of the laws.
"You annually elect Consuls and Prætors: to what
purpose? to serve the state? or to carry for a few
"months the ensigns of power? If to serve the state,
why name private persons with unprecedented
"commissions, to perform what your magistrates
are either fit to perform, or are not fit to have
"been elected?
66
66
<6
"If there be any uncommon emergency, that re-
"quires more than the ordinary exertions of govern-
"ment, the constitution has provided an expedient.
"You may name a Dictator. The power of this
"officer has no bounds, but in respect to the place
"in which it is to be exercised, and to the time du-
CC
ring which it is to last. It is to be exercised with-
"in the limits of Italy, where alone the vitals of the
"state can be exposed to any great or pressing at-
"tack; it is limited to six months, a sufficient pe-
"riod in which to remove the cause of any sudden
"alarm. But this unlimited power, which is now
"proposed for so long a time, and over the whole
s 2
276
[c. XVI.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
empire, must end in calamities, such as this and
"other nations have suffered from the ambition and
"usurpation of arbitrary and presumptuous men.
"If you bestow unlimited power by sea and by
"land on a single man, in what manner is he to ex-
"ercise his power? Not by himself in person, for
" he cannot be every where present; he must have
"lieutenants or substitutes who act under his orders.
"He cannot even attend to what is passing at once
"in Egypt and in Spain, in Africa, in Syria, and in
"Greece. If so, then why may not those who are
"to act be officers named by you, and not by any
"intermediate person; accountable to you,
and not
"to another; and in the dangers they run, anima-
"ted with the prospect of honour to themselves, not
"to a person who is unnecessarily interposed be-
"tween them and their country? Gabinius proposes
"to invest this officer with authority to name many
"lieutenants; I pray you to consider, whether these
"officers should depend upon any intermediate per-
66 son, or upon yourselves alone? and whether there
"be sufficient cause to suspend all the legal powers,
"and to supersede all the magistrates in the còm-
"monwealth, and all the governors of provinces in
every part of your empire, in order to make war
" on pirates ?"
66
So much of what Catulus is supposed to have de-
livered on this occasion, is preserved among the
Fragments of Dion. Cassius *. It is mentioned by
others, that the audience expressed their good-will
* For these speeches, see Fragments of Dio. Cassius, lib. xxxvi.
c. XVI.]
277
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
66
CC
and respect for this Senator in a compliment, which
they paid to him, probably near the close of his
speech, when urging some of his former arguments,
he asked, "If this man, to whom alone, by thus
employing him in every service, you give an op-
portunity of acquiring the skill and habits of a
"statesman or soldier, should fall, to whom will you
"next have recourse ?" The people answered, with
a general acclamation, To yourself*. They revered,
for a moment, the candour and ability of this emi-
nent citizen, but could not withstand the arts of
Pompey, and the tide of popularity which then ran
so high in his favour.
This day being far spent in debate, another day
was appointed in which to collect the votes, when a
decree passed to vest Pompey with the supreme com-
mand over all the fleets and armies of the republic,
in every sea without distinction or limit, and on
every coast within four hundred stadia, or fifty miles
of the shore. This commission took place in Italy,
and extended throughout every province, during
three years from the time of the act being passed.
As Pompey owed these extraordinary powers to
the Tribune Gabinius, he intended to have employ-
ed him next in command to himself; but the law
which excluded the Tribunes from succeeding to
any public employment in the first year after the ex-
piration of their office, stood in the way of this
choice; and Pompey did not persist in it.
Cicer. pro Lege Manilia.
+
278
[c. XVI.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
Upon the publication of an edict investing an of-
ficer of so much renown with such mighty powers
for restoring the navigation of the seas, corn, and
every other article of importation at Rome, consider-
ably fell in their price. The friends of Pompey al-
ready triumphed in the success of their measure,
and he himself soon after, notwithstanding the mean-
ness of the enemy opposed to him, gained much cre-
dit, by the rapid, decisive and effectual measures he
took to obtain the end of his appointment. Al-
though it was the middle of winter, a season too
rough, even in the Mediterranean, for such shipping
as was then in use, he gave orders to arm and put to
sea as many vessels as could be collected or fitted
out in every maritime station. In a little time he
had returns of two hundred and seventy galleys fit
for service, one hundred and twenty thousand foot,
and four thousand horse embodied within the limits
to which his commission extended. That the pi-
rates might be every where attacked at once, and
find no refuge by changing their usual places of re-
treat, he divided the coasts of the empire into sepa-
rate districts, appointed lieutenants with full powers
in each, assigned their stations, and allotted their
quotas of shipping and troops. He himself, with a
squadron of sixty ships, proposed to inspect the
whole, or to give his presence where it should be re-
quired. He began with visiting the ports of Spain
and Gaul, and the seas of Sardinia and Corsica; and
in passing from thence, he himself went on shore,
and travelled by land, while his squadron, coasting
round the peninsula of Italy, had orders to join him
c. XVI.]
279
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
at Brundisium. In this journey, upon his approach
to Rome, he enjoyed, in all respects, the state of a
great monarch, was received with acclamations by
the people, and was courted by multitudes of every
condition who went forth to receive him. All his
complaints and representations were received as
commands. The Consul Piso, being supposed not
to forward his levies with sufficient alacrity, would
have been degraded, if Pompey himself had not in-
terposed to prevent a motion which the Tribune Ga-
binius intended to make for this purpose.
The fleet being arrrived at Brundisium, Pompey
hastened to re-embark, and from thence passed by
the stations of his several lieutenants in the sea-
ports of Macedonia and Greece, to those of Pam-
phylia and Cilicia, which were the principal resort
of the pirates. Such of these banditti as he captured
in his way were treated with mildness; and this cir-
cumstance, together with the great preparations
which were reported from every quarter to be ma-
king against them, with the small hopes they had of
being able to escape, induced them, in great num-
bers, to surrender themselves. In the bay of Cili-
cia he found a squadron of their ships assembled,
and ready to cover the harbours at which they had
been accustomed to collect their naval stores, and
to lodge their booty. They separated, however, up-
on his appearance, took refuge in different creeks of
that mountainous shore, and afterwards surrendered
at discretion, delivering up all the forts they had
erected, with all their stores of timber, cordage,
280
[c. XVI.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
and sails, of which they had made a considerable
provision.
By these means the war was finished about the
middle of summer, six months after the nomination
of Pompey to this command. In that time seventy-
two galleys were sunk, three hundred and six were
taken, and a hundred and twenty piratical harbours
or strongholds on shore were destroyed. Ten thou-
sand of the pirates were killed in action, and twen-
ty thousand, who had surrendered themselves, re-
mained prisoners at the end of the war. These Pom-
pey, having sufficiently deprived of the means of re-
turning to their former way of life, transplanted to
different parts of the continent, where the late or
present troubles, by thinning the inhabitants, had
made room for their settlement. Upon this occa-
sion he repeopled the city of Soli in Cilicia, which
had been lately laid waste, and forcibly emptied of
its inhabitants by Tigranes, to replenish his newly
established capital of Tigranocerta in Armenia. Af-
ter this re-establishment of Soli, the place, in honour
of its restorer, came to be known by the name of
Pompeiopolis *.
Whilst this successful commissioner was thus em-
ployed in disposing of the pirates on the coast of
Cilicia, he received a message from Lappa in the
island of Crete, then besieged by Metellus, intima-
ting, that the people of this place, although they held
out against Metellus, were willing to surrender to
Pompey. This sort of preference implying estima-
* Dion. Cassius, lib. xxxvi, c. 20.
C. XVI.]
281
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
tion and popular regard, was one of the temptations
which Pompey was supposed unable to resist; he
accordingly, without consulting with Metellus, sent
an officer to receive the surrender of Lappa.
Metellus had commanded about two years in
Crete, had almost reduced the island, and had a near
prospect of that triumph, which he afterwards, with
the title of Creticus, actually obtained, on account
of this conquest. Pompey's commission, as com-
mander in chief of all the sea and land forces of
Rome within fifty miles of the coast, no doubt ex-
tended to Lappa; but it was justly reckoned invi-
dious to interfere in the province of a Proconsul,
whose appointment preceded his own. And this
step revived all the former imputations against him,
that he considered himself as every one's superior,
strove to suppress every growing fame, and threw
his personal consideration as a bar in the way of
every rising merit. Metellus, stung with resent-
ment, and trusting to the support of the Senate, ven-
tured to contemn his orders; even after Octavius,
who had been sent by Pompey to take the inhabi-
tants of Lappa under his protection, had entered
the town, and in his name commanded Metellus to
desist from the attack of a place already in posses-
sion of the Romans. He nevertheless continued the
siege, forced the town to surrender, and threatening
to treat Octavius himself as a rebel, obliged him to
be gone from the island.
from the island. The Senate, without other-
wise deciding the controversy which was likely to
arise on this subject, afterwards acknowledged Me-
282
[c. XVI.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
tellus as the conqueror of Crete, and decreed him a
triumph in that capacity.*.
The dispute, however, at this time, might have
led to disagreeable consequences, if Pompey, while
he was preparing to pass into Crete against Metellus,
had not found another object of more importance to
his plan of greatness t. Lucullus had always ap-
peared to him a rival in power and consideration
more formidable than Metellus, and the war in Pon-
tus and Armenia likely to furnish a more ample
field of glory than the destruction of pirates.
Mithridates, though once nearly vanquished, was,
by means of the distractions which, communicating
from the popular factions at Rome, had infected the
army of Lucullus, enabled to renew the war with
fresh vigour. Knowing that the Roman general was
no longer obeyed, he not only obtained possession,
as has been mentioned, of his own kingdom, but,
together with Tigranes, began to act on the offen-
sive, and made excursions even into Cilicia. Aci-
lius Glabrio, the Proconsul appointed to succeed in
the command of the Roman army, hearing the bad
state of affairs in Pontus, stopped short in Bithynia,
and even refused to furnish Lucullus with the rein-
forcements he had brought from Italy. In these
circumstances, the province of Asia, likely to be-
come a principal source of revenue to the common-
wealth, was in imminent danger of being wrested
from their hands; and the friends of Pompey seized
* Liv. Epit. Plutarch. in Pompeio. Dion. Cass. lib. xxxv.
+ Dion. Cass, lib. xxxvi, c. 28.
c. XVI.]
283
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
this opportunity to propose a farther enlargement of
his powers. Manilius, one of the Tribunes, in con-
cert with Gabinius, moved the people to extend his
commission to the provinces of Phrygia, Bithynia,
Cappadocia, and Pontus; and of course to commit
the war in Armenia and Pontus to his direction.
This motion was strenuously opposed by Catulus,
Hortensius, and all the principal members of the Se-
nate. It was supported by Marcus Tullius Cicero,
and by Caius Julius Cæsar, who both intended, on
this occasion, to court the popular party, by espou-
sing the cause of a person so much in favour with the
people.
Cicero was one of the first of the Romans who
rested his consideration entirely on civil accomplish-
ments, and who became great by the services he was
qualified to render his friends in a civil capacity,
without any pretensions to the merit of a soldier.
The character of a pleader was become one of the
most powerful recommendations to public notice,
and one of the surest roads to consequence and civil
preferment. Cicero, with a fine genius and great
application, was supposed to excel all who had gone
before him in this line of pursuit. His talents were
powerful instruments in his own hands; they ren-
dered him necessary to others, and procured him
the courtship of every party in its turn. He was un-
derstood to favour the aristocracy, and was inclined
to support the Senate, as the great bulwark of the
state, against the licence of the populace, and the
violence of factious leaders. But being now Prætor,
with a near prospect of the Consulate, he sacrificed
28+
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
[c. XVI.
much to his ambition in the pursuit of preferments,
which were new in his family, and which the ancient
nobility were disposed to envy. His speech, upon
the motion of Manilius, was the first he had ever
made in a political character: it is still extant, and
does more honour to his talents as a pleader, than to
his steadiness in support of the constitution and go-
vernment of his country *. He turned aside, by art-
ful evasions, the wise counsels of Hortensius and Ca-
tulus; and, under pretence of setting forth the me-
rits of Pompey, and of stating precedents in his fa-
your, dazzled his audience, by enumerating the ir-
regular honours which they themselves had already
conferred on this object of their favour.
With such able advocates, in a cause to which the
people were already so well disposed, the interest of
Pompey could not miscarry; and an addition was
accordingly made to his former commission, by which
he became in reality sovereign of the fairest part of
the empire. Upon the arrival of this news in Cilicia,
where he then was, he affected surprise and displea-
sure. "Are my enemies," he said, "never to give
"me any respite from war and trouble?" He had
talents, undoubtedly, sufficient to support him in the
use of means less indirect; but a disposition to ar
tifice, like every other ruling passion, will stifle the
plainest suggestions of reason, and seems to have
made him forget on the present occasion, that his
own attendants at least had common penetration.
They turned away from the farce which he acted
* Cicer. Orat. pro lege Manilia.
C. XVI.]
285
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
with shame and disgust; and he himself made no
delay in showing the avidity with which he received
what he thus affected to dislike; laid aside all thoughts
of other business; immediately dispatched his orders
to all the provinces that were now subjected to his
power; and, without passing his mandates through
the hands of Lucullus, summoned Mithridates, then
with an army of between thirty and forty thousand
men on the frontier of Pontus, to surrender himself at
discretion. This prince, being then in treaty with
Phraates, who had lately succeeded his father Arsa-
ces in the kingdom of Parthia, and being in expec-
tation of a powerful support from that quarter, re-
fused to listen to this imperious message; and being
disappointed in his hopes of assistance from the Par-
thians, and finding that Phraates had joined in a
league with his enemies, he endeavoured to pacify
the Roman general; and finding that his advances
for this purpose had no effect, he prepared for a vi-
gorous resistance.
Pompey set out for Pontus, and in his way had an
interview with Lucullus, who was then in Galatia.
They accosted each other at first with laboured ex-
pressions of respect and of compliment on their re-
spective services, but ended with disputes and sharp
altercations. Pompey accused Lucullus of precipi-
tation, in stating the kingdom of Pontus as a Ro-
man province, while the king himself was alive and
at liberty. Lucullus suspected that the late mutiny
had been fomented by the emissaries of Pompey, to
* Plutarch. in Pompeio.
286
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
[c. XVI.
make way for his own succession to the command.
He persisted in maintaining the propriety of the re-
port which he had made to the Senate, in which
he had represented the kingdom of Pontus as con-
quered, and in which he had desired that commis-
sioners should be sent as usual to secure the posses-
sion; observed that no province could be kept, if
the troops stationed to preserve it refused to obey
their general; that if such disorders were made the
engine of politics in the competition of candidates
for office, the republic had worse consequences to
fear than the loss of any distant province; that al-
though the fugitive king had taken advantage of the
factions at Rome and in the army, to put himself
again at the head of some forces, he had not reco-
vered any considerable portion of his kingdom, nor
at the arrival of the commissioners of the Senate,
been able to disturb them in settling the province;
that there was then nothing left for a successor, but
the invidious task of snatching at the glory which
had been won by another.
From this conference Pompey entered on the com-
mand with many indications of animosity to Lucul-
lus; he suspended the execution of his orders ;
changed the plan of his operations; remitted the pu-
nishments, and recalled the rewards he had decreed
to particular persons, and in a manner which seem-
ed to justify the suspicion of his having encouraged
the late disorders, suffered them to pass with impu-
nity; and treated with the usual confidence even the
legions which had refused to obey the orders of their
general. His own authority, in the outset, seemed
c. xvI.]
287
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
to be secured by the animosity of the army to their
late commander, and by their desire to contrast their
own conduct, and the success of the war under their
present leader, with that which had taken place un-
der his predecessor. Finding himself, therefore, at
the head of numerous and well-affected forces, both
by sea and by land, he covered the coasts of the
Ægean and Euxine Seas with his galleys, and, at the
head of a great army, advanced in search of the
enemy.
Mithridates, upon the approach of Pompey, con-
tinued retiring before him towards the Lesser Ar-
menia, laid waste the country through which the
Roman army was to pass, endeavouring to distress
them by the want of provisions and forage.
For several days successively, the armies encamp-
ed in sight of each other. Mithridates took his posts
in such a manner, that he could not be safely attack-
ed; and as his object was to pass the Euphrates with-
out being forced to a battle, he generally decamped
in the night, and by his superior knowledge of the
country, passed through ways in which the Roman
army could not hastily follow without manifest dan-
ger of surprise. Pompey, sensible that, upon this
plan of operation, the king of Pontus must effect his
retreat, took a resolution to pass him by a forced
march, not in the night, but in the heat of the day,
when the troops of Asia were most inclined to re-
pose. If he should succeed in this design, and get
between their army and the Euphrates, he hoped to
force them to a battle, or oblige them to change
their route. Accordingly, on the day he had cho-
288
[c. XVI.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
1
sen for this attempt, he doubled his march, passed
the enemies camp at noon-day unobserved, and was
actually posted on their route, when they began to
decamp, as usual, on the following night. In the
encounter which followed, having all the disadvan-
tages of a surprise, and in the dark, against an army
on its march, and little accustomed to order, he
gained a decisive victory, in which he cut off or dis-
persed all the forces on which the king of Pontus
had relied for the defence of his kingdom
Mithridates escaped with a few attendants; and,
in this extremity, proposed to throw himself again
into the arms of Tigranes; but was refused by this
prince, who was himself then attacked by a rebellion
of his own son. Upon this disappointment he fled
to the northward, passing by the sources of the Eu-
phrates to the kingdom of Colchis, and from thence,
by the eastern coasts of the Euxine, to the Scythian
Bosphorus, now the Straits of Cossa, in order to take
refuge in the Chersonesus, or Crim Tartary, at Pan-
ticapæa, the capital of a kingdom which he himself
had acquired, and which he had bestowed on Ma-
chares, one of his sons. Upon his presenting him-
self at this place, he found that Machares had long
since abandoned his father's fortunes; and, upon
hearing of the ill state of his affairs on his first flight
from Lucullus into Armenia, had sent, as an offering
of peace, a golden crown to that general, and sued
for the protection of the Romans. The father, high-
ly provoked with this act of pusillanimity or trea-
* Dio. Cass. lib. xxxvi, c. 32.
C. XVI.]
289
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
chery, assembled a force among his Scythian allies,
and, deaf to all offers of submission or entreaties of
this undutiful son, dragged him from the throne,
and either ordered him to be put to death, or made
his situation so painful, that he thought proper to
put an end to his own life.
In this manner Mithridates entered anew on the
possession of a kingdom, in which he had not only
a safe retreat, but likewise the means of executing
new projects of war against his enemies. By the
maxims of the Romans, which Pompey himself had
urged in his late dispute with Lucullus, no kingdom
was supposed to be conquered, till the king was ei-
ther killed, taken, or forced to surrender; and the
Roman general, by this flight of the king of Pontus,
found himself under a necessity either of pursuing
him into his present retreat, or of doing what he him-
self had blamed in his predecessor, by making his re-
port of a conquest before it was fully accomplished.
While he was deliberating on the measures to be
taken in these circumstances, he was invited by the
younger Tigranes, son to the king of Armenia, then
in rebellion against his father, to enter with his ar-
my into that kingdom, and to give judgment on the
differences subsisting between the father and the
son.
In consequence of this invitation, Pompey march-
ed into Armenia, joined the rebel prince, and, un-
der pretence of supporting the son, was about to
strip the father of his kingdom, when this monarch,
as usual, with a meanness proportioned to the pre-
sumption with which he had enjoyed his prosperity,
VOL. II.
T
290
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
[c. XVI.
now resolved to cast himself entirely upon the vic-
tor's mercy. For this purpose he desired to be ad-
mitted into Pompey's presence, and, with a few at-
tendants, presented himself for this purpose. Being
told, at the entrance of the camp, that no stranger
could pass on horseback, he dismounted, and was
conducted on foot to the general's presence. In en-
tering the tent, he uncovered his head, and having
the diadem in his hand, offered to lay it on the ground
at Pompey's feet; but was told with great courtesy
that he might resume it; that, by submitting him-
self to the generosity of the Romans, he had not lost
a kingdom, but gained a faithful ally *. At the
same time, under pretence of reimbursing the ex-
pense of the war, a sum of six thousand talents, or
about one million one hundred and twenty-eight
thousand pounds sterling, was exacted from him;
and he himself, to this great sum which was paid to
the state, added a gratuity to the army, of a talent †
to each of the Tribunes, ten minæ ‡ to each of the
Centurions, and half a mina § to each private man.
Pompey, in disposing of the two Armenias, which
were now in his power, allotted Sophene or the Les-
ser Armenia, on the right of the Euphrates, to Ti-
granes the son, reserving Syria and Phoenicia, to
which Antiochus, the last representative of the Ma-
cedonian line, had been restored by Lucullus, to-
gether with Cilicia and Galatia, to the disposal of
the Romans.
* Dio. Cass. lib. xxxvi, c. 35. Plutarch. in Pompeio. + L.93, 15s.
L.32: 5 10. § L.1: 12:31. Vid. Arbuthnot on Ancient Coins.
C. XVI.]
291
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
Tigranes the father, with great submission, acquies-
ced in this partition; but the son, who probably ex-
pected to have been put in possession of the whole
of his father's kingdom, was greatly discontented,
and, while Pompey was yet in Armenia, entered in-
to a correspondence with the king of Parthia, and
solicited his assistance to overturn the settlement
which was now made. On account of these practices,
whether real or supposed, this undutiful son of Ti-
granes was taken into custody, carried into Italy,
and made a part in the ornaments of the victor's
triumph *.
The Roman general, having in this manner dis-
posed of the kingdom of Armenia, or retained it still
farther at the disposal of the Romans, by the con-
finement of the rebel prince, resumed the thoughts
of pursuing Mithridates into his present retreat. For
this purpose he left Afranius in Armenia, with a force
sufficient to secure his rear, and to prevent any dis-
turbance on this side of the Euphrates. He himself
passed the Araxes, and wintered on the Cyrus, or
the Cyrnus, on the confines of Albania and Iberia.
In the following summer, having defeated the na-
tives of those countries in repeated encounters, he
advanced to the mouth of the Phasis, where he
was joined by his fleet, then plying in the Euxine
sea, under the command of Servilius. Here he ap-
pears to have deliberated, whether he should attempt
to pursue Mithridates any farther; but upon consi-
dering the difficulties of the voyage, and of the march
* Plutarch. in Pompeio, ad p. 458.
T 2
292 THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION [c. XVI.
along a coast and a country entirely unknown, un-
furnished with any safe harbour for his ships, or even
with any means of subsistence to his army by land,
he took his resolution to return, and to avail him-
self, in the best manner he was able, of the domi-
nions which had been abandoned to him by the flight
of their king *. With this resolution he directed
his march, by the coast, back into the kingdom of
Pontus; and, finding no resistance, took all his mea-
sures as in a conquered province. At one place he
found a considerable treasure, which was disclosed
to him by Stratonicé, one of the concubines of the
king, by whom she had a son named Xiphares. This
woman made the discovery on condition that, if her
son were taken by the Romans, his life should be
spared. But this unhappy son was exposed to other
dangers besides those now apprehended by the mo-
ther. Mithridates, upon hearing of the price which
was paid for the life of Xiphares, ordered him to be
slain. "That woman," he said, "should have like-
"wise bargained with me in favour of her son." At
other places the Roman army found the vestiges of
great magnificence, joined to monuments of super-
stition and of cruelty. They found some productions
of an art, in which the king was supposed to be mas-
ter, relating to the composition of poisons, and of
their antidotes, and some records of dreams, toge-
ther with the interpretations †, which had been given
by his women.
* Dio. Cass. lib. xxxvii, c. 3.
+
Plutarch. in Pompeio. Appian. in Mithridat.
Plutarch. in Pomp. p. 462.
C. XVI.]
293
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
From Pontus, Pompey having made a proper dis-
position of the fleet in the Euxine, to defend the
coast against attempts of invasion from Mithridates,
whose forces were still formidable on the Bosphorus
and the opposite shores, set out for the kingdom of
Syria, which he now determined to seize in behalf
of the Romans. Lucullus had already, agreeably to
the policy of his country, or under pretence of set-
ting the Syrians free, separated their kingdom from
the other possessions of Tigranes: but the pretence
upon which he acted in this matter being sufficient
to prevent his seizing upon Syria as a Roman pro-
vince, he was content, in the meantime, with re-
storing it to Antiochus, the last pretender of the
Macedonian line, who had lived eighteen years in
the greatest obscurity in Cilicia. But Pompey now
proposed to complete the transaction, by seizing for
the Romans themselves, what the other affected on-
ly to restore to the lawful owner *; and this owner
now pleaded in vain against the sentence of Pompey
that right of descent from the Macedonian line,
which Lucullus had employed to supplant Tigra-
nes t.
On the march into Syria, the Roman general,
either in person or by his lieutenants, received the
submission of all the principalities or districts in his
way, and made the following arrangements. The
Lesser Armenia, once intended for the younger Ti-
granes, he gave to Dejotarus, king of Galatia ‡, who
*Justin. lib. xl, c. 1, et 2.
† Appian. in Mithridat. p. 244•
Eutropius, lib, vi.
294
[c. XVI.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
remained on the frontier of the empire a faithful de-
pendent, and whose possessions served as a barrier
against hostile invasions from that quarter. Paphla-
gonia was given to Attalus and Pylæmenus, who
were liberal tributaries to the Roman officers, and
vigilant guards on the frontiers of the empire. Upon
his arrival at Damascus, he had many applications
from the late subjects or dependents of the Syrian
monarchy; among others, from Hyrcanus and Ari-
stobulus, two brothers contending for the sovereign-
ty of Judea, who now repaired to his tribunal for
judgment, and requested the interposition of his
power in behalf of the party he should be pleased to
favour.
Of these rivals, who were the sons of Alexander,
late high-priest of the Jews, Hyrcanus the elder had
succeeded to his mother Alexandra, whom the fa-
ther had left his immediate successor in the king-
dom; but was dispossessed by his younger brother
Aristobulus, who, being of a more active spirit, had
formed a powerful faction against him among the
people.
Hyrcanus took refuge among the Arabs, and pre-
vailed upon Aretas, the chieftain of some powerful
tribe of that people, to assist him in recovering the
sovereignty of his country. In conjunction with
this ally, Hyrcanus accordingly laid siege to Jeru-
salem, but was disappointed of his object by Scaurus,
one of Pompey's lieutenants, who being then in Syria,
interposed at the request of Aristobulus, from whom
he received a present of three hundred talents *, and
About L. 57,900.
c. xvI.]
295
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
obliged the Arabs to desist from their enterprise.
Upon the arrival of Gabinius, whom Pompey had
sent before him into Syria, Aristobulus thought pro-
per to make him likewise a present of fifty talents,
and by these means remained in possession of Jeru-
salem at the arrival of Pompey.
It is alleged that each of the contending parties
made their presents also to the Proconsul himself;
Hyrcanus in particular, that of a beautiful piece of
plate, admired for its workmanship and weight, be-
ing the model of a spreading vine, with its leaves
and fruit in massy gold *; and such presents merit
attention, as they furnish some instances of the man-
ner in which great riches, now in so much request
at Rome, were amassed by Roman officers in the
course of their services. Besides what they obtain-
ed in this manner, it is likely that every conquest
they effected, every revolution they brought about,
and every protection they granted, was extremely
profitable.
Pompey, on hearing the merits of the question
between the two brothers, notwithstanding what
his lieutenants had done for Aristobulus, declared
for Hyrcanus, and advanced towards the city of Je-
rusalem to execute the decree he had passed. Up-
on his approach he was again met by Aristobulus,
who made fresh offers of submission, and of a public
contribution in money; and Gabinius was detached
to take possession of the city, in terms of this sub-
mission. But upon a report that the friends of Ari-
Joseph. Antiq. lib, xiv, c. 2.
296 THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
[c. XVI,
stobulus, though himself still in the hands of Pom-
pey, refused to admit the Roman detachment, this
prince was put in arrest, and the whole army advan-
ced to the walls.
The citizens being divided, those who espoused
the cause of Hyrcanus prepared to open the gates of
the city, while the others, who were attached to Ari-
stobulus, retired into the temple, and broke down
the bridge by which this edifice was joined to the
streets, and made every other preparation in that re-
treat to defend themselves to the last extremity.
The Romans, upon the arrival of Pompey, being
joined by the friends of Hyrcanus, took possession
of all the principal stations within the walls, and
prepared to attack the temple, into which their an-
tagonists had retired. This building had all the ad-
vantages of a citadel or fortress, built on a height,
surrounded with natural precipices, or with a deep
ditch overhung with lofty battlements and towers.
To reduce it, Pompey sent for battering engines to
Tyre, and cut down all the woods in the neighbour-
hood to furnish materials for the works he was about
to erect. All his attempts being, with great obsti-
nacy, resisted by those who had taken refuge in the
Temple; he observed, in the course of his opera-
tions, that the people within, although they at all
times defended their own persons, when attacked,
yet on the Sabbath-day they did no work, either in
repairing any of their own defences, in obstructing
or attempting to demolish what the besiegers were
erecting. He accordingly took advantage of this
circumstance, made no assaults on that day, but con-
c. XVI.]
297
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
tinued his labour in filling up the ditch, and erected
such works as were required to cover his approach.
In this manner his towers, without interruption,
were raised to the level of the battlements, and his
engines playing from thence, made great havock
among the besieged. These devotees, however,
animated with zeal in defence of their Temple, even
under the discharge of the enemy's missiles, still
continued at the altar to perform their usual rites ;
and took so little precaution against the dangers to
which they were exposed, that numbers perished in
offering up the sacrifices, and mingled their blood
with that of the victims.
In the third month after the siege began, one of
the towers of the Temple was brought in ruin to
the ground; and Faustus, the son of Sylla, with
two Centurions at the head of the divisions they
commanded, entered the breach; and putting all
whom they met to the sword, made way for more
numerous parties to follow them, and covered the
avenues and porches of the Temple with the slain.
The priests, who were even then employed in the
sacrifices, waited for the enemy with the utmost
composure, and, without discontinuing their duties,
were slain at the altars. Numbers of the people
threw themselves from the precipices; and others,
setting fire to the booths in which they had lodged
under the walls of the Temple, were consumed in
the flames. About twelve or thirteen thousand
perished on this occasion, without any proportional
loss to the besiegers, or to those who conducted the
storm.
298
[c. xvI.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
Pompey, being master of the Temple, and struck
with the obstinate valour with which it had been de-
fended, had much curiosity to visit the interior re-
cess, for the sake of which he was told that so much
blood had been shed, and all his efforts withstood
with so much desperation. This place, into which
no one was ever admitted, besides the high-priest, he
supposed to contain the sacred emblems of that
power who inspired his votaries with so ardent and
so unconquerable a zeal. And he ventured, to the
equal consternation and horror of his own party
among the Jews, as of those who opposed him, to
enter with his usual attendants into the Holy of
Holies. He found it adorned with lamps, candle-
sticks, cups, vessels of incense, with their supports,
all of solid gold, containing a mass of the richest
perfumes, and a sacred treasure of two thousand ta-
lents *.
#
Having satisfied his curiosity, it is mentioned that
he respected the religion of the place so much as to
have left every part of this treasure untouched, and
to have given directions that the Temple itself should
be purified, in order to expiate the profanation of
which he himself had been guilty. He restored
Hyrcanus to the priesthood or sovereignty of Judea,
but charged him with a considerable tribute to
the Romans, and at the same time stripped the na-
tion of all those possessions or dependencies in Pa-
lestine and Celesyria, which had been acquired or
held in subjection by their ancestors.
Such were
* About L. 586,000.
c. XVI.]
299
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
Gadara, Scythopolis, Hyppus, Pella, Samaria, Maris-
sa, Azotus, Jamana, Arethusa, Gaza, Joppa, and
Dora, with what was then called Strato's Tower,
and afterwards Cæsarea. Under pretence of resto-
ring these several places to their liberties, they were
released from their subjection to the Jews, but in
reality annexed to the Roman province of Syria *.
Pompey, now recollecting that he had formerly
carried his arms to the shores of the Atlantic, and
to the boundaries of Numidia and of Spain; that he
had recently penetrated to the coast of the Euxine,
and to the neighbourhood of the Caspian Sea; in
order that he might not leave any part of the known
world unexplored by his arms, now formed a pro-
ject to finish this round of exploits, by visiting the
shores of the Asiatic or Eastern Ocean,-a circum-
stance which was to complete the glory of his ap-
proaching triumph, and raise him, as his flatterers
were pleased to observe, to a rank above every con-
queror of the present or any preceding age t.
But while the Roman Proconsul was employed in
the settlement of Syria, in the reduction of Jerusa-
lem, and meditating these farther conquests, Mithri-
dates was busy in making preparations to renew the
war. Having heard of the extremities to which the
citizens of Rome had been frequently reduced by
invasions from Gaul and Africa, and by the insur-
rections of their own subjects and slaves, he conclu-
ded that they were weakest at home, or might be
* Joseph. de Bell. Jud. lib. 1, et vii, et Ant. lib. xiv, c. 6.
+ Plutarch. in Pomp. p. 463.
300
[c. XVI,
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
attacked with the greatest advantage in Italy. He
again, therefore, resumed the project of marching an
army of Scythians by the Danube and the Alps.
He visited all the princes in his neighbourhood,
made alliances with many, which he confirmed by
giving to some of them his daughters in marriage,
and persuaded them, by the hopes of a plentiful
spoil, to join with him in the project of invading
Europe. He even dispatched his agents into Gaul,
to secure the co-operation of nations on that side of
the world, and trusted that, on his appearance in
Italy, many of the discontented inhabitants would
become of his party, in the same manner as they had
declared for Hannibal; and that the slaves so lately
at open war with their masters would likewise be a
plentiful supply of recruits to his army.
These projects, however, appeared to his own na-
tion too hazardous and vast. They were suited to
the state of a king who wished to perish with splen-
dour, but not to that of subjects and followers who
had humbler hopes, and who chose to be governed
by more reasonable prospects of fortune. The king
himself, while he meditated such extensive designs,
being confined by an ulcer in his face, had been for
a considerable time concealed from public view, and
had not admitted any person to his presence besides
some favourite eunuchs. The minds of his subjects,
and of his own family in particular, were much alie-
nated from him by the late acts of barbarous severi-
ty against Machares and Xiphares, two of his own
children, who, with some others, as we have men-
tioned, had incurred his resentment.
c. XVI.]
301
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
Pharnaces, another son, still attended the father;
and, though disposed to betray him, was much in
his confidence. The people of Phanagoria, a town on
the shore of the Bosphorus, opposite to the fortress
at which the king now resided, together with the
inhabitants of the country, pretending a variety of
provocations, revolted, and the army, during his
confinement, losing the usual awe of his person, mu-
tinied, and acknowledged Pharnaces for king. They
assembled round the fortress in which Mithridates
was lodged, and which he had garrisoned with a cho-
sen body of men. When he appeared on the bat-
tlements, and desired to know their demands: "To
"exchange you," they said, "for Pharnaces, an old
(6
king for a young one." Even while he received
this answer, and while many of his guards deserted
him, he still hoped that, if he were at liberty, he
might retrieve his affairs. He desired, therefore, by
repeated messages, to know whether he might have
leave to depart in safety? But none of the messen-
gers he sent with this question being suffered to re-
turn, he apprehended that there was a design to de-
liver him up into the hands of the Romans. Under
this apprehension he had recourse to his last resort,
a dose of poison, which, it is said, he always carried
for use in the scabbard of his sword. Being to ap-
ply this sovereign remedy for all his evils, he dis-
missed, with expressions of kindness and gratitude,
such of his attendants as still continued faithful to
him; and being left with two of his daughters, who
earnestly desired to die with their father, he allow-
ed them to share in the draught he had prepared,
502
[c. XVI.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
and saw them expire. But the portion which re-
mained for himself not being likely to overcome the
vigour of his constitution, or, as was believed in
those credulous times, being too powerfully coun-
teracted by the effect of so many antidotes as he
had taken against poison, he ordered a faithful slave
who attended him, to perform with his sword what
was in those times accounted the highest proof, as
it was the last act, of fidelity in a servant to his mas-
ter.
Accounts of this event were brought to Pompey,
while his army was encamped at the distance of some
days' march from the capital of Judea, in his way to
Arabia. The messengers appeared carrying wreaths
of laurel on the points of their spears; and the army,
crowding around their general to learn the tidings,
were informed of the death of Mithridates. This
they received with acclamations, and immediately
proceeded to make all the ordinary demonstrations
of joy. Pompey himself, having now accomplished
the principal object of the war, dropped his design on
Arabia, and directed the march of his army towards
Pontus. Here he received the submission of Phar-
naces, and, with many other gifts, was presented
with the embalmed corpse of the king. The whole
army crowded to see it, examined the features and
the scars, testifying by these last effects of their cu-
riosity, the respect which they entertained for this
extraordinary man. He had, with short intervals,
occupied the arms of the Romans during forty years;
and, though he could not bring the natives of Asia
to match the legions of Rome, yet he frequently, by
c. XVI.]
303
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
the superiority of his own genius, being firm in dis-
tress, rose from misfortune with new and unexpect-
ed resources. He was tall, and of a vigorous con-
stitution, addicted to women, and, though superior
to every other sort of seduction, to this his ardent
and impetuous spirit made him a frequent, and an
easy prey. He appears to have loved and trusted
many of that sex with a boundless passion. By some
of them he was followed in the field; others he dis-
tributed in his different palaces; had many children,
and although, even towards his own sons, as well as
towards every one else, on occasions which alarmed
the jealousy of his crown, he was sanguinary and in-
exorable, yet in general he appears to have enter-
tained more parental affection than commonly at-
tends the polygamy of Asiatic princes.
Pompey proceeded to settle the remainder of his
conquests; and, besides the arrangements already
mentioned, annexed the kingdom of Pontus to the
province of Bithynia, gave the Bosphorus to Phar-
naces, and put the province of Syria, extending to
the frontier of Egypt, under the government of
Scaurus. He had now, from the time of his appoint-
ment to succeed Lucullus, for about three years, had
the sole direction of the affairs of the Romans in
Asia*; and had exchanged with the king of Par-
thia provoking messages, which, in a different con-
juncture, might have led to immediate hostilities.
But the circumstances were not yet ripe for such a
measure, and Pompey had provided sufficient mate-
* Dion. Cass. lib. xxxvii, c. 6.
304
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION [c. xvi.
rials for a triumph, without attempting to break
through those boundaries on which so many Roman
generals were doomed to disappointment, and on
which the progress of the empire itself was destined
to stop.
Without entertaining any farther projects for the
present, he set out with two legions on the route of
Cilicia towards Europe, having Tigranes, son to the
king of Armenia, together with Aristobulus, late
usurper of the Jewish throne, with his family, two
sons and two daughters, as captives to adorn his tri-
umph *.
*Joseph. de Bell. Jud. lib. i, c. 7.
*
C. XVII.]
305
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
CHAP. XVII.
Growing corruption of the Roman officers of state.—The love
of consideration changed for avarice, rapacity, and prodi-
gality.-Laws against extortion.- Cataline, a candidate for
the consulship.-Conspiracy with Autronius.—Competition
for the consulate.—Election of Cicero and Antonius.-Con-
dition of the times.-Agrarian law of Rullus.-Trial of Ra-
birius.-Cabals of the Tribunes.-Of Cataline.-His flight
from the city.-Discovery of his accomplices.-Their execu-
tion.
U. C. 686.
nius Piso,
M. Aul.
ABOUT the time that Pompey obtained his commis-
sion to command with so extensive a power
C, Calpur in the suppression of the pirates, the tide
began to run high against the aristocrati-
Glabrio. cal party at Rome. The populace, led by
some of the Tribunes, were ever ready to insult the
authority of the Senate; and the vices of particular
men gave frequent advantages against the whole or-
der of nobles. Corruption and dangerous faction
prevailed at elections, and the preferments of state
were generally coveted, as steps to the govern-
ment of provinces, where fortunes were amassed by
every species of abuse, oppression, and violence. En-
vy and indignation together concurred in rousing
Lex Corne- the people against these abuses. Corne-
bitu. lius, one of the Tribunes, proposed a se-
vere law against bribery, by which persons convict-
lia de am-
VOL. II.
U
306
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION [C. XVII.
ed of this crime should be disqualified for any office
whatever in the commonwealth. The Senate wish-
ed to soften the rigour of this law, by limiting the
penalty to a pecuniary fine; and the Consul, Cal-
purnius Piso, moved for an edict to this purpose, in
order to anticipate and to preclude the more violent
law of Cornelius. But the Tribune prevailed, and
obtained an act imposing the severer penalty. He
likewise, by another decree of the people, attacked
the discretionary jurisdiction of the Prætors *, obli-
ged them to be more explicit in the edicts they pub-
lished, and to observe them more exactly.
The crime of extortion in the provinces, however,
was the great disgrace of the Romans. To have
found an effectual remedy for this evil, would have
done more honour to the people than they had deri-
ved from all their conquests. Severe laws were ac-
cordingly enacted, complaints were willingly recei-
ved, and prosecutious encouraged. Candidates for
popularity and public favour generally began with
endeavouring to bring some offender under this title
to public justice; but the example of this state, af-
ter all, has left only this piece of instruction to man-
kind, That just government over conquered provin-
ces is scarcely to be hoped for, and least of all where
republics are the conquerors.
Manilius, one of the Tribunes of the people, in
order to strengthen the inferior class of his consti-
tuents, had obtained by surprise an act †, by which
* Dio. Cass. lib. xxxvi, c. 23.
Ibid. lib. xxxvi.
#
C. XVII.] OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
307
Lex Mani-
lia.
the citizens of slavish extraction were to be promis-
cuously enrolled in all the Tribes. This act, having
drawn upon him the resentment of the Senate, com-
pelled him to seek for security under the protection
of Gabinius and Pompey. With this view it was that
he moved his famous act, in which Cicero
concurred, to vest Pompey with the com-
mand in Asia. This motion had procured him a
powerful support, and on some occasions raised the
general voice of the people in his favour. Insomuch
that soon after this transaction, being prosecuted
for some offence at the tribunal of Cicero, who was
then Prætor, and being refused the usual delays, the
Prætor was obliged to explain this step in a speech
to the people; in which he told them, that he ac-
tually meant to favour Manilius, and that, his own
term in office being about to expire, he could not
serve him more effectually, than by hastening his
trial, and by not leaving him in the power of a suc-
cessor, who might not be equally disposed to acquit
him. Such were the loose and popular notions of
justice then prevailing, and the sacrifices made to
party at Rome *.
At the election of Consuls for the following year,
there occurred an opportunity to apply the law
against bribery. Of four candidates, Publius Au-
tronius Pætus, Publius Cornelius Sylla, L. Aurelius
Cotta, and L. Manlius Torquatus, the majority had
declared for the former two; but these being con-
* Plutarch. in vit. Cicer.
U 2
308
AND TERMINATION [c. XVII.
the THE PROGRESS
progress victed of bribery, were set aside, and their competi-
tors declared duly elected.
About the same time L. Sergius Catalina, who has
been already branded as the murderer of his own
brother, under pretence of Sylla's proscriptions, ha-
ving returned from Africa, where he had served in
the quality of Prætor, and intending to stand for the
Consulate, was accused of extortion in the province,
and stopped in his canvass by a prosecution raised
on this account. In his rage for this disappoint-
ment, he was ripe for any project of horror; and, be-
ing readily joined by Autronius and Piso, the late
disappointed candidates, formed a conspiracy to as-
sassinate their rivals *, to massacre the Senate, to
seize the ensigns of power, and, with the aid of their
faction, to lay hold of the government t. Marcus
Crassus and Caius Cæsar are mentioned by Sueto-
nius as accessory to this plot.
been named Dictator, and Cæsar his general of the
horse . Cæsar was to have made a signal for be-
ginning the massacre, by uncovering his shoulders
of his gown; but Crassus having wavered, absented
himself from the Senate, and Cæsar, though present,
having made no signal, the occasion passed without
the projected attempt.
Crassus was to have
This is the conspiracy for which Publius Sylla
came to be tried as an accomplice, and was defend-
ed by Cicero, in a pleading which is still extant;
whether Crassus and Cæsar, being, according to
* Cic. in P. Sylla & in Catal. i, c. 6. † Dion, lib. xxxvi, &c.
Sueton. in Cæsar.
C. XVII.] OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
309
Suetonius, implicated in the first steps, afterwards
broke off the connection, may be questioned. But
it is certain, that the plot was carried on by the
others to its full detection, in the manner which re-
mains to be told. The times indeed were pregnant
with the seeds of extreme evil; many of those who,
from their outset and prospects, were destined to
run the political course, overwhelmed with the ef
fects of prodigality and immoderate expense in their
suit to the people, incurred a ruin, which, if suc-
cessful in their pretensions to office, was to be re-
paired by odious expedients abroad, or, if disap-
pointed, led them to projects of desperation and
rage at home *.
Lex Papia
de Pere.
grinis.
The state appears to have apprehended an in-
crease of these evils from the number of foreigners,
who, from every quarter, crowded to Rome as to
the general resort of persons who wished to indulge
their own extravagance, or to prey upon
that of others. Under this apprehension,
an edict was obtained, upon the motion of
C. Papius, Tribune of the people, to oblige all stran-
gers to leave the city: but it is likely that the state
was in greater danger from natives than foreigners.
Cataline, having prevailed upon Clodius, by the con-
sideration of a sum of money, to drop the prosecu-
tion which had been commenced against him, was
left to offer himself a candidate for the Consulate
of the following year t.
The office of Censor had been revived in the
per-
*Plutarch. in vit. Ciceronis. + Cicero de Auruspicum Responsis.
1
310 THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION [C. XVII.
U. C. 689.
L.J. Cæsar,
C. Mar. Fi-
gulus.
sons of Catulus and Crassus; but these officers found
that its authority, so powerful in former times, was
now greatly reduced. They scarcely ventured to
give it a trial within the city; and having differed
about the enrolment of citizens residing beyond the
Po, and about some other particulars, they resigned
their power*. Censors were again named in the
following year, but with no greater effect; some of
the Tribunes, fearing to be themselves degraded
from the Senate, put a negative on the usual func-
tion of these officers in revising the rolls †.
In the next Consulate, that of Lucius Julius Cæ-
sar and C. Marcius Figulus, Caius Cæsar,
accused by Suetonius, as above, of hidden
designs, but of whom we are from this
time scarcely ever to lose sight, being now thirty-
five
years of
age, entered on his career of popularity
and ambition. It is remarked, that in his present
Edileship, together with Marcus Bibulus, not satis-
fied with the joint exhibition of public shows which
were given to the people, at a common expense
with his colleague, he gave separate entertainments.
on his own account. And destined, it should seem,
to be a thorn in the side of those who were solicitous
of public order, the gladiators he had assembled on
this occasion gave an alarm to the magistracy, and
he was ordered not to exceed a certain number.
his present office, or in that of Prætor, to which he
was afterwards in course advanced, it is observed,
that he took some steps that were likely to revive
In
* Dion. lib. xxxvi. Plutarch. in Crasso.
+ Ibid.
c. XVII.]
311
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
the animosity of the late parties of Marius and Sylla;
and, notwithstanding the act of indemnity which
had passed, raised prosecutions, on a charge of as-
sassination, against all those who had put any citi
zen to death in execution of Sylla's proscription *.
From this time Suetonius observes, that Cicero,
though it may be thought premature, dated the be-
ginning of his project to subvert the republic, and
to make himself master of the state †.
What has most distinguished the present Con-
sulate of Lucius Cæsar and Marcius Figulus, how-
ever, is the competition of candidates for the suc-
cession to that office on the following year, and the
consequences of the election which followed. The
candidates were, M. Tullius Cicero, C. Antonius,
son of the late celebrated orator, L. Sergius Cata-
lina, P. Sulpitius Galba, and L. Cassius Longinus,
Quintus Cornificius, and Licinius Sacerdos.
Cicero was the first of his family who had ever re-
sided, or enjoyed any honours, at Rome. He was
a native of Arpinum, a country town of Italy,
and was considered as an obscure person by those
who were descended of ancient families, but had
great consideration on account of his eloquence,
and the consequences of it, to all such as had any
interests at stake before the tribunals of justice.
Being solicited by Cataline to undertake his defence
on a trial for malversation in Sicily, he did not at
Sueton. in vit. C. J. Cæsaris,
+ Ibid. c. ix. Suetonius supposes, that Cicero alluded to the conspiracy of
Autronius and Sylla, in which Crassus, as well as Cæsar, was said to be enga-
ged.
312
[c. XVII.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
once reject the request, nor always deny his aid to
the factious Tribunes in support of their measures,
He was undoubtedly, like other ambitious men at
Rome, disposed to court every party, or to gain in-
dividuals *; and had of late, in particular, consider-
ably strengthened his interest with the people, by
having supported the pretensions of their favourite
Pompey, in having joined the popular Tribunes, in
what they proposed in behalf of this aspiring citizen.
He was, notwithstanding, probably by his aversion
to appear for so bad a client as Cataline, saved from
the reproach of having espoused his cause; and by
his known inclination in general to support the au-
thority of the Senate, he disposed the aristocratical
party to forgive the occasional part which he took
with the Tribunes in particular questions, not im- .
mediately supposed to affect their ascendant in the
state.
In the course of this competition for the Consul-
ship, Antonius and Cataline joined interests toge-
ther, and spared no kind or degree of corruption.
Cicero complained of their practices in the Senate,
and moved to revive the law of Calpurnius against
bribery, with an additional penalty of ten years' ba-
nishment t. Cataline considered this measure as le-
velled against himself; and incited by this provoca-
tion as well as by the animosity of a rival, was then
supposed to have formed a design against Cicero's
life, and to have expressed himself to this purpose,
** Ep. ad Atticum, lib. i, ep. 2.
↑ Dio. lib. xxxvii, c. 39.
c. XVII.]
313
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
in terms that gave a general alarm to the electors,
and determined great numbers against himself. He
had drawn to his interests many persons of infamous
character and desperate fortune, many youths of
good family, whom he debauched or encouraged in
their profligacy. His language, at their meetings,
was all indignation at the unequal and supposed un-
just distribution of fortune and power.
"Riches,
authority and honour," he said, "are engrossed
by a few, while others of more merit are kept in
poverty and obscurity, or oppressed with debts."
He professed his intention, when in office, to remove
these grievances, to cancel the debts of his friends,
to enrich them by plentiful divisions of land, and to
place them in the stations of honour to which they
were entitled.
66
((
66
These declarations, being made to numerous com-
panies assembled together, could not be concealed.
Curius, one of the faction, boasted to Fulvia, a wo-
man of rank, with whom he had a criminal intrigue,
that a revolution must soon take place, and specified
the particular hopes and designs of their party. This
woman mentioned the subject to her own confidants,
but concealed the author of her information. In
the mean time, Cataline was considered as a person
of the most dangerous designs, and was opposed in
his election by all who had any regard to public or-
der, or to the safety of the commonwealth. Cicero,
at the same time, being supported by the Senate,
was elected together with Caius Antonius. The lat-
ter indeed stood candidate upon the same interest
314
[c. XVII.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
with Cataline, and was preferred to him only by a
small majority.
U. C. 690.
M. Tullius
Cicero, C.
Antonius.
By this event the designs of Cataline were sup-
posed to be frustrated; but the Consuls
were not likely to enter on a quiet admi-
nistration. The tribunitian power, from
the time of its restoration, was gradually recovering
its force, and extending its operations. Every per-
son that could give any public disturbance, that could
annoy the Senate, or mortify any of its leading mem-
bers; every one that had views of ambition adverse
to the laws, or who wished to take part in scenes of
confusion and tumult; every person oppressed with
debt, who wished to defraud his creditors; every
person who, by his profligacy or crimes, was at va-
riance with the tribunals of justice, was comprehend-
ed under the general denomination of the Popular
Party. The Roman people had once been divided
into Patrician and Plebeian, next into Noblemen
and Commoners; but now individuals took their side
with little regard to former distinctions against or
for the preservation of public order. In the assem-
bly of the Centuries, as well as in that of the Tribes,
the disorderly and the profligate began to prevail;
and as it was impossible that the collective body of
the people could meet in any single assembly, the
comitia, for the most part, was but another name
for such riotous tumults, as were made up of the
persons who haunted the streets of Rome. The
minds of sober men were full of fear and distrust,
alarmed with surmises of plots, and various combina-
tions of desperate persons, who united their influence,
t
c. XVII.]
315
OF THE ROMAN REPublic.
not to carry elections or obtain preferments, but to
overturn the government, or to share in its spoils *.
lia Agraria.
One of the Tribunes of the present year, Servilius
Lex Servi- Rullus, soon after his admission into office,
under pretence of providing settlements
for
many of the citizens, promulgated the heads of
an Agrarian Law, which he carried to the Senate
and the People. The subject of former grants was
now in a great measure exhausted, and all Italy was
inhabited by the citizens of Rome. This Tribune
proposed a new expedient to provide for the indi-
gent, not by conquest, but by purchase. It was pro-
posed, that all estates, territories, or possessions of
any sort, which belonged to the republic, should be
sold; that all acquisitions of territory recently made,
and the spoils taken from any enemy, should be dis-
posed of in the same manner; that the money arising
from such sales should be employed in purchasing
arable and cultivable lands, to be assigned in lots to
the necessitous citizens; and that, to carry this law
into execution, ten commissioners should be named
in the same manner in which the Pontiffs were named,
not by the whole people, but by seventeen of the
Tribes selected by lot: that these commissioners
should be judges, without appeal, of what was or
was not public property; of what was to be sold, of
what was to be bought, and at what price; that they
were to receive and to judge of the accounts of every
Consul, or other officer, except Pompey, command-
ing in any province, where any capture had been
* Cicero de Lege Agraria.
316
[c. XVII.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
made, or new territory acquired: and, in short, that
they should, during five years, which was the intend-
ed term of their commission, be the sole masters of
all property within the empire, whether public or
private.
On the day that the new Consuls entered on their
office, when they returned in procession from the
Capitol, and gave the first meeting to the Senate,
Rullus had the presumption to propose this law,
and to move the Conscript Fathers, that they would
be pleased to give it the sanction of their approbation
and authority in being carried to the people. Upon
this occasion, Cicero made his first speech in the
character of Consul. The former part of it is lost;
the remainder may be reckoned among the highest
specimens of his eloquence. In this and the two
speeches he delivered to the people on the same
subject, he endeavoured to demonstrate, (if we may
venture to imitate the profusion of his own expres-
sions), that, from the first clause of this law to the
last, there was nothing thought of, nothing proposed,
nothing done, but the erecting in ten persons, under
the pretence of an Agrarian Law, an absolute sove-
reignty over the treasury, the revenue, the provinces,
the empire, the neighbouring kingdoms and states;
and, in short, over all the world as far as it was
known to the Romans. He painted in such lively
colours the abuses which might be committed by
Rullus, and by his associates, in judging what was
private and what public property, in making sales,
in making purchases, in planting the colonies, and so
exposed the impudence of the cheat, by which it
c. XVII.]
317
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
was proposed to surprise the people into the grant-
ing of such powers, the absurdity and the ruinous
tendency of the whole measure, that it was instant-
ly rejected, and its author hissed from the assembly,
and treated as an object of ridicule and scorn.
The splendour of the Consul's eloquence, on this
occasion, appeared with great distinction, and the
spirit of the times continued to furnish him with
opportunities to display it *. Roscius Amerinus,
having been Tribune of the people a few years be-
fore, had, by the authority of his office, set apart
some benches in the theatre for the Equestrian order.
This gave offence to the people, so that Roscius
was commonly hissed when he appeared at any of
the public assemblies. On some one of these occa-
sions the Consul interposed; and, in a popular ha-
rangue, secured the attachment of the Knights to
himself, and even reconciled the people to the dis-
tinction which had been made in favour of that
body.
There happened under the same Consulate a busi-
ness of greater difficulty, being a motion to restore
the sons of the proscribed to the privilege of being
chosen into the offices of state, of which they had
been deprived by an ordinance of Sylla. Their fate
was undoubtedly calamitous and severe. Many of
them who had been too young to have incurred the
guilt of their party, were now come of age, and found
themselves stripped of their birth-right, and stigmati-
It is probable that Cicero did not write in order to speak, but wrote after
he had spoken, for the use of his friends. Epist. ad Atticum, lib. ii, c. 1.
318
[c. XVII.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
zed with this mark of dishonour. It was proposed, in
their behalf, to take away this cruel exclusion. But
Cicero, apprehending that this proposal tended to
arm and to strengthen persons, who, from long use,
had contracted an habitual disaffection to the esta-
blished government at Rome, powerfully opposed
the motion, and succeeded in having it rejected *.
Though the orations on the two subjects last men-
tioned have perished, great part of that which he
spoke on the trial of C. Rabirius still remains. This
man, of a great age, a respectable Senator, after an
interval of six-and-thirty years, was brought to trial
as an accomplice in the death of Apuleius Saturni-
nus, the factious Tribune, who, as has been related,
having seized the Capitol, was, by the Consuls Ma-
rius and Valerius Flaccus acting under the authority
of the Senate, and attended by all the most respect-
able citizens in arms, forced from his stronghold,
and put to death as a public enemy.
Titus Atius Labienus, one of the Tribunes, was
the declared prosecutor of C. Rabirius; but histo-
rians agree, that this Tribune acted at the instigation,
and under the direction of C. Cæsar. The intention
of the popular party was, by making an example of
this respectable person in so strong a case, where
the authority of the Senate, and the commands of the
most popular Consul, where even the prescription
of so old a date should have repelled every danger,
effectually, for the future, to deter every person from
* Plin. lib. vii, c. 30,
c. XVII.]
319
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
acting in support of the Senate, or from lending any
force or opposition to the designs of factious Tri-
bunes, however turbulent or dangerous.
The Senate, and all the friends of established au-
thority, were greatly alarmed, and united in defence
of Rabirius. The popular party, as already descri-
bed, the ambitious, the profligate, the bankrupt,
who were earnest to weaken the hands of govern-
ment, and in haste to bring on scenes of confusion
and trouble, took the opposite side.
The prosecutor laid his charge for treason of the
most heinous nature, which must have led the con-
victed, though a freeman, to die on the cross, the
ordinary manner of executing the sentence of death
on slaves.
"The executioner stalks in the forum,"
said Cicero," and the cross is erected for a Roman
"citizen in the field of Mars." The accusation
was first brought before the Prætor, who possessed
the ordinary jurisdiction in such cases. And this
magistrate empannelled two judges, who were to
determine in this mighty cause. These were Caius
Julius and Lucius Cæsar. At this court the defen-
dant was condemned; and with appearances of ani-
mosity on the part of Caius Cæsar, that greatly in-
creased the public alarm. This rising citizen had
always courted the populace, and was strongly sup-
ported by them. That he should aim at honours
and power, it was said, is common; but that he
wished to provide impunity for the disturbers of the
commonwealth, was dreadful. The crime of Rabi-
rius, even if he could be convicted of it, had been
committed the year before Cæsar was born. In the
320 THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION [C. XVII.
:
person of the accused, every circumstance, even on
the supposition of a true charge, pleaded for com-
passion, and even for respect: the fact, at the same
time, was denied, and a positive evidence was brought
that another had received a reward for killing Satur-
ninus but the policy of the faction required this
victim; and the sentence must have been executed,
if the condemned had not fled, by appeal, to the
judgment of the people, where, indeed, his cause
might be reckoned more desperate than it had been
before a select court. The parties attended this
trial with great ardour. Hortensius conducted the
appeal and defence. Cicero pleaded in behalf of
justice and government; painted the age, the infir-
mities, the forlorn state of the defendant, who had
survived his relations and his friends. He pointed
out the danger to government and to order from
this precedent, in terms that must have melted every
heart, not callous from ambition, faction, or profli-
gacy of manners: but in vain. Even in the assem-
bly of the Centuries, the majority was hastening to
affirm the sentence, when Q. Cæcilius Metellus Ce-
ler, then Prætor, and one of the Augurs, hastened
to the Janiculum, and tore down the ensign which
was planted there as a sign of peace. And a silly
piece of superstition stopped the proceedings of those
whom neither justice nor compassion, nor regard to
government, could restrain. This form took its rise,
as has been formerly mentioned *, in the first ages
of Rome, when the enemy inhabiting villages in the
2
* See vol. i, c. 1.
C. XVII.]
321
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
neighbourhood were supposed at the gates, and the
people convened in the field on one side of the city
might be assailed on the other. When the Centu-
ries were formed, therefore, in the field of Mars, a
guard was always posted on the Janiculum, and an
ensign displayed. If any enemy appeared, the en-
sign was taken down, the assembly dismissed, and
the people took to their arms. This ceremony, like
many other customs both of superstition and law,
remained after the occasion had ceased; and it was
held illegal or impious in the people to proceed in
any affair without the ensign in view.
means the trial of Rabirius was put off, and the
secutors, despairing of being able to work up the
people again into an equal degree of violence, dropt
the prosecution. The cause still remained undeci-
ded, and the power of the Senate, to defend its own
authority, continued in a state of suspense.
By this
pro-
The Tribune Labienus laid aside thoughts of re-
newing this invidious prosecution, in order to pur-
sue the object of some other more popular acts; one,
in particular, to repeal the almost only remaining
ordinance of Sylla; that which conferred on the
College of Priests the power of filling up vacancies
in their own order. The right of election was again
taken from the College, and, according to the law of
Domitius, given to seventeen of the tribes, who
were to be drawn by lot. This change was intend-
ed to open the way of Caius Cæsar into that office;
and he was accordingly promoted to it in the fol-
lowing year.
>
VOL. II.
X
322 THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION [c. XVII.
I
1
Others of the Tribunes likewise endeavoured to
distinguish themselves by acts of turbulence and se-
dition. Metellus Nepos endeavoured to repeal that
clause of the act against bribery and corruption,
which declared the party convicted to be disqua-
lified for any of the offices of state. This Tribune,
though sufficiently disposed to disorderly courses,
had many connections among the most respectable
citizens, and was persuaded, in this instance, to drop
his design.
But of all the cabals into which the popular fac-
tion was distributed, none was more desperate, nor
supposed more dangerous, than that of Cataline, the
late disappointed candidate for the Consulship. His
rival Cicero had intimation, before the elections, of
a design formed by this desperate party against his
own person, and still continued to observe their mo-
tions. For this purpose he entered into a corre-
spondence with a woman of the name of Fulvia, al-
ready mentioned, and who had given the first hints
of a dangerous conspiracy: by means of this woman,
he procured the confidence of Curius, who gave him
minute information of all the proceedings of the par-
ty.
In public, Cataline again professed himself a can-
didate for the office of Consul, in competition with
Servius Sulpicius, P. Muræna, and J. Silanus. He
boasted of support from Antonius; but Cicero, to di-
vert his colleague from this dangerous connection,
made him every concession. Having, in casting lots
for the provinces of Gaul and Macedonia, drawn the
latter, which was thought to be preferable, he yield-
C. XVII.]
323
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
ed it up to Antonius; and by this, and every other
means in his power, persuaded him to rest on the se-
cure possession of dignities and honours, lawfully
obtained, in preference to expectations formed on
the projects of a few desperate men.
In secret, Cataline encouraged his adherents by
pretending to have many resources, and to be sup-
ported by numbers who were ready to take arms at
his command. In a formal meeting of his party in
October, a few days before the consular elections,
he opened the whole of his design; and in the speech
which he made on that occasion, is said to have used
expressions to the following purport: "The dis-
"tressed can rely for relief on those only who have
"a common cause with themselves. Whoever is at
"ease in his own fortune, will not regard the suffer-
ing of others. If you would know how I stand af-
"fected to the parties which now divide the repub-
66
66
lic, rich creditors and needy debtors, please to con-
"sider, what every one knows, that I have no safe-
"ty but in the destruction of the one, and the re-
"lief of the other; that my interest is the same with
"C
your own, and that I have courage to attempt
"what may be necessary for our common relief and
"security."
From the strain of this passage, the description of
a party to whom it was with propriety addressed,
may be easily collected. Cicero, who had frequent-
ly taxed Cataline with dangerous designs, now de-
termined to lay the whole of his intelligence before
the public; and for this purpose deferred the con-
sular elections, which were to have been held on the
x 2
324 THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION [C. XVII.
eighteenth of October, to a future day, and assem-
bled the Senate. Cataline having, with the other
members, attended, and hearing the charge, did not
"There
pretend to deny or to palliate his words.
""
66 are,"
" he said, "in this republic, two parties; one
"weak both in its members and head; the other
"strong in its members, but wanting a head: while
"I have the honour of being supported by this par-
'ty, it shall have a head." Upon these words, a
general cry of indignation arose in the Senate; but
no resolution was taken. Many, who were there pre-
sent as members, were pleased to see the Senate itself
insulted; and Cataline, as if in condition to brave all
his enemies, was, in all his expressions, equally un-
guarded in the streets and in the Senate. To Cato,
who, in the public Forum, some days before this
meeting, had threatened to have him impeached:
"Do," he said; "but if you light a flame in my
"fortunes, I will extinguish it under the ruins of the
"commonwealth *."
A prosecution was actually raised against him in
the name of Lucius Paulus, a young man of distinc-
tion, for carrying arms against the public peace. On
this occasion, however, he thought proper to soften
his tone, and offered to submit to voluntary confine-
ment, until his innocence should be made to appear.
"No one," he said, "who knows my rank, my pre-
tensions, and the interest I have in the preserva-
❝tion of the commonwealth, will believe, that its
"destruction is to be apprehended from me, and
* Cicero Orat. pro Muræna.
c. XVII.] OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
325
"that its safety is to come from a native of Arpi-
"num *.". He offered to commit himself to the
custody of Cicero, of Metellus, or of any other ma-
gistrate, till this injurious aspersion were removed.
To this offer the Consul replied, That he who did
not think himself safe within the same ramparts with
Cataline, would not receive him into his house t.
By one effect of the unparalleled licence enjoyed
by citizens of Rome, persons accused of the most
heinous crimes were at large, during the dependence
of their trial, and might either proceed in the exe-
cution of their designs, or withdraw from justice.
Such was the effect of the laws of Valerius and Por-
cius, which secured against violence, or the power
of the magistrate, the person of every citizen, how-
ever accused, until he were finally condemned by
the people. In support of this privilege, which was
salutary, when the abuse of power in the magistrate
was more to be dreaded than the licence of crimes
in the subject, the Romans persisted even after the
depravity of manners was become too strong for the
laws, and when exemption from every just restraint
was fatally mistaken for liberty. The state had now
been thrown, on many occasions, into the most vio-
lent convulsions, because there was not any regular
method of resisting disorders, or of suppressing them
on their first appearance.
Cataline, soon after the elections, at which, by the
preference given to his competitors Muræna and Si-
* The town of which Cicero was a native.
+ Cicero in Catalinam, i, c. 8.
326
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION [C. XVII.
lanus, he received a fresh disappointment in his hopes
of the Consulship, sent Mallius, or Manlius, an ex-
perienced soldier, who had served with himself
under Sylla, to prepare for an insurrection in the
district of Etruria. This officer, in the end of Oc-
tober, under pretence of giving refuge to debtors
from the oppression of their creditors, had actually
assembled a considerable body of men *. Suspicions
at the same time arose against Publius Sylla, who was
making a large purchase of gladiators at Capua, and
insurrections were apprehended on the side of Cam-
pania and Apulia. In this state of affairs, continual
informations being brought of Cataline's designs,
the Senate gave in charge to the Consuls to watch
over the safety of the state; and these officers ac-
cordingly put chosen bodies of men under arms, and
secured all the posts of consequence in the city.
Metellus, the conqueror of Crete, who still remained
without the walls in hopes of a triumph, was appoint-
ed to command on the side of Apulia. The Prætor
Metellus Celer was sent into the Cisalpine Gaul, in
order to secure the peace of that province t; and
the Consul Antonius was destined to suppress the
insurrection of Mallius at Fæsulæ ‡.
Cataline meanwhile remained in the city, and had
frequent consultations for the arrangement and the
execution of his plot. At a meeting of the party,
held in the beginning of November, in the house of
M. Porcius Lecca ll, a general massacre of the prin-
Cicero in Catalinam, i, c. 5. + Ibid. c. 12.
Cicero pro Pub. Sylla, c. 16.
Now Florence.
C. XVII.]
4
OF THE ROMAN REPublic.
327
cipal Senators was projected. The conspirators se-
verally chose their stations, and undertook their se-
veral parts. Two in particular, who were familiar in
Cicero's house, undertook in the morning, under
pretence of a visit, to surprise and assassinate the
Consul. But he being the same night apprised of
his danger by Fulvia, gave the proper orders, and
the intended assassins, upon their appearance at his
door, were refused admittance. He immediately
after assembled the Senate in the temple of Jupiter.
Cataline presented himself with his usual presump-
tion; and Cicero, as appears from an oration which
he then delivered, instead of laying the matter in
form before the Senate, accosted Cataline in a vehe-
ment invective, urging him to be gone from the city,
where all his steps were minutely observed, where
his meaning was understood, and precautions taken
against all his designs. "I told you," said the Con-
sul, "that your emissary Mallius would be in arms
64
'by the first of November; that you intended a
"massacre of the Senators about the same time. I
"now repeat the memorable words you made use of
"when you were told, that many of the Senators
" had withdrawn from the city. You should be sa-
tisfied, you said, with the blood of those who re-
"mained. Were you not surrounded, hemmed in,
"and beset on every side by the guards posted to
"watch you? Did your intention to surprise Præ-
"neste, on the night of the first of November, es-
66
cape me? Did you not find precautions taken that
implied a knowledge of your design? There is no-
"thing, in short, that you do, that you prepare, that
328
the progress AND TERMINATION [C. XVII.
66
66
you meditate, which is not heard, which is not
seen, which is not felt by me in every circum-
"stance. What of last night? Were you not at the
"house of Porcius Lecca? Deny it! I have evi-
"dence. There are here present persons who were
"of your company. But where are we? What man-
"ner of government or republic is this? The ene-
"mies and destroyers of the commonwealth make a
part in its highest councils! We know them, and
66
66
yet they are suffered to live! But, begone. The
"time of enduring you is past. The world is convin-
"ced of your guilt. Stay only till there is not a
66
single person that can pretend to doubt of it,-till
your own partisans must be silent, and till the cla-
"mour, which they would willingly raise against eve-
66
ry necessary act of government, be suppressed."
鬼
​This being the general tendency of the Consul's
speech, fraught with such alarming matter, and
urged with so much confidence, the audience was
seized with terror, and numbers, who happened to
be on the same bench with Cataline, withdrew from
his side. He himself arose, and attempted to vindi-
cate his character, but was silenced with a general
cry of indignation; upon which he left the Senate;
and, after concerting farther measures with those of
his party, not thinking that a longer stay in the city
could be of any use to his affairs, he withdrew in the
night, leaving letters behind him to some of the Se-
nators, in which he complained, that, by a combina-
tion of his enemies, he was driven into exile; and
that, rather than be the occasion of any disturbance
in the commonwealth, he was willing to retire.
c. XVII.]
329
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
While these letters were handed about in the city,
he took his way, preceded by the ushers and ensigns
of a Roman Proconsul, straight for the camp of Mal-
lius, and entered into a state of open war. The fea-
tures of this man's portrait are possibly exaggerated
by the vehement pencils and lively colourings of
Cicero and of Sallust. He is represented as able to
endure hardships of any kind, and as fearless in any
danger; as, from his youth, fond of discord, assassi-
nations, and bloodshed; as stained with the blood
of his own brother, whom he murdered to have his
estate, and with the blood of his own child, whom
he murdered to remove the objection made to him
by a woman who refused to marry him with the
prospect of being a stepmother. He is represented
as rapacious, prodigal, gloomy, impetuous, unquiet,
dissembling, and perfidious; a description of which
the horrors are probably amplified; but for which it
cannot be doubted there was much foundation, as
he far exceeded in profligacy and desperation all
those who, either in this or the former age, were, by
their ambition or their vices, hastening the ruin of
the commonwealth.
Cicero always professed to have particular infor-
mation of the progress of Cataline. This, according
to Sallust, he owed to Fulvia, by whose means he
obtained a correspondence with Curius; but he
himself, in none of his orations, gives any intima-
tion of the manner in which he obtained his intelli-
gence. It is probable that Curius desired to be
concealed, that he might not be exposed to the rage
of the conspirators as an informer and a traitor. On
330 THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION [C. XVII.
this account the Consul, although he was minutely
apprised of particulars, was obliged to adopt the
plan he had hitherto followed, to urge the conspira-
tors themselves into open hostilities, and into a full
declaration of their purpose. He had succeeded
with respect to Cataline; but his accomplices were
yet very numerous in the city, and were taking their
measures to co-operate with those who were in arms
abroad.
In this state of affairs, Fabius Sanga, a Roman
citizen of distinction, came to the Consul, and in-
formed him, that the ambassadors of the Allobroges,
a people then inhabiting what is now called the ter-
ritory of Geneva, and part of Savoy, whose patron
he was, had made him privy to a very momentous
affair; that upon being disappointed in a suit, on
which they had been employed to the Senate, they
had been carried by P. Umbrenus to Publius Cor-
nelius Lentulus the Prætor, who condoled with them
on the subject of the wrong they had received, as-
sured them of redress if they would merit the favour
of those who were soon to have the ascendant at
Rome; and proposed, that they should, immediate-
ly upon their return to their own country, prevail
on their nation to be prepared with an army, to co-
operate with their friends in Italy. Cicero immedi-
ately laid hold of this intelligence, as affording means
to bring the plot to light in a proper manner, and
with sufficient evidence to convict the conspirators.
He desired Sanga to encourage this correspondence;
to advise the ambassadors to require proper creden-
tials to be shown to their countrymen; to procure
c. XVII.]
331
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
1
a list of the Roman citizens who, in case they should
rise in rebellion against the Romans, were to become
bound to protect them; and when they should be
thus provided, and about to depart, he instructed
Sanga to bring him intimation of their motions, that
they might be secured, with their writings, and other
evidence of the facts to be ascertained. Sanga, ha-
ving instructed the ambassadors accordingly, gave
notice of their motions to the Consul. In the even-
ing before they were to depart, Cicero ordered the
Prætors, L. Flaccus and C. Pontinus, to march by
different ways, and in small parties, after it was
dark, to place a sufficient armed force to intercept
the ambassadors of the Allobroges. The parties
were stationed on different sides of the river, at the
bridge called Milvius, without knowing of each
other, and without having any suspicion of the pur-
pose for which they were posted, farther than arose
from their having been told, that they were to seize
any person who should attempt to pass in either di-
rection. About three o'clock in the morning the
ambassadors from the Roman side entered on the
bridge with a numerous retinue; and being chal-
lenged, and commanded to stop by the party that
was placed to intercept them, they endeavoured to
force their way; and some blood was shed. But on
the appearance of the Prætors, with their ensigns of
office, the travellers ceased to resist. Their dis-
patches were secured. Volturcius, a Roman citi-
zen, who was found in their company, was taken
and searched. Letters were found upon him, in dif-
ferent hands, and under different seals, addressed to
332
[c. XVII.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
Cataline. These, together with the prisoners, were
immediately carried back to the city.
The Consul being apprised of the success which
attended this part of his design, sent, before any
alarm could be taken by the party, messages to Ga-
binius, Statilius, Cethegus, and Lentulus, desiring
to see them at his own house. The three former
came with the messenger; but Lentulus was newly
gone to bed, and, by his delay, gave some cause to
suspect that he was aware of his danger. He too,
however, came before it was day; and the house of
Cicero was presently crowded, not only with num-
bers of the Equestrian order that were in arms for
the defence of his person, but likewise with many
Senators whom he desired to be present. The am-
bassadors of the Allobroges, now prisoners, were
likewise conducted thither, and the letters found in
their possession were produced unopened. Cicero
declared his intention to assemble the Senate with-
out delay, in order to lay the whole matter before
them. Many of the company were of opinion, that
the letters should be first opened, in order to see, whe-
ther they contained any matter of so much moment,
as to require assembling the Senate, at a time when
so great an alarm was likely to be taken. Cicero,
however, having no doubt of the contents of the let-
ters, and of the importance of the matter, overruled
those scruples, and the Senate was accordingly call-
ed. Meantime the Allobroges dropt some expres-
sions which implied, that some arms were concealed
in the house of Cethegus. This occasioned a search
c. xvII.]
333
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
being then made, and a considerable quantity of
daggers and swords were accordingly found.
At the meeting of the Senate, Volturcius was first
examined; he denied his knowledge of any treason-
able designs, but appeared disconcerted; and, upon
being reminded of the reward that had been offered
for the discovery of any plot against the state, and
of the danger to which he himself would be exposed
in prevaricating, he confessed, that the letters seized
in his custody were sent by the Prætor Lentulus and
others; that he had besides a verbal message to Ca-
taline, informing him, that the plan was now ready
for execution; that the station of every person was
assigned; that some were appointed to set fire to
the city in different places, and some to massacre
their enemies in the midst of the confusion that was
likely to be occasioned by the fire; and desiring that
Cataline, in order to support his friends, and to pro-
fit by the diversion they were to make in his favour
within the walls, should issue a proclamation to arm
the slaves, and that he himself should march direct-
ly to Rome.
The deputies of the Allobroges being next intro-
duced, acknowledged, that they had been charged
by Lentulus, Cethegus, Statilius, and Cassius, with
assurances of support to the council of their nation,
confirmed by oath, accompanied with directions to
march, without delay, a body of horse into Italy,
where they should be joined by a numerous infan-
try, and receive proper instructions in what manner
they should farther proceed; that, to encourage
them, Lentulus quoted a prophecy, found in the
334 THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION [C. XVII.
1
collection of the Sibyls, by which he himself was
pointed out as the third of the Cornelii* destined
to arrive at the sovereignty of Rome: that the con-
spirators had differed about the time of executing
their design. Lentulus was of opinion it should be
deferred to the holidays in December; that Cethe-
gus, notwithstanding, and the others, were impatient,
and desired a nearer day.
The supposed conspirators were next called in
their turns; and the letters, with the seals unbroken,
were exhibited before them. Cethegus, being the
first examined, persisted in denying his knowledge
of any conspiracy; accounted for the arms, which
were found in his house, by saying, He was curious
of workmanship of that nature, and always bought
what he liked. He preserved his countenance undis-
turbed, till his own letter was produced, and then
fell into great confusion, as the seal was immediate-
ly known to be his.
Lentulus next, with great confidence, denied the
charge; affected not to know either Volturcius or
the ambassadors: asked them upon what occasion
they ever could pretend to have been admitted into
his house? He, however, supposing that nothing in
the contents of the letter that was now produced
could convict him, acknowledged the seal. It was
the head of his grandfather. But the letter being
opened, was found to be unsigned, and in the fol-
lowing general terms: "The bearer will inform
you who I am. Fear nothing. Remember where
66
The former two were Cinna and Sylla.
c. XVII.]
335
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
66
you stand; and neglect nothing. Call in every
“aid, even the meanest." While he persisted in his
denial, some one asked him, If he had never quo-
ted the Sibylline oracles to these Gauls? Confound-
ed with this question, he forgot his disguise, and con-
fessed.
Gabinius, too, was at last brought to own his guilt;
and in this manner the conspiracy was fully laid open.
Lucius Cæsar, the Consul of the former year, in the
presence of Lentulus, who was married to his sister,
gave his opinion, that this unhappy man should be
immediately put to death. "This," he said, "is no
"unprecedented measure. My grandfather, Fulvius
"Flaccus, taken in open rebellion as this man is,
"was slain by order of the Consul Gabinius. His
son was taken into custody, and put to death in
prison." In the meantime, Lentulus was ordered
to divest himself of the office of Prætor, and, toge-
ther with his accomplices, was committed to close
imprisonment. This Cornelius Lentulus was distin-
guished by the addition of Sura to his name. He
had been Consul about eight years before, and was
afterwards, for his debaucheries, struck off the rolls
of the Senate. He had now again condescended to
accept of the office of Prætor, in order to recover,
in the capacity of a magistrate, his seat in the Se-
66
nate.
A proclamation was issued to apprehend M. Cæ-
parius who had been sent to procure an insurrection
in Apulia, together with P. Furius, Magius Chilo,
and P. Umbrenus, who had first introduced the
Gaulish ambassadors to Gabinius. The Senate voted
336
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
[c. XVII.
thanks to the Consul Cicero for his great vigilance,
and for the consummate ability he had shewn in the
discovery and suppression of this treasonable design;
to the Prætors, for the faithful execution of the Con-
sul's orders; and to Antonius, his colleague, for ha-
ving detached himself from men with whom he was
known to have been formerly connected. A public
thanksgiving to the gods was likewise decreed in
honour of the Consul, and in consideration of this
deliverance of the city from fire, of the people from
massacre, and of Italy from devastation and war.
An assembly of the people being called, Cicero
gave this account of the proceedings of the Senate,
in a speech which is still extant *, and early on the
following day assembled that body again, to delibe-
rate on the farther resolutions to be taken with re-
spect to the prisoners. An agent had been busy in
the night to raise some disturbance in favour of Len-
tulus; but the design of setting fire to the city gave
so great an alarm, that not only such as were pos-
sessed of considerable property, but every inhabi-
tant, whatever might be his effects, trembled for his
own person, and for the safety of his house. The
avenues to the Senate, the Capitol, the Forum; all
the Temples in the neighbourhood, by break of day,
were crowded with armed men. The Consul had
summoned the Equestrian order in arms to support
the government, and citizens of every rank came forth
to have a part in what might be required for the safe-
ty of their families.
* In Cat. 3.
C. XVII.] OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
337
When the Senate was assembled, the members
differed in their judgment. Junius Silanus, one of
the Consuls-elect, being called up first in order,
declared himself for a sentence of death. Tiberius
Nero differed from him, and proposed perpetual im-
prisonment. The majority, however, joined Silanus,
until Caius Cæsar spoke. This able advocate de-
clared against the opinion of Silanus, not as too
severe, but as contrary to law; and insisted on the
danger of a precedent which might set the life of
every citizen at the mercy of a vote in the Senate.
Death, he said, was the common destination of all
men; what no one could avoid, and what the wise
frequently coveted. It was not, therefore, to be used
as a punishment; and he was disposed, in this case,
not to mitigate, but to increase, the severity of the
sentence. He proposed, therefore, that the estates
of the prisoners should be confiscated; that their
persons should be committed for life to the keeping
of the most secure and best affected corporations in
Italy; and that it should be declared treason for any
one hereafter to move the Senate or the people for
any mitigation of their punishment.
Cæsar might be considered as appearing on the
side of the popular faction, and as laying the ground
upon which the proceedings of the Senate, and the
conduct of any particular member, might be after-
wards arraigned before the people. The terrors of
the Porcian and Sempronian laws, when likely to be
urged by so powerful an advocate, alarmed the great-
er part of the Senate. Silanus himself retracted his
opinion. In this fluctuation, the Consul submitting
VOL. II.
Y
338
[c. XVII.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
the question to the judgment of the Senate, for his
own part declared his willingness to execute any
decree they should form. He treated Cæsar with
great respect, and with some art laid hold of the se-
vere terms in which this popular citizen had spoken
of the conspiracy, as a pledge of his future conduct,
in case the proceedings of government, with respect
to the matter now before them, should hereafter be
questioned or brought under review. "The Se-
"nate,” he observed, "had no cause to dread the
imputation of cruelty. It was mercy to prevent,
"in the most effectual manner, a crime to be perpe-
"trated in so much blood. If this crime were not
"prevented, they were to see that city, the resort
"of nations, and the light and ornament of empire,
"perish at one blow. They were to see heaps of
"her citizens unburied, and lying in their blood:
they were to see the fury of Cethegus let loose in
"murder; to see Lentulus become a king, Cataline
"commanding an army, and every where to hear
"the cries of mothers, to see the flight of children,
"and the rape of virgins.-If the father of a family,"
he continued, "should spare a slave who had shed
"the blood of his children, who had murdered his
wife, and set fire to his dwelling, how should such
"a father be considered-as cruel or void of affec-
"' tion ?
$6
"C
"He desired them not to regard what was given
out, of their not being in condition to attempt any
thing vigorous against these men.
He himself, as
"first magistrate, had not neglected the necessary
"precautions; and the general ardour with which
C. XVII.]
339
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
"all ranks of men concurred in the defence of their
"families, their properties, and the seat of empire,
"rendered every resolution they could take secure
"of the utmost effect. The forum is full, all the
"temples in its neighbourhood are full, all the
"streets and avenues to this place of assembly are
“full of citizens of every denomination, armed for
"the defence of their country. But he requested
"that the Senate would issue their orders before the
sun went down, and seemed to apprehend danger-
"ous consequences, if these matters were left unde-
"termined, and the city exposed to the accidents
"of the following night. For himself, he professed
"to have taken his resolution. Although he felt
"the occasion full of personal danger, he would
"execute the orders of the conscript fathers," he
said; "but if he fell in the attempt, implored their
"protection for his wife and his children *."
<c
All this appears to have passed in debate before
Cato spoke. This virtuous citizen, then about thir-
ty-three years of age, had, in the former part of his
life, taken a very different course from the youths of
his own time, and, both by his temper and educa-
tion, was averse to the libertine principles which had
crept into the politics and the manners of the age.
He spoke chiefly in answer to Caius Cæsar, who, he
observed, seemed to mistake the question.
" We
"are not inquiring," he said, "what is the proper
punishment of a crime already committed, but
"how we may defend the republic from an immi-
CC
* Cicer. in Catalinam, Orat. iv.
Y Q
340
the progress AND TERMINATION [C. XVII.
3
"nent danger with which it is threatened. It is
"proposed to send the prisoners to safe keeping in
"the country. Why into the country? Because per-
haps the faction of profligate citizens is more nu-
merous in Rome, and may rescue them. Is Rome
"the only place to which profligate men may resort,
"or are prisoners of state most secure where the
"force of government is least? This proposal is
66
"
surely an idle one, if the author of it professes to
"entertain any fear of these men. But if, in this ge-
"neral alarm of all the city, he and such persons be
"not afraid, so much the more cause have we to be
66
on our guard. We are beset with enemies, both
"within and without the walls. While Cataline
"with fire and sword is hastening to your gates,
66
you hesitate whether you will cut off or spare his
"associates, who are taken with the torch in their
"hands and the dagger at your breast! You must
" strike those who are now in your power, if you
"mean to intimidate those who are coming to sup-
"port their designs. The remissness or the vigour
"which you now show, will be felt in the camp of
"Cataline, and will be attended with suitable ef-
"fects. I am therefore of opinion, that we order
"these men, agreeably to the practice which our
"ancestors have followed-in all cases of treason and
"of open war against the commonwealth, to imme-
"diate death."
Such is said to have been the speech of Cato, by
which the Senate was determined in the very mo-
mentous resolution which was taken on the present
occasion; and however little we may be inclined to
C. XVII.] OF THE ROMAN REPUblic.
341
consider such compositions in many parts of ancient
history as records of fact, much credit is due to this
representation, as it is given by a person who him-
self became a partisan of Cæsar, and as the words
which he ascribed to these speakers must have come
in the perusal of his work under the inspection of
many who were present at the delivery of them *.
The execution of the prisoners was accordingly de-
termined, and Cornelius Lentulus, in the beginning
of the following night, was, by order of the Consul,
committed to a vaulted dungeon under ground, and
strangled. His accomplices had the same fate: and
the minds of men, though somewhat quieted of their
fears, were nevertheless stunned with the scene, and
beheld with amazement a Patrician of the Cornelian
family, of the first rank in the commonwealth, who
himself had been Consul, suffering, without any for-
mal trial, by the hands of the common executioner
of justice t.
While these things were in agitation at Rome,
Cataline was endeavouring to augment his force in
the field. He found about two thousand men un-
der Mallius. These he formed into two legions, and
as his party increased he completed their numbers.
He refused for some time to enrol the fugitive slaves,
of whom many took refuge in his camp; thinking
* The more credit is due to this account of Cæsar's and of Cato's speech,
that the speech which is ascribed to Cicero by the same historian, is a faith-
ful extract, or contains the purport of the oration which still remains among
his works.
+ Sallust. Bell. Catal. "Cur ergo in sententiam Catonis ? quia verbis lu-
"culentioribus et pluribus rem candem comprehenderat.”
cum, lib. xii, epist. 21.
Cicer, ad Atti-
342
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION [C. XVII.
it would discredit and weaken his cause to rest any
part of it on this support. But the freemen that
joined him being ill armed, he was obliged to keep
in the neighbourhood of the mountains, and frequent-
ly to change his ground, to avoid an engagement
with the Consul; and he endeavoured to gain time,
in hopes that, the intended blow being struck at
Rome, a general defection of the opposite party
would ensue. But when accounts came that his de-
sign had failed in the city, and that his principal as-
sociates were no more, those who were inclined to
his cause were discouraged, and numbers who had
already joined him began to fall off, he determi-
ned to remove to a distance from his enemies; and
for this purpose directed his march to a pass in the
Appenines, by which he might escape into Gaul.
This design the Prætor Metellus had foreseen, made
a forced march to prevent the effect of it, and Cata-
line at last, finding himself beset on every quarter,
determined to hazard a battle. Of the armies that
were in the field against him, he chose to face that
of Antonius; either because it lay on his route to
Rome, and, if defeated or removed, might open his
way to the city, or because he hoped to meet in the
commander of it some remains of inclination in his
favour. In whatever degree these hopes were at
first reasonably conceived, they ceased to have any
foundation; as Antonius, being taken ill, had left
the army under the command of Petreius. With
this commander Cataline engaged in battle, and, af-
ter many efforts of valour and of conduct, fell, with
the greater part of his followers, and thus delivered
c. XVII.]
343
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
the state from a desperate enemy, whose power was
happily not equal to his designs, and who has owed
much of his celebrity to the orator and the historian,
who have made him the subject of their eloquent
compositions. Sallust appears to have been so in-
tent on raising and finishing particular parts of his
work, that he neglected the general order of his nar-
rative. I have, therefore, in most parts of the rela-
tion, preferred the authority of Cicero to his. This
great man was undoubtedly best informed, and he
rested so much of his reputation on this transaction,
that he loses no opportunity of returning to it, and
in different parts of his writings, when collected, has
furnished a pretty full narration of circumstances
respecting the origin and termination of this wild
and profligate attempt to subvert the government of
the republic.
1
5
344
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION [C. XVIII.
CHAP. XVIII.
Character of the times.-Philosophy.-Opposite tenets and vo-
taries.-Proceedings of the Senate.-Tribunate of Metellus
Nepos, and of Cato.-Proposal to recall Pompey at the head
of his army frustrated. His arrival in Italy.—And tri-
umph.
>
Ir may appear strange, that any age or nation should
have furnished the example of a project conceived
in so much guilt, or of characters so atrocious as
those under which the accomplices of Cataline are
described by the eloquent orator and historian *
from whose writings the circumstances of the late
conspiracy are collected. The scene, however, in
this republic was such as to have no parallel, either
in the past or in the subsequent history of mankind.
There was less government, and more to be govern-
ed, than has been exhibited in any other instance.
The inhabitants of Italy, as citizens of Rome, were
become masters of the known world. They pre-
tended to govern in a body, but it was impossible
they ever could meet in a fair and adequate conven-
tion. They were represented, therefore, by partial
meetings or occasional tumults in the capital; and
Cicero and Sallust,
C. XVIII.]
945
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
to take the sense of the people on many a subject,
was little better than to occasion a riot. Individuals
were vested with powers almost discretionary in the
provinces, or continually aspired to such situations.
At home they were impatient of government, and
in haste to govern. Ruined in their fortunes by pri-
vate prodigality, or by the public expense in solicit-
ing honours; tempted to repair their ruins by op-
pression and extortion where they were intrusted
with command, or by desperate attempts against the
government of their country, if disappointed in their
hopes of sharing its profits. Not only were many of
the prevailing practices disorderly, but the law itself
was erroneous *; adopted indeed at first by a virtu-
ous people, because it secured the persons and the
rights of individuals against the possibility of injus-
tice, but now anxiously preserved by their posterity,
because it gave a licence to their crimes.
The provinces were to be retained by the forces
of Italy; the Italians themselves by the ascendant
of the capital; and in this capital all was confusion
and anarchy, except where the Senate, by its autho-
rity and the wisdom of its councils, prevailed. It
was no doubt expedient for the people to restrain
abuses of the aristocratical power; but when they
assumed the government into their own hands, or
* Lex Valeria et Porcia de tergo Civium lata. Liv. lib. ii, c. 8, lib. iii,
c. 55, lib. x, c. 9. By these laws a Roman citizen could not be imprisoned,
any more than suffer punishment, before conviction; he might stop any pro-
ceeding against himself by an appeal to the people; and, being at large during
his trial, might withdraw whenever he perceived the sentence likely to be given
against him.
346
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
[c. XVIII.
when the sovereignty was exercised in the name of
the collective body, abuses were multiplied, and the
confusion or anarchy which prevailed at Rome spread
from one extremity of her dominion to the other.
The provinces were oppressed, not upon a regular
plan to aggrandise the state, but at the pleasure of
individuals, to enrich a few of the most outrageous
and profligate citizens. The people, under pretence
of exerting their own powers, were perpetually vio-
lating the laws which had been made to restrain
usurpations; and the public interests and the order
of the state were in perpetual struggle with the pre-
tensions of demagogues, or of single and profligate
men. In such a situation there were many tempta-
tions to be wicked; and in such a situation likewise,
minds that were turned to integrity and honour had
a proportionate spring and scope to their exertions
and pursuits. The range of the human character
was great and extensive, and men were not likely
to trifle within narrow bounds; they were destined
to be good or to be wicked in the highest measure,
and, by their struggles, to exhibit a scene interest-
ing and instructive beyond any other in the history
of mankind.
Among the causes that helped to carry the cha-
racters of men in this age to such distant extremes,
may be reckoned the philosophy of the Greeks, which
was lately come into fashion, and which was much
affected by the higher ranks of men in the state *.
Literature, by the difficulty and expense of multi-
* Vid. Cicero's Philosophical Works.
c. XVIII.]
347
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
plying copies of books, being confined to persons ha-
ving wealth and power, it was considered as a dis-
tinction of rank, and had its vogue not only as an
useful, but as a fashionable accomplishment *. The
lessons of the school were admitted as the elements
of every liberal and active profession, and they were
quoted at the bar, in the field, in the Senate, and
every where in the conduct of real affairs. Philoso-
phy was considered as an ornament, as well as a real
foundation of strength, ability and wisdom, in the
practice of life. Men of the world, instead of being
ashamed of their sect, affected to employ its language
on every important occasion, and to be governed by
its rules so much as to assume, in compliance with
particular systems, distinctions of manners, and even
of dress. They embraced their forms in philosophy,
as the sectaries in modern times have embraced theirs
in religion; and probably in the one case honoured
their choice by the sincerity of their faith and the
regularity of their practice, much in the same degree
as they have done in the other.
In these latter times of the Roman republic, the
sect of Epicurus appears to have prevailed; and what
Fabricius, on hearing rehearsed the tenets of this
philosophy, wished for the enemies of Rome, had
now befallen her citizens t. Men were glutted with
* The grandees had their slaves sometimes educated to serve as secretaries
to themselves, or as preceptors to their children.
+ See Plutarch, in Pyrr. The philosopher Cyr cas, in the hearing of Fabri-
cius, entertained his prince with an argument to prove that pleasure was the
chief good. Fabricius wished that the enemies of Rome might long entertain
such tenets.
348
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION [C. XVIII.
ness.
national prosperity; they thought that they were
born to enjoy what their fathers had won, and saw
not the use of those austere and arduous virtues by
which the state had increased to its present great-
The votaries of this sect ascribed the forma-
tion of the world to chance, and denied the exist-
ence of Providence. They resolved the distinctions
of right and wrong, of honour and dishonour, into
mere appellations of pleasure and pain. Every man's
pleasure was to himself the supreme rule of estima-
tion and of action. All good was private. The pub-
lic was a mere imposture, that might be successfully
employed, perhaps to defraud the ignorant of their
private enjoyments, while it furnished the conveni-
ences of the wise *. By persons so instructed, the
care of families and of states, with whatever else
broke in upon the enjoyments of pleasure and ease,
were classed among the follies of human life. And
a sect under these imputations might be considered
as patrons of licentiousness, both in morality and re-
ligion, and declared enemies to mankind. Yet the
Epicureans, when urged in argument by their oppo-
nents, made some concessions in religion, and many
more in morality. They admitted the existence of
gods, but supposed those beings of too exalted a na-
ture to have any concern in the affairs of men. They
owned that, although good and pleasure were syno-
nymous terms, yet, among the varieties of pleasure,
those of virtue were the chief. A concession after
which they ought to have said, that virtue or the
* Cicero in Pisonem.
c. XVIII.]
349
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
chief pleasure was also the chief good, yet they still
returned to the general appellation of pleasure, at
the hazard of misleading the vulgar and even them-
selves in their choice *; and while they contended
that their difference with other sects consisted in a
mere dispute about words, those they were pleased
to employ served to suppress the specific sentiments
of conscience and elevation of mind, and to change
the reproaches of criminality, profligacy, or vileness,
by which even bad men are restrained from iniquity,
into mere imputations of mistake, or variations of
taste.
Other sects, particularly that of the Stoics, main-
tained, almost in every particular, the reverse of
these tenets. They maintained the reality of Pro-
vidence, and of a common interest of goodness and
of justice, for which Providence was exerted, and in
which all rational creatures were deeply concerned.
They maintained, that although it be evident that
happiness or the chief good is pleasant; yet it were
absurd conversely to say, that every pleasure is hap-
piness or the chief good. In the application of these
terms, we must attend to the exemption from suf-
fering, as well as the measure of enjoyment; and as
• Even the leader of this sect himself, though more pure in the choice of
his pleasure than many of his followers, yet was far from being regulated in
the choice he made by the more important occasions of human life. To him
the rearing of a family, without which the human race must speedily perish;
the offices of state, without which society cannot exist; were not only super-
fluous, but expressly precluded from the choice of a wise man. His virtue was
to be found in the peaceful retirement of a garden, in exemption from pain or
trouble, in contemplation and serenity of mind, in the society of a few select
friends, with sobriety and moderation of diet, and other sensualitics.
350
progress aND TERMINATION [C. XVIII.
THE
the our understanding cannot reach every possible ef
fect upon which to estimate the least measure of
pain, and the greatest of pleasure, Providence has
not left us to the effect of such a discussion: we are
taught to choose, on the first inspection of things,
the part of the innocent, of the praiseworthy and
just: Of this choice the pleasure is most delightful,
and the sense of having failed in it, the most grie-
vous pain in so much, that although in the nature
of things there are many grounds upon which we
prefer or reject the objects that present themselves
to us, yet the choice which we make, and our own
actions, not the event of our efforts, decides our
happiness or our misery; that right and wrong are
the most important and the only grounds upon
which we can at all times safely proceed in our
choice, and that, in comparison to this difference,
every thing else is of no account; that a just man
will ever act as if there was nothing good but what
is right, and nothing evil but what is wrong; that
the Epicureans mistook human nature when they
supposed all its principles resolvable into appetites
for pleasure, or aversions to pain; that honour and
dishonour, excellence and defect, were considera-
tions which not only led to much nobler ends, but
which were of much greater power in commanding
the human will; the love of pleasure was grovelling
and vile, was the source of dissipation and of sloth ;
the love of excellence and honour was aspiring and
noble, and led to the greatest exertions and the
highest attainments of our nature. They maintain-
ed, that there is no private good separate from the
c. XVIII.]
351
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
public; that the same qualities of the understand-
ing and the heart, wisdom, benevolence, and cou-
rage, which are good for the individual, are so like-
wise for the public; that these blessings every man
may possess, independent of fortune or the will of
other men; and that whoever does possess them
has nothing to hope, and nothing to fear, and can
have but one sort of emotion, that of satisfaction
and joy; that his affections, and the maxims of his
station, as a creature of God, and as a member of
society, lead him to act for the good of mankind;
and that for himself he has nothing more to desire,
than the happiness of acting this part. These, they
said, were the tenets of reason leading to a perfec-
tion, which ought to be the aim of every person
who means to preserve his integrity, or to consult
his happiness, and towards which every one may
advance, although no one has actually reached it.
In these disputes, the celebrated fable of Prodicus
seemed to be realized; and as virtue and pleasure
there contended for the ear of youth, integrity and
corruption now strove for acceptance with a pam-
pered and restless people.
Among those on whom the public fortune seem-
ed to depend, Cæsar is said to have embraced the
doctrines of Epicurus; Cato those of Zeno: The
first, from indifference to moral distinctions, in com-
pliance with fashion, or from the bias of an original
temper: The other, from the force of conviction,
as well as from the predilection of a warm and
ingenuous mind. When such characters occur to-
gether, it is impossible not to see them in contrast.
$52
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION [c. XVIII.
And Sallust, in relating what passed in the Senate,
on the subject of the Cataline conspiracy, seems to
overlook every other character, to dwell upon these
alone. Cæsar, at the time when this historian flou-
rished, had many claims to his notice *; but Cato
could owe it to nothing but the force of truth. He
was distinguished from his infancy by an ardent and
affectionate disposition. This part of his character
is mentioned on occasion of his attachment to his
brother Cæpio, and the vehement sorrow with which
he was seized at his death. It is mentioned, on oc-
casion of his visit to the Dictator Sylla, when he
was with difficulty restrained, by the discretion of
his tutor, from some act or expression of indignation
against this real or apparent violator of public jus-
tice. He had from his infancy, according to Plu-
tarch, a resolution, a steadiness, and a composure of
mind, not to be moved by flattery, not to be shaken
by threats. Without fawning or insinuation, he was
the favourite of his companions, and had, by his un-
affected generosity and courage, the principal place
in their confidence. Though in appearance stern
and inflexible, he was warm in his affections, and
zealous in the cause of innocence and justice. Such
are the marks of an original temper, affixed by his-
torians as the characters of his infancy and early
youth. So fitted by nature, he imbibed with ease an
opinion, that profligacy, cowardice, and malice,
were the only evils to be feared; courage, integri-
* Sallust attached himself to Cæsar, and was employed by him in the civil
wars.
2
C. XVIII.] OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
358
ty, and benevolence, the only good to be coveted;
and that the proper care of a man on every occa-
sion is, not what is to happen to him, but what he
himself is to do. With this profession he became a
striking contrast to many of his contemporaries;
and to Cæsar in particular, not only a contrast, but
a resolute opponent; and although in these times
he could not furnish a sufficient counterpoise, yet he
afforded always much weight to be thrown into the
opposite scale. They were both of undaunted cou-
rage, and of great penetration; the one to distin-
guish what was best; the other to avail himself of
the most effectual means for the attainment of any
end on which he was bent. It were to mistake en-
tirely the scene in which they were engaged, to
judge of their abilities from the event of their differ-
ent pursuits. Those of Cato were by their nature
in direct opposition to the current of manners, and
they were a series of struggles with almost unsur-
mountable difficulties: those of Cæsar went with
the stream, and, except when he was jostled in the
competition with others who ran the same course
with himself, he had only to seize the advantages of
which the vices and weaknesses of the times gave
him an easy possession. Cato endeavoured to pre-
serve the order of civil government, however des-
perate, because this was the part it became him to
act, and in which he chose to live and to die.
Cæsar hastened its ruin; because he was eager for
power, and wished to dispose of all the wealth and
honours of the state at his own discretion.
VOL. II.
Z
1
354
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION [c. XVIII.
Cæsar, as versatile in his genius, as Cato was stea-
dy and inflexible, could personate any character,
and support any cause; in debate he could derive
his arguments from any topic; from topics of pity,
of which he was insensible; from topics of justice
and public good, for which he had no regard. His
vigour in resisting personal insults or attacks appear-
ed in his early youth, when he withstood the impe-
rious commands of Sylla, to part with his wife, the
daughter of Cinna, and when he revenged the vio-
lence done by the pirates to himself; but while his
temper might be supposed the most animated and
warm, he was not involved in business by a predi-
lection for any of the interests on which the people
was divided. So long as the appetites of youth were
sufficient to occupy him, he saw every object of
state, or of faction, with indifference, and took no
part in public affairs. But even in this period, by
his application and genius, in both of which he was
eminent, he made a distinguished progress in letters
and eloquence. When he turned his mind to objects
of ambition, the same personal vigour which appear-
ed in his youth, became still more conspicuous; but,
unfortunately, this passion, the most energetic and
powerful in the human mind, instead of urging to
genuine greatness, and elevation of nature, was in
him a mere principle of competition among the lead-
ers of faction at Rome. He had attained to seven-
and-thirty years of age before he took any consider-
able part as a member of the commonwealth. He
then courted the populace in preference to the Se-
nate or better sort of the people, and made his first
c. XVIII.]
355
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
appearance in support of the profligate, against the
forms and authority of government. With
With persons
of desperate fortune and abandoned manners, he
early bore the characters of liberality and friendship;
was received among them as a generous spirit, come
to explode the morose severity of those who would
restrain the freedom of youth within the limits of
sobriety and public order. Though himself a person
of the greatest abilities, and the most accomplished
talents, having an opportunity to live on terms of
equality with the greatest men that have yet appear-
ed in the world, he chose to start up as the chief
among those who, being abandoned to every vice,
saw the remains of virtue in their country with dis-
taste and aversion. In proportion as he emerged
from the avocations of pleasure, or from the sloth
which accompanies the languor of dissipation, his de-
sire to counteract the established government of his
country, and to make himself master of the common-
wealth, became more and more evident. To this
passion he sacrificed every sentiment of friendship or
animosity, of honour, interest, resentment, or hatred.
The philosophy which taught men to look for enjoy-
ment indiscriminately wherever it pleased them most,
found a ready acceptance in such a disposition. But
while he possibly availed himself of the speculations
of Epicurus to justify his choice of an object, he was
not inferior to the followers of Zeno, in vigorous ef
forts and active exertions for the attainment of his
ends. Being about seven years younger than Pom-
pey, and three years older than Cato; the first he
occasionally employed as a prop to his own ambi-
z 2
356
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION [C. XVIII.
tion, or at least, in the early part of his career, did
not seem to perceive him as a rival; the other, from
a fixed animosity of opposite natures, and from ha-
ving felt him as a continual opponent in all his de-
signs, he sincerely hated.
Cato began his military service in the army which
was employed against the gladiators, and concluded
it as a legionary Tribune, under the Prætor Rubrius,
in Macedonia, while Pompey remained in Syria.
He was about three-and-thirty years of age when he
made his speech in the Senate relating to the ac-
complices of Cataline; and by the decisive and re-
solute spirit he had shown on this occasion, came to
be considered as a principal support of the govern-
ment and authority of the Senate *. To this body,
as usual, every flagrant disorder repressed, brought
an accession of power; and the discovery of a design,
so odious as that of Cataline, covered under popular
pretences, greatly served to discredit the supposed
popular cause. One of the first uses the Senate pro-
posed to make of their advantage, was to have Cato
elected among the Tribunes of the subsequent year.
His services were likely to be wanted in opposition
to the schemes of Metellus Nepos, who was then ar-
rived from the army in Syria, with recommendations
to public favour as a candidate for the office of Tri-
bune; and if he should prevail in the election by
the influence of Pompey, it was not doubted he came
charged with some measure to gratify the ambition
or vanity of this insatiable suitor for personal consi-
• Plutarch, in Caton. edit. Lond. p. 238.
C. XVIII.]
357
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
deration and honour. It had not yet appeared what
part he was to take in the disputes which were like-
ly to arise on the legality or expedience of the late
summary executions; but it is not to be doubted,
that he wished to hold the balance of parties, and
that he would come prepared for the part that was
most likely to promote his own importance. Metel-
lus was sent on before him to be supported by his
friends in the competition which was expected, and
with his instructions to take such measures as were
likely to favour his pretensions.
The leading men of the Senate were now, for some
time, aware of the intrigues of Pompey, and bore,
with impatience, the personal superiority which he
affected even to the first and most respected men of
their order. They took occasion, in the present
crisis, to mortify him by admitting Lucullus and
Metellus Creticus to the triumphs to which, by their
respective victories in Pontus and in Crete, they
were long entitled. Hitherto the claims of these
officers had been overruled by the popular faction,
either to annoy the senatorian party, to which they
were attached, or to flatter Pompey, who was sup-
posed to be equally averse to the honours of both.
They had waited in Italy about three years, and, in
the manner of those who sue for a triumph, still re-
taining the fasces or ensigns of their late command*,
had refrained from entering the city.
Lucullus, having obtained the honour that was
due to him, seemed to be satisfied with the acknow-
* Cicero in Lucullo.
358
[c. XVIII.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
ledgment of his right; and, as if merely to show
with what sort of enemy he had fought, he entered
the city with a few of the Armenian horsemen cased
in armour, a few of the armed chariots winged with
scythes, and about sixty of the officers and courtiers
of Mithridates, who were his captives. He order-
ed the spoils he had gained, the arms and ensigns
of war, the prows of the galleys he had taken, to be
displayed in the great circus, and concluded the so-
lemnity with giving a feast to the people. The Se-
nate hoped for his support against the ambition of
Pompey, and the factious designs of the popular
leaders; but he was disgusted, and from thencefor-
ward scarcely ever took a part in the affairs of state.
The triumph of Metellus Creticus did not take
place till after the accession of P. Junius Silanus
and Lucius Muræna, Consuls of the following year;
after whose election, Cicero, before he had vacated
the office, or laid down the fasces, had occasion to
defend his intended successor Muræna, against a
charge of corruption brought upon the statute of
Calpurnius, by Servius Sulpicius, one of his late com-
petitors, supported by Cato and others. The oration
of Cicero on this occasion is still extant, and is a
curious example of the topics which, under popular
governments, are recurred to even in judicial plead-
ings. Great part of it consists in a ridicule of law
terms; because Sulpicius, one of the prosecutors,
used to give counsel to his friends who consulted him
in matters of law; and in a ridicule of the Stoic phi-
losophy, because Cato, another prosecutor, was sup-
posed to have embraced the doctrines of that sect.
C. XVIII.] OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
359
Cato made no other remark on this pleading, but
that the republic was provided with a merry Consul.
The argument, however, appeared sufficiently strong
on the side of Muræna, and he was acquitted.
At the close of this trial, Cicero, about to abdi-
cate his power, and being to make the usual asse-
veration, upon oath, That he had faithfully, and to
the best of his abilities, discharged his trust; propo-
sed to introduce this solemnity with a speech to the
people, but was ordered by Metellus, already elect-
ed, and acting in the capacity of Tribune, to con-
fine himself to the simple terms of his oath. He ac-
cordingly refrained from speaking; but instead of
swearing simply, That he had been faithful to his
trust, he took an oath, That he had preserved the
republic *. It was on this occasion, probably, that
Cato, now another of the Tribunes, addressing him-
self to the people, and alluding to the suppression
of the late conspiracy, called Cicero the Father of
his Country ; and from this time entered upon an
opposition to his colleague Metellus, which was not
likely to drop while they continued in office.
Soon after the accession of the new magistrates,
a storm began to gather, which, though
still aimed at the party of the Senate,
burst at last in a personal attack upon
the late Consul, who had been the prompter or in-
strument of the Senate in the late summary proceed-
ings against the accomplices of Cataline. Metellus
Nepos seems to have come from Asia, and to have
U. C. 691.
D. Junius
Silanus, L.
Muræna.
Plutarch. in Cicerone.
+ Cicer. in Pisonem, c. 3.
360 THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION [C. XVIII.
entered on the office of Tribune, with a particular
design to bring about the reception of Pompey with
his army into Rome; and in this project he was
joined by Caius Cæsar *, now in the office of Præ-
tor, who chose to support the Tribune in this mea-
sure, as an act of hostility to the Senate, if not as
the means of obtaining a precedent of which he
might in his turn avail himself.
In consequence of a plan concerted with Cæsar,
the Tribune Metellus moved in the Senate, as had
been usual in the times of its highest authority, for
leave to propose a decree in the assembly of the
people recalling Pompey from Asia at the head of
his forces, in order to restore the constitution of the
commonwealth, which, in the terms he afterwards
employed to the people, had been violated by the
arbitrary administration of Cicero. This was the
first attempt of the party to inflame the minds of the
people on the subject of the late executions; and
Pompey was, in this manner, offered to the popular
party as their leader, to avenge the supposed wrongs
they had received. Cato, when the matter was pro-
posed in the Senate, endeavoured to persuade Me-
tellus to withdraw his motion, reminding him of the
dignity of his family, which had been always a prin-
cipal ornament and support of the state. This treat-
ment served only to raise the presumption of Me-
tellus, and brought on a violent altercation be-
tween the Tribunes. The Senate applauded Cato,
but had not authority enough to prevent the mo-
* Sueton. in Jul. Cæs. c. 16.
C. XVIII.]
361
OF THE ROMAN REpublic.
tion which was proposed from being made to the
people.
Metellus, apprehending an obstinate resistance
from his colleague, endeavoured to fill the place of
assembly with his own partisans; and, on the even-
ing before the meeting, in order to intimidate his
opponents, paraded in the streets with a numerous
attendance of men in arms. The friends and rela-
tions of the other Tribunes earnestly beseeched them
not to expose themselves to the dangers with which
they were threatened. But, on the following day,
the other party being already assembled by Metel-
lus, at the temple of Castor, and the place having
been in the night occupied by persons under his di-
rection, armed with clubs, swords, and other offen-
sive weapons *, Cato went forth attended only by Mi-
nutius Thermus, another of the Tribunes, and a few
friends. They were joined by numbers in the streets,
who could not accompany them to their place, being
prevented by the multitude of armed men who al-
ready crowded the avenues and the steps of the
temple. But they themselves, from respect to their
office, being suffered to pass, dragged along with
them through the crowd, as an aid, in case any vio-
lence were offered, Munatius, a citizen much attach-
ed to Cato. When they came to the bench of Tri-
bunes, they found that Metellus, with the Prætor
Julius Cæsar, had taken their places there; and that,
in order to concert their operations in the conduct
of this affair, they were closely seated together.
* Plutarch. in Catone, edit. Lond. p. 241, &c.
362
progress AND TERMINATION [C. XVIII.
the PROGRESS
Cato, to disappoint this intention, forced himself in
betwixt them, and, when the ordinary officer began
to read the intended decree, interposed his negative,
or forbad him to proceed. Metellus himself seized
the writing, and began to read; but Cato snatched
it out of his hands. Metellus endeavoured to repeat
the substance of it from his memory. Thermus
clapped a hand to his mouth. A general silence re-
mained in the assembly, till Metellus, having made
a signal concerted with his party to clear the comi-
țium of their enemies, a great tumult and confusion
arose ; and the Tribunes who opposed Metellus were
in imminent danger. The Senators had met in
mourning, to mark their sense of the evils which
threatened the commonwealth; and now, under the
apprehension of some signal calamity, gave a charge
to the Consuls to watch over the safety of the state,
and empowered them to take such measures as
might be necessary to preserve or to restore the
peace.
In consequence of this charge, the Consul Mu-
ræna appearing with a body of men in arms, had the
good fortune to rescue Cato and Minutius Thermus;
and probably by this seasonable interposition effaced
any remains of misunderstanding which might have
subsisted between Cato and himself, on account of
the prosecution for bribery which followed the late
elections t.
Metellus, after the tumult was composed, having
again obtained silence, began to read the proposed
* Plutarch. in Catone, edit. Lond. p. 241, &c. + Plutarch. ibid.
C. XVIII.
36S
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
decree; but the senatorian party, headed by the
Consuls, being then in the comitium, he found it
impossible to proceed; and, together with the Præ-
tor Caius Cæsar, retired from the assembly. From
this time, these officers made no attempt to resume
their motion, but complained that the government
was usurped by a violent faction, under whom even
the persons of the Tribunes were unsafe; and Me-
tellus, as if forced to break through the rules which
obliged the Tribunes to constant residence at Rome,
abandoned the city, even left Italy, and fled to the
camp of Pompey in Asia, from which he had but
lately set out on his journey to Rome *. He had
already threatened his opponents in the city with
the resentment and military power of his general,
and now endeavoured to excite the army and their
commander to follow the example which had been
set to them by Sylla and his legions, when oppress-
ed citizens, a description which he now assumed to
himself, fled to them for protection and revenge.
It may well be supposed, that Cæsar, remember-
ing his own escape from the ruin of the Marian
faction, and considering Pompey as the head of an
opposite interest, and a principal obstacle to his
own ambition, must look upon him with some de-
gree of personal dislike and animosity; but his con-
duct on this occasion sufficiently shewed how little
he was the dupe of any passion or sentiment which
had a tendency to check his pursuits. Meaning for
the present only to weaken the Senate, and to par-
* Dio. Cass. lib. xxxvii, p. 45.
364 the progress AND TERMINATION [C. XVIII.
take in the favour which Pompey enjoyed with the
people; he undertook the cause even of a rival, and
would have joined the populace, in delivering the
commonwealth into his hands, rather than remain
under a government which he considered as the
principal bar to his own elevation. But if he really
meant to overthrow the Senate by force, he mis-
took his instrument. Pompey, no doubt, aspired
to be the first among citizens, and wished for the
ostentation of military power at Rome; but even
this he desired to receive as the fruit of considera-
tion and personal respect; and he ever hoped to
make the people bestow it, and even force him to
accept of it as their gift. For this purpose he en-
couraged so many agents and retainers to sound his
own praise; and for this purpose he had recently
sent Metellus Nepos from his camp in Asia to take
upon him the functions of a popular Tribune at
Rome; but having failed in the project of vanity,
his mind misgave him in the project of force. No
one ever courted distinction with a more incessant
emulation to his rivals; but he was entirely depen-
dent on the public opinion for any satisfaction he
enjoyed in the possession of power. Trusting per-
haps to this part of his character, Cæsar, though
no way remiss as a rival, was not yet alarmed at
the elevation of Pompey, and thought that he was
safe in admitting him to govern with the sword at
Rome. Pompey was, at this conjuncture, with his
army moving towards Italy, and his approach was
matter of great apprehension to the friends of the
commonwealth, who feared that, in return to the
c. XVIII.]
365
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
affront of his not being invited, upon the motion of
Metellus, to come with his army, he would employ
it in person to enforce his commands. Upon his ar-
rival at Brundisium, however, as formerly upon his
return from Africa, he dispelled those fears by an
immediate dismission of the troops, with instruc-
tions, merely that they should attend at his triumph.
He himself came forward to Rome with the single
equipage of his proconsular rank. Multitudes of
every condition went forth to receive him, and with
shouts and acclamations recompensed the modera-
tion with which he acquiesced in the condition of a
citizen.
Cæsar, from whatever motive he acted in regard
to Pompey, gave every other sign of disaffection to
the Senate, and employed the name of this rising fa-
vourite of the people, to mortify such of the mem-
bers in particular as were objects of personal animo-
sity to himself. The repairs or rebuilding of the
Capitol being finished about this time, the honour
of dedicating the edifice, and of being named in the
inscription it was to bear, was, by a resolution of the
Senate, conferred on Catulus, under whose inspec-
tion the work had been executed. But Cæsar, af-
fecting to obtain this honour for Pompey, alleged
that Catulus had embezzled the money allotted for
the service; that much yet remained to be done;
and moved, that the inscription of Catulus should
be erased; that the completion of the work being
left to Pompey, should carry an inscription with his
name *. Here he probably acted as much from an-
* Sueton. in Jul. Cæsare, c. 15.
366 THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION [C. XVIII.
tipathy to the one, as from an intention to flatter the
other. But the design being extremely odious to the
whole body of the Nobles, who saw with indignation,
in that proposal, an attempt to affront a most respect-
able citizen, in order to flatter the vanity of one
person, and to gratify the profligate resentments of
another; under this aspect of the business, Cæsar
was obliged to withdraw his motion *.
It was probably during this year in which Cæsar
was Prætor, and before the arrival of Pompey from
Asia (although historians refer it to an earlier date),
that Cæsar promoted, as has been already mention-
ed, prosecutions upon a charge of assassination a-
gainst some of the persons concerned in the execu-
tion of Sylla's proscriptions. The Prætors had in
charge by lot to superintend the application of par-
ticular laws. The law respecting assassination ap-
pears to have been the lot of Cæsar; and he was en-
titled, in virtue of his office, the jurisdiction of
which was still very arbitrary, to extend, by his
edict or plan of proceeding for the year, the de-
scription of the crime under his cognisance to any
special case.
While he seemed to have formed so many designs
against the peace of the commonwealth, and in the
capacity of Prætor supported them with the autho-
rity of a magistrate, the senatorian party made a
powerful exertion of their influence to have him sus-
pended, and actually obtained a decree for this
He affected at first to slight their authority;
pose.
pur-
Dio. Cass. lib. xlvii, c, p. 44.
c. XVIII.] OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
967
but finding that a power was preparing to enforce
it, perhaps at the hazard of his life, he laid aside for
some time the robes and badges of magistracy, dis-
missed his lictors, and abstained from the functions
of Prætor, until, having rejected an offer of the peo-
ple to restore him by force, he was, with proper
marks of regard, for this instance of moderation and
duty, reinstated by an act of the Senate itself *
The aristocratical party, meanwhile, to confirm
and perpetuate the evidence on which they had pro-
ceeded against the accomplices of Cataline, continued
their prosecutions on this subject, and obtained sen-
tence of condemnation, in particular, against a citi-
zen of the name of Vergunteius, and against Autro-
nius, who, about two years before, having been elect-
ed Consul, was set aside upon a charge of bribery,
and who, from the disgust which he took to the Se-
nate upon that occasion, had connected himself
with the more desperate party. Publius Sylla, as
has been mentioned, was also tried; but upon the
pleading and testimony of Cicero, who possessed all
the information obtained on this subject, was ho-
nourably acquitted.
Cæsar likewise was accused by Vectius as acces-
sary to the conspiracy of Cataline; but it is not like-
ly that he was concerned farther than by the gene-
ral encouragement he gave to every party at vari-
ance with the Senate. Opposition to this body was
reputed the cause of the people, and was pretended
by every person who had any passions to gratify by
*Sueton. in Jul. Cæsare, c. 16.
368 THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION [C. XVIII.
crimes of state, or who wished to weaken the go-
vernment, to which they themselves were account-
able. Among the supporters of this interest, Crassus
also was accused, but probably on no better grounds
than Cæsar.
The whole of these proceedings, however, were
suspended by the approach of Pompey. This lead-
er had now drawn the attention of all men upon.
himself, was quoted in every harangue as the great
support of the empire, and courted by multitudes,
who, without inquiry, or knowledge of his person,
affected to be classed with his admirers and friends.
While the contagion spread, like a fashion, among
the people, he himself affected indifference to this
mighty tide of renown, though not without much
dignity and state, which he tempered with affability
and grace; employing the greatness he possessed to
give the more value to his condescensions. His
manner, though acceptable to the people, and the
army he commanded, was disagreeable to the Se-
nate. Having previously sent Piso, one of his lieu-
tenants, before him to stand for the Consulate, he
had the presumption to desire that the Senate would
defer the elections until he himself could be present
to canvass for his friend. The Senate, according to
Dio, complied with his desire; but, according to
Plutarch, rejected the proposal with disdain. This
author imputes the resolution, which they took up-
on this occasion, to Cato, and subjoins, that Pom-
pey afterwards endeavoured to gain this opponent
by a proposed marriage with one of his near rela-
tions; and that Cato declined the connection, say-
2
c. XVIII.]
369
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC,
#
ing, That he should not be caught in a female snare.
Piso, however, was elected, together with Valerius
Messala, and entered on his office before the solem-
nity of Pompey's triumph.
This followed soon after; and, though continued
for two days, could not make place for all
the magnificent shows which had been pro-
vided to adorn it. The list of conquests
U. C. 692.
M. Pub.
Piso Cal-
purnius, M.
Val. Mes-
sala Niger.
exceeded that which had ever been produ-
ced at any other triumph; including Asia, Pontus,
Armenia, Cappadocia, Paphlagonia, Medea, Colchis,
Iberia, Albania, Syria, Cilicia, Mesopotamia, Phoe-
nicia, Judæa, Arabia, Scythia, Crete, with the sea
on all its coasts. Among the nations or potentates
subdued, were the Basterni, Mithridates and Tigra-
nes. Among the captures, a thousand fortresses,
nine hundred cities reduced, eight hundred galleys
taken, above two millions of men in captivity. Towns
repeopled, not less than three hundred and ninety-
nine. To this pompous list, it was subjoined by his
friends, that, this being his third triumph, he had
now made a round of the known world, or had tri-
umphed over all the three parts of the earth, Africa,
Europe, and Asia.
After rewarding the soldiers, of whom none recei-
ved less than fifteen hundred denarii †, he carried to
the treasury twenty thousand talents ‡. Among his
principal captives, were led, besides the chief pirates,
Tigranes, son to the king of Armenia, with his wife
and his daughter,-Zozimé, the queen of Tigranes
Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. vii, c. 26. † About L.50. About L.3,860,000.
VOL. II.
2 A
370 THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
[c. XVIII.
the father,-Aristobulus, king of the Jews,-a sister
of Mithridates with five sons, and some Scythian wo-
men ;-the hostages of the Iberii, and the Comma-
geni, together with trophies for every battle he had
fought, making in all a more splendid exhibition than
any that was to be found on the records of the
state.
The triumphal processions of Pompey merit more
attention than those of any other person, because
they exhibit his character as well as military success.
Others took the benefit of an established practice to
publish and to ratify the honours they had acquired;
but Pompey, it is likely, would have invented the
triumph, even if it had not been formerly thought
of; and it is not to be doubted, that he overran
some provinces in which the enemy were subdued,
or in which they were so weak, as not to be able to
make any resistance, merely to place them in the list
of his conquests; and that he made some part of his
progress in Asia merely to accumulate trophies and
ornaments for this pompous scene.
The triumph, in its ordinary form, consisted only
of such exhibitions as had a reference to the service
in which it was obtained; the captives and spoils of
the enemy, with effigies or representations of the
first, where the originals, by any accident, could not
be displayed. But in the solemnities instituted for
the honour of Pompey, were admitted whatever
could distinguish or signalize the occasion. Among
these, according to the record transcribed by Pliny *,
*Nat. Hist. lib. xxxvii, c. 2.
C. XVIII.] OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
371
there were many costly ornaments of gold and of
precious stones, not taken from the enemy, but fa-
bricated on purpose to be shown. Plates, used for
some species of game or play, made of one entire
crystal; a model of the moon in gold, weighing thir-
ty pondo; tables, utensils, statues, crowns adorned
with precious stones, the representation also of an
entire mountain in gold, with its herds of deer, and
other animals, haunted with lions: and what serves as
an evidence that these exhibitions were not limited
to the spoils actually taken in war, there is mention-
ed an effigy of Pompey himself incrusted with pearls.
The whole conducted with more arrangement and
order, than were necessary, perhaps, in the disposi-
tion made for any of the battles which the triumph
was intended to celebrate.
Among the images, representations, and memo-
rials which were carried before the victor on this oc-
casion, there was held up to view a state of the pub-
lic finance, from which it appeared, that before Pom-
pey's time the revenue amounted to no more than
fifty millions *; and that the addition which he alone
brought to it amounted to eighty-five millions t.
Soon after this pomp was over, an assembly of the
people was called in the Circus Flaminius, to receive
an address from the victorious commander; but from
an extreme caution not to offend any party, the
speech which he made, upon this occasion, was ac-
ceptable to none. "It gave no hopes," says Cice-
* L. 416,666.
+ L.708,533. Plutarch. in Pompeio, edit. Lond. p. 470.
2
2 A 2
372
the progress AND TERMINATION [C. XVIII.
*
ro " to the poor; no flattery to the rich; no satis-
"faction to the good; no encouragement to the pro-
CC
fligate." Pompey was suffered to possess the high-
est place in the consideration of the public, merely
because he assumed it; and he preserved his digni-
ty, by never committing his reputation without be-
ing prepared, or without having concerted a variety
of arts by which it might be supported t.
* Cicer. ad Atticum, lib. i, ep. 14.
+ Sallust, in Catalin. c. 54, in contrasting the characters of Cæsar and Cato,
does not propose to decide on the comparative merit of their objects; for this
he assumes to have been consideration or glory, and the same in both; but in
reality he seems to have mistaken the object of either. That of Cæsar was not
consideration; for although he courted the public opinion, when subservient to
his power, yet he slighted it also, when it stood in his way to dominion. In
the object of Cato, consideration had no share. His life was distinguished by
the general tenor of reason, integrity, humanity and justice, in the public cause,
whatever the world might think of his conduct. And his resolution often led
him into measures, unsuccessful from the want of co-operation in a corrupt or
misguided age. The great distinction of Pompey, if we insert his character
into this comparison, was the prevailing attention to consideration or glory, in
preference to either virtue or power.
4
C. XIX.]
373
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
CHAP. XIX.
Transactions at Rome, and in the provinces.-Julius Cæsar
appointed, in the quality of proprætor, to his first province of
Lusitania.-Trial of Clodius.-Proposed adoption into a
plebeian family, to qualify him for the office of tribune.-
Cæsar, a candidate for the consulship.-The triumvirate
of Cæsar, Pompey, and Crassus.-Consulship of Cæsar.-
Motion of Vatinius, to confer on Cæsar, for five years, the
command in Gaul.-Marriage of Pompey to Julia.—Of
Cæsar to Calpurnia.-Plot of Vettius.—Consulate of Lucius
Calpurnius and A. Gabinius.-Attack made upon Cicero.-
His exile.
POMPEY, at his departure from Syria, left that pro-
vince with two legions under the command of M.
Æmilius Scaurus, one of his lieutenants. This offi-
cer occupied the country from the Euphrates to the
frontier of Egypt, and continued the war which his
predecessor had begun with the Arabs.
Caius Antonius, the late colleague of Cicero in
the Consulate, soon after the defeat of Cataline, pro-
ceeded to the province of Macedonia, of which, by
the arrangements of the year, he had been appointed
the governor. He entered his province with the en-
signs of victory, which had been obtained by the de-
feat of Cataline; but these he soon forfeited by his
misconduct in a war against the Thracians, and by
the disgrace which he otherwise incurred in the mal-
374
[c. XIX.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
administration of his province.
Complaints were
exhibited against him for extortion. On this occa-
sion, it had been reported by himself, or by some of
his family, that, having agreed to divide the profits
of his government with Cicero, part only of his ex-
actions was made on his own account. This alle-
gation, Cicero, in a letter to Atticus, mentions with
scorn; and, being asked to undertake the defence
of Antonius, questions whether he can decently do
so under this imputation *. But as he soon after-
wards undertook the cause, and employed his inte-
rest to have the Proconsul continued in his province,
it is probable that this imputation either gained no
credit, or was entirely removed t.
The Allobroges, though deprived of the support
they were made to expect from the party of Cata-
line, nevertheless took arms, and invaded the Roman
province of Gaul. After a variety of events, they
were repulsed by Pontinius, who then commanded
the legions in that quarter, and forced to retire into
their own country ‡.
About the same time, Caius Julius Cæsar, upon
the expiration of his term in the office of Prætor, ob-
tained his first military command, being appointed
by lot to the government of Lusitania, where, under
different pretences, he found an opportunity to quar-
rel with the natives, to show his own capacity for
war, and to lay some ground for his claim to a tri-
umph. In pushing his way to the preferments
* Vid. Cicero ad Atticum, lib. i, ep. 12. + Ad Familiar. lib v, cp. 5.
Ibid. c. 52. &c.
Dio. lib. xxxvii.
C. XVIII.]
375
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
which he now held in the state, he had ruined his
fortune by largesses, public shows, and entertain-
ments to the people, by his lavish bounty in private
to needy and profligate citizens, and in supporting
every desperate cause against the Senate and the Go-
vernment; and is reported to have said of himself,
when he set out for his province, that he needed one
hundred and fifty millions Roman money, or one
million two hundred thousand pounds sterling, to be
worth nothing*. When about to depart from the ci-
ty, he was pressed by his creditors, and had recourse
to Crassus, who became his surety for great sums †.
A person who, in any other state than that of Rome,
could suppose such a fortune reparable, must have
thought of means alarming to the state itself; but
Cæsar had now quitted the paths of pleasure for those
of ambition; and, in an empire which extended over
so many opulent provinces, needed only to have
power, in order to become rich. Although the pro-
vince which now fell to his lot was not the most
wealthy, or was only a step to somewhat farther,
more considerable, and more likely to supply him
with the means of pursuing his objects, he was nevér-
theless reported, even there, to have supplied his
own wants, and to have enriched his army ‡.
In passing the Alps, on his way into Spain, at a
village on the way, one of his company having ob-
served, that," Here too there might be parties and
Appian. de Bell. Civ. lib. ii, p. 715.
+ Ibid.
About L. 160,000. Plutarch. in Cæsare.
Ibid. edit. Lond. p. 111.
376 THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
[c. XIX.
"contests for power:" "Ay," said Cæsar, with a cha-
racteristical confession," and I would rather be the
66
first man in this place, than the second at Rome *."
Upon his arrival in Lusitania, he made the necessary
augmentation of the army, and soon overran all the
districts that were disposed to resist his authority.
With the same ability with which he conducted his
military operations, he supported the dignity of a
Roman governor, no less in the civil than in the de-
partment of war. Historians, upon an idea which
occurred to them, that the disorder in his own af
fairs might have rendered him partial to insolvent
debtors, and being at pains to acquit him of any
such charge, observe that he gave proofs of the con-
trary; among which they specify a rule which he
followed, in ordering two-thirds of the debtor's
effects to be sequestrated for the use of his credi-
tors t.
While these things passed in the provinces, the
people being indulged in their favourite gratifica-
tions, suffered an increase of the political distempers
with which the public had been for some time in-
fected. The expense and dissipation attending the
public shows, in particular, were augmented to a
great degree. Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus ex-
hibited the baiting of an hundred bears by African
huntsmen ; and whereas such entertainments had
formerly ended at one meeting, they were now con-
+
Plutarch. in Cæsare, edit. Lond. p. 111.
Plin, Nat. Hist. lib. viii, c. 36.
† Ibid.
p. 112.
c. XIX.]
377
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
tinued through many acts *, and were intermitted
only while the spectators retired to their meals.
The office of Censor, as appears from the transac-
tions which are mentioned relating to the farmers of
the revenue and the rolls of the Senate, was in ac-
tual exertion at this time, although the names of the
persons by whom it was exercised are not recorded.
These officers are said to have let the revenues of
Asia at a rate, of which the farmers afterwards com-
plained, alleging, that their own avidity in grasping
at the profits to be made in this new province had
misled them t. The Censors likewise put upon the
rolls of the Senate all who had ever held any office
of magistracy, and by this addition increased the
number of members beyond the former and ordinary
rate ‡.
About the same time happened the memorable
trial of Publius Clodius, for the scandal he had gi-
ven by profaning the sacred rites in Cæsar's house.
This debauchee was supposed, for some time, to
have sought for an opportunity of a criminal corre-
spondence with Pompeia, Cæsar's wife; but to have
been prevented, if not by her own discretion, at
least by the attention and vigilance of her family |.
In these circumstances, during the preceding year,
it fell to the lot of Pompeia, as being wife to one of
the Prætors in office, to celebrate, at her house, the
festival of a certain female deity S worshipped by
Dio. Cass. lib. xxxvii, c. 47.
Dio. lib. xxxvii, c. 46.
§ Called the Bona Dea.
+ Cic. ad Atticum, lib. i, ep. 17.
|| Plutarch. in Cæsare, edit. Lond. p. 109.
378 THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION [c. XIX.
the Romans, and at whose rites women alone were
admitted. Every male domestic, even the husband,
was obliged to absent himself from home while the
rites were administered. Clodius took this oppor-
tunity to carry on his intrigue; put himself in a
female dress, and, being young and of an effeminate
aspect, expected to pass for a woman *. Pompeia
was supposed to be apprised of the design, and to
have stationed a female slave to receive and conduct
her paramour through the apartments. But being
met by another slave who was not in the secret, his
voice betrayed him. A cry of amazement and hor-
ror was immediately communicated through all the
apartments, and the occasion of it discovered to the
matrons who were met to celebrate the rites. Clo-
dius escaped, but not without being known. The
College of Pontiffs made a report, that the sacred
rites had been profaned. The Senate resolved, that
inquiry should be made into the grounds of the
scandal; and that the people should be moved to
authorise the Prætor in office to select, without
drawing lots, proper judges for the trial of the ac-
cused.
Clodius, by the suspicion of an incestuous com-
merce with his own sister, the wife of Lucullus, by
his perfidy in seducing the troops of that general to
mutiny, and by his profligacy on every occasion, had
incurred a general detestation ; and many of the
Senators, as the likeliest way of removing him from
• Cicero ad Atticum, lib. i, ep. 12, 15.
c. XIX.]
379
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
the commonwealth, combined in urging the present
prosecution against him.
He himself, foreseeing the storm, had taken refuge
in the popular party, and endeavoured to silence the
voice of infamy, by professing extraordinary zeal for
the people, and vehement opposition to the Senate.
These parties accordingly became interested in the
issue of his cause. The popular leaders endeavour-
ed to preserve him as an useful instrument, and the
Senate to remove him, as a vile and dangerous tool,
from the hands of their enemies. Even Cæsar, though
personally insulted, and so far moved by the scandal
which had been given in his own house as to part
with his wife, still affected to consider as groundless
the charge which was laid against Clodius; and be-
ing asked, why he had parted with a woman who,
upon this supposition, must appear to be innocent,
said, that his wife must not only be innocent,
but above imputation. Pompey, to avoid giving
offence, declined to favour either party; but being
called upon in the assembly of the people to declare
his opinion, whether this trial should proceed ac-
cording to the decree of the Senate, made a long
speech, full of respect to the nobles, and of submis-
sion to the Senate, whose authority, in all questions
of this sort, he said, should ever with him have the
greatest weight. He afterwards, in the Senate it-
self, being called upon by Messala the Consul, de-
livered himself to the same purpose; and when he
had done, whispered Cicero, who sat by him, that
he thought he had now sufficiently explained him-
self; intimating probably, that he meant to com-
prehend, in this declaration, also his judgment with
380
[c. XIX.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
respect to all the acts of the Senate which had pass-
ed relating to the accomplices of Cataline *.
The Consul Piso was instructed to carry to the
people, for their assent, an act for the better con-
duct of the trial of Clodius, dispensing with the usual
mode of draughting the judges by lot, and autho-
rising the Prætor to select them, that he might name
the more respectable persons. On the day on which
this motion was to be made, a numerous party of
young nobility appeared for the defendant. His
hirelings and retainers crowded the Comitium. Even
Piso, who moved the question, dissuaded the people
from passing the law, and allowed the friends of Clo-
dius to put a ridiculous trick on the assembly, by
distributing to the people, as they came forward to
vote, two ballots, which, instead of being, as usual,
one negative and the other affirmative, were both
negative. This trick being observed, Cato, with
the authority of Tribune, suspended the ballot, and
strongly remonstrated against the proceedings of
the Consul t. In this he was supported by Horten-
sius and Favonius. The assembly broke up, and
the affair again returned to the Senate. The mem-
bers were importuned by Clodius, who cast himself
at their feet as they entered; they, nevertheless, con-
firmed their former resolution by a majority of four
hundred to fifteen ‡.
Hortensius, however, having proposed, that, in-
stead of the motion which the Consuls had been in-
* Cicero ad Atticum, lib. i, epist. 15, 14, 16.
+ Ibid.
t Ibid.
c. XIX.]
381
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
į
structed to make for the selection of the judges, the
Tribune Fusius should move the people to grant
commission for the trial, leaving the judges, as
usual, to be drawn by lot; an edict was accordingly
framed and passed to this effect. Hortensius, who
conducted the trial, was confident that no jury could
acquit the accused. And the court, in all their pro-
ceedings, seemed at first inclined to severity. They
even applied for a guard to protect their persons a-
gainst the partisans of the criminal; but the majori-
ty, nevertheless, it was alleged, suffered themselves
to be corrupted, or took money in the course of the
trial. Of fifty-six judges that were inclosed, twenty-
five gave their voice to condemn, and thirty-one to
acquit. Catulus, on this occasion, asked the majo-
rity to what purpose they had desired a guard?
"Was it," he said, with a sarcasm, which modern
juries could ill endure, "to secure the money you
expected to receive for your votes * ?”
66
Soon after this judgment the Senate resolved that
inquiry should be made concerning those judges who
had been corrupted in the trial. And by this reso-
lution gave a general offence to the Equestrian or-
der, who considered it as an imputation on their
whole body t.
Pompey, in the course of this transaction, had
been obliged to declare himself for the Senate; but
his object was to be on good terms with all parties,
and to manage his interest, by having some of his
Dio. Cass. lib, xxxvii, c. 46.
+ Ibid.
Cicero ad Att. lib. i, ep. 16.
Ibid.
382 THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
[c. XIX.
creatures always chosen into the highest offices of
state. He offered, as candidate for the Consulate
of the following year, Afranius, one of his depen-
dants, who is represented by Cicero as a person of
mean character, and who, having no personal digni-
ty, nor any credit with the people, was to be sup-
ported in his canvass by money alone. Pompey
himself, and the Consul Piso, openly employed bri-
bery in obtaining votes in his favour *.
The first was le-
A variety of resolutions were obtained in the Se-
nate to restrain these practices. Two of them were
proposed by Cato and Domitius.
velled against the Consul Piso himself, and gave per-
mission, on the suspicion of illicit practices respect-
ing elections, to visit the house even of a magistrate.
By the other it was declared, that all those who were
found distributing money to the people should be
considered as enemies to their country †.
The Senate, at the same time, encouraged Lurco,
one of the Tribunes, to propose a new clause to cor-
roborate the laws against bribery. By this clause
promises of money made to the people, if not per-
formed, did not infer guilt; but, if performed, sub-
jected the guilty person from thenceforward to pay
to each of the Tribes an annual tax of three thou-
sand Roman money, or about twenty-four pounds
sterling; and there being thirty-five Tribes, this tax
amounted in all to about eight hundred and forty
pounds of our money. That the Tribune might not
be interrupted in carrying this law, the Senate far-
Cicero ad Att. lib. i, ep. 16.
+ Ibid.
c. XIX.]
383
OF THE ROMAN REPublic.
*
ther resolved, that the formalities or restrictions of
the Lex Ælia and Fusia should not be opposed to
him †. It appears, however, that the liberality or
other influence of Pompey prevailed against these
precautions, as Afranius was elected, together with
Q. Cæcilius Metellus Celer.
Soon after the election of these officers, the far-
mers of the revenue of Asia, supported by the whole
Equestrian order, complained, as has been mention-
ed, of the terms of their contract, in which they al-
leged that they had greatly exceeded what the funds
of that province could afford, and made application
to the Senate for relief. Their plea was contested for
some months with great animosity on both sides ‡.
Upon the accession of the new Consuls, several
other matters, tending to innovation and public dis-
turbance, were introduced. Metellus Nepos, late
Tribune, being now in the office of Prætor, procured
a law to abolish the customs payable at any of the
ports of Italy. The Romans, as has been observed,
upon the accession of wealth derived from Macedo-
nia, had exempted themselves from all the ancient.
assessments, and they now completed the exemption
of all the Italians from every tax besides that of
quit-rents for public lands, and the twentieth penny
on the value of slaves when sold or emancipated.
They were become the sovereigns of a great empire,
* These were formalities and restrictions provided to check the precipitate
passing of laws.
+ Cicer. ad Att. lib. i, ep. 16.
Ibid. ep. 17, 18.
384
[c. XIX.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
and as such, thought themselves entitled to receive,
not obliged to pay, contributions *.
The Tribune Herennius, at the same time, made
a motion for an act to enable Publius Clodius to
be adopted into a plebeian family, which, though
an act of a more private nature than any of the for-
mer, tended still more to embroil the parties of the
Senate and the people. This factious and profligate
person had entertained great resentments against
many of the Senators on account of the prosecution
he had lately incurred, and against Cicero in parti-
cular, who, having been called as an evidence on
his trial, gave a very unfavourable account of his
character. The summary proceedings against the
accomplices of Cataline, in which Cicero presided
as Consul, exposed him to the resentment of the po-
pular faction; and Clodius now proposed to qualify
himself to be elected Tribune of the people, in or-
der to wreak his vengeance on that magistrate in
particular, as well as on the other abettors of the
senatorian party. The motion, however, for the pre-
sent, was rejected, though not finally dropped, either
by Clodius himself, or by the popular faction, whose
cause he professed to espouse †.
Two other motions were made, in which Pompey
was deeply interested: one, to ratify and confirm
all his acts in the province of Asia; another, to pro-
cure settlements for the veterans who had served
under his command. The first, as it implied a re-
Cicero ad Att. lib. ii, ep. 16. Dio. Cass. lib. xxvii, c. 51.
+ Dio. Cass. lib. xxxvii, c. 51.
1
C. XIX.]
385
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
flection on Lucullus, many of whose judgments Pom-
pey had reversed, roused this statesman from the
care of his household and his table, to that of the
republic *. He opposed this motion with vigour,
and insisted that the acts of Pompey should be se-
parately examined, and not confirmed in a single
In this he was supported by Catulus, by Cato,
by the Consul Metellus, and by the Senate in gene-
ral. Afranius, though vested with the Consulate,
and acting almost as the agent of Pompey, had nei-
ther dignity nor force to support such a measure;
and Pompey, finding it rejected by the Senate, de-
clined carrying it to the people t.
vote.
The other proposal, relating to the allotment of
settlements for the soldiers of Pompey, was, by L.
Flavius, one of the Tribunes, moved in the assembly
of the people, under the title of an Agrarian Law.
In this act, to guard against the imputation of par-
tiality to any particular class, certain means of re-
lief were projected for the indigent citizens in ge-
neral‡; and, to enable the commonwealth to ex-
tend its bounty, it was proposed first of all to re-
voke the conveyance of certain lands, which, having
belonged to the public in the Consulate of P. Mu-
cius and L. Calpurnius, were sold by the Senate
and that the price should be restored to the purcha-
sers. It was proposed, likewise, to seize certain
lands which had been confiscated by Sylla, but not
Plutarch. in Lucullo, edit. Lond, p. 197.
+ Dio. lib. xxxvii, c. 49.
+ Ibid. lib. 1.
VOL. II.
2 B
386
progrESS
THE the AND TERMINATION [C. XIX.
PROGRESS appropriated to any particular use; and to allot,
during five years, the fruits of the recent conquests
in Asia to purchase settlements, which should be
distributed in terms of this act *.
The Consul Metellus Celer, supported by the Se-
nate, strenuously opposed the passing of this law.
But the Tribune persisted with great obstinacy, and,
to remove the obstruction he met with, committed
the Consul to prison. The whole Senate would have
attended him thither, and numbers accordingly
crowded to the place, when the Tribune, vested with
the sacred defences of his person, to bar their way,
planted his stool or chair of office in the door of the
prison; and, having seated himself upon it," This
66
*
way," he said, "you cannot
you cannot pass; if you mean to
"enter, you must pierce through the walls t." He
declared his resolution to remain all night where he
sat.
The parties were collecting their strength, and
matters were likely to end in greater extremities
than suited the indirect and cautious conduct of
Pompey. This politician, although he engaged all
his friends to support the motion of Flavius, affect-
ed to have no part in the measure, and now proba-
bly in secret instructed the Tribune to remove from
the doors of the prison. This at least might be sus-
pected from the sudden resolution of the Tribune
to give way, saying that he did so at the request of
the prisoner, who begged for his liberty ‡.
• Cicer. ad Att. lib. i, ep. 19.
+ Dio. lib. xxxvii, p. 50.
Dio. lib. xxxvii, p. 50.
c. XIX.]
387
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
It is supposed that Pompey, on this occasion, se-
verely felt the checks which his ambition received
from the Senate; that he regretted, for a moment,
the dismission of his army, and wished himself in
condition to enforce what his craft or his artifice
had not been able to obtain. The error he had com-
mitted in resigning the sword, if he conceived it as
such, might have still been corrected by recovering
the possession of some considerable province which
would have given him the command of an army and
of proper resources to support his power. He, ne-
vertheless, appears to have preferred the scene of
intrigue in the city and the capital of the empire;
a choice in which he was probably confirmed by
Cæsar, who professed great attachment to him, and
who was about this time returned from the govern-
ment which he held as Proprætor in Lusitania.
This officer, according to Dio, had found some
pretence for a war with the nations on the frontier
of the Roman province; had obliged them to take
refuge in some of the islands on the coast, and after-
wards subdued them in that retreat. His object was
to return to resign his command with the reputation
of victory, to obtain a triumph, and to offer himself
as a candidate for the Consulship of the following
year. For this purpose he quitted his province with-
out waiting for a successor, and, upon his arrival at
Rome, halted, as usual, with the ensigns of his mi-
litary rank, at the gates of the city, applied for a
triumph, and at the same time made interest for
votes at the approaching election *. The Senate, and
* Dio. Cass. lib. xxxvii, c. 50, &c.
2 B 2
388
[c. XIX.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
The
the friends of the republic in general, were already
become extremely jealous of his designs, and of his
credit with the people. From a libertine he was
become an ardent politician, seemed to have no pas-
sion but emulation or animosity to the more respect-
able orders of the state: without committing him-
self, he had abetted every factious leader against
them, and seemed to be indifferent to consideration
or honours, except so far as they led to power. Ci-
cero and Cato were at this time the principal, or
most conspicuous, members of the Senate.
first was possessed of consular rank, great ingenuity,
wit, and accomplished talents: the other, possessed
of great abilities and an inflexible resolution, em-
braced the cause of the republic with the same ar-
dour that others displayed in conducting their in-
terests or pursuing their pleasures. He had pene-
tration enough to perceive in Cæsar, long before the
Senate in general was alarmed, a disposition to vilify
the aristocracy, and, in conjunction with needy and
profligate citizens, to make a prey of the republic.
Under this apprehension, he opposed him with a de-
gree of keenness which Cæsar endeavoured to repre-
sent as a mere personal hatred or animosity to him-
self.
The Senators, in general, now aware of their dan-
ger from Cæsar, were disposed to resist his applica-
tions, whether made for honours or for public trust.
They, on the present occasion, disputed his preten-
sions to a triumph; and, while he remained without
the city in expectation of this honour, refused, ac-
cording to the forms of the commonwealth, to ad-
c. xix.]
389
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
mit him on the list of candidates for the office of
Consul. But the day of election being fixed, Cæsar,
without hesitation, preferred the consulate to the
triumph, laid down the ensigns of his late military
character, assumed the gown, and entered the city
as a candidate for the Consulship *.
The people were at this time divided into a varie-
ty of factions. Pompey and Crassus distrusted each
other, and both were jealous of Cæsar. Their divi-
sions strengthened the party of the Senate, and fur-
nished that body with the means of thwarting se-
parately many of their ambitious designs. This
Cæsar had long perceived, and had paid his court
both to Pompey and to Crassus, in order to hinder
their joining the Senate against him. The expedi-
ence of this precaution now appeared more clearly
than ever; and he is supposed to have separately
represented to these rivals the advantage which their
enemies derived from their misunderstanding, and
the ease with which, if united, they might concert
among themselves all the affairs of the republic,
gratify every friend, and disappoint every enemy.
Upon this representation, Pompey and Crassus were
reconciled, and agreed to act in concert with Cæsar,
and in particular to support him in his pretensions
at the approaching elections t.
This private combination, which remained some
time a secret, was afterwards, by a kind of mockery,
called the Triumvirate, alluding to the designation
* Sueton. in Cæsar. c. 18. Dio. lib. xxxvii, c. 54.
+ Dio. Cass. lib. xxxvii, c.54, 55. Plutarch. in Pompeio, Cæsare, et Crasse.
390 THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION [c. XIX.
66
by which certain collegiate offices were known, de-
rived from the numbers which were joined in the
commission *. In the mean time, these leaders of
supposed opposite factions, in abating their violence
against one another, took a favourable aspect of
moderation and candour. They paid their court
separately to persons whom they wished to gain, and
flattered them with hopes of being able to heal the
divisions of their country. This sort of court they
paid in particular to Cicero; and by their flatteries,
and real or pretended admiration of his talents, seem
to have got entire possession of his mind. Pompey
affected to place the merits of Cicero greatly above
his own. I, indeed," he said, "have served my
country, but this man has preserved it t." At
this time it appeared that Cicero, though a fine
genius, was but a weak man. The Senators, with
whom he had hitherto acted, were alarmed: Atticus,
it seems, had taxed him with leaving his party, to
commit himself into the hands of their enemies. In
his answer to this imputation, he seems to have flat-
tered himself that he had made an acquisition of
Pompey, not surrendered himself into his power;
at least, that he had reclaimed or diverted him from
the dangerous projects in which he had been lately
engaged, and that he thought himself likely to suc-
ceed in the same manner with Cæsar; so much, that
he triumphed in the superiority of his own conduct
to that of Cato, who, by his austerity and vehe-
* As the Decemvirs, Septemvirs, &c.
† Cicero ad Atticum, lib. ii, epist. 1.
c. XIX.]
391
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
mence, he said, had alienated the minds of men
otherwise well disposed to the republic *, "while
"I," he said, " by a little discretion, disarm, or even
"reclaim its enemies t."
Few persons, where his vanity did not blind him,
were possessed of more penetration than Cicero ;
but it will afterwards appear how egregiously he was
mistaken on this occasion: he chose not to see what
checked his vain-glory, or prevented his enjoying
the court which was paid to him by such eminent
men as Pompey and Cæsar. His own importance,
for the most part, intercepted every other object
from his view, and made him the dupe of every per-
son who professed to admire him, and incapable of
any serious regard for any one who did not pay him,
on every occasion, the expected tribute of praise ;
a description under which Cato, though his most
sincere well-wisher and friend, appears at this time
to have fallen.
Cæsar, to the other arts which he employed to se-
cure his election, added the use of money, which he
obtained by joining his interest, in opposition to Bi-
bulus, with that of Lucceius, another of the candi-
dates possessed of great wealth. He himself having
squandered his fortune, as has been observed, was
still greatly in debt, and Lucceius willingly furnish-
ed the money that was given to the people in the
Alluding to the opposition which Cato gave to the farmers of the revenue,
in their petition for an abatement of their rent. But Cato followed his judg-
ment in this matter; and there is no reason to prefer the judgment of Ciccro
to his.
+ Cicero ad Atticum, lib. ii, epist. 1.
392
progress AND TERMINATION [C. XIX.
the THE PROGRESS
1
name of both. This illegal proceeding, together
with the menacing concerts of which he began to
be suspected with Pompey and Crassus, greatly a-
larmed the friends of the republic. They determi-
ned to support Bibulus against Lucceius; and in or-
der to give Cæsar a colleague who might occasion-
ally oppose his dangerous intentions, they even went
so far as to contribute sums of money, and to bid for
votes as high as their opponents. In this crisis, it
is said, that even Cato owned it was meritorious to
bribe *.
During the dependence of this contest, the Se-
nate, by the death of Lutatius Catulus, was deprived
of an able member, and the people of a fellow-citi-
zen of great integrity, moderation, fortitude, and
ability; a model of what the Romans in this age
should have been, in order to have preserved the
state. He partook with Cato in the aversion which
Cæsar bore to the most respectable members and
best supports of the Senate, and would probably have
taken part with him likewise in the continual efforts
he made to maintain its authority. The aristocra-
tical party, notwithstanding this loss, prevailed in
carrying the election of Bibulus against Lucceius;
and though they could not exclude Cæsar from the
office of Consul, they hoped, by means of his col-
league, to oppose and to frustrate his designs †.
Cæsar, well aware of their purpose, opened his
administration with a speech in praise of unanimity,
* Sueton. in Caio Cæsare, c. xix. Appian. de Bell. Civil. lib. ii.
+ Plutarch. Appian. Dio. Sueton. &c.
c. xix.]
393
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
and recommended good agreement between those
who were joined in any public trust. While he
meant to vilify the Senate, and to foster every dis-
orderly party against them, he guarded his own be-
haviour, at least in the first period of his Consulship,
with every appearance of moderation and candour,
paid his court not only to leaders of faction, but
to persons of every condition; and while he took
care to espouse the popular side in every question,
was active likewise in devising regulations for the
better government of the empire; so that the Se-
nate, however inclined to counteract his designs, as
calculated to raise himself on the ruins of the com-
monwealth, could scarcely, with a good grace, op-
pose him in any particular measure. He set out with
a project for the relief of such indigent citizens as
had numerous families, including the veterans and
disbanded soldiers of Pompey: these he proposed to
settle on some of the public lands in Italy. He gave
out that he expected the concurrence of Cicero in
this measure, sent him a message by Balbus*, with
assurances that he meant to consult with Pompey
and himself in all matters of importance, and that he
had hopes of bringing Crassus also into the same mind;
words, from which it is manifest that the coalition of
these persons was not yet publicly known.
"What
"a fine prospect I have before me," says Cicero to
Atticus," a perfect union with Pompey, even with
"Cæsar if I please; peace with my enemies, and
Dio. Cass. lib. viii, initio. Plutarch. in Cæsare; in Pompeio, Lucullo,
Catone, &c. &c. Sueton. in Cæsarc. Appian. de Bell. Civil. lib. ii.
894
[c. XIX.
THE PROG: ESS AND TERMINATION
tranquillity in my old age." But his heart soon
after misgave him; the honours of his former life re-
curred to his mind. With his eminent talents, he
was destined to transmit a more honest fame to pos-
terity, and to become the lamented victim of his
country's betrayers, not the detested associate of
their crimes *.
This Consulate is distinguished by the passing of
many laws, particularly this, which was devised for
the settlement of citizens on certain parts of the pub-
lic domain; and therefore known by the title of an
Agrarian Law. On this act Cæsar was to rest his
popularity, and his triumph over the Senate. He
gave out that he was to make a provision for twenty
thousand citizens, without any burden to the reve-
nue. But he well knew that his antagonists would
perceive the tendency of the measure, or not suffer
it to pass without opposition; and he affected great
moderation in the general purpose, and in framing
every part of his plan; affecting solicitude to obtain
the consent of the Senate; but, in reality, to make
their opposition appear the more unreasonable and
the more odious to the people. He declared, that he
did not mean to strip the revenue of any branch
that was known to carry profit to the public, nor to
make any partial distribution in favour of his friends;
that he only meant to plant with inhabitants certain
unprofitable wastes, and to provide for a number of
citizens, who, being indigent and uneasy in their
circumstances, filled the city itself with frequent dis-
* Cicero ad Atticum, lib. ii, ep. 5.
c. XIX.]
395
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
1
orders and tumults; and that he would not proceed
a step without consulting the Senate, and every per-
son of credit and authority in the state.
In a way to save these appearances, and with these
professions, Cæsar formed the first draught of an act
which he brought to the Senate for their approba-
tion, and in hopes to obtain their support in propo-
sing it to the people. It was difficult to find topics
on which to oppose a measure so plausible, and con-
ducted with so much appearance of moderation and
candour. But the tendency of the act itself was evi-
dently not to promote the peace of the commonwealth,
but to constitute a merit in the person who procured
it, and to confer high measures of power on those
who were to be intrusted with its execution.
In great and populous cities, indigent citizens are
ever likely to be numerous, and would be more so,
if the idle and profligate were taught to hope for
bounties and gratuitous provisions, to quiet their
clamours and to suppress their disorders. If men
were to have estates in the country because they are
factious and turbulent in the city, it is evident that
public lands, and all the resources of the most pro-
sperous state, would not be sufficient to supply their
wants. Commissioners appointed for the distribution
of such public favours would be raised above the or-
dinary magistrates, and above the laws of their coun-
try. They might reward their own creatures, and
keep the citizens in general in a state of dependence
on their will. The authors of such proposals, while
they were urging the state and the people to ruin,
would be considered as their only patrons and friends.
396 THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION [c. XIX.
"It is not this law I dread,” said Cato; “it is the
"reward expected for obtaining it."
Odious as the task of opposition on such difficult
ground might appear to the people, this Senator did
not decline it. Being asked his opinion in his turn,
he answered, that he saw no occasion for the change
that was now proposed in the state of the public do-
mains; and entered on an argument with which he
meant so to exhaust the whole time of the sitting, as
to prevent the Senate from coming to a question. He
was entitled, by his privilege as a member in that
assembly, to speak without interruption, and might,
if he chose to continue speaking, persist until all the
members had left the house. Cæsar suspecting his
design, and finding it impossible otherwise to silence
him, ordered him into custody. The whole Senate
instantly rose in a tumult. "Whither go you before
"the meeting is adjourned ?" said Cæsar to Petreius,
who was moving from his side. "I go," said the
other," "into confinement with Cato. With him a
66
prison is preferable to a place in the Senate with
"you." The greater part of the members were ac-
tually moving away with Cato, and Cæsar felt him-
self at once stripped of the disguise of moderation he
had assumed, and dreaded the spirit which he saw
rising in so numerous a body of men, who, on for-
mer occasions, had maintained their authority with
a vigour too fatal to those who opposed it. He had
relied on their want of decision, and on their igno-
rance of their own strength. But his rashness broke
the charm. He wished that the prisoner would pro-
cure some friend among the Tribunes to interpose;
c. XIX.]
397
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
but Cato, seeing him embarrassed, and the Senate
engaged in the cause, went off in the custody of the
lictor without any signs of reluctance. Cæsar im-
mediately recollecting himself, and never hurried
too far by any passion, dispatched a Tribune of his
own party with secret directions to rescue the pri-
and this being done, the Senators again re-
turned to their places. "I meant," said Cæsar,
"to have submitted this law to your judgment and
"correction; but if you throw it aside, the people
"shall take it * "
up
soner;
Cæsar, upon this occasion, increased his own po-
pularity, and diminished that of his enemies in the
Senate, who were supposed in this, as in some other
instances, to withstand with keenness every measure
that was devised for the comfort of the people. The
imputations cast out against him by Cato and others,
were supposed to proceed from malice or cynical
prejudices. He found himself strong enough to ex-
tend his bounty to the people, so as to comprehend
the lands of Campania, which were hitherto consi-
dered as unalienable, and the richest demesne of the
public, together with a valuable district near the
confluence of the Vulturnus and the Sabbatus, for-
merly consecrated to pious uses. In these valuable
tracts of land there was sufficient subject for an am-
ple provision for the soldiers of Pompey, and for the
retainers of those who, together with Crassus and
Cæsar himself, were proposed to be commissioners
for carrying this law into execution.
* Dio. lib. xxxviii, c. 1, 2, 3. Plutarch. Sueton. Appian. &c.
398
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION [C. XIX.
At the first assembly of the people, Cæsar pro-
posed his scheme to impropriate the lands of Cam-
pania, with the above additions; and first of all
called on his colleague Bibulus to declare his mind
on the subject. Bibulus spoke his dissent; and in
vehement terms declared, that no such alienation
of the public demesne should be made in his Con-
sulate. Cæsar next called upon Pompey, though
in a private station; and the audience, ignorant of
the concert into which these leaders had entered,
were impatient to hear this oracle on the subject of
a measure which was likely to elevate a supposed
rival so high in the favour of the people. To the
surprise of all who were present, Pompey applauded
the general design, and, in a speech of considerable
length, discussed all the clauses of the act, and with
great approbation of each. When he had done
speaking, Cæsar, alluding to what had dropped from
his colleague, and affecting to fear the interposition
of force: "Will you support us," he said to Pom-
"If
pey, "in case we are attacked ?"" If any one,
said the other, "shall lift up a sword against you, I
"shall lift up both sword and shield *."
being called upon, also spoke to the same effect. The
concurrence of all these leaders portended the un-
animous consent of all parties; and a day being fix-
ed for finally deciding the question, the assembly
adjourned.
">
Crassus
To oppose a measure so popular, and from which
such numbers had great expectations, no means re-
* Cicero ad Att. lib. i. Plutarch, in Pompeio. Dio. Cass. lib. xxxviii, c. 5.
C. XIX.]
399
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
To
mained so likely to succeed as superstition.
this aid Bibulus accordingly had recourse, and, by
virtue of the authority with which he was vested,
proclaimed a general fast, and a suspension for the
present year of all the affairs of state. The design
of this suspension, and the extravagant length of
time to which it was extended, probably enabled his
colleague to treat it with contempt, and to proceed
in the design of putting his question, as if no such
proclamation had been issued. The assembly was
accordingly summoned in the temple of Concord.
Cæsar, early in the morning, secured all the avenues
and the steps of the portico, where he had Vatinius,
one of the Tribunes of the people, who was entirely
devoted to his interest, and even in his pay *, sta-
tioned with a party, and prepared to take the odium
of all violent measures on himself. Bibulus, how-
ever, attended by numbers of the Senate, and three
of the Tribunes, who were engaged by their nega-
tive to put a stop to every proceeding, came into
the place of assembly, with all the forms of office,
and protested against the legality of any meeting to
be held in a time of general fast; but the opposite
party being in possession of the temple, forced him
from the steps, broke the ensigns of the lictors,
wounded the Tribunes who interposed in his de-
fence, and effectually removed all farther obstruc-
tion to their own designs. The question then being
*Cicero in Vatinium. Cæsar was reported to have said at Aquileia, some
time after this date, when Vatinius was disappointed of the Edileship, that he
had no business with honours, being intent on money only; and that he was
paid for all his services in the Tribunate.
400
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION [c. XIX.
put, the law passed without opposition, including a
clause to oblige every Senator, under pain of exile
or death, to swear to the observance of it.
This oath was probably a snare laid by Cæsar for
the most resolute of his opponents, like that which
had been formerly laid by Marius, on a like occa-
sion, for Metellus Numidicus, and by means of which
that virtuous citizen was actually for some time re-
moved from the commonwealth *.
Metellus Celer, the late Consul, together with
Cato and Favonius, not aware of the snare which
was laid for them, at first declared their resolution
not to swear to the observance of any such ruinous
law; but, on farther deliberation, they became sen-
sible that in this they were serving the cause of their
enemies. "You may have no need of Rome," said
Cicero, now awake from his dream, to Cato, "and
"may go into exile with pleasure; but Rome has
"need of you. Give not such a victory to her ene-
"mies and your own." Upon this view of the mat-
ter, it was determined to comply t.
Bibulus, on the day following that of his violent
expulsion from the assembly of the people, con-
vened the Senate, represented the outrage he had
received, and submitted the state of the republic to
their consideration. But even this assembly, though
consisting of above six hundred of the most power-
ful citizens of Rome, not destitute even of personal
courage, were declined in their spirit, and become
* See vol. ii, e. 13.
† Plutarch, in Catone. Appian. de Bell. Civil, lib. ii.
c. XIX.]
401
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
averse to exertions of vigour. Being occupied with
their villas, their equipages, and the other appurte
nances of wealth and of high rank; "They appear,"
said Cicero
upon this occasion, "to think, that even
"if the republic should perish, they will be able to
preserve their fish-ponds."
66
The Consul Bibulus, even Cato, though far remo-
ved from any ambiguity of conduct, saw no possibi-
lity of withstanding the torrent. The first retired
to his own house, and from thenceforward, during
the remainder of his term in office, did not person-
ally appear in his public character, and even Cato
absented himself from the Senate .
While Cæsar engrossed the full exercise of the
consular power, Bibulus was content with issuing
his edicts or manifestoes in writing, containing pro-
tests, by which he endeavoured to stop all proceed-
ings in public affairs on account of the religious
fast, or continuation of holidays, which, according
to the forms of the commonwealth, he had insti-
tuted to restrain his colleague. In these writings,
he published violent invectives against Cæsar, in
which, among other articles, he charged him with
having had a part in the conspiracy of Cataline †.
The Tribune Vatinius, in return, issued a warrant
to commit the Consul Bibulus to prison; and, in
order to seize his person, attempted to break into
his house; but in this he was foiled; and the par-
ties continued, during the remainder of this Con-
VOL. II.
• Cicero pro Sexto.
+ Sueton. in C. Cæsare.
Plutarch. in Catone.
2 c
402
[c. XIX.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
sulate, in the same situation with respect to each
other.
In dating the year, instead of the Consulate of
Cæsar and Bibulus, it was called by some wag the
Consulate of Julius and Cæsar *. This able adven-
turer, though suspected of the deepest designs, went
still deeper in laying his measures for the execution
of them than his keenest opponents supposed. He
found means to tie up every hand that was likely to
be lifted up against himself; as those of Pompey
and Crassus, by their secret agreement, of which the
articles were gradually disclosed in the effect. He
confirmed to Pompey all the acts of his administra-
tion in Asia, and, by putting him on the commission
for dividing the lands of Campania, and for settling
a colony at Capua, gave him an opportunity, which
the other earnestly desired, of providing for many
necessitous citizens of his party. He flattered Cras-
sus sufficiently, by placing him on the same com-
mission, and by admitting him to a supposed equal
participation of that political consequence which the
Triumvirs proposed to secure by their union. He
gained the Equestrian order, by granting a suit
which they had long in dependence, for a diminu-
tion of the rents payable by the revenue farmers in
Asiat. These he reduced a third; and by this act,
acquired with that order of men the character of
great liberality and candour. He himself was the
only person, who, in appearance, was not to profit
•
* Sueton. in C. Cæsare, c. 20.
+ Cicero ad Att. lib. ii, ep. 1.
Dio, Cass. lib. xxxvii, c. 6, 8.
Appian. de Bell. Civil. lib. ii, p. 435.
C. XIX.]
403
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
by these arrangements. He was occupied, as his
retainers gave out, in serving the republic, and in
promoting his friends; was the general patron of
the distressed and the indigent, and had nothing to
propose for himself.
With his consent, and under his authority, Fusius,
one of the Prætors, and Vatinius, one of the Tri-
bunes, obtained two laws, both of them equitable
and salutary the first, relating to the use of the
ballot in the Comitia, or Assembly of the People:
the other, relating to the challenge of parties in the
nomination of judges or juries. The introduction
of the ballot in political questions had greatly weak-
ened the influence of the aristocracy over the de-
terminations of the people; and resolutions were
frequently carried in this manner, which no party,
nor any particular order of men, were willing to ac-
knowledge as their measure. The Nobles imputed
absurd determinations to the majority which was
formed by the people, and these in their turn re-
torted the imputation. To leave no doubt in such
matters for the future, Fusius proposed, that the se-
parate orders of Patrician, Equestrian, and Plebeian,
should ballot apart *. This regulation had some
tendency to restore the influence of the superior
classes.
Vatinius proposed, that in criminal actions, when
the judges were drawn by lot, the defendant and
prosecutors might, in their turns, challenge, or strike
• Dio. lib. xxxviii, c. S.
2c2
404
[c. XIX.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
off from the list, persons to whom they took a parti-
cular exception
*
Cæsar himself was busy in devising new regula-
tions to reform the mode of elections, and to improve
the forms of business in some of the public depart-
ments. By one of his acts, the priests were to be
elected agreeably to the former laws of Atius and
Domitius, with this difference, that candidates might
be admitted even in absence. By another of his
acts, regular journals were to be kept in the Senate
and in the assemblies of the people, and all their
proceedings recorded for the inspection of the pub-
lic. By a third, persons convicted of treason were
subjected to new penalties, and governors of pro-
vinces to additional restraints in the exercise of
their power. Such officers were not allowed to re-
ceive any honorary gift from their provinces, until
their services being considered at Rome, were found
to have entitled them to a triumph t. They were
restrained from encroaching on the right of any state
or principality beyond the limits of their province.
They were obliged to leave copies of their books and
of their acts at two of the principal towns in their
government ‡, and, immediately upon their arrival
at Rome, to give in a copy of the same accounts to
the treasury. They were doomed to make restitu-
tion of all subjects received in extortion, not only
by themselves, but by any of their attendants .
• Dio. lib. xxxviii, c. 8.
Appian.
+ Cicero ad Att. lib. v, ep. 16, et lib. vi, ep. 7.
Cicero ad Famil. lib. ii, ep. 17. et lib. v, ep. 20.
Cicero in Vatinium pro Sext.
c. XIX.]
405
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
With these acts Cæsar adorned his Consulate, and
in some measure discountenanced the party which
was disposed to traduce him. He is, nevertheless,
accused of having stolen from the treasury, to which
he had access in the capacity of Consul, bars of gold
weighing three thousand pondo, and of having con-
cealed the theft by substituting brass gilt, and of
the same form, in its stead *.
Whatever foundation there may have been for this
report, it soon appeared that Cæsar had objects of a
more serious nature, could copy, on occasion, the
example of Pompey, and, in his manner, cause what
was personal to himself to be proposed by others,
whom he might be free to support or disavow, ac-
cording to the reception which his proposal should
meet from the public. It cannot be doubted that
he now conceived the design of having a military
force, if necessary, to support his pretensions in the
city. Hitherto kingly power being odious at Rome,
whoever had aspired to it had always perished in the
attempt, and the mere imputation, however support-
ed, was fatal. The most profligate party among the
populace were unable or unwilling to support their
demagogues to this extent; and the people in gene-
ral became jealous of their most respectable citizens,
when it appeared that merit itself approached to mo-
narchical elevation. Marius, by the continued pos-
session of the highest offices, and by the supreme
* Sueton. in Jul. c. 34. Cæsar is said to have sold the gold bullion he
brought from Spain at 5000 H. S. or about L. 25 of our money the pondo. This
will make his supposed theft about L.75,000.
406 THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
[c. XIX.
}
command of armies, had acquired a species of sove-
reignty which he knew not how to resign. Cinna
came into partnership with Marius, and wished to
govern after his decease. Sylla, to avenge his own
wrongs and those of his friends, to cut off a profli-
gate faction, and restore the republic, took posses-
sion of the government. He led his army against
usurpers, and had the power to become himself the
most successful usurper, as he was put in possession
of a sovereignty which he no doubt might have re-
tained. So far in him, therefore, every ambitious
adventurer found a model, and was instructed in the
means which could insure to a single person the so-
vereignty of Rome. Cataline, with his accomplices
Lentulus and Cethegus, by means of a profligate par-
ty among the populace or citizens of desperate for-
tune, had vainly attempted to overturn the state, or
usurp its government *. Cæsar was become head
of the same party; but an army like that of Sylla, a
convenient station, and the resources of a great pro-
vince, were necessary to support the contest, and
to carry it against his rivals, as well as against the
republic itself, to any favourable issue.
The republic had taken many precautions, to pre-
vent the introduction of military power at Rome.
Although the functions of state and of war were in-
trusted to the same persons, yet the civil and mili-
tary characters, except in the case of a Dictator,
* Speaking of the imaginary danger to a state of being overturned by the
rabble; we might as much fear, said a witty writer of the present age, that a
city would be drowned by the overflowing of its own kennels.
c. XIX.]
407
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
were never united at once in the same person.
The
officer of state resigned his civil power before he
became a soldier, and the soldier was obliged to lay
aside his military ensigns and character before he
could enter the city; and if he sued for a triumph
in his military form, must remain without the walls
till that suit was discussed. The command of armies
and of provinces in the person of any officer was li-
mited to a single year at a time, at the end of which,
if the commission were not expressly prolonged, it
was understood to expire, and to devolve on a suc-
cessor named by the Senate.
That no leader of party might have an army at
hand to overawe the republic, no military station
was supposed to exist within the limits of Italy. The
purpose, however, of this precaution was in some
measure frustrated by the situation of a province in
which an army was kept within the Alps. Italy was
understood to extend only from the sea of Taren-
tum to the Arnus and the Rubicon: beyond these
boundaries, on the north-west, all those extensive
and rich tracts on both sides of the Appenines, and
within the Alps, which now make the duchies of
Ferrara, Bologna, Modena, Milan, the States of
Piedmont and Venice, with the duchy of Carniola,
and the whole of Lombardy, and part of Tuscany,
were considered, not as Italy, but as a province
termed the Cisalpine Gaul, and, like the other Ro-
man provinces, was to be held by a military officer,
supported by an army.
This then was the most commodious station at
which a political adventurer might unite the great-
408
[c. XIX.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
est advantages, that of having an army at his com-
mand, and that of being so near the city of Rome,
as not only to influence the public councils, but to
be able also, by surprise, to occupy the seats of go-
vernment whenever his designs were ripe for such
an attempt.
Sylla had an army devoted to his pleasure; but,
having the seas of Asia and Ionia to pass in his way to
Italy, could not, without giving an alarm from a great
distance, and without putting his enemies on their
guard, approach to the capital. He, therefore, when
he had this object in view, made no secret of his
purpose.
Cæsar, from his native disposition, could not re-
strain his ambition short of the sovereignty, and
without any signal incitement or singular circum-
stances, like those of Sylla, was prepared to obtain
it. He arranged his measures like the plan of a
campaign, which he had ability to digest, and the
patience to execute with the greatest deliberation.
He proposed to make himself master of an army at
the gates of Rome, and to have the resources of a
province contiguous to the capital. He proposed
to secure the possession of these advantages, by an
unprecedented prolongation of the usual appoint-
ments for five years; so that after an appointment
in these terms, the people themselves could not,
without a breach of faith, recall their grant upon
any sudden alarm of the improper use he might pro-
pose to make of their favours.
The Cisalpine Gaul, or that part of Italy which
extended from the Rubicon to the Alps, was thus
c. xix.]
409
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
peculiarly suited to the purpose of Cæsar. But the
distribution of the provinces was still within the pre-
rogative of the Senate; and the provincial govern-
ments were filled by their nomination, in pursuance
of an express regulation ascribed to Caius Gracchus,
and known, from his name, by the title of the Sem-
pronian Law *. Cæsar had ever been at variance
with the greater part of the Senate. In the office
of Prætor he had been suspended by their authority.
In his present office of Consul he had set them at
open defiance. He had no prospect of being able
to obtain from them the choice he had made of a
province; and the proposal to put him in posses-
sion of the Cisalpine Gaul for a term of years, join-
ed to the preceding parts of his conduct, would
have given a general alarm, and opened at once the
whole extent of his design.
It was necessary, therefore, in order to obtain
this object, to set aside the authority of the Senate,
and to procure his nomination by some degree of
surprise. The Tribune Vatinius accordingly, upon
a rumour that the Helvetii, or the nations inhabit-
ing the tracts or valleys from Mount Jura to the
Alps, were likely to cause some commotion on the
frontier of Gaul, moved the people to set aside the
law of Sempronius, and, by virtue of their own trans-
cendent authority, to name Cæsar as Proconsul of
the Cisalpine Gaul and Illyricum for five years,
with an army of three legions. The senatorian
party, as might have been expected, were greatly
* Lex Sempronia, vid. vol. ii, c. 10.
410
[c. XIX.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
alarmed at this proposal. They vainly, however,
hoped to evade it by substituting another appoint-
ment for Cæsar in place of this province. It was
proposed to make him superintendant of the public
forests throughout the empire; a charge which,
though not, in our acceptation of the word, a pro-
vince, was, however, like every other public depart-
ment in that empire, known by this name. This
substitute for the government of the Cisalpine Gaul
was thought to be the better chosen, that it neither
implied nor required the command of an army, and
was to withhold the engine of military power from
a person so likely to abuse it. This weak attempt,
however, against so able an adversary, only tended
to expose the meaning of those by whom it was
made, and by showing to the Senate their own weak-
ness, hurried them into concessions which perhaps
might have been otherwise avoided. In order that
Cæsar might not owe every thing to the people and
nothing to them, they extended his command at once
to both sides of the Alps. On the one side of these
mountains he had a station from which to overawe the
city on the other, he had a great extent of territo-
ry, and a theatre of war on which he might form an
army, and inure them to service. The Senate, see-
ing he had already, by a vote of the people, obtain-
ed the first with an army of three legions for five
years, and imagining that it was no longer of any
use to oppose him, or hoping to occupy his atten-
tion, or to wear out the five years of his command
in wars that might arise beyond the Alps, they join-
ed to his province on the Po that of the Transalpine
c. XIX.]
411
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
Gaul also, with an additional legion. In this man-
ner, whether from these or any similar motives, it is
affirmed by some of the historians *, that the Senate
even outran the people in concessions to Cæsar;
and to this occasion is referred the memorable say-
ing of Cato: “Now you have taken to yourselves
a king, and have placed him with his guards in
your citadel +."
66
Cæsar, at the same time, on the motion of the
Tribune Vatinius, was empowered to settle a Ro-
man colony on the Lake Larius, at Novum Comum,
with full authority to confer the privilege of Roman
citizens on those he should settle in this place. Ha-
ving obtained the great object of his Consulate, in
his appointment for a term of years to the command
of an army within the Alps, he no longer kept any
measures with the Senate, nor allowed them any
merit in the advantages he had gained. He was
aware of their malice, he said, and had prevailed in
every suit, not by their concession, but in direct op-
position to their will. Though capable of great
command of temper, and of the deepest dissimula-
tion when in pursuit of his object, he appears, on
this and other occasions, to have had a vanity which
he idly indulged in braving the world when his end
was obtained ‡. As he insulted the Senate when no
longer depending on their consent for any of his ob-
jects, so he no longer disguised his connection with
• Sueton. in Jul. Cæsare, c. 22.
+ Plutarch, in Catone. Dio. Cass. lib. xxxviii. Appian. de Bell, Civil, lib. ü,
Sucton, in Cæsare, lib, ii, c. 22.
412
[c. XIX.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
Pompey and Crassus, or the means by which, in his
late measures, the concurrence of these rivals had
been obtained.
As such combinations and cabals generally have
an invidious aspect to those who are excluded from
them, the Triumvirate, for so it began to be called
in detestation and irony *, notwithstanding the po-
pularity or influence enjoyed by those who had
formed it, became an object of aversion and general
abuse t. They were received at all public places
with groans and expressions of hatred. An actor,
performing on the public theatre, applied to Pompey
the Great, a sentence of reproach, which occurred
in the part he was acting. The application was re-
ceived with peals of applause, and called for again
and again ‡.
The edicts that were published by Bibulus in op-
position to Cæsar were extolled, and received with
avidity. The places of the streets at which they
were posted up were so crowded with multitudes
assembled to read them, that the ways were ob
structed. Cæsar and Pompey endeavoured to lessen
the effect of these edicts in speeches to the people,
but were ill heard. Pompey lost his temper and his
The titles of Duumvirs, Triumvirs, and so on, were the designations of le-
gal commissioners at Rome acting under public authority; such title was given
to the private coalition of these adventurers in mere irony.
† Cicer. ad Att. lib. ii, ep. 16.
"To our misfortune thou art great." He was called upon to repeat these
words again and again innumerable times. "The time will come when thou
"shalt rue this state:" likewise repeated with peals of applause, &c. Cicero
ad Att. lib. ii, epist. 19. Val. Max. lib. vi, c. 2.
c. xix.]
413
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
spirit, and sunk in his consideration as much as Cæ-
sar advanced in power. It became manifest, even
to the people, that Cæsar was the only gainer by
this coalition, that he had procured it for his own
conveniency; but Pompey himself probably felt
that he was too far advanced to recede.
The Senate, and all the most respectable citizens
of Rome, though unanimous in their detestation of
the design that was formed by Cæsar, Pompey and
Crassus, to dispose of the republic at their pleasure,
yet either were, or believed themselves, unable to
cope with the power of so many factions united.
Cæsar, in order to hold by force what he gained by
artifice, and by some degree of surprise, filled the
streets with his retainers in arms, and showed, that,
in case of any attempt to recall what had been so
weakly given up to him, he was in condition to re-
sist, and to lay the city in blood. If he were driven
from Rome, he had provided within the Alps an ar-
my of two or three complete legions, with which he
could maintain his province, or even recover his
possession of the city. Every one censured, com-
plained and lamented; but there was little concert,
and less vigour, even among the members of the
Senate.
Cato, with his declared disapprobation of the late
measures, was reduced to the single expedient of
assisting Bibulus in drawing up the edicts or mani-
festoes against the proceedings of Cæsar, which, as
* One of the sentences, so much applauded in its application to him at the
theatre, was,
"Eandem virtutem tempus veniet cum graviter gemes."
414
[c. XIX.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
has been mentioned, were at this time received with
so much avidity by the people.
Cicero now declined taking part in any affair of
state; but being known for an advocate of the
greatest ability, was courted in this capacity by
many citizens, who had affairs in dependence before
the courts of justice; but apprehending an attack
which was likely to be made upon himself, on ac-
count of the transactions of his Consulate, he avoid-
ed, as much as possible, giving offence to any of the
parties which divided the commonwealth. The
storm was to be directed against him by Publius
Clodius, under whose animosity to the government
of the nobles, and to Cicero in particular, it was per-
ceived for some time to be gathering *.
This bustling profligate having, in the former year,
in order that he might be qualified for Tribune of
the people, got himself adopted into a plebeian fa-
mily, could not obtain the necessary ratification of
the deed of adoption in the assembly of the Curiæ,
until his cause was espoused by Cæsar, who seems
to have taken his part in resentment of some insinu-
ations thrown out against himself by Cicero, in plead-
ing for M. Antonius, his late colleague in the Con-
sulate. Antonius being, as has been mentioned, on
account of his administration in Macedonia, accused
of extortion, was defended by Cicero, who took that
occasion to lament the state of the republic, brought
under subjection as it was by a cabal which ruled by
violence, and in contempt of the laws. Cæsar was
• Cicero ad Att. lib. ii, epist. 19, 20, 21, 22, 23.
c. XIX.]
415
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
greatly provoked at these expressions: "This per-
son," he said, "takes the same liberty to vilify the
reputation of others, that he takes to extol his
"own;" and considering this speech as a warning
of the part which Cicero was likely to take in his
absence, he determined not to leave him at the head
of the senatorian party to operate against him. His
destruction might be effected merely by expediting
the formality of Clodius's adoption into a plebeian
family, to qualify him for Tribune of the People *;
and Cæsar, on the very day on which he received
this provocation from Cicero, permitted the act of
adoption to pass in the Assembly of the Curiæ.
Pompey likewise concurred in executing this deed
of adoption for Clodius, and assisted, in the quality
of Augur, to carry it through the religious forms.
Clodius, in the mean time, gave out, that he had no
design on the Tribunate, but was soliciting an em-
bassy to Tigranes king of Armenia. Cicero was so
much blinded by this pretence, that he was merry in
his letter to Atticus on the absurdity of Clodius, in
having himself degraded into a Plebeian, merely to
qualify him to appear at the court of Tigranes. He
was merry likewise with his not being put on the
commission of twenty for the execution of Cæsar's
Agrarian Law. Strange!" he said, "that he
"who was once the only male creature in Cæsar's
"house, cannot now find one place among twenty
"in the list of his friends t."
66
• Dio. Cass. lib. xxxviii, c. 10, &c.
domo sua, de Provinciis Consularibus, &c.
Plutarch. in Cicerone.
+ Cicero ad Att. lib. ii, epist. 7.
Cicero pro
416
[c. XIX.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
The more effectually to impose upon Cicero and
his friends, Cæsar affected to believe, that the inten-
tion of Clodius was against himself, and taken up
with the animosity of a person who had already at-
tempted to dishonour his house; and he pretend-
ed to dispute the validity of his adoption, and, of
consequence, his qualification to be elected a Tri-
bune. Pompey joined also in the same vile artifice.
Nay," says Cicero, upon hearing of their pretend-
ed opposition to Clodius, "this is vexation merely.
"Send but the proper officers to me, and I will make
"oath, that Pompey told me himself he had assisted
"as Augur in passing that decree t."
With these transactions the year of Cæsar's Con-
sulate drew to a close. He ratified his treaty with
Pompey, by giving him his daughter Julia in mar-
riage. During the former part of the year, this lady
had been promised to Servilius Cæpio, and had been
of great use to her father, by securing the services
of Cæpio against Bibulus. But now it was found
more expedient to attach Pompey; and Servilius,
on his disappointment, was pacified by the promise
of Pompey's daughter. Cæsar himself married the
daughter of Calpurnius Piso, who, together with Ga-
binius, the creature of Pompey, was destined to suc-
ceed in the Consulate, and who was, by this alliance,
secured in the interest of Cæsar. "Provinces, ar-
"mies, and kingdoms," said Cato on this occasion,
"are made the dowries of women ‡, and the empire
"itself an appendage of female prostitution."
* In the intrigue with Cæsar's wife.
+ Cic. ad Att. epist. 10. vol. xii.
Plutarch. in Catone.
c. XIX.]
417
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
In this situation of affairs, and among parties who
dealt in impositions and artifices, as well as in open
and daring measures, some particulars are recorded,
which, to gain our belief, require some acquaintance
with the intrigues of popular faction. Vettius, a
citizen of some note, who had been employed by
Cicero in the time of his Consulship to gain intelli-
gence of the Cataline conspiracy, now himself ap-
peared as the author of a plot, of which the origin
and the issue were matter of various conjecture.
Knowing that Curio, a young man of high rank, and
a declared enemy of Cæsar, was on bad terms like-
wise with Pompey, Vettius told him in confidence,
that he himself had determined to assassinate Pom-
pey, and proposed to Curio to join with him in that
design. The young man communicated the matter
to his father, and the father to Pompey, who laid it
before the Senate. Vettius being examined in the
Senate, at first denied any intercourse with Curio,
but afterwards confessed that he had been drawn
into a conspiracy in which this young man was con-
cerned with Lucullus, Brutus, Bibulus, and some
others, who had formed a design on Pompey's life.
It was suspected that Cæsar had employed Vet-
tius to pretend this design against Pompey, and by
opening himself to these persons to engage some of
them in a concert with himself; and that it was in-
tended, as soon as he had laid some foundation for
an imputation of guilt against any of them, that he
should, attended by a party of slaves, armed with
daggers, put himself in the way of being taken;
VOL. II.
2 D
418
[c. XIX.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
that he should at first deny the plot, but afterwards
suffer himself to be forced, by degrees, to confess,
and to declare his accomplices; but that this plan
was disconcerted by the early intimation which Cu-
rio gave to his father, before all the circumstances
projected to give it an air of probability were in
readiness.
It was scarcely credible, however, that Cæsar
should have committed his reputation to the hazard
of detection in so infamous a project. He laid hold
of it indeed with some avidity, and endeavoured to
turn it against his opponents. After Vettius had
been examined before the Senate, and was commit-
ted to prison for farther examination, Cæsar present-
ed him to the people, and brought him into the
rostra, to declare what he knew of this pretended
most bloody design. The prisoner repeated his
confession, but varied in the account of his accom-
plices, particularly in leaving Brutus out of the list;
a circumstance likewise, in the scandal of the times,
imputed to the partiality of Cæsar, and considered
as proof of his clandestine relation to this young
man. Vettius was remanded to prison, and a pro-
cess commenced against him on the statute of in-
tended assassination. A trial must have probably
disclosed the whole scene, and for this reason was
said to have been prevented, by the sudden death of
Vettius, who was supposed to have been strangled,
by order of Cæsar, in prison *.
* Cicero ad Att. lib. ii, epist. 24. Sueton. in Cæsare, c. 20.
c. XIX.]
419
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
U. C. 695.
nius Piso
Cesonia-
nus, A.
Gabinius
By the influence of Pompey and Cæsar, Gabinius
and Piso were elected Consuls; and, by
L. Calpur- their connivance, Clodius became Tribune
of the people. The ascendant they had
gained, however, was extremely disagree-
Nepos. able to many of the other officers of state,
and even to some of the Tribunes. L. Domitius
Ahenobarbus and C. Memmius Gemellus joined in
a prosecution against Cæsar, late Consul, for pro-
ceedings in office contrary to law and religion. Cæ-
sar, for some time, affected to join issue with them
on the question proposed, and to submit his cause
to judgment; but at last, apprehending delay and
trouble, without any advantage from such an inquiry,
he pleaded his privilege as a person destined for pub-
lic service; and accordingly, without staying to an-
swer the charge which was laid against him, withdrew
from the city, continued to make his levies, and to
assemble an army in the suburbs of Rome. In this
posture of affairs, one of the Quæstors, who had ser-
ved under Cæsar in his Consulship, was convicted
of some misdemeanour *; and the opposite party, as
if they had of a sudden broke the chains in which
they were held, commenced suits against all the
tools that had been employed by him in his late vio-
lent measures. Gabinius had been charged with
bribery by Caius Cato, then a young man. But the
Prætor, whose lot it was to exercise the jurisdiction
in such cases, being under the influence of Pompey,
evaded the question. Caius Cato complained to the
*Sueton. in Nerone, c. ii, et in Cæsare, c. 23.
2 D2
420
[c. XIX.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
people, and, in stating the case, having said that
Pompey usurped a dictatorial power, so far incensed
part of his audience, that he narrowly escaped with
his life *.
Vatinius, the late mercenary Tribune, was accu-
sed before the Prætor Memmius, who willingly re-
ceived the accusation; but all proceedings in the
matter were suddenly stopped by the interposition
of Clodius in his new situation; and the attention of
the people and of the Senate soon afterwards came
to be more intensely occupied with the designs of
this factious Tribune himself, than with any other
business whatever.
The ruin of Cicero appears to have been the prin-
cipal object which Clodius proposed to himself in
soliciting the office which he now held; and this,
though affecting to be of the popular party, he pur-
sued chiefly from motives of personal animosity and
resentment. Cicero had given evidence against
him on his late trial, and afterwards in the Senate
made him the object of his wit and invective t. He
is generally represented as effeminate and profligate,
void of discretion or prudence. On the present oc-
casion, however, he seems to have managed with
considerable steadiness and address. He acted evi-
dently in concert with Cæsar, Pompey, and Crassus ;
but probably had not from them any particular di-
rection in what manner he was to proceed.
Ever since the summary proceedings which were
*Cicero ad Quint. Frat. lib. i, epist. 2.
+ Cicer. ad Atticum, lib. i.
c. XIX.]
421
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
employed against the accomplices of Cataline, the
danger of this precedent was a favourite topic with
the popular faction. Clodius professed that the
whole object of his Tribunate was to provide a
guard against such dangers for the future. He be-
gan with paying his court to the different parties and
different orders of men in the republic, by proposing
such acts as were favourable to each; and he stated
his motion for better securing the people against ar-
bitrary executions without any application to Cice-
ro, as but one of many regulations intended by him
for the benefit of the public, and which he joined
with some acts of gratification to private persons.
He gained the present Consuls by procuring them lu-
crative appointments, at the expiration of their year
in office; to Piso, Macedonia including Achaia; to
Gabinius, Syria with a considerable addition beyond
the usual bounds of that province. He gained the
indigent part of the people by an act to remit all
the debts which were due for corn at the public
granaries; and by ordering for the future, gratuitous
distributions to be made from thence t. He at the
same time procured another act extremely agreeable
to many of the citizens, for restoring and increasing
the number of incorporated societies, which had been
abolished about nine years before, on account of the
troubles to which they gave rise.
The operation of corporate bodies, in a city so
much addicted to faction and tumult, had been the
* Plutarch. in Cicerone.
Pædianus in Pisoniana Dio. lib. xxxviii. Cicer. pro Domo sua,
422
[c. XIX.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
cause of frequent disorders. As persons, affecting
to govern the state, endeavoured to gain the peo-
ple by indulging their humour in idleness and dissi-
pation, with games, theatrical entertainments, com-
bats of gladiators, and the baiting of wild beasts; so
the head of every corporate body, though upon a
smaller scale, had his feasts, his entertainments, and
shows, forming to himself a party of retainers, on oc-
casion, to be employed as his faction might require.
The renewal, therefore, of such establishments, a
measure which carried to every ambitious tradesman
in his stall the feelings and consequence of a Cras-
sus, a Pompey, or a Cæsar, affecting to govern the
world in their respective ways, was greedily adopted
by the lower people. And Clodius took occasion,
in the first ardour of such corporate meetings, to fo-
ment and to direct their zeal to his own purpose *.
He even gained a considerable party in the Senate,
by affecting to circumscribe the discretionary power
of the Censors in purging the rolls. Many of the
members had reason to dread the censorial animad-
versions, and were pleased with an act which this
Tribune obtained to provide, that, for the future, no
one could be struck off the list of the Senate with-
out a formal trial, and the concurrence of both the
Censors t.
Joined to so many arts practised to reconcile dif-
ferent parties to the measures he affected to take
for the security of the people, Clodius promulgated
Dio. lib. xxxviii, c. 13. Cicero in Pisonem, c. 4, et Ascanius, ibid.
+ Ibid. See a summary of these acts. Cicero pro Sextio, from c. 15, to c. 28.
c. XIX.]
423
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
his law of provision against arbitrary executions, and
gave it a retrospect, which was undoubtedly meant
to comprehend the summary proceedings which had
been held against Cethegus and Lentulus, in the
Consulate of Cicero. While the subject was under
consideration, he thought of two circumstances
which might operate against his design, and which
he was therefore determined to prevent. One was,
the practice of recurring to the celestial auspices,
by which the proceedings of the people were some-
times suspended; and the other was, the opposition
which he might expect from Marcus Cato, who was
likely to consider the cause of the Senate and the
republic as involved in that of the magistrate, who
had preserved the state by executing their decrees.
To secure himself against the first, he procured an
edict to prohibit all persons from observing the
heavens while the people were deliberating on any
affair of state; and to obviate the second, he thought
of a pretence for a temporary removal of Cato from
Rome.
In the preceding Consulate, Cato, though armed
as he was solely with the reputation of integrity,
unable to prevent the progress of a ruinous faction
affecting popular measures, yet, by his unremitted
opposition, he had forced them, on occasion, to
show, what Pompey in particular was extremely de-
sirous to conceal, that they prevailed by corruption
and force, not by what they pretended, the free
choice of their fellow-citizens. Clodius, foreseeing,
if Cato remained at Rome, a like opposition, and
possibly a disappointment in his design against
424
[c. XIX.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
+
Cicero, devised a commission to employ him in fo-
reign service. Ptolemy, King of Cyprus, had put
a personal affront on Clodius, by refusing to pay his
ransom when taken by pirates on the coast of Asia
near to that island. But now, in the wretched con-
dition of nations, depending on the will of a single
profligate citizen, he took an opportunity to be re-
venged on this prince, by procuring an act to for-
feit his kingdom and his treasure; and by making
Cato the instrument of his revenge, he proposed to
free himself at the same time from the interruption
which this citizen was likely to give to his projects
in the city *.
At an interview with Cato, Clodius had the im-
pudence to pretend great admiration of his virtue;
told him, that the commission to reduce Cyprus in-
to the form of a province was solicited by many;
but that he knew of none who, by his faithfulness
and integrity, was so well qualified for the trust as
Cato, and that he meant to propose him to the
people. "That," said Cato, "I know is a mere ar-
"tifice; not an honour, but an indignity intended
"to me." "Nay," said Clodius," if you do not go
66
willingly, you shall go by force ;" and on that very
day moved and obtained his nomination from the
people. Lest the affair of Cyprus should not detain
him a sufficient time, he was further charged in his
commission to repair to Byzantium, to restore some
exiles, and to quiet some troubles which had arisen
in that place.
* Cicero pro Sextio.
c. XIX.] OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
4.25
Cæsar and Pompey likewise concurred in procu-
ring this commission to Cato, in order to remove a
powerful support from the Prætors Memmius and
Domitius, whose proposal to repeal all the acts of
Cæsar was yet in suspense.
The storm was now ready to burst upon the ma-
gistrate who had presided in the suppression of Ca-
taline's faction, and no man had any doubt of its
direction. Cato, before he left Rome, seeing Cæsar
in possession of the gates with an army, and ready,
in the event of any tumult, under pretence of repress-
ing disorders, to enter the city by force, and to
seize on the government, or apprehending, that the
cause in question, however just, was altogether des-
perate, earnestly exhorted Cicero, rather to yield
and to withdraw from the city, than to bring mat-
ters to extremities in the present state of the re-
public *.
$
Cicero, however, was for some time undecided.
Having secured the support of L. Ninius Quadratus,
one of the Tribunes, he proposed to obstruct the
proceedings of his enemy, by opposing the negative
of a colleague to all his motions. Afterwards, upon
assurances from Clodius, that the purpose of the
act was altogether general, and had no special rela-
tion to himself, he was prevailed on not to divide
the college of Tribunes, nor to engage his friends in
the invidious task of giving the negative to a law,
which was intended merely to guard the people for
the future against arbitrary proceedings †.
* Plutarch. in Catone.
Dio. lib. xxxviii, 6. 14.
426
x
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
.
[c. XIXBut Clodius, having thus made way for the de-
claratory act, which he had drawn up in general
terms, no longer made any secret of his design
against the magistrate, who had dared to order the
execution of Lentulus and Cethegus, and boasted
of the concurrence of Cæsar and Pompey. In this
neither of these professed friends of Cicero denied
the imputation *; but excused themselves in private
by pleading, that while their own acts of the pre-
ceding year were still questioned by the Prætor, it
was necessary for them to keep terms with so vio-
lent a tribune as Clodius †; and Pompey, together
with this apology for his present conduct, gave Ci-
cero the strongest assurances of future protection.
"This Tribune," he said, " shall kill me before he
"injure you." It is not credible that Pompey then
meant to betray a person for whom he professed so
much friendship; it was sufficiently base that, in
the sequel, he did not perform his promise. On the
contrary, when his aid came to be most wanted by
his injured friend, he retired to the country, under
pretence of business; and, being at his villa near
Alba, where Lentulus, Lucullus, and many of the
most respectable Senators repaired to him with the
warmest entreaties in behalf of a person to whose
eloquence and panegyric he owed so many of his
honours, he coldly referred them to the ordinary of
ficers of state for protection, saying, That as a pri-
• Cicero post reditum in Senatum. + Ibid. pro Sextio, c. 17, et 18.
c. XIX.]
4.27
of the romAN REPUBLIC:
vate citizen he could not contend with a furious
Tribune at the head of an armed people *.
In the meantime, the Consul Gabinius, though
under the absolute direction of Pompey, promoted
the attack against Cicero, and checked every at-
tempt that was made in his favour. When the E-
questrian order, together with numbers of the most
respectable citizens from every quarter of Italy,
crowded in mourning to Rome, and presented a
memorial to the Senate in his behalf; and when the
members of the Senate itself proposed to take mourn-
ing, and to intercede with the people, Gabinius sud-
denly left the chair, broke up the meeting, went di-
rectly from thence to the assembly of the people,
where he threw out injurious insinuations against.
the Senate, and mentioned the meetings which had
been held by the Equestrian order as bordering on
sedition and riot; said, that the Knights ought to
be cautious how they revived the memory of that
part which they themselves had acted in the violent
measures which were now coming under review, and
which were so likely to meet with a just retribution
from the people of Rome.
In this extremity Cicero attempted to see Pom-
pey in person at his country house; but while the
suppliant was entering at one door, this treacherous
friend withdrew at another t. No longer doubting
that he was betrayed by a person on whom he had
so fully relied, he began to be agitated by a variety
of counsels and projects. He was invited by Cæsar
Cicero in Pisonem.
+ Plutarch. in Cicerone.
428 THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION [C. XIX.
to place himself in the station of lieutenant in his
province of Gaul; and, in that public character
abroad, to take refuge from the storm that was ga-
thering against him in Italy. But this, from a per-
son who had so much contributed to raise the storm,
was supposed to proceed from a design to insult or
betray him; or at best to reduce him to a state of
dependence on himself. Being attended by a nu-
merous body of citizens, chiefly of the Equestrian
order, who had taken arms in his cause, he some-
times had thoughts of defending himself by force;
at other times, he sunk in despair, and, as appears
from his letters, proposed to die by his own hands;
an intention from which he was diverted only by the
entreaties and anxious care of his friends.
Such was the state of affairs, when Clodius assem-
bled the people to pass the act he had framed against
arbitrary executions. He had summoned them to
meet in the suburbs, that Cæsar, who on account of
his military command was then excluded from the
city, might be present. This artful politician being
called upon, among the first, to deliver his opinion,
with an appearance of moderation, and unwilling-
ness to bear hard on any person to whom the law
might apply, referred the people to his former de-
clarations; said, that every one knew his mind on
the subject of arbitrary executions; that he certain-
ly approved the act which was now proposed, as far
as it provided against such offences for the future;
but could not concur in giving it a retrospect to any
transaction already passed.
c. XIX.]
429
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
While Cæsar thus, in delivering his own opinion,
affected to go no farther than consistency and regard
to his former conduct seemed to require, he permit-
ted or directed his party to go every length with
Clodius, and meant either to ruin Cicero, or force
him to accept of protection on the terms that should
be prescribed to him.
When the general law had passed, there was yet
no mention of Cicero; and his enemies might have
still found it a difficult matter to carry the applica-
tion to him; but he himself, in the anguish of his
mind, anticipated the consequence, went forth in
mourning to the streets, and implored mercy of every
citizen with an aspect of despondency, which pro-
bably did not encourage any party to espouse his
cause. He was frequently met in this condition,
and insulted by Clodius, who walked in the streets,
attended by an armed rabble; and determined at
last to abandon the city. Being escorted by a com-
pany of his friends, he passed through the gates in
the middle of the night on the first of April, took
the road of Lucania, and intended to have made his
retreat into Sicily, where he flattered himself the
memory of his administration in the quality of Quæs-
tor, and the subsequent effects of his patronage at
Rome, were likely to procure him a favourable re-
ception *. But Clodius, immediately upon his de-
parture, having carried a special attainder, by which,
in the language of such acts, he was interdicted the
use of fire and water; and by which every person
Vid. Actionem in Verrem.
*
480
[c. XIX.
THE PROGRESS AND TERMINATION
within five hundred miles of Italy was forbid, under
severe penalties, to harbour him; Virgilius, the
Prætor of Sicily, though his friend, declined to re-
ceive him. He turned from thence to Brundisium,
passed into Macedonia, and would have fixed his re-
sidence at Athens; but apprehending that this place
was within the distance prescribed to him by the
act of banishment, he went to Thessalonica in his
way to Cyzicum. Here he had letters, that gave
him intimation of some change in his favour, enter-
tained some prospect of being speedily recalled, and
accordingly determined to wait the issue of these
hopes.
We have better means of knowing the frailties of
Cicero, than perhaps is safe for the reputation of any
one labouring under the ordinary defects of human
nature. He was open and undisguised to his friends,
and has left an extensive correspondence behind
him. Expressions of vanity in some passages of his
life, and of pusillanimity in others, escape him with
uncommon facility. Being at least of a querulous
and impatient temper, he gave it full scope in his
exile, perhaps not more from weakness, than from a
design to excite his friends in redoubling their efforts
to have him restored. He knew the value of forti-
tude as a topic of praise, and might have aspired to
it; but would it not, he may have questioned, in the
present instance, encourage his party to sleep over
his wrongs? In any other view, his complaints re-
semble more the wailings of an infant, or the strains
of a tragedy composed to draw tears, than the lan-
guage of a man supporting the cause of integrity in
c. XIX.]
431
OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC.
may
the midst of unmerited trouble. “I wish I
"see the day," he writes to Atticus," in which I
"shall be disposed to thank you for having prevail-
"ed upon me not to lay violent hands on myself;
"for it is certainly now matter of bitter regret to
"me that I yielded to you in that matter *."
In answer to the same friend, who had chid him
for want of fortitude, "What species of evil," he
“do I not endure? Did ever any person fall
says,
"from so high a state? in so good a cause? with
"such abilities and knowledge? with so much pub-
"lic esteem? with the support of such a respectable
"order of citizens? Can I remember what I was,
"and not feel what I am? Stripped of so many
honours, cut off in the career of so much glory,
deprived of such a fortune, torn from the arms of
"such children, debarred the view of such a bro-
"ther, dearer to me than I was to myself, yet now
"debarred from my presence, that I may spare him
"what he must suffer from such a sight, and myself
"what I must feel in being the cause of so much
(C
66
but I am
misery to him. I could say more of a load of evils
"which is too heavy for me to bear
"stopped by my tears t."
;
From the whole of this correspondence of Cicero
in his exile, we may collect to what degree the un-
just reproaches which he had suffered, the desertion
of those on whom he relied for support, the dangers
to which he left his family exposed, affected his
• Cicero ad Att. lib. iii, epist. 3.
† Ibid. lib. iii, epist. 10.
432 the progress AND TERMINATION, &c. [c. XIX.
mind. The consciousness of his integrity, even his
vanity forsook him; and his finè genius, no longer
displayed in the Forum or in the Senate, or busied
in the literary studies which afterwards amused him*
in a more calamitous time of the republic, now, by
exaggerating the distress of his fortunes, preyed up-
on himself. It appeared from this, and many other
scenes of his life, that although he loved virtuous
actions, yet his virtue was accompanied with so in-
satiable a thirst of the praise to which it entitled
him, that his mind was unable to sustain itself with-
out this foreign assistance; and when the praise to
which he aspired for his Consulate was changed into
obloquy and scorn, he seems to have lost the sense
of good or of evil in his own conduct or character;
and at Thessalonica, where he fixed the scene of his
exile, sunk or rose, even in his own esteem, as he
seemed to be valued or neglected at Rome t.
I
* See the Book of Tusculan Questions.
+ Vid. Cicero ad Att. lib. iii.
end of volumME SECOND.

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