every mouth. In B.C. 119, he was raised to the Tribunate. The general conduct of Marius in his Tribunate earned for him the good-will of the people and the hatred of the aristocracy. He gained with great difficulty his election to the Prætorship, and was even prosecuted for bribery; but he was acquitted, simply by the votes of the judges being equal.

At the age of forty-eight, Marius became a candidate for the Consulship. This office had of late been confined to a few of the most illustrious families. Marius was bitterly opposed, especially by Metellus and the nobles. Marius observed, "I can display in my halls no ancestral images and ensigns of honor; but with my own hand I have won the trophies of war." Despite all opposition he carried his election, B.C. 107, and was appointed by the people to finish the war against Jugurtha. This was in defiance of the Senate, who proposed to prolong the command of Metellus. Jugurtha was at last betrayed into the hands of the Romans. Marius remained in Africa to regulate the conditions of his conquests. When he returned, 104 B. C., he received a splendid triumph. Jugurtha, loaded with chains, was led in the procession, after which, he was cast into the dungeons under the Capitol, where in six days he died of cold and hunger.

When the provinces of northern Italy were invaded by an army of 300,000 barbarians, Marius was the only general whose activity and boldness could resist so powerful an enemy. He was again elected Consul and sent against these Teutons. In two battles he slew 200,000 of the barbarians, and 80,000 were taken prisoners. The Cimbri then invaded central Italy; but in the fierce battle of Campi Raudii they were completely overthrown. Marius now entered Rome, and, with his colleague Catulus, shared a most brilliant triumph. He was now eager to obtain for the sixth time the Consulship. In order to secure his election, he employed two of Rome's worst demagogues, Saturninus and Glaucia. By their means. and by bribing the tribes he won the election.

In the year B. C. 99, Marius set sail for Cappadocia and Galatia, under the pretence of offering sacrifices, but really to endeavor to stir up Mithridates to make war on the Romans. He feared that he was getting unpopular, and

hoped by fresh victories to regain influence. Marius had a powerful rival in Sulla, a general of renown, who had been his lieutenant in the war against Jugurtha.

Rome had never been exposed to greater danger than at this time. Those Italian tribes who had been her bravest defenders now rose against her. The nations which composed this formidable conspiracy against Rome were eight in number, the Marsians being chief. This conflict, called the Social or Marsian war, opened B. C. 90, and lasted for three campaigns. Both Marius and Sulla were engaged in this strife; but the former seems not to have been trusted with extensive command. He was now in his sixty-seventh year, incapable of enduring the fatigue of very active service. He intrenched himself in a fortified camp, and when the enemy taunted him with the words, "If you are a great general, Marius, come down and fight." He replied, "Nay; do you, if you are a great general, compel me to fight against my will." Marius quitted the camp at the most critical moment of the war, and Sulla brought the contest to a close. The arrangements for peace were hastened by threats of a war with Mithridates, King of Pontus.

While the nobles complained of their want of influence, the commonalty were dissatisfied with the paltry price their suffrages commanded. Marius, availing himself of this dissatisfaction, offered the Italians the means of acquiring a predominating influence in the tribes, and recommenced his old device of popular agitation. With the aid of a demagogue, he raised a violent tumult in the city, and got himself nominated to the Eastern command in place of his rival, Sulla. Sulla refused to give up the command, and determined to put down force by force. At the head of six legions he marched on Rome. Marius had not expected such a step; he sent two unarmed prætors to require them to halt; but Sulla slew the prætors, and the Civil War actually began. Sulla entered the city without much difficulty, and Marius fled.

The Plebeian leader first retired to his private farm at Solonium. Then he went to Campania, where he was dis-. covered in a marsh, taken before the magistrates in the town of Minturnæ, and sentence of death was passed on him. A

Gaul was commanded to cut off his head in the prison. The room in which the old general was confined was dark; and to the frightened barbarian the eyes of Marius seemed to dart forth fire, whilst from the darkness a terrible voice shouted, "Wretch, dare you slay Caius Marius?" The barbarian fled in terror exclaiming, "I cannot kill Caius Marius!" Marius was released, and made good his escape to Africa. Landing near the site of Carthage, he beheld with keen emotion the ruins of a once powerful city, which, like himself, had been . exposed to calamity, and felt the cruel vicissitude of fortune. The place of his retreat was soon known, and the Governor of Africa compelled him to flee to the island of Cercina.

During this time a revolution had occurred in Rome. The Consuls for the year B.C. 87 were Cn. Octavius and L. Cornelius Cinna. Octavius belonged to the aristocratical party, and Cinna to the Marians. The latter was deprived of the Consulship, for again bringing forward the Sulpician law, by which the Italians were to be distributed among the thirtyfive tribes. Marius now set sail to Africa and joined Cinna, who had fled thither. They cut off the supplies from Rome, reducing that city to famine. The citizens sent a deputation to Marius and Cinna begging for peace. The two exiles now returned to the city, and a most dreadful scene of carnage followed. Octavius was seized and beheaded. Marius gave instruction to his guards to spare those only whom he saluted. His old comrade in arms, Catulus, on his knees, begged that his life might be spared; but Marius sternly replied, "You must die," and this brave man was compelled to suffocate himself with charcoal. The slaughter was fearful; the swords of the assassins being directed against the adherents of Sulla and the aristocratic party. Marius and Cinna proclaimed themselves Consuls, B. C. 86; but the veteran general, who had become the grim butcher of his fellow-citizens, did not long enjoy the honor, which he now held for the seventh time. After seven days' illness, in the eighteenth day of his Consulship, and the seventy-first year of his life, Caius Marius succumbed to an attack of pleurisy.

Caius Marius, in his military position, administered justice impartially, disposed of the spoil with rare honesty, and

was thoroughly incorruptible. He was a skillful organizer, who brought the military system once more into a state of efficiency; an able general who kept the soldiers under discipline, but won their affection by comrade-like intercourse. But as a ruler of the Republic, Marius, though full of wily stratagems to gain his object, dashed from him every hardwon advantage by his reckless brutality.

THE CIMBRI AND TEUTONES INVADE ITALY.

The Romans had no sooner received the news that Jugurtha was taken, than reports were spread of an invasion from the Teutones and the Cimbri. Although the account of the number and strength of their armies seemed at first incredible, it afterwards appeared short of the truth. For 300,000 well-armed warriors were upon the march, and the women and children, whom they had brought with them, were said to be much more numerous. This vast multitude wanted lands on which they might subsist, and cities wherein to settle; as they had heard the Celta, before them, had expelled the Tuscans, and possessed themselves of the best part of Italy. As for these, who now hovered like a cloud over Gaul and Italy, it was not known who they were, or whence they came, on account of the small commerce which they had with the rest of the world, and the length of way they had marched. It was conjectured, indeed, from the largeness of their stature and the blueness of their eyes, as well as because the Germans call banditti cimbri, that they were some of those German nations who dwell by the Northern Sea.

Most historians agree that their numbers, instead of being less, were rather greater than we have related. As to their courage, their spirit, and the force and vivacity with which they made an impression, we may compare them to a devouring flame. Nothing could resist their impetuosity; all that came in their way were trodden down, or driven before them like cattle. Many armies and generals employed by the Romans to guard the Transalpine Gaul were shamefully routed; and the feeble resistance they made to the first efforts of the barbarians, was the chief thing that drew them towards Rome. For, having beaten all they met, and loaded themselves with plunder, they

determined to settle nowhere, till they had destroyed Rome and laid waste all Italy.

The Romans, alarmed from all quarters with this news, called Marius to the command, and elected him a second time Consul. It was, indeed, unconstitutional for any one to be chosen who was absent, or who had not waited the regular time between a first and second Consulship; but the people overruled all that was said against him.

On this occasion, it was a very fortunate circumstance for Marius that the barbarians, turning their course, like a reflux of the tide, first invaded Spain. For this gave him time to strengthen his men by exercise, and to raise and confirm their courage; and what was still of greater importance, to show them what he himself was. His severe behavior, and inflexibility in punishing, when it had once accustomed them to guard their conduct and be obedient, appeared both just and salutary. When they were a little used to his hot and violent spirit, to the harsh tone of his voice and the fierceness of his countenance, they no longer considered him as terrible to themselves, but to the enemy. Above all, the soldiers were charmed with his integrity in judging; and this contributed not a little to procure Marius a third Consulate. Besides, the barbarians were expected in the spring, and the people were not willing to meet them under any other general. They did not, however, come so soon as they were looked for, and the year expired without his getting a sight of them. The time of a new election coming on, and his colleague being dead, Marius left the command of the army to Manius Aquilius, and went himself to Rome. Several persons of great merit stood for the Consulate; but the people, considering that the present juncture required both his capacity and good fortune, created him Consul a fourth time, and appointed Lutetius Catulus his colleague.

Marius being informed of the enemy's approach, passed the Alps with the utmost expedition; and having marked out his camp by the River Rhone, fortified it and brought into it a large supply of provisions: that the want of necessaries might never compel him to fight at a disadvantage. But as the carriage of provisions by sea was tedious and very expen