of their property, and loss of all influence, by the admission to the legislature of such a multitude, who might be swayed to the most ruinous resolutions. They resolved to resist: Scipio Nasica, a man of the purest virtue, placed himself on the steps ascending to the Capitol, and called on every one who valued his country to come to him. The senate, all the principal citizens, the knights, and a considerable portion of the people, ranged themselves on his side. A tumult arose, in which Tib. Gracchus lost his life, and blood was shed in civil contention for the first time since the enactment of the Twelve Tables.

B. C.

Ten years after the death of Tib. Gracchus, his bro- 122. ther Caius, a man of genius and eloquence superior to his, renewed his plans. He proposed, that, in conformity with the Licinian law*, no citizen should hold more than five hundred jugera of land; that all Cisalpine Gaul should be reckoned part of Italy, and have the same rights; that corn should be sold to the people at an extremely low price; that six hundred knights should be admitted into the senate; that the right of sitting as judges should be taken from the latter and transferred to the knights. It is difficult to conceive how the plain consequences of such measures could have escaped the penetration of a man of the genius of C. Gracchus. His views may have been personal; he may have been led away by passion; possibly he was only attempting a desperate remedy for an evil that was inevitable-the corruption and debasement of the Roman people.

His plans seemed calculated to engage the knights, the people, and all Italy in his favour; yet he met with little support. The consul, Opimius, his personal enemy, set a price on his head; the knights, and even Latium, and the allied towns, declared for maintaining the constitution. Caius Gracchus also lost his life,

* See p. 79. It is almost needless to observe, that the Licinian law related only to possession in the public land. It set no limit to the acquisition of landed or any other species of property.

and his fate was shared by three thousand of his adherents.

Jugurthine War-Cimbric War.

Micipsa, son of Masinissa, king of Numidia, when dying, left his kingdom to his sons, Hiempsal and Adherbal, and to his nephew, Jugurtha. The latter murdered his cousins, and seized on the whole kingdom. War was declared against him by the Romans. At Rome, whither he had come, during the lifetime of Adherbal, on the summons of the senate, he bribed to a great extent; and having become convinced that every one there had his price, the conduct of the first generals sent against him confirmed him in his belief. But, at last, the command was conferred on Metellus, a man of noble birth. The arts of Jugurtha failed against him ; he had reduced the Numidian to the last extremity, when party-spirit at home transferred the consulate, and the glory of terminating the war, to his lieutenant Marius, a man of mean extraction, son of a peasant of Arpinum. Jugurtha was led in triumph, and then 106. starved to death in prison.

B. C.

Now began those irruptions of the northern nations, which were destined, at length, to overturn the empire of Rome. The Romans had already made themselves masters of the principal passes of the Alps; a Roman province extended from the foot of the Alps to that of the Pyrenees; the Allobroges and the Arverni, nations inhabiting the present Savoy, Dauphiné, and Auvergne, had been reduced. While the arms of Rome were employed against Numidia, northern tribes, named Cimbri, Teutones, Ambrones, and Tigurini, laid waste the banks of the Danube and Gaul. They were encountered by the Roman legions under the consul Carbo. The Roman arms met a defeat. Armies commanded by Silanus, Scaurus, and Cassius shared a similar fate. Cæpio and Manlius were overthrown with prodigious slaughter; and Italy trembled as in the days of Annibal.

Rome's only hope lay in Marius: he was chosen consul. He marched in person against the Teutones who were in Gaul; his colleague, Catulus, went against the Cimbri, who were entering Italy by the Rhætian Alps. B. c. Marius encountered and defeated the Teutones with 103. tremendous slaughter at Aquæ Sextiæ (Aix), and then marched to the assistance of his colleague. At Vercellæ, on the Athesis, the combined Roman armies engaged the wild hordes of the Cimbri. The conflict was long and bloody. Victory declared for Rome, 140,000 Cimbri lay on the plain, numerous prisoners were taken and sold for slaves, and the consuls entered Rome in triumph. 102.

State of Rome-Social or Marsian War.

The demagogues were now dominant at Rome. They had made Marius consul in opposition to the noble Metellus. Marius allied himself closely with the tribune Saturnius, who had murdered his competitor on the day of election. Metellus, fearing for his life, quitted Rome. The hopes of the nobles were in Memmius: a tribune of the people murdered him on the day of consular election. Marius, however, took the side of justice, and the tribune was torn to pieces. Such was the state of Rome: no man's life was safe who opposed the demagogues. In the provinces matters were not much better. The knights, who now formed a distinct order in the state, were in number 3900: since the time of C. Gracchus, they had exercised the judicial power. They, moreover, farmed the revenues of the provinces, and extorted and oppressed the people in the most nefarious manner, while no redress could be obtained, as it was to themselves, in their capacity of judges, that all appeals for justice lay.

A private quarrel between Cæpio and Drusus brought the senate and the knights into conflict. The knights warmly espoused the cause of the former. Drusus saw the necessity of endeavouring to deprive them of their power, and of restoring the constitution. It was of importance to gain the people to his side; he proposed

H

B. C.

the formation of new colonies, the division of some districts. The morals of Drusus were pure, his views were noble; but the senate, for whose advantage he was labouring, did not comprehend his object, and opposed him. Finding senate and knights united against him, he saw that he must look abroad for support. He promised the freedom of the city to all Italy; he brought in a law for the assignment of lands, another to regulate the price of corn, and a third to divide the judicial power between the senate and the knights. As he was returning home, attended by an immense concourse of people, he was stabbed by an unknown hand.

The Italians came to Rome to claim their civic rights. They had been a chief mean of extending the dominion of the city, as their contingents had always far out-numbered the legions: they deemed it, therefore, but just they should share in its advantages. Their desire was haughtily rejected. Seeing they had no hopes from the justice and generosity of Rome, they resolved to become inde91. pendent of her. An extensive confederacy was formed among the nations of Umbrian and Sabellian race, which was afterwards joined by the people of Tuscany, Campania, and Calabria. War was declared against Rome. Corfinium was made their capital. Large armies were sent against the confederates: the Roman generals were defeated. Never was a war more obstinate or more bloody. The greatest generals of Rome were sent against the enemy: victory and defeat alternated. Cruelties and massacres of the most barbarous character were exercised. The war, which cost the lives of 300,000 men, was only ended by a concession which, in the first instance, would have prevented it. One by one the allies were granted full civic rights, and all Italians 88. became citizens of Rome.

Mithridatic and Civil Wars.

Mithridates VII., king of Pontus*, the ablest and most powerful enemy Rome ever encountered, now

* See p. 56.

appears as her opponent. This monarch was respected and admired for his great gifts of mind, and he had an army habituated, in its conflicts with the nations round the Euxine, to privation and danger.

Just as the Romans were terminating the Social War, intelligence arrived of the massacre, in one day, of 80,000 Roman citizens, resident in the towns of Lesser Asia. The Roman army in that country was unable to stand before the troops of Mithridates; its generals were taken and put to death with insult. The isles of the Ægean and Greece itself were reduced to the Pontic monarch.

L. Sulla, a member of a reduced patrician family, had been the lieutenant, and was now the rival of Marius. He was besieging the city of Nola, one of those of the allies, when he was appointed to conduct the war against Mithridates. Marius, though now seventy years old, could not endure that his rival should have this honour. He had the decree recalled, and himself appointed. Sulla, on receiving this intelligence, broke up from before Nola, and, for the first time, a Roman army marched against the city. At the head of 26,000 men he entered Rome, which he had called for torches to set fire to. Marius was forced to fly; he, his son, and ten of his adherents were, by orders of Sulla, declared public enemies. Marius concealed himself in the Minturnian marsh, but was taken and thrown into prison at Minturnum. A Cimbrian slave was sent to put him to death; but, terrified at the look and the voice of the conqueror of his countrymen, he cast down his weapon and fled. Marius escaped to Africa.

Sulla hastened over to Greece, all of which submitted to him. Athens alone shut her gates, and was gallantly defended by Archelaus, Mithridates's general: he, however, soon retreated to Bœotia, and an engagement took place near Chæronea, in which the Pontic troops were totally defeated. Another battle followed at Orchomenus, in Thessaly, equally fatal to the interests of Mithridates, who now sued for peace; and Sulla, who,