dian plains.a (B. C. 101.) Thus ended the war with the German nations. The danger with which it for a time threatened Rome was compared to that of the great Gallic invasion, nearly three hundred years before. The Romans, in gratitude to their deliverer, now styled Márius the third founder of the city. 18. A still more dangerous war, called the social war, soon after broke out between the Romans and their Italian allies, caused VI. THE by the unjust treatment of the latter, who, forming part of SOCIAL VAZ the commonwealth, and sharing its burdens, had long in vain de manded for themselves the civil and political privileges that were enjoyed by citizens of the metropolis. The war continued three years, and Rome would doubtless have fallen, had she not, soon after the commencement of the struggle, granted the Latin towns, more than fifty in number, all the rights of Roman citizens, and thus secured their fidelity. (90 B. C.) The details of this war are little known, but it is supposed that, during its continuance, more than three hundred thousand Italians lost their lives, and that many flourishing towns were reduced to heaps of ruins. The Romans were eventually compelled to offer the rights of citizenship to all that should lay down their arms; and tranquillity was thus restored to most of Italy, although the Samnites continued to resist until they were destroyed as a nation. WAR. 19. While these domestic dangers were threatening Rome, an im portant African war had broken out with Mithridates, king of Pontus.' It has been related that in the time of Antiochus the VII. FIRST Great, king of Syria, the Romans obtained, by conquest MITHRIDATIO and treaty, the western provinces of Asia Minor, most of which they conferred upon one of their allies, Eúmenes, king of Per' gamus, and that At' talus, a subsequent prince of Per' gamus, gave back these same provinces, by will, to the Roman people. (Ses p. 161 and p. 169.) 20. The Romans, thus firmly established in Asia Minor, saw with Jealousy the increasing power of Mithridates, who, after reducing the nations on the eastern coasts of the Black Sea, had added to his 1. Pontus was a country of Asia Minor, on the south-eastern coast of the Euxine, having Colchis on the east, and Paphlagonia and Galatia on the west. a. The exact locality is unknown, but it was on a northern branch of the Po, between Ver celli and Verona, probably near the present Milan. Some say near Vercelli, on the west bank of the Sessites. b. This was done by the celebrated Ler Julia, or Julian law, proposed by L. Julius Cæsar dominions on the west, Paphlagónia and Cappadocia,a which he claimed by inheritance. Nicomédes, king of Bithyn' ia, disputing with him the right to the latter provinces, appealed to the Roman senate, which declared that the disputed districts should be free States, subject to neither Nicomédes nor Mithridates. The latter then entered into an alliance with Tigránes, king of Arménia,seized the disputed provinces-drove Nicomedes from his kingdomJefeated two large Roman armies, and, in the year 88, before the end of the social war, had gained possession of all Asia Minor. Al the Greek islands of the Ægean, except Rhodes, voluntarily sub mitted to him, and nearly all the Grecian States, with Athens throwing off the Roman yoke, placed themselves under his protectior Mithridates had received a Greek education, and was looked upon as a Grecian, which accounts for the readiness with which the Greeks espoused his cause. VIII. CIVIL WAR BE "WEEN MA'RIUS AND SYLLA. 21. The Roman senate gave the command of the Mithridatic war to Sylla, a man of great intellectual superiority, but of profligate morals, who had served under Márius against Jugur' tha and the Cim' bri, and had rendered himself eminent by his services in the social war. The ambitious Márius, though more than twenty years the senior of Sylla, had long regarded the latter as a formidable rival, and now he succeeded in obtaining a decree of the people, by which the command was transferred from Sylla to himself. Sylla, then at the head of an army in the Samnite territory, immediately marched against Rome, and entering the city, broke up the faction of Márius, who, after a series of romantic adventures, escaped to Africa.b (88 B. C.) 22. Scarcely had Sylla departed with his army for Greece, to carry on the war against Mithridates, when a fierce contest arose within a. See Map of Asia Minor, Ne IV. b. Márius fled first to Ostia, and thence along the sea-coast to Mintur' næ, where he was pus on shore, at the mouth of the Liris, and abandoned by the crew of the vessel that carried Lim. After in vain seeking shelter in the cottage of an old peasant, he was forced hide himse in the mud of the Pontine marshes; but he was discovered by his vigilant pu suers, dragged out, and thrown into a dungeon at Mintur' næ. No one, however, had the curage to put him to death; and the magistrates of Mintur' næ therefore sent a public slav into the prison to kil him; but as the barbarian approached the hoary warrior his courage failed him, and the Mintur' nians, moved by compassion, put Márius on board a boat and transported him to Africa. Being set down at Carthage, the Roman governor of the district sent to inform him that unlesa he left Africa he should treat him as a public enemy. "Go and tell him," replied the wanderer "that you have seen the exile Marius sitting on the ruins of Carthage." In the following year during the absence of Sylla, he e'urned to Italy. For localities of Pontine Marshes Liris and Mintur' ne, see Map No. X. the city between the partisans of Sylla and Márius; one of the consuls, Cinna, espousing the cause of the latter, and the other, Octavius, that of the former. Cinna recalled the aged Márius; both parties flew to arms; and all Italy became a prey to the horrors of civil war. (B. C. 87.) The senate and the nobles adhered to Octá. vius; but Rome was besieged, and compelled to surrender to the adverse faction. Then commenced a general massacre of all the opponents of Márius, which was continued five days and nights, until the streets ran with blood. Having gratified his revenge by this bloody victory, Márius declared himself consul, without going through the formality of an election, and chose Cinna to be his colleague, but sixteen days later his life was terminated by a sudden fever, at the age of seventy-one years. Márius has the character of having been one of the most successful generals of Rome; but after having korne away many honorable offices, and performed many noble ex ploits, he tarnished his glory by a savage and infamous old age. 23. During three years after the death of Márius, Sylla was con ducting the war in Greece and Asia, while Italy was completely in the hands of the party of Cinna. The latter even sent an army to Asia to attack Sylla, and was preparing to embark himself, when he was slain in a mutiny of his soldiers. In the meantime Sylla, having taken Athens by storm, and defeated two armies of Mithridates, concluded a peace with that monarch; (84 B. C.,) and having induced the soldiers sent against him to join his standard, he returned to Italy at the head of thirty thousand men to take vengeance upon his enemies, who had collected an army of four hundred and fifty cohorts, numbering one hundred and eighty thousand men,a to oppose him. (B. C. 83.) But none of the generals of this vast army were equal, in military talents, to Sylla; their forces gradually deserted them, and after a short but severe struggle, Sylla became master of Rome. 24. A dreadful proscription of his enemies followed, far exceed. ing the atrocities of Márius; for Sylla filled not only Rome, but all Italy, with massacres, which, in the language of the old writers, had neither numbers nor bounds. He caused himself to be appointed dictator for an unlimited time, (B. C. 81,) reëstablished the government on an aristocratical basis, and after having ruled nearly three years, to the astonishment of every one he resigned his power, and retired to private life. He died soon after, of a loathsome disease, a. "From the time of Marius, the Roman military forces are always countea by cohorts o small battalions, each containing four hundred and twenty men."-Niebuhr, iv. 195. at the age of sixty years, leaving, by his own direction, the following characteristic inscription to be engraved on his tomb. "Here lies Sylla, who was never outdone in good offices by his friend, nor in acts of hostility by his enemy." (B. C. 77.) 25. A Márian faction, headed by Sertórius, a man of great mili tary talents, still existed in Spain, threatening to sever that province from Rome, and establish a new kingdom there. After Sertórius had defeated several Roman armies, the youthful Pompey, afterwards surnamed the Great, was sent against him; but he too was vanquished, and it was not until the insurgents had been deprived of their able leader by treachery, that the rebellion was quelled, and Spain tranquillized. (B. C. 70.) During the continuance of the Spanish war, a formidable revolt of the slaves, headed by Spar' tacus, a celebrated gladiator, had broken out in Italy. At first Spar' tacus and his companions formed a desperate band of robbers and murderers, but their numbers eventually increased to a hundred and twenty thousand men, and three prætorian and two consular armies were completely defeated by them. The war lasted upwards of two years, and at one time Rome itself was in danger; but the rebels, divided among themselves, were finally overcome, and nearly all exterminated, by the prætor Cras' sus, the growing rival of Pompey. (B. C. 70.) IX. SERVILE WAR IN AND THIRD 26. During the progress of these events in Italy, a second war had broken out with Mithridates, (83 B. C.,) but after a continuance of two years it had been terminated by treaty. (81 B. C., X. SECOND Seven years later, Mithridates, who had long been preMITHRIDATIC paring for hostilities, broke the second treaty between WARS. him and the Romans by the invasion of Bythyn' ia, and thus commenced the third Mithridatic war. At first Lucullus, who was sent against him, was successful, and amassed immense treasures; but eventually he was defeated, and Mithridátes gained possession of Learly all Asia Minor. Manil' ius, the tribune, then proposed that Pompey, who had recently gained great honor by a successful war against the pirates in the Mediterranean, should be placed over all the other generals in the Asiatic provinces, retaining at the same time the command by sea. This was a greater accumulation of power than had ever been intrusted to any Roman citizen, but the law was adopted. It was on this ocasion that the orator Cicero pronounced his famous oration Pro lege Manilia, (“ for the Manilian law.") Cæsar also, who was just then rising into eminence, approved the measure, while the friends of Cras' sus in vain attempted to de feat it. 27. Pompey, then passing with a large army into Asia, (B. C. 66,1 in one campaign defeated Mithridates on the banks of the Euphrates and drove the monarch from his kingdom; and in the following year; after reducing Syria, thus putting an end to the empire of the Scleu'. cidæ he found an opportunity of extending Roman interference to the affairs of Palestine. Each of the two claimants to the throne, the brothers Hyrcánus and Aristobulus, sought his assistance, and as he decided in favor of the former, the latter prepared to resist the Roman, and shut himself up in Jerusalem. After a siege of three months the city was taken; its walls and fortifications were thrown down; Hyrcanus was appointed to be high-priest, and governor of the country, but was required to pay tribute to the Romans; while Aristobulus, with his sons and daughters, was taken to Rome to grace the triumph of Pompey. From this time the situation of Judea differed little from that of a Roman province, although for a while later it was governed by native princes; but all of them were more or less subject to Roman authority. About the time of Pompey's conquest of Jerusalem, Mithridátes, driven from one province to another, and finding no protection even among his own relatives, terminated his life by poison. (B. C. 63.) His dominions and vast wealth were variously disposed of by Pompey in the name of the Roman people. RACY OF CATILINE. 28. While Pompey was winning laurels in Asia, the republic was brought near the brink of destruction by a conspiracy headed by the infamous Catiline. Rome was at this time in a state of complete anarchy; the republic was a mere name; the laws had XI. CONSPI lost their power; the elections were carried by bribery; and the city populace was a tool in the hands of the nobles in their-feuds against one another. In this corrupt state of things Sergius Catiline, a man of patrician rank, and of great abili ties, but a monster of wickedness, who had acted a distinguished part in the bloody scenes of Sylla's tyranny, placed himself at the head of a confederacy of profligate young nobles, who hoped, by elevating their leader to the consulship, or by murdering those who opposed them, to make themselves masters of Rome, and to gain possession of the public treasures, and the property of the citizens, Many circumstances, favored the audacious schemes of the conspirators. Pompey was abroad-Cras' sus, striving with mad eagerness |