Y.R. the city. B.C. 665 attack in front and, after a severe fight of three hours, took 89 These were the successes of Sulla during that When winter came he returned to Rome to solicit the consulship. 666 665 summer. 52. Gnæus Pompeius brought the Marsians, the Marrucini, and the Vestini under subjection. Gaius Cosconius, another Roman prætor, advanced against and burned Salapia. He received the surrender of Cannæ and laid siege to Canusium. He had a severe fight with the Samnites, who came to its relief. After great slaughter on both sides. Cosconius was beaten and retreated to Cannæ. A river separated the two armies, and Trebatius sent word to Cosconius either to come over to his side and fight him, or to withdraw and let him cross. Cosconius withdrew, and while Trebatius was crossing attacked him and got the better of him, and, while he was flying toward the stream, killed 15,000 of his men. The remainder took refuge with Trebatius in Canusium. Cosconius overran the territory of Larinum, Venusia, and Asculum, and invaded that of the Pœdiculi, and within two days received their surrender. Pom 53. Cæcilius Metellus, his successor in the prætorship, 88 attacked the Apulians and overcame them in battle. pædius, one of the rebel generals, here lost his life. The survivors joined Metellus separately. Such was the course of events throughout Italy as regards the Social War, which had raged with violence thus far and until the whole of Italy came into the Roman state except the Lucanians and the Samnites. These also seem to have obtained what they desired somewhat later. They were each enrolled in tribes of their own, like those who had been admitted to citizenship before, so that they might not, by being mingled with the old citizens, vote them down in the elections by force of numbers. 54. About the same time dissensions arose in the city 89 between debtors and creditors, since the latter exacted the money due them with interest, although an old law distinctly forbade lending on interest and imposed a penalty upon any one doing so. It seems that the ancient Romans, like the Greeks, abhorred the taking of interest on loans as something knavish, and hard on the poor, and leading to contention and enmity; and by the same kind of reasoning Y.R. B. C. 665 the Persians considered lending itself as having a tendency 89 to deceit and lying. But, since time had sanctioned the practice of taking interest, the creditors demanded it according to custom. The debtors, on the other hand, put off the payment by causing war and civil commotion. Some indeed threatened to visit the legal penalty on the interest-takers. The prætor Asellio, who had charge of these matters, as he was not able to compose their differences by persuasion, allowed them to proceed against each other in the courts, thus bringing the conflict of law and custom before the judges. The lenders, exasperated that the old law should be revived, killed the prætor in the following manner. He was offering sacrifice to Castor and Pollux in the forum, with a crowd standing around as was usual at such a ceremony. In the first place somebody threw a stone at him. He dropped the libation-bowl and ran toward the temple of Vesta. They got ahead of him and prevented him from reaching the temple, and after he had fled into a certain tavern they cut his throat. Many of his pursuers, thinking that he had taken refuge with the Vestal virgins, ran in there, where it was not lawful for men to go. Thus was Asellio, while serving as prætor, and pouring out the libation, and wearing the sacred gilded vestments customary in such ceremonies, slain at the second hour of the day, in the midst of the forum, by the side of the sacrificial offerings. The Senate offered a reward of money to any free person, and freedom to any slave, and impunity to any accomplice, who should give testimony leading to the conviction of the murderers of Asellio, but nobody gave any information. The money-lenders covered up everything. CHAPTER VII The Civil Wars of Marius and Sulla - The Command against Mithri dates Sulla marches against the City-Captures it- Flight of the Marians - Changes introduced by Sulla - · Rome under Martial Law - Narrow Escape of Marius- He passes over to Africa - Killing of Quintus Pompeius - 55. Hitherto the murders and seditions had been merely intestine squabbles. Afterward the chiefs of factions as Y.R. B. C. 665 sailed each other with great armies, according to the usage 89 of war, and the country lay as a prize between them. The beginning and origin of these contentions came about directly after the Social War, in this wise. When Mithridates, king of Pontus and of other nations, invaded Bithynia and Phrygia and that part of Asia adjacent to those countries, as I have related in the preceding book, the consul Sulla was chosen by lot to the command of Asia and the Mithridatic war, but was still in Rome. Marius thought that this would be an easy and lucrative war and he desired the command of it. So he prevailed upon the tribune, Publius Sulpicius, by many promises, to help him obtain it. He also led the new Italian citizens, who had very little power in the elections, to hope that they should be distributed among all the tribes - not putting forward anything concerning his own advantage, but with the expectation of employing them as loyal servants in his every 666 attempt. Sulpicius straightway brought forward a law for 88 this purpose. If it were enacted Marius and Sulpicius would have everything they wanted, because the new citizens far outnumbered the old ones. The old citizens saw this and opposed the new ones with all their might. They fought each other with sticks and stones, and the evil increased continually. The consuls, becoming apprehensive, as the day for voting on the law drew near, proclaimed a vacation of many days' duration, such as was customary on festal occasions, in order to postpone the voting and the danger. 56. Sulpicius would not wait for the vacation's end. He ordered his faction to come to the forum with concealed daggers and to do whatever the exigency might require, and not to spare the consuls themselves upon occasion. When everything was in readiness he denounced the vacation as illegal and ordered the consuls, Cornelius Sulla and Quintus Pompeius, to put an end to it at once, in order to proceed to the enactment of laws. A tumult arose, and those who had been armed drew their daggers and threatened to kill the consuls, who were making opposition. Finally Pompeius escaped secretly and Sulla withdrew on the pretext of taking advice. In the meantime the son of Pompeius, who was the son-in-law of Sulla, and who was Y.R. B. C. 666 speaking his mind rather freely, was killed by the Sulpi- 88 cians. Presently Sulla returned and annulled the vacation, but hurried away to Capua, where his army was stationed, in order to cross over to Asia to take command of the war against Mithridates, for he knew nothing as yet of the designs against himself. As the vacation was annulled and Sulla had left the city, Sulpicius enacted his law, and Marius, for whose sake it was done, was forthwith chosen commander of the war against Mithridates in place of Sulla. 57. When Sulla heard of this he resolved to decide the question by war. He called the army together in a conference. They were eager for the war against Mithridates because it promised much plunder, and they feared that Marius would enlist other soldiers instead of themselves. Sulla spoke of the indignity put upon him by Sulpicius and Marius, and while he did not openly allude to anything else (for he did not dare as yet to mention this kind of a war), he urged them to be ready to obey his orders. They understood what he meant, and as they feared lest they should miss the campaign they spoke boldly what Sulla had in his mind, and told him to be of good courage, and to lead them to Rome. Sulla was overjoyed and led six legions thither forthwith, but all of his superior officers, except one quæstor, left him and hastened to the city, because they would not submit to the idea of leading an army against their country. Envoys met him on the road and asked him why he was marching with armed forces against his country. "To deliver her from her tyrants," he replied. He gave the same answer to a second and a third embassy that came to him, one after another, but he announced to them finally that the Senate and Marius and Sulpicius might meet him in the Campus Martius if they liked, and that he would do whatever might be agreed upon after consultation. As he was approaching, his colleague, Pompeius, came to meet him and praised him for what he had done, for Pompeius was delighted, and coöperated with him in every way. As Marius and Sulpicius needed some short interval for preparation, they sent other messengers, in the guise of envoys from the Senate, directing him not to move his camp nearer than forty stades from the city until they could consider of the business in hand. Sulla and Pompeius under Y.R. B. C. 666 stood their game perfectly and promised to comply, but as 88 soon as the envoys were returning they followed them. 58. Sulla took possession of the Coelian gate and of the adjoining wall with one legion of soldiers, and Pompeius occupied the Colline gate with another. A third advanced to the Sublician bridge, and a fourth remained on guard in front of the walls. With the remainder Sulla entered the city, being in appearance and in fact an enemy. The inhabitants round about tried to fight him off by hurling missiles from the roofs until he threatened to burn the houses; then they desisted. Marius and Sulpicius went, with some forces they had hastily armed, to meet the invaders near the Esquiline forum, and here a battle took place between the contending parties, the first that was regularly fought in Rome with trumpet and signal under the rules of war, and not at all in the similitude of a faction fight. To such extremity of evil had the recklessness of party strife progressed among them. Sulla's forces were beginning to waver when Sulla seized a standard and exposed himself to danger in the foremost ranks. Out of regard for their general and fear of ignominy if they should abandon their standard, they rallied at once. Sulla ordered up fresh troops from his camp and sent others around by the socalled Suburran road to take the enemy in the rear. The Marians fought feebly against these new-comers, and as they feared lest they should be surrounded they called to their aid the other citizens who were still fighting from the houses, and proclaimed freedom to slaves who would share their labors. As nobody came forward they fell into utter despair and fled at once out of the city, together with those of the nobility who had coöperated with them. 59. Sulla advanced to the so-called Via Sacra and there, in sight of everybody, punished certain soldiers who had plundered persons on the road. He stationed guards at intervals throughout the city, he and Pompeius keeping watch by night. Each kept moving about his own command to see that no calamity was brought about either by the frightened people or by the victorious troops. They summoned the people to an assembly at daybreak and lamented the condition of the republic, which had been so long given over to demagogues, and said that they had done what they |