to nominate him consul, and follow him to Rome. While thus preparing to avenge the cause of Marius, tidings were brought that Marius himself, escaping from a thousand perils, was, with his son, on the road to join him.

The

We have already seen this formidable general had been driven from Rome, and declared a public enemy. At the age of seventy, after numberless victories, and six consulships, he had been obliged to save himself from the numerous pursuits of those who sought his life. After wandering, for some time, in this distress, he was obliged to conceal himself in some marshes, where he spent the night, up to his chin in a quagmire. At break of day he left this dismal place; but being known and discovered by some of the inhabitants, he was conducted to a neighboring town, with a halter round his neck; and thus without clothes and covered with mud, he was sent to prison. The governor of the place, soon after, sent a Cimbrian slave to despatch him. But the barbarian no sooner entered the dungeon, than he stopped short, intimidated by the dreadful visage and awful voice of this fallen general, who sternly demanded if he had the presumption to kill Caius Marius. slave, unable to reply, threw down his sword, and rushing back from the prison, cried out, that he found it impossible to kill him! The governor considering the fear of the slave as an omen in the unhappy exile's favor, gave him, once more, his freedom. He afterwards landed in Africa, near Carthage, and went in a melancholy manner, to place himself among the ruins of that desolated place. He soon, however, had orders from the pretor, who governed there, to retire. He prepared to obey, and said he to the messenger, "tell your master, that you have seen Marius sitting among the ruins of Carthage." Not knowing where to go, without encountering an enemy, he spent the winter at sea; and in this situation, being informed of the successful activity of Cinna, he, with his son, hastened to join him. They soon entered the city, when Marius, after sating his vengeance, by destroying all, who were inimical to his interests, made himself consul with Cinna; and died the month after, at the age of seventy.

In the mean time, Sylla, after an absence of about three years, having procured an honorable peace, was preparing to return; previously informing the senate by letter, of the great services he had rendered the state, and adding a dreadful menace, that he would soon be at the gates of

Rome with a powerful army, to take signal revenge upon his own enemies, and those of the state. Cinna was, soon after, slain by a soldier, while quelling a mutiny; so that Sylla, upon his return, found no equal, but one after another, seduced, or destroyed, the armies sent against him. When resistance ceased, he entered the city, and immediately published, that those who expected pardon for their late offences, should gain it by destroying the enemies of the state. Great numbers thus perished, and nothing was to be found in every place, but menaces, distrust and treachery. Eight thousand who had escaped the general carnage, offered themselves to the conqueror at Rome, who ordered them to be confined in a large house, and there slain; while he, at the same time, convoked the senate, and harangued them with great fluency, upon his past exploits. He now gave orders, that the people should create a dictator, adding a request, that they would choose himself. This unlimited office he exercised three years, without control, and then, to the astonishment of all mankind, resigned it of his own accord. He retired to his country seat, where, for a short time, he wallowed in the most debasing voluptuousness, and soon died of a loathsome disease 78 B. C. in the 60th year of his age.]

The Romans, in the times of Scipio, may be compared with the Greeks in the time of Themistocles; and the triumph of Greece over Persia, with that of Rome over Carthage. In both cases, the conquerors were corrupted by wealth, and inebriated by luxury. We might go further and say, that the Peloponnesian war, which succeeded the elevation of Greece, and laid the foundation of her ruin, resembled the civil wars of Rome, begun by Marius and Sylla, carried on by Cesar and Pompey, and terminated by Augustus. But the firmness of the Roman character, the nature of their civil policy, and the immense extent of their conquests, enabled them still to be powerful, in spite of all their corruptions; and had they been otherwise, there seemed to be no nation near them, who could have derived advantage from their weakness. They seem to have been raised up and endowed with universal dominion, that they might evidence to the world, how far a nation can be happy, and how long she can exist, without virtue or freedom.

The ambition of the demagogues, as well as of the despots and tyrants of Rome, in one essential article, led them

to promote the true and just policy of the empire. That was to attach the provinces as strongly as possible to the interest of Rome; to dissolve them down to one common mass-to preserve their extensive territories entire; to cement them together by various alliances; and to preserve the empire undivided. The strength of empires consists in their union. The Greeks wanting this, soon failed; and, in our own times, Poland, which ought, from her numerous advantages, to have been one of the most powerful kingdoms in the world, has exhibited a deplorable spectacle of weakness and misery, by means of her internal divisions. Our own country had well nigh been swallowed up in the same gulf.

The Roman community, launched at once on such a sea of luxury, wealth and glory, was variously affected. While all were struggling for eminence and power, it fortunately happened, that the reins of government fell into strong and energetic hands. Of this description, generally speaking, were most of the first competitors, and of the triumvirates. The softening power of luxury, the sudden inundation of Grecian elegance and refinement, and the elevation of conscious greatness and empire, combined with her native gravity in forming the genius of Rome. About this period, it began to bud; soon after this, was its fairest bloom and richest maturity. If the genius of Rome was of a heavier mould than that of Greece, it possessed a more commanding gravity; if it had less fire, it was more tranquil, majestic and solemn; and more hearts will vibrate with pleasure to the plaintive and elegant notes of the Roman, than to the electric fulminations of the Grecian muse.' *

In the year 78 B. C. the republic was freed from the tyranny of Sylla, by the death of that odious tyrant. But two men, of far more extensive views and refined ambition than either Marius or Sylla, were already prepared to run the same race. By various arts, as well as by great abilities, Cneius Pompey, surnamed, the Great, had become the most popular man in Rome, and was considered as the greatest commander in the republic. Crassus possessed that authority and influence, which great eloquence and immense wealth, combining with all the wiles of ambition, could procure. He was the richest man in Rome.

* Probably, this remark would not be correct, if the Greek language were as much read, as the Latin.-Ed.