Measures of Gaius to relieve the poor of the peasantry and furnished work for the unemployed by building roads throughout Italy. He also began to establish colonies of poor citizens, both in Italy and in the provinces. This was a wise policy. Had it been allowed to continue, such state-assisted emigration, by providing the landless poor of Italy with farms abroad, would have relieved the economic distress of the peninsula. An effort to Roman citizenship Gaius now came forward with another measure which marked him as an able and prudent statesman. He proposed to bestow the right of voting in the Roman assemblies upon the inhabitants of the Latin colonies. He thought, extend also, that the Italian allies should be allowed to intermarry with Romans and hold property under the protection of the Roman law. No doubt Gaius believed that the time might come when all the Italian peoples would be citizens of Rome. This time did come, thirty years later, but only after a terrible war that nearly ruined Rome. Failure and Gaius, The effort by Gaius to extend Roman citizenship cost the reformer all his hard-won popularity. It aroused the jealousy of the selfish city mob, which believed that the entrance of so many new citizens would mean the death of loss of its privileges. There would not be so many free shows and so much cheap grain. So the people rejected the measure and, turning from their former favorite, failed to reëlect him to the tribunate. When Gaius was no longer protected by the sanctity of the tribune's office,2 he fell an easy victim to senatorial hatred. Another bloody tumult broke out, in which Gaius and three thousand of his followers perished. The consul who quelled the disturbance erected at the head of the Forum a temple to Harmony (Concordia). The pathetic career of the Gracchi had much significance in Roman history. They were the unconscious spon- The Gracchi sors of a revolutionary movement which did not begin the revend until the republic had come under the rule of one man. They failed because they put their trust in the olution 1 See page 155, note 2. 2 See page 150. support of the Roman mob. Future agitators were to appear with the legionaries at their heels. Marius and the Jugurthine War, 112-106 B.C. 61. Marius and Sulla Although Rome now ruled throughout the Mediterranean, she was constantly engaged in border wars in one corner or another of her wide dominions. These wars brought to the front new military leaders, of whom the first was Gaius Marius. He was a peasant's son, a coarse, rude soldier, but an honest, courageous, and able man. Marius rose to prominence in the socalled Jugurthine War, which the Romans were waging against Jugurtha, king of Numidia. That wily African had discovered that it was easier to bribe the Roman commanders than to fight them; and the contest dragged on in disgraceful fashion year after year. Marius at last persuaded the people to elect him consul and intrust him with the conduct of the war. By generalship and good fortune he speedily concluded the struggle and brought Jugurtha in chains to Rome. Marius and the war with A few years later Marius had another opportunity to win distinction. He became the defender of Rome and Italy against a dangerous invasion of Germanic barbarians, who were ravaging Transalpine Gaul and the Po Valley. the Germans, The decisive victories which Marius gained over them removed a grave danger which threatened the Roman world. The time had not yet come for ancient civilization to be submerged under a wave of barbarism. 102-101 B.C. Social War, The second military leader whom this troubled period brought forth was Lucius Cornelius Sulla. He was a man of Sulla and the noble birth, and with his social gifts, his appreciation of art and letters, his knowledge of men. 90-88 B.C. and the world, presented a sharp contrast to Marius. Sulla's great abilities quickly brought him into public notice; he rose rapidly from one office to another; and in the Social War showed his skill as a commander. This struggle was the consequence of Rome's refusal to grant the rights of citizenship to her Italian allies. The strength of the rebellion lay among the Samnites and other peoples of central and southern Italy. The war came to an end only when Rome promised the franchise to all Italians who returned to their allegiance. Before many years had passed, the inhabitants of nearly all the Italian towns south of the Rubicon River received Roman citizenship. It was this same wise policy of making conquered peoples equal with herself that afterwards led Rome to grant citizenship to the inhabitants of the provinces.1 Sulla and the Mithradatic B.C. What military honors were gained in the struggle belonged to Sulla. His reward was the consulship and an appointment as general in still another conflict which distracted Rome had to face. While that city had been busy with civil enemies and barbarian foes, a powerful state, known as Pontus, had been growing up in Asia Minor. Its king, Mithradates, overran the Roman provinces in the Orient and threatened to annex them to his own kingdom. But Sulla, with greatly inferior forces, compelled Mithradates to abandon his conquests, surrender his fleet, and pay a large indemnity. If Marius had the honor of repelling the barbarian invasion of the West, Sulla had the honor of preserving Rome's possessions in the East. Rivalry of Sulla Marius and Sulla were rivals not only in war but also in politics. Sulla naturally espoused the aristocratic cause and stood as the champion of the Senate. Marius just as naturally became the head of the democratic party. The rivalry between the two leaders finally led to civil war. During Sulla's absence in the East the democrats got the upper hand at Rome and revenged themselves by murdering their political foes among the aristocrats. The reign of terror ended orly with the sudden death of Marius, just after he had been elected to his seventh consulship. A few years later Sulla returned to Italy with his army and defeated the democrats in a great battle outside the Colline Gate of Rome. Sulla signalized his victory by ordering the assassination of every prominent man in the democratic party. Sulla regarded this legalized butchery as a necessary step in 1 See page 204. his self-appointed task of putting the Roman government once more to rights. He now received the title of "Per Sulla as " petual Dictator," with complete authority to govern the state until the new order of things should be established. Rome thus came under the rule of one man for the first time since the expulsion of the kings. 78 B.C. The various measures by which Sulla intrenched the Senate in power did not long survive his death and hence had no lastSulla's death, ing influence on Roman politics. After a rule of three years Sulla voluntarily gave up the dictatorship and retired to his villa on the bay of Naples. He died a few months later. The Senate honored him with a public funeral, the most splendid that Rome had ever seen. His monument bore an inscription which the dictator himself is said to have composed: "No friend ever did him a kindness and no enemy, a wrong, without being fully repaid." That was one epitaph which told the truth. 62. Pompey and Cæsar The struggle between Marius and Sulla, decided as it was by the sword, marks a stage GNÆUS POMPEIUS MAGNUS Spada Palace, Rome Rise of in the decline of the Roman Republic. The careers of these two men showed how easily the state could be ruled by a successful commander who had his soldiers behind him. After Sulla's death his friend Pompey became the leading figure in Roman politics. Pompey's first service was in Spain, where the adherents of Marius sought to humble the Senate and the aristocratic party by encouraging the Spaniards to rise against Roman rule. Having crushed this rebellion, Pompey returned to Italy in time to take part in putting down a formidable insur 1 Plutarch, Sulla, 38. rection of slaves, outlaws, and ruined peasants. He was next intrusted with the war against the pirates, who swarmed in the Mediterranean, preyed on commerce, and plundered wealthy cities near the coast. Brilliant success in clearing the seas of these marauders led to his being sent to the East to end the war with Mithradates, who was once more in arms against Rome. Pompey drove the Pontic monarch from his kingdom and then annexed Syria to the Roman dominions. When Pompey returned to Rome in 62 B.C., he brought with him a reputation as the most successful general of his time. MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO We have seen how steadily since the days of the Gracchi the Roman state Marcus had been moving Tullius Cicero toward the rule of one man. Marius, Sulla, and Pompey each represent a step in the direction of monarchy. Yet there were still able and patriotic leaders at Rome who believed in the old order of things and tried their best to uphold the fast-perishing republic. No republican statesman was more devoted to the constitution than Cicero. A native of Arpinum, the same Italian town which had already given birth to Marius, Cicero came to Rome a youth without wealth or family influence. He made his way into Roman society by his social and conversational powers and by his capacity for friendship. His mind had been carefully trained under the influence of Hellenic culture; he had traveled and studied in Greece; and throughout life he loved to steal away from the tumult of the Forum and the law courts and enjoy the companionship of his books. Though the proud nobles were inclined to look down on him as a "new man," Cicero's splendid eloquence soon gave him |