opposite party, by enrolling the new citizens among them, like Sylla had advanced against the city with an army. It was forced to surrender at discretion, B. c. 87; the consul Octavius was murdered; and Marius wreaked his vengeance on the friends of Sylla by a system of wholesale massacre. The next year, this great, but brutal man, died in the beginning of his seventh consulship. As for Cinna, when at length he was about to cross over into Greece to oppose Sylla, he perished in a mutiny of his troops, B. c. 84.

Had Sylla been a common man, he would have listened to the entreaties of his friends, and returned to Italy. But he saw the importance of the war with Mithridates, and boldly went on with it.

Mithridates, the powerful king of Pontus, had defeated Nicomedes of Bithynia, whom the Romans had instigated to attack him, and the forces, chiefly Asiatic, which their generals had led against him; and had become master of Asia Minor. He followed up the blow, B. c. 88, by causing a massacre of all the Romans and Italians in the Greek towns on the coast; and though he failed against Rhodes, he was strengthened by the accession of the Boeotians, Athenians, and the people of the south of Greece.

Sylla laid siege to Athens and the Piraeus. He at length stormed the city, slaughtered numbers of the inhabitants, and took and burned the Piraeus; after which, he followed Archelaus, the general of Mithridates, into Boeotia, and twice destroyed his army at Charonea and Orchomenus, B. c. 86. Both parties were now anxious to make peace; and after some negotiation, it was agreed that Mithridates should pay a large contribution, and restore all his conquests in Asia, B. c. 84. Sylla then marched to Thyatira against C. Flavius Fimbria, who was at the head of an army which the Marian party had sent out with their consul, L. Valerius Flaccus, by whom Sylla was to be

superseded, but whom Fimbria had caused to be murdered in a mutiny. Fimbria, finding that his troops were not to be trusted, died by his own hand.

B.C. 83. Return of Sylla. Sertorius flees to Spain.

82. Defeat of Pontius. Proscriptions and Dictatorship of Sylla. 79. Sylla lays down the Dictatorship. Metellus sent to Spain. 78. Death of Sylla. Lepidus attacks his laws.

77. Catulus defeats Lepidus. Pompey goes to Spain.

72. Murder of Sertorius. Death of Perpenna.

After settling affairs in Asia and Greece, Sylla returned to Italy with about 40,000 men, B. c. 83, and was joined by young Cn. Pompeius, better known as Pompey the Great, and Q. Metellus Pius, the son of Numidicus, who had both of them raised troops to support the aristocratic cause. The government had nearly 200,000 men at command; but it was tyrannical and unpopular, and its generals, in most cases, were deserted by their soldiers and easily overcome. There was, however, a deadly struggle, when the Samnites and Lucanians, under Pontius Telesīnus, having failed in relieving Præneste, whither the younger Marius had taken refuge', marched to Rome, their leader crying out, "that there never would be wanting wolves to ravage Italy, if the wood which harboured them was not cut down." Sylla, having gained a hard fought and bloody victory, now took a dreadful vengeance upon his foes. Proscription lists, containing hundreds of their names, were hung up in the forum; their goods were confiscated; a price was set upon their heads; and it was death to befriend them,

B. c. 82.

He also caused himself to be made dictator for an indefinite period, and undertook the vain task of restoring the ancient constitution by a series of laws. He deprived the tribunes of the power of proposing measures, and made

He afterwards put an end to himself.

them incapable of being chosen to higher offices. By enrolling a number of emancipated slaves in the tribes, and establishing twenty-three legions in military colonies, he kept both Rome and Italy under control. He had then the boldness to resign the dictatorship, and to retire into private life. The following year, he died of a loathsome disease, covered with vermin and ulcers, B. c. 78, and was honoured by his party with a magnificent funeral.

Scarcely was Sylla dead, than the consul M. Æmilius Lepidus tried to repeal his laws. But the power of the dominant party was too well established; and Lepidus, though he eventually took up arms, was unable to keep his ground against his honest and resolute colleague, Q. Lutatius Catulus. In Spain only had the Marian party any strength. There the genius and noble qualities of the celebrated Q. Sertorius had won the affection of the natives, and Metellus Pius and Pompey, who were successively sent to oppose him, were repeatedly foiled. But he was murdered, в. c. 72, by Perpenna, one of his adherents, who had hoped to succeed him, but found himself unable to stand against Pompey and Metellus, and was put to death.

THE WAR OF SPARTACUS, AND THE PIRATIC WAR.

B. C. 73. The War of the Gladiators begins.
71. Death of Spartacus.

70. Pompey restores the power of the tribunes.

67. The Gabinian Law; Pompey subdues the pirates.

The south of Italy, which had greatly suffered in the times of Sylla, was for three years wasted by the desperate

2 The Cornelian gens used to bury their dead. Sylla ordered his body to be burned after the newer fashion, lest his remains should afterwards be dug up and insulted.

bands of gladiators, who had broken out of the training schools at Capua, and being joined by numbers of slaves, and commanded by the Thracian Spartacus, at one time defeated both consuls, and threatened the existence of Rome itself. But they were at last destroyed by M. Licinius Crassus, the prætor, in a great battle in which Spartacus bravely fought and fell, B. c. 71.

Pompey and Crassus, whose chief influence was owing to his immense wealth, were now chosen consuls. Pompey, to please the people, restored to the tribunes the power of which Sylla had deprived them. The two consuls were jealous of each other; but, when they went out of office, they were reconciled by the people.

At this time, the reduction of the naval power of the Rhodians had favoured the increase of piracy, and the Cilicians not only plundered the coasts of Italy, but by intercepting the corn-fleets, brought Rome to the verge of famine. At length the tribune A. Gabinius succeeded, in spite of the opposition of the aristocratic party, in passing a law which gave Pompey the management of the war against the pirates, and invested him with most extraordinary powers, B. c. 67. Pompey acted with such vigour, that in less than fifty days the pirates were completely subdued.

THE MITHRIDATIC WAR.

B. C. 74. The last Mithridatic War.

68. Lucullus invades Armenia.

67. Mutiny of Lucullus' army. Defeat of Triarius.
66. The Manilian Law; Pompey goes to Asia.

3 Gladiators, or sword-players, were strong slaves trained to fight and destroy each other at public festivals for the amusement of the barbarous spectators.

63. Death of Mithridates. Pompey takes Jerusalem.
62. Return of Pompey.

With the exception of a short defensive war, for which the Romans were to blame, Mithridates, though preparing for a future struggle, had remained quiet for some years. But in consequence of his having entered into negotiations with Sertorius, the war again broke out, B. c. 74. At first, he was successful; but on the arrival of L. Licinius Lucullus in Asia, he was driven back with loss into his own country. There he was unable to withstand the energy and skill of the Roman general; and he was forced to go and seek refuge in Armenia with Tigrānes, his son-in-law. Three years later, Lucullus also invaded Armenia, where, after a succession of brilliant victories, his career was suddenly checked by a mutiny of his troops, which was instigated by his own brother-in-law, the worthless P. Clodius', B. C. 67. The strictness of his discipline, and the manner in which he enriched himself with the spoils of the war, had caused deep discontent. Mithridates now ventured to return to Pontus, and having defeated the legate, C. Valerius Triarius, quickly recovered his dominions. Lucullus had given great offence at Rome by his justice and kindness to the people of Asia Minor 5, and therefore his enemies deprived him of his command.

The following year, the tribune C. Manilius carried a bill which extended the powers conferred on Pompey by the Gabinian law, and gave him the chief command in Asia. Pompey soon gained a decisive victory over Mithridates, who fled through Colchis to the Cimmerian Bosporus, where he formed a daring plan of uniting the barbarous

4 Clodius was of the Claudian family, and was descended from Appius Claudius the decemvir.

5 They had been fined 20,000 talents by Sylla, a sum raised, by the compound interest of the money which they had been forced to borrow of the Roman knights, to 120,000 talents.

F