B.C. 119.] TRIBUNATE OF CAIUS MARIUS. 41 stop was put to the colonization of Carthage, as well as to the Sempronian colonies in Italy, with the exception of Tarentum, and a new course of legislation was begun in antagonism to the Sempronian laws respecting the public land. But they were not permitted to proceed altogether unopposed. As soon as Opimius had been reduced to a private station by the expiration of his consulship, he was accused before the people by the tribune Q. Decius, on the charge of casting Roman citizens into prison and putting them to death without a trial; but the influence of the Senate was strong enough to secure his acquittal (B.c. 120). Not so, however, in the case of C. Papirius Carbo, the former associate of Gracchus, and the consul for the present year, who came forward to defend Opimius. His justification of the murder of his friend completed the disgust inspired by his political apostasy, and the nobles were probably not unwilling to let him serve for a scapegoat. On the expiration of his consulship, he was prosecuted on we know not what charge, and he is said to have escaped condemnation by a voluntary death. The case is chiefly remarkable because of the subsequent fame of the accuser, the great orator L. Licinius Crassus, who now commenced his career at the age of twenty-one (B.c. 119). At a later period of his life, he declared that he never repented so much of anything as the part he had taken against Carbo. In the same year, the tribunate of CAIUS MARIUS proved that the popular party was not to want a leader. He proposed a change in the mechanical arrangements to secure greater freedom of voting in the Comitia; and he overcame the opposition of the Senate by ordering the consul Metellus to be carried off to prison. On the other hand, he asserted his independence by opposing a new distribution of corn among the citizens, and thus, we are told, "he established himself in equal credit with both parties, as a man who would do nothing to please either, if it were contrary to the public interest." The whole career of this remarkable man will soon claim our attention. The following year was marked by a measure similar to one of the favourite schemes of Caius Gracchus-the establishment of a colony at Narbo Martius (Narbonne) on the Gulf of Lyon, in opposition to the Senate. Reserving for a future chapter a general view of the progress of the Roman arms in Transalpine Gaul, we need now only mention that the friendly relations of the Republic with Massilia had led to hostilities with the Gallic tribes in and about the valley of the Rhone. In B.C. 125, the consul M. Fulvius Flaccus, who bore so conspicuous a part in the Sempronian revolution, conducted a successful war with the Salluvii, who dwelt in the mountains between the Rhone and the Var. In the three following years, C. Sextius Calvinus, as consul and proconsul, defeated the Allobroges and Arverni, and completed the subjugation of the Salluvii, in whose territory he founded the colony of Aquæ Sextiæ (Aix), the ruins of which still exhibit some of the most splendid remains of Roman architecture (B.C. 122). The conquest of the Allobroges and Arverni, in the next year, conferred on the consul Q. Fabius Maximus the title of Allobrogicus. The lower valley of the Rhone was now formed into the province which remained down to the time of Cæsar the sole possession of the Romans in Transalpine Gaul, and was hence distinguished from the rest of the country by the name of Gallia Provincia, or simply Provincia, a name perpetuated in that of Provence. The full establishment of this eleventh Roman province was marked by the colonization of Narbo Martius, which soon began to eclipse Massilia in prosperity. The blow which fell upon the Gallic province some years later by the invasion of the Cimbri and Teutones will be related in the following chapter. # Meanwhile the nobility at Rome, having recovered the government, proceeded with their measures for annulling the agrarian laws of Tiberius Gracchus. The details of this interesting but intricate subject may be left to the special works on Roman history and antiquities. It is enough to say that, after the repeal of the law which prevented the small landholders from selling their possessions had removed the obstacle to their passing back into the hands of the rich, the tenth and the cattle-tax which were reserved as a compensation for the poor were finally remitted by what is commonly called the Thorian Law, which also regulated the public lands of Achaia and Africa in the interest of the wealthy possessors. But the same year in which this law was probably enacted witnessed the beginning of the fall of the Optimates through the display of their corruption and incompetence in the war with Jugurtha (B.c. 111). One incident of this period is enough to illustrate the state of religious feeling at Rome. In B.C. 116 it was discovered that, out of the six vestal virgins, three had abandoned themselves to systematic prostitution. According to the terrible penalty provided for such a crime, they were carried in a close litter with * See the full discussion of the Leges Boria and Thorice in Long's Decline, &c., vol. i., chap. xxiii. xxiv. xxv. B.C. 116.] HUMAN SACRIFICES AT ROME. 43 funeral ceremonies through the Forum, and there solemnly delivered by the chief pontiff to the executioner, at the mouth of a subterranean cave, containing a couch, a light, and a table with some food upon it. Their paramours were whipped to death in the Comitium by the hand of the chief pontiff. The Sibylline books were consulted, and found to contain a prophecy of the crime, with directions to avert its consequences by sacrifices to strange deities. Sulpicia, the wife of Q. Fulvius Flaccus, was chosen by the Roman matrons as the chastest of their number, to consecrate a new temple to Venus Verticordia, with prayers that the goddess of lust might turn the hearts of the vestals to purity! Four foreigners were selected-a Greek and Gallic man and woman —and buried alive in the cow-market, to appease the foreign deities. Such is the practical comment on the boast that Rome, in destroying Carthage, at least rendered the service of abolishing the lustful orgies of Astarte and the horrid rites of Moloch! Admirably does the historian remark that "the savage superstition of Rome required human sacrifices to allay its miserable terrors; and the Roman poet's line is as applicable to the vestals of Rome as to the daughter of Agamemnon : 'Tantum religio potuit suadere malorum."" CHAPTER XXXII. RULE OF THE RESTORED OLIGARCHY. THE WARS WITH JUGURTHA AND THE CIMBRI. "Pro pudore, pro abstinentiâ, pro virtute, audacia, largitio, avaritia vigebant." SALLUST. "The history of Rome from the time of the Gracchi is the history of a state that was hurried to its ruin by the ignorance of the people and the vices of their leaders. We now and then meet with an honest man, but the number is small."-LONG. HOW THE NOBLES USED THEIR VICTORY-OPTIMATES AND POPULARES-THE CONFLICT TENDING TO DESPOTISM-GOVERNMENT OF THE RESTORED OPTIMATES-THE METELLI -DALMATIAN AND OTHER WARS-CATO AND THE SCORDISCI-THE CIMBRI AND TEUTONES-AFFAIRS OF NUMIDIA-ORIGIN AND CHARACTER OF JUGURTHA-HE SERVES AT NUMANTIA-DEATHBED OF KING MICIPSA-MURDER OF HIEMPSAL-ROMAN COMMISSIONERS BRIBED BY JUGURTHA-CAPTURE OF CIRTA AND DEATH OF ADHERBALTHE JUGURTHINE WAR-CORRUPTION OF BESTIA AND SCAURUS-THE TRIBUNE MEMMIUS-JUGURTHA AT ROME-MURDER OF MASSIVA-SPURIUS ALBINUS IN AFRICA -CAPITULATION OF A. ALBINUS-INDIGNATION AT ROME PROSECUTIONS OF THE OPTIMATES-METELLUS SENT TO AFRICA, WITH MARIUS AS LEGATE-OVERTURES OF JUGURTHA-BATTLE OF THE RIVER MUTHUL-SUCCESSES OF METELLUS-HE IS REPULSED FROM ZAMA-CONSPIRACY OF BOMILCAR-RISE OF CAIUS MARIUS-HIS MARRIAGE WITH JULIA-THE SOOTHSAYER AT UTICA-MARIUS ASPIRES TO THE CONSULSHIP-SCORN OF METELLUS ELECTION OF MARIUS-METELLUS TAKES THALABOCCHUS AND JUGURTHA NEGOTIATIONS WITH METELLUS-MARIUS ARRIVES IN AFRICA-HIS FIRST CAMPAIGN-TAKING OF CAPSA-EXPEDITION TO THE MOLOCHATH -THE LAST BATTLE OF JUGURTHA-TREACHERY OF KING BOCCHUS MISSION OF SULLA AND CAPTURE OF JUGURTHA-TRIUMPH OF MARIUS-HIS JEALOUSY OF SULLA -THE COMING CONFLICT-THE CIMBRI AND TEUTONES-DEFEATS OF CARBO, SILANUS, LONGINUS, AND OF MALLIUS AND CEPIO-SUCCESSIVE CONSULSHIPS OF MARIUS-IIS VICTORY OVER THE TEUTONES AT AIX-VICTORY OVER THE CIMBRI-CONDITION OF ROME AND ITALY-INSURRECTIONS OF SLAVES-SUFFERINGS OF THE PROVINCESPIRACY SECOND SERVILE WAR IN SICILY-SIXTH CONSULSHIP OF MARIUS-BIRTHS OF CICERO, POMPEY, AND CESAR. IF the failure and death of the Gracchi averted a democratic revolution at Rome, it was at the cost of destroying every hope of moderate reform. The victorious party returned to power with all the vices and dangers inherent in a restoration. The conflict, in which they had gained their victory, was of a totally different character from that between the patricians and the plebeians in the early age of the republic. That was an honest effort for a fair share of political power, made by a body which was qualified to use it when obtained, and granted by the original citizens when they were convinced that the demand could no longer be resisted. The result was to make Rome a free and powerful state, on the basis of the union of the two orders. But out of that union there had grown up a new nobility, partly patrician and partly plebeian, no longer banded together in defence of those political privileges B.C. 120.] OPTIMATES AND POPULARES. 45 which give a certain dignity to an aristocracy-for all Roman citizens now possessed the equality of civil rights and universal suffrage-but holding its grasp upon the administrative government by means of and for the sake of wealth alone. That wealth, obtained by the depopulation of Italy and the plunder of the provinces, was employed in bribery at home: and the people, who were ever ready to attack a delinquent governor, got their share of the plunder at the elections. The Roman Equites and Italian capitalists reaped their full share of the booty as contractors and farmers of the revenue (negotiatores and publicani). In such a state of things it was no wonder that the effort failed, either to raise up an independent opposition to the great families from a middle class whose interests were identical with theirs, or to lay a new foundation of freedom on the basis of a populace held in subservience by corruption, nor that the use of the influence thus acquired decided the failure of the revolution. The victory was one of personal interests, and it was now to be followed up for personal interests alone. The absence of definite political principles was implied by the new party names that now came into use. The ruling faction called themselves the Optimates (those of the best class)—a term which seems to have come into use about the time of the Gracchi. The name was of course intended to assume that they were what Cicero describes them, "all good and honest people, of all ranks and conditions; " but a far truer idea is given by Mr. Long's description:-"We may easily guess who were the Optimates. They were the rich and powerful, who ruled by intimidation, intrigue, and bribery, who bought the votes of the people, and sold their interests." Opposed to them were the Populares, or men of the people, a title just as much self-assumed as the other, not signifying the people themselves, but men who assumed the character of popular leaders for purposes generally as selfish and corrupt as those of the Optimates. "From the time of the Gracchi to the time of C. Julius Cæsar the contest was between the party of the Optimates and the party of the Populares. It was a contest in which the rich and powerful on both sides struggled for political superiority and personal aggrandizement. The party of the Optimates had a plainer object than the opposite party: they wished to maintain the power of their faction and the authority of the Senate. The leaders of the popular party could have no other object than to overthrow their opponents by means of the people, that is, by the votes of a body of men, many of whom were poor |