Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/973

MARIUS. ?jimo. to the gates he affected to have scruples, and ol)served with contempt, that it was illegal for him as an exile to enter the citj', and that if they wished for his presence, they must summon the comitia and repeal the law which banished him. The comitia were accordingly summoned ; but bo- fore three or four tribes had voted, Marius became tired of the farce, threw off the mask, and entered the city, surrounded by his body-guard, which he had formed out of the slaves who had flocked to him. The most frightful scenes followed. His guards stabbed every one whom he did not salute, and the streets ran with the blood of the noblest of the Roman aristocracy. Every one whom Marius hated or feared was hunted out and put to death ; and no consideration either of rank, talent, or former friendship induced him to spare the victims of his vengeance. The great orator M. Antonius fell by the hands of his assassins ; and his former colleague Q. Catulus, who had triumphed with him over the Cimbri, was obliged to put an end to his own life. Cinna was soon tired of the butchery ; but the appetite of Marius seemed only whetted by the slaughter, and daily required fresh victims for its gratification. Without going through the form of an election, Marius and Cinna named themselves consuls for the foUowhig year (e.c. 86), and thus was fulfilled the prediction that Marius should be seven times consul. But he did not long enjoy the honour: he was now in his seventy-first year ; his body was quite worn out by the fatigues and sufferings he had recently undergone ; and on the eighteenth day of his consulship he died of an attack of pleurisy, after seven days' illness. Ac- cording to Plutarch, his last illness was brought on by dread of Sulla's return, and he is said to have been troubled with terrific dreams ; but these state- ments are probably derived from the Memoirs of Sulla, and should be received with great caution. The ashes of Marius were subsequently thrown into the Anio by command of Sulla. (Plut. Life of Marius; the passages of Cicero in Orelli's Onomasticon Tullian. vol. ii. pp. 384 — .386 ; Sail. Jug. 46, 63—65, 73—114 ; Appian, D. C. i. 29— 31, 40—46, 55—74 ; Liv. Epit, 66—80 ; Veil. Pat. ii. 9, 12—23; Flor. iii. 1, 3, 16, 21 ; Oros. v. 1 9. ) All the ancient authorities are collected by F. Weiland, C. Marii VII. Cos. ViL, in the Pro- gramme of the College Royal Fran^ais, Berlin, 1845 ; and much useful information is given by G. Long in the notes to his translation of Plutarch's Life of Marius, London, 1844. 2. C. Marius, the son of the great Marius, was only an adopted son. (Liv. E}nt. 86 ; Veil. Pat. ii. 26.) Appian in one passage (B. C. i. 87) calls him a nephew of the preceding, though he had previously spoken of him as his son {B. C. i. 62). He was born in B.C. 109 ; and the particulars of his life down to the time of his father's death are related in the preceding article. During the throe years after the death of the elder Marius Sulla was engaged in the prosecution of the war against Mithridates, and Italy was entirely in the hands of the Marian party. The young Marius followed in the footsteps of his father, and was equally dis- tinguished by merciless severity against his enemies. He was elected consul for the year B. c. 82, when he was twenty-seven vears of age, and his colleague was Cn. Papirins Carbo. Snlla had landed at Brun- disium at the beginning of the preceding year, and utter conquering the southern part of the peninsula, MARIUS. 559 appears to have passed the winter in Campania. Marius was stationed on the frontiers of Latium to oppose him ; and the decisive battle was fought near Sacriportus (the position of which is quite un- certain). Marius was entirely defeated, and throw himself into the strongly-fortified town of Prqe- neste, where he had deposited the treasures cf the Capitoline temple (Plin. II. A', xxxiii. 1. s. 5) : Sulla left Lucretius Opella to prosecute the siege while he hastened on to Rome. But Marius, resolving that his enemies should not escape, sent orders to L. Junius Brutus Damasippus, who was then praetor at Rome, to summon the senate under some pretext, and put to death Mucius Scaevola, the pontifex maximus, and many others. [Brutus, No. 19. J Various efforts were made to relieve Praeneste, but they all failed ; and after Sulla's great victory at the Colline gate of Rome, in which Pontius Telesinus was defeated and slain, Marius despaired of holding out any longer, and, in company with the brother of Telesinus, attempted to escape by a subterraneous passage, which led from the town into the open country ; but finding that their flight was discovered, they put an end to one another's lives. According to other accounts, Marius killed himself, or was killed by his slave at his own request. Marius perished in the year of his consulship. His head was cut off and carried to Sulla, who contemptuously remarked, in allusion to his youth, that he ought to have worked at the oar before steering the vessel. It was after the death of the younger Marius that Sulla first assumed the sur- name of Felix. (Plut. SuU. 28—32, Mar. 46 ; Appian, B. C. i. 87—94 ; Liv. Epit. 86—88 ; Veil. Pat. ii. 26, 27 ; Flor. iii. 21 ; Oros. v. 20 ; Val. Max. vi. 8. § 2.) 3. C. or M. Marius, whom Appian calls the other (erepos) C. Marius, was a relation of the great Marius, and fled to Cinna, when the latter was driven out of Rome by his colleague Octavius, B. c. 87. (Appian, B. C. i. 65.) As Appian calls this C. Marius a senator, he is probably the same as the M. Marius who settled some of the Celtiberi in a town not far from Colenda, because they had assisted him in a war against the Lusitanians. This happened about the year b. c. 99^ when Marius was probably quaestor. (Appian, Ilisp. 100.) 4. The False Marius, whose real name Avas Amatius, pretended to be a son or grandson of the great Marius. [Amatius.] 5. M. Marius, of Sidicinum, of whom A. Gellius (x. 3) relates a striking tale, which shows the gross indignity with which the Roman magis- trates sometimes treated the most distinguished men among the allies. This Marius, who is called by Gellius suae civitatis nobilissimus homo, was a contemporary of C. Gracchus. It has been con- jectured that he may liave been the father or a near connection of Marius Egnatius, one of the principal leaders of the allies in the Social war, [Egnatius, No. 2.] 6. M. Marius, a friend of Cicero, whose estate was in the neighbourhood of one of Cicero's, and with whom he was closely united by similarity of political opinions and intellectual tastes and habits. Although Marius constantly suffered from ill health, he was of a lively and cheerful dis- position, full of wit and merriment ; and accord- ingly, Cicero's four letters to him, which have cnnio down to us {ad Fain. vii. 1 — 4), are written in a