Page images
PDF
EPUB

"This law had before given way," it was said, "to the public utility, on an occasion of less urgency; since, when Scipio was made Consul, though not present, they were not anxious for the safety of their own city, but only desirous of destroying Carthage."

After the election had taken place, Marius arrived with his victorious army; on the first of January, entering upon his consulship, and leading in his triumph, on that same auspicious day, Jugurtha bound with golden chains, marching before the chariot where sat the Consul. There were carried in this triumph 3707 pounds of gold, 5775 pounds of silver bullion, besides 17028 drachms of silver coin. Neither Sallust nor Plutarch, have dared to assert, that Marius, after having had so much wealth entrusted to his keeping, had enriched himself with the spoils obtained through his genius and valour.

Hurried on as we have been while following the rapid steps of our hero, in his career of Numidian conquests, and the splendid pageant of his return to Rome, we had almost forgotten to allude to the puerile wrath of indignant patricians, that Marius should have entered the Senate clad in his triumphal robe-a daring violatiou of senatorial etiquette, as we are gravely told by his biographer.

This second consulate of Marius was marked by no important military event. The tide of barbarian invasion turning to the Pyrenees, instead of rolling down from the Alps to the plains of Italy, allowed sufficient time to the Consul to discipline the newly formed legions, by inuring them to long and tedious marches, during which every soldier carried, besides his arms and encamping implements, provision enough for a full week. Hence the proverbial saying that obtained long after, to call him that bore without murmuring the severest toil, "one of Marius's mules!" This delay before coming to action had another salutary effect; it raised and confirmed the military spirit of the legions, and showed them, to use Plutarch's words: “What was still more important-what Marius himself was!-with what integrity he adjudged in relation to them. And this contributed not a little to procure for Marius a third consulate. And besides, the barbarians were expected in the spring, and the people were not willing to meet them under any other general!"

They did not come, however, as soon as had been expected; and the other Consul having died, Marius went himself to Rome, leaving to his lieutenant, M. Aquillus, the command of the army. On that year the Patricians having somewhat recovered from the panic spread among them by the terrors of Cimbric invasion, several of their order, all of them of distinguished abilities, presented themselves to the people as candidates for the consulate. Saturnius, a popular tribune. entreated the Romans once more to invest Marius with that high ma.

gistracy; insisting that, to him alone could safely be entrusted the task of averting from the Republic the perils that threatened Italy and Rome itself. Then occurred one of those scenes of self-denial, repetitions of which, in modern times, both in England and France by men certainly not very desirous to retire from office, have taught historians to examine with no feeling of credulity, the motives of the actors in them. Marius earnestly solicited the people to relieve him from the weight of command; to confide to other chiefs the con duct of a contest fraught with difficulties, and endangering the very existence of Rome. This refusal by Marius of the proffered com mand seemed to excite in the breast of Saturnius irrepressible wrath and indignation. Rebuking the hesitations of Marius, he exclaimed, "That none but a traitor to his country could decline, under the existence of dangers so appalling, the command of a Roman army!" To these angry reproaches, these doubts darkly hinted of his patriotism, these flattering solicitations of a whole nation, placing itself, as it were, under his tutelary guardianship, Marius yielded at last, with apparent reluctance. Catullus, a patrician, held in high esteem by his order, and not unpopular with the plebeians, was chosen, as his colleague in office.

The history of the Cimbric war, has not been preserved entire. With the exception of some original fragments, we are thrown for the particulars of that memorable contest, which averted from Rome for several centuries the torrent of northern invasion, on the mercy of compilers, who avow that they have drawn their information from the Commentaries of Sylla, the History of the Teutonic War, by Lucullus-(a work which Cicero compares to that of Thucydides)—and an apology of his conduct during the decisive campaigns, written by Catulus. And yet, even in these hostile compilations, how great the action! how sublime, in the vigourous brevity, the stirring addresses of the people-born Consul! Undismayed by the successive overthrows of Carbo and Cæpio, Patrician gcnerals, swept away with their legions as by a whirlwind, in the first onset against the Cimbric host, Marius waited patiently until the soldiers, by viewing securely from camp, which their wary chief ever made impregnable, the countless multitude, had lost altogether the terror which their famed vigour of body, and intrepidity of soul, had spread through the legions,

This dread of Cimbric prowess was justified by the successive defeat of all the Roman commanders who had yet attempted to stop the onward course of these resistless hordes. Carbo, a consul, sustained by Silanus, who had reinforced him with a considerable force, were both slain, and their combined army totally destroyed. Cassius, and Scaurus, who met them next, together with their respec

tive armies, shared the same fate. And again, another consul, Manilius, having besides under his command, Servius Cæpio, at the head of several legions, was defeated in a battle as disastrous as that of Cannæ, where eighty thousand Romans, (and among them the two sons of the Consul) were killed; forty thousand attendants of the army slaughtered in cold blood, and the two camps taken!

Nor did Marius neglect the aid which great generals have ever derived from the prevailing superstitions of the age. Thus when the soldiers, wearied, sometimes by incessant toils, sometimes by long intervals of tedious inactivity, entreated to be led against the foe, Marius replied: "The battle you demand I do not refuse through any mistrust of your valor; but oracles which I dare not disobey command me still to delay it. The gods themselves promise to fix the day and designate the field!"

Martha, a Syrian prophetess, followed the army. It happened once at the circus, where there was a fight of gladiators, that this woman sat at the feet of Marius's wife, and invariably told her which of the combatants would prove victorious. Julia, believing in her foreknowledge, sent her to the consul, who received her with the utmost veneration. She was carried in a litter, with religious pageantry, wherever the army encamped, And when, clad in a purple robe, holding in her right hand a spear wreathed with flowers bound with crimson bandlets, she offered sacrifices; the strange ceremonies, the mysterious rites she observed, the frantic wildness of her looks and gestures, her dread evocations of unknown gods, seemed to impress Marius himself with those deep feelings of religious awe and auspicious hope, which the solemn and exciting scene inspired to the assembled legions. Portents and prodigies* were not wanting to heighten still more that confidence of success which, in war, is the forerunner of victory; of these Marius took care that the soldiers should be informed; they serve, he well knew, to feed that love of the marvellous, inherent to military life. In Rome the sacred shields were heard, untouched by mortal hand, clashing with frightful sounds! Both in Ameria and at Tudentum, it was asserted,-(and not a soldier in the camp doubted of the facts,)-spears and shields of fire had been seen in the sky, now waving from side to side, and again clashing against each other as if in the

* To such of our readers who might deem it absurd in this age, to have alluded to portents and omens, we say, in the words of the great Roman Historian, "non sum nescius, ab eadem negligentia qua nihil Deos portendere vulgo nunc credant; neque nunciari admodum nulla prodigia in publicum, neque in annales referri. Cæterum et mihi vevistas res Scribenti, nescio quo pacto antiquus sit animus; et quadam religio tenet, qua illi prudentissimi viri publice suscipienda censuerint, ea pro dignis habere, qua in meos annales referam!" T. Liv. lib. xliii.

hands of warriors in actual fight. And such, at the time, was the temper of men, that Antus Pomponius, a tribune, having driven ignominously from the rostrum, a priest of Cybele, who had come there to let the people know that the mother of the gods had declared from her sanctuary, that "the Romans would soon obtain a signal and most glorious victory," and dying suddenly after he had dissolved the assembly, the truth of this divine oracle became manifest to all, since the goddess herself, it was said, had avenged on the impious tribune her outraged pontiff. "This is a fact," remarks Plutarch, with his usual credulity, "universally known and circulated."

As if to confirm these signs and promises of the gods, two vultures always appeared and followed Marius's army previous to any great victory. They were easily recognized by brazen rings which the soldiers having once caught them, had fastened round their necks. Thenceforth they knew the legionaries, and seemed to salute them! The soldiers, on their part, whenever they saw these augural birds upon their march, rejoiced in the assurance they brought of some signal exploit.

THE TIME and THE FIELD were at last designated, not by the gods, but by the genius of Marius-the time, when the legions maddened by the devastations committed by the barbarians under their eyes, as though to deride their inaction, would no longer brook further delay-the field, one that would enable the Romans, however inferior in number, to present an equal front to their adversaries, each of their wings being protected by precipices, that could neither be passed nor turned. Nothing could stand against the firm array of the legions. Brutal strength and untaught valour yielded, after efforts of incredible intrepidity, to the determined courage and discipline of warriors led on by the most consummate general of the age. The victory was the most signal ever obtained by the Romans. More than two hundred thousand barbarians were slain and ninety thousand taken prisoners. The soldiers, to show their gratitude to Marius, who during that giant battle had approved himself, to speak the language of Plutarch, "Inferior to none in personal prowess, and in courage had surpassed them all," voted to him with loud and unanimous acclaim, all the tents, carriages, and baggage of the enemy that had not been plundered-" A noble reward," exclaims the historian, and yet it was thought very inadequate to the generalship which Marius had displayed in that imminent danger!"

From among these arms and spoils, Marius selected such as would add most to the splendour of his triumph. The rest, a confused mass, was piled together and offered, a splendid sacrifice, to the gods.

A more magnificient spectacle had never been presented to a Roman army. The soldiers, crowned with laurel, stood round the immense

trophy, while Marius himself, arrayed in a purple robe, girt after the manner of the Romans, had already grasped a lighted torch, and lifted it up with both hands towards heaven. Just as he was going to set fire to the huge pile, horsemen were seen at a distance, urging their career at full speed towards the field of battle.-All were silent, every heart panting in anxious expectation of important tidings.-The breathless messengers leaped from their horses, and bending low saluted Marius the fifth time consul, and delivered to him the letters of the senate to that effect. The legions clashing their arms, and rending the air with their acclamations, proclaimed their joy at these new honours conferred by a grateful people on their great leader. Marius, after his officers had crowned him with new laurels, set fire to the trophy, and finished the sacrifice.

This battle, was only the first act of the heroic drama of the Cimbric war. Catulus, the other consul, had been unable to inspire his troops even with sufficient courage to defend the position they held in a defile, through which the barbarians had to force their way at great disadvantage, before they could proceed further. They ignominously abandoned so important a post. And on another occasion, when the front of their position was covered by the Adige, such was the terror which still possessed them, that at the mere sight of the Cimbri on the opposite side of the river which they had no means of crossing, the whole army fled in wild disorder and confusion. It was there that Catulus, as if to conceal from the world this disgrace of Roman arms, seized with his own hand the eagle of one of the panic-struck legions, and carried it in advance of the dismayed fugitives, that it might appear that the troops were retreating in obedience to his orders, and not shamefully running away even before being attacked. As soon as accounts of these disasters had been received in Rome, Marius was recalled from Gaul to defend Italy itself; for the barbarians had spread themselves over the whole country, now at their mercy. In obedience to the command of the senate, Marius hastened to Rome; and when every one thought he would enter the city in triumphal pomp, the consul, evincing his faith in the destinies of the republic, confided, as it were, his recent achievements as a deposite entrusted to the fortunes of Rome, until after crowning her arms with still brighter glory, he should obtain two-fold honours for deeds of two-fold renown! After reviving the confidence of people in him and themselves, by thus seeming to adjourn one triumph only in order to abtain two in glorious succession, Marius led his army by forced marches to the rescue of his colleague; whom he found beseiged in his camp by the barbarians. It was then, that being challenged by Biorrix to name a day and a field to decide by arms to whom Italy should hereafter belong, Marius made this reply: "Tell the barbarians that the Romans never take advice from their enemies when and where to fight their battles."

« PreviousContinue »