Story of the Greek and the Roman People
- Автор: Tappan Eva March
- Год: 1910
- Язык: английский
- Год: Heritage History
- Жанр: История
Электронная книга - «Story of the Greek and the Roman People». Краткое содержание книги:
Story of the Greek People
Story of the Roman People
The Romans now made ready an army to punish Mithridates. The senate gave the command to Lucius Cornelius Sulla, one of the consuls. Sulla had served as lieutenant under Marius in the war against Jugurtha. He had shown a favor to Bocchus, father-in-law of the usurper, and in return Bocchus had delivered up Jugurtha to the young lieutenant. The honor of the triumphal procession had of course been given to Marius as commander of the army; but so many gave all the glory of the war to the young Sulla that Marius became intensely jealous of him. Sulla had a seal made representing. Bocchus in the act of delivering up Jugurtha to him, and used it constantly to seal his letters. Even worse than that, whenever Marius went to the Capitol, he saw gilded figures representing the same scene, which had been presented by Bocchus.
In the Social War and the wars with the Cimbri and the Teutones, Rome had been in such danger that there was no room for jealousy, and both Marius and Sulla had done their best; but this war with Mithridates would bring to the commanding general glory and wealth, and now to have the management of it given to his own former lieutenant was most exasperating to Marius, and he was furiously angry. He was nearly seventy years old, but he went to the Campus Martius, or training ground, every day, and exercised with the young men to prove that he was equal to the toils of a campaign. He persuaded a tribune to propose a law giving to him, instead of to Sulla, command of the army. Now Sulla's soldiers had something to say, for they were devoted to their general. The struggle between the law and the army had begun. The army was victorious, for Sulla led his troops into Rome and drove Marius into exile. Then he set off for the war.
Marius took refuge on a little vessel and sailed down the coast. He was driven ashore by a storm, and had to hide in the woods to escape horsemen who were searching for him. He begged the sailors not to desert him. "When I was a child," he said, "an eagle's nest with seven young ones in it once fell into my lap. The soothsayers declared this meant that I should be seven times consul. Six times I have held the office; the seventh, will surely come, and those who have aided me will not fail of their reward." In spite of the story of the eagles, the sailors deserted him, and he wandered about through bogs and marshes till he came to a cottage. He begged the owner to save him, and the cottager hid him near a river and covered him with reeds. Soon he heard loud talking and the trampling of horses' hoofs; his enemies were again on his track. He threw off his clothes and plunged into the mud of the swamp. He was discovered and carried into the nearest town. A proclamation had been sent out that he was to be put to death wherever he might be found, and the magistrates sent a man to kill him. The man came back without his weapon. He had rushed into the gloomy cell with drawn sword, but in the darkness he had seen the flash of the old general's eyes and heard a voice demanding solemnly, "Do you dare to kill Marius?" He had thrown down his sword and fled.
Then the people cried out that the man who had saved Italy should be set free. They went to the shore with him and put him on board a vessel. He sailed for Africa and landed where Carthage had once stood; but the Roman governor forbade him to set foot in Africa. "Go and tell him," said Marius, "that you have seen the exile Marius sitting on the ruins of Carthage." A fishing boat was at hand. Marius went on board and fled to a little island off the coast of Africa. Here he heard some good news. The party of the people, led by the consul, Lucius Cornelius Cinna, were in power. Marius collected as many volunteers as he could in Africa and in Etruria and appeared at the mouth of the Tiber. He burned and plundered and destroyed. He got possession of the grain that was on its way to Rome, and the starving city was forced to yield.
Then the streets of Rome ran with the blood of her nobles. The heads of consul and senators were fixed to the rostrum, or orator's platform in the forum. Marius was taking a fearful revenge for every insult, every slight. It is said that he walked through the streets with a band of soldiers, and that they killed every man whose salutation he did not return.
The time for the annual election drew near, but Marius and Cinna had put themselves above the law. They did not wait for an election, but simply declared themselves consuls, and no one ventured to contradict them. This was Marius's seventh consulship. He had reached the height of his ambition, but it had brought him neither glory nor happiness. In his long life he should have won a position of honor and hosts of friends. He now held power, but not honor; he had flatterers, but no friends. Sulla would soon return and with him would come a terrible vengeance. Marius was a wretched, miserable old man. He died only a few days after he had seized the consulship.
While Marius was ruling in Rome, his rival Sulla was carrying on the war with Mithridates. Sulla knew that no matter how powerful his enemies might become, yet if he should return from the war a successful general, with ships full of slaves and the treasures of conquered cities, and escorted by a devoted army, he could regain all that he might have lost. He went first to Epirus, then to Attica, and laid siege to Athens. The Athenians defended their city valiantly; but
Sulla had built a stockade about it, and the time soon came when there was no food for even the soldiers. They boiled the hides of oxen, and with the little nourishment that they could get from these, they tottered feebly to the walls and tried to resist the enemy. It was in vain. One midnight Sulla's forces burst into the city. Horns and trumpets sounded, soldiers shouted and yelled and ran through the streets with drawn swords, for they had been commanded to cut down all whom they met, men, women, and children; and then they were free to plunder as they would.
BALLISTA: ARTILLERY OF THE ROMANS.
(IT WAS USED IN BESIEGING CITIES, AND COULD THROW STONES WEIGHING 500 TO 600 LBS.)
The forces of Mithridates were driven back into Asia, and before long he was begging for peace on the ground that he had once been a friend of Sulla's father! Sulla replied that the king had not recalled the friendship till he had lost one hundred and sixty thousand of his troops. At length, however, peace was made. Cities had been torn down, people had been sold as slaves, and many thousands slain. The king was obliged to give up all the territory that he had seized and to pay a great sum to the Romans.
Sulla was now ready to return to Rome. He sent in advance a long letter to the senate, recounting what he had done for the Roman people. "And in return," he said, "my house has been destroyed, my friends put to death, and my wife and children have barely escaped to me. I shall soon be in Rome to take vengeance upon the guilty."
The Romans were terrified, but the senators tried their best to maintain their dignity and sent messengers to say to Sulla that he need have no fear, and if he wanted any protection, he might write to the senate at once. Sulla replied, "I have a devoted army, and I can protect the senate better than it can protect me." Then the Romans knew that he meant to bring his army into the city, and they were more frightened than ever. Their alarm increased, for the Capitol caught fire and burned, and with it the famous Sibylline Books. They had been stored away with the utmost care and fifteen keepers appointed to guard them. In times of great danger, the Romans consulted them. They felt sure now that their destruction foretold the overthrow of the city.
They had reason to fear. Sulla landed with his army. The people who had favored Marius opposed him, and the Samnites did likewise, for they thought that this was a good opportunity to revenge themselves for the battles lost in former days to the insolent Romans. There was a great contest just without the city walls. Sulla was victorious and master of Rome. He called the people together and told them that the government would soon go as it ought. His plan for making it "go as it ought" was to kill every one who opposed him. He sold the property of his enemies or gave it to his friends. He slew tens of thousands of Italians who had been of the party of Marius. In Rome itself he had so many persons put to death that a young senator ventured to say to him in the senate, "We do not ask you to spare those whom you have marked out for punishment, but we do beg that you will free from anxiety those whom you have decided to save." "I do not yet know whom I shall save," Sulla replied. "Then let us know whom you intend to destroy," besought the senator. Sulla graciously yielded and published a list of eighty names at once. Each day he added to the number. Then he said, "That is all I remember now; the rest must come into some future proscription." These lists were put up in the forum and sent to all the Italian cities. Whoever killed a proscribed man received a reward. It is said that forty-seven hundred citizens of Rome were slain.