372 CHAPTER LII. 



of the Jugurthine war, he was well-nigh frustrated by 

 a rocky fortress which, with all his military skill, he 

 was unable to reduce. The troops were discouraged, 

 and a failure would rob him of that favour of the 

 mob which had raised him into power. His position 

 was critical, and fortune seemed to have deserted 

 him. Now there is no sorrier spectacle than a 

 demagogue who is " down in his luck," who has 

 staked everything upon some venture which he 

 cannot carry through, and is unable to go either back 

 or forward. From this dilemma a Ligurian, a soldier 

 in an auxiliary regiment, saved Marius. This man 

 had left the camp to search for snails ; and as he 

 scrambled along the rocky base of the hill on which 

 the stronghold stood, filling his helmet with the 

 molluscs, and stopping now and then to thrust back 

 those which were trying to crawl out again, he found 

 a precipitous path which led up to the top. By this 

 the hill was scaled, and the treasures of the king fell 

 into the hands of Marius. 



I said that the Ligurians had altered little since 

 ancient times : here is a proof of it. This soldier was 

 both a snail-eater and a wonderful climber : so are his 

 descendants of the present day. After each shower 

 of rain you may see numbers of people searching the 

 walls and banks and hedgerows, as if intent upon some 

 branch of natural history. They are, in fact, ardent 

 conchologists, but their collection is confined to those 

 specimens which they consider edible. If you have a 

 native servant, she will keep your garden clear of snails. 



Virgil (Bk. xi.) is not complimentary to the 

 Ligurians. Their chief is represented as fleeing from 

 that Volscian Virago. When the hostile queen 



