ROME 



urgent. The Italian communities the 

 allies of Rome had long felt their bunions increase 

 aa their privileges waned, anil they demanded their 

 share of the conquests they had helped to achieve. 

 Promises of relief ami expectation of securing the 

 Unman citi/cnship hail brought them in crowds to 

 the capital, to be driven lick again by an exclusive 

 senate and people. The tribune Drusua strove to 

 bring about fiscal reform and the redress of the 

 Italians, but though he carried his laws he could 

 not make them valid, and finally he was assassinated. 

 The equestrians remained supreme in the courto, 

 while the murder of Drusus roused the irritated 

 Italians to rebellion (90-89) in the central highlands 

 and the south esj>ecially. The Social War began, 

 the insurgents aiming at the erection of a new 

 Italian state governed on the lines of the Unman 

 constitution. To suppress them the two consuls of 

 the year, each with live legates, including Matins 

 and his future rival Sulla, headed the legions, but 

 were disastrously beaten. In the north, however, 

 Marius and Sulla, and in Campania the consul 

 Cifsar, were partially victorious, but so partially 

 that reform after reform had to be conceded, till 

 the Italians could obtain the franchise merely for 

 the asking. The war at length died out by the 

 absorption of the insurgents into the Roman citizen- 

 ship ; but the internal troubles continued. The 

 new citizens enlarged their political claims, the 

 senate was distracted by personal feuds, economic 

 distress prevailed among all, and a war with Mith- 

 ridates threw Marius and Sulla into rivalry as to 

 which should command the expeditionary force. 

 The action of the tribune Sulpicius in dealing 

 with this complicated crisis intensified it the more. 

 He introduced laws to entrust Marius with the 

 Mithridatic campaign, to allow the new citizens 

 to vote in all, not in a restricted, nnmlier of trills, 

 to confine the freedmen to the four urban tribes no 

 longer, to unseat any senator more than 2000 denari 

 in ill-lit, to recall from exile those suspected of com- 

 plicity with the Italian insurgents. Every one of 

 these proposals, bitterly contested, would yet have 

 become law but for the consul Sulla, who, heading 

 in ( 'ampania the legions assigned him in the Social 



War, marched on He the first consul whoever 



invaded her with her own fYoops. The flight of 

 Mai ins and Sulpicius left him free to impose arbi- 

 trary measures, ani<m- tlicm that by which the 

 sanction of the senate was required l>efore any hill 

 could be entertained by the comitia ; and, having 

 seen the consular elections safely through, he set 

 out against Mithridates ( S7 ). 



In his almence Cinna attempted as consul to carry 

 the reforms of Sulpicins, Imt as driven from Koine 

 amiil the massacre of the new citizens in voting 

 assembly. He in turn rallied round him the 

 legions in Campania, and joined by the veteran 

 M.uiiis. who reappeared from Africa, he entered 

 Home and wits rMOgniMd us consul, as was Marius 

 himself (for the seventh time). After a brutally 

 vindictive massacre Marius died (80), and Cinna 

 remained supreme, securing the consulship to him 

 self and a confederate, and getting the newly- 

 enfranchised Italians enrolled in all the tribes. In 

 84 he died, and next year Sulla, having concluded 

 a peace with Milliridates and left Asia tranquil, 

 landed at llrundiisium with a powerful army, in- 

 cluding ninny of the nolti/ei who had fled from 

 < 'iniia. Resistance, nowhere formidable, he quickly 

 overcame and (82) entered Rome, to find his lieu- 

 tenant* triumphant in North Italy and to annihilate 

 the remnant* of the Marian party just outside the 

 city. Hut he failed to use hU power, almolute as it 

 was, for the abatement of long-standing evils and 

 the prevent!. in of coming disasters. Triumphant 

 everywhere, lie instituted a reign of terror slaying, 

 proscribing, and confiscating through revenge or 



suspicion. For nine years his rule as dictator, in 

 spile of much salutary administration, wax marred 

 by a remorseless partisanship which left the future 

 to take care of iUelf creating in the sons and heirs 

 of the proscribed and dispossessed the handy tools 

 of agitation, justified as this increasingly became 

 by ruined agriculture, by the multiplying of luli 

 jiiinliii with their necessary evictions, and by the 

 rapid disappearance from nearly all Italy of her 

 substantial freeholders. Life and pmpei t\ . already 

 widely forfeited at his bidding, were still fun her 

 endangered by brigandage, which culminated in 

 the formidable rising of Spartacus, who held out for 

 two years (73-71). Still fortifying the senate, Snlla 

 left the tribunes with no power of interdict save in 

 protecting individual plebeians, and he excluded 

 them from ever holding high office : he took from 

 the equestrians the control of the courts, giving it 

 back to the senate, to which he also restored its 

 exclusive rights in the colleges of pontiffs and 

 augurs. He extended the application of the crimi- 

 nal law a wise measure; but he did more than 

 any Roman before him to facilitate the rise to 

 supreme power of any ambitious governor of a pro- 

 vince or leader of a provincial army. He forged in 

 fact the weapon by which his system fell (70). 



In Spain Cneius Ponipey, one of Sulla's favourites, 

 held a commission from the senate to crush the 

 Marian governor Sertorins, who had defeated suc- 

 cessive proconsuls sent to humble him. With the 

 submission of the natives following the murder of 

 Sen. IT ius he relumed to Rome, and found the oppo- 

 sition to Sulla looking out for a leader to effect a 

 change of government. HU ambition to have ,i 

 triumph, to be made consul for next year (70), and 

 by consequence to receive com mam I in the east, 

 was gratified for the sake of his name and influ- 

 ence. He was elected consul with Ciassus, the 

 victor over Spartacus, their troops being just out- 

 side the gates, and on the triumph and ovation 

 granted to the two generals ensued Pomrav'l fulfil- 

 ment of the bargain the reinstatement of the tri- 

 bunes in their authority and of the equestrians in 

 the courts, and the weeding out from t lie senate of 

 Sulla's notorious tools. The example set by Sulla 

 was improved upon, and henceforth the republican 

 constitution was at the mercy of the strongest 

 leader supported by the strongest battalions. Pom- 

 pey's next move was to obtain command abroad, 

 and after some delay this was found in a mission 

 to clear the Mediterranean of pirates. For this 

 formidable undertaking the tribune Gabinius 

 secured him large powers, tenable for three years, 

 including authority over all Roman magistrates in 

 the Mediterranean provinces for titty miles inland. 

 These, hacked by a splendid fleet and army, were 

 yet further enhanced by the tribune Manillas, who 

 got I'onipey entrusted with the campaign against 

 Mithridates and with the charge of Roman interests 

 in the east. The wiser senators gave ominous 

 warning against these measures, but were powerless 

 against tribunes and people, seconded hy equestrians, 

 wlio as the commercial class drew much of their 

 wealth from Asia. So Pompey set out in 67. 

 Meanwhile ( 'iesar had come to t be front a pat i i 

 cian, who was also the nephew of Marius ana son- 

 in-law of Cinna, and whose consummate ability, 

 shown in the revindication of the tribunate and the 

 canying of the measures in support of I'onipey, 

 had full scope now that I'onipey 's hack was turned. 

 lie deepened his hold on the people l.\ avenging 

 the injured names of Marius, Cinna, and Satur- 

 ninus, pleading for the children of the proscribed, 

 and bringing Sulla's headsmen to justice. 



Rising in popular favour by his < (forte to 

 enfranchise the Transpadane Latins and his niuni- 

 lieent promotion of public works and entertain- 

 ments, he spared no means, constitutional or the 



