Page:A General Sketch of Political History from the Earlist Times.djvu/112

 ioo THE ROMAN DOMINION effected by Marius, a general who boasted of his humble birth ; who was inclined to bid for the position of a popular hero, J rtba and became a tool rather than a leader of the democratic party. The credit for success was indeed due more to his aristocratic lieutenant Sulla than to himself. The close of the second century B.C. was marked by the appearance in Southern Gaul of an enemy destined in later days to play a large part in the destruction of the Roman Empire. This was the vanguard of the great migration of the Teutonic tribes. Two hordes appeared, called the Cimbri The German an ^ Teutones. There is not much doubt that both Vanguard. were actually Germanic or Teutonic, though the name of the Cimbri suggests Celtic origin. At the outset the Roman armies were defeated by them, but they met with complete destruction at the hands of Marius and Catulus in 1 02. The German tide was beaten back for some centuries. At Rome the fall of the Gracchi had made matters worse than before. The popular party degenerated into pure demagogues : the optimates were determined to cling to wealth and power. Both parties were unscrupulous, and had learnt to include assassination, rioting, and the most flagrant breaches of constitutional law and practice as legitimate means to victory. The failure of Gracchus to carry his proposals for the enfran- The Social chisement of the Italians had intensified their War, 91 B.C. dissatisfaction; and now a revolt of the Socii, known in consequence as the Social War, once more endangered the supremacy of Rome. The opportunity was seized by Mithridates, the able King of Pontus on the shores of the Black Sea, to challenge the Roman dominion in Asia Minor, where the inheritance of the kingdom of Pergamus had given Rome a footing. The Samnites, Rome's old enemies, threw themselves vigorously into the Italian revolt, which was at last beaten down by the military skill of Sulla. The war was an exceedingly fierce one, and was in its effects almost as disastrous as that against Hannibal, from the immense slaughter among the younger men who were best fitted to be the fathers of a ruling race. A further physical and moral degeneration was the inevitable result. The aim of the allies was in great part