Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/947

935 king into the hands of the Romans, the consul sent Sulla to Bocchus to bring the matter to a conclusion. It was chiefly owing to the influence which Sulla had acquired over the mind of Bocchus, that the latter, after much hesitation, was eventually persuaded to sacrifice his ally. Sulla carried Jugurtha in chains to the camp of Marius. [.] The quaestor shared with the consul the glory of bringing this war to a conclusion; and Sulla himself was so proud of his share in the success, that he had a seal ring engraved, representing the surrender of Jugurtha, which he continued to wear till the day of his death.

Italy was now threatened with an invasion by the vast hordes of the Cimbri and Teutones, who had already destroyed several Roman armies. Marius was accordingly again raised to the consulship, which he held for four years in succession, 104—101. In the first of these years Sulla served under Marius as legate, and in the second as tribunus militum, and in each year gained great distinction by his military services. But towards the end of 103, or the beginning of  102, the good understanding which had hitherto prevailed between Marius and Sulla was interrupted, the former being jealous, says Plutarch, of the rising fame of his officer. Sulla accordingly left Marius in 102, in order to serve under his colleague Q. Catulus, with whom he had still greater opportunities of gaining distinction, as Catulus was not much of a general, and was therefore willing to entrust the chief management of the war to Sulla. The latter reduced several Alpine tribes to subjection, and took such good care to keep his troops supplied with provisions, that on one occasion he was able to relieve the army of Marius as well as his own, a circumstance which, as Sulla said in his memoirs, greatly annoyed Marius. Sulla fought in the decisive battle, by which the barbarians were destroyed in 101. [; ]

Sulla now returned to Rome, and appears to have lived quietly for some years without taking any part in public affairs. He became a candidate for the praetorship for the year 94, but failed. According to his own statement he lost his election because the people were disappointed at his not having previously offered himself for the aedileship, since they had been looking forward to a splendid exhibition of African wild beasts in the aedilician games of the friend of Bocchus. In the following year, however, he was more successful. He distributed money among the people with a liberal hand, and thus gained the praetorship for 93. In this office he gratified the wishes of the people by exhibiting in the Ludi Apollinares a hundred African lions, who were put to death in the circus by archers whom Bocchus had sent for the purpose.

In the following year, 92, Sulla was sent as propraetor into Cilicia, and was especially commissioned by the senate to restore Ariobarzanes to his kingdom of Cappadocia, from which he had been expelled by Mithridates. Although Sulla had not the command of a large force, he met with complete success. He defeated Gordius, the general of Mithridates in Cappadocia, and placed Ariobarzanes again on the throne. His success attracted the attention of Arsaces, king of Parthia, who accordingly sent an embassy to him to solicit the alliance of the Roman people. Sulla was the first Roman general who had any official intercourse with the Parthians, and he received the ambassadors with the same pride and arrogance as the Roman generals were accustomed to exhibit to the representatives of all foreign powers. Soon after this interview Sulla returned to Rome, where he was threatened in 91 by C. Censorinus with an impeachment for malversation, but the accusation was dropped.

The enmity between Marius and Sulla now assumed a more deadly form. Sulla's ability and increasing reputation had already led the aristocratical party to look up to him as one of their leaders, and thus political animosity was added to private hatred. In addition to this Marius and Sulla were both anxious to obtain the command of the impending war against Mithridates; and the success which attended Sulla's recent operations in the East had increased his popularity, and pointed him out as the most suitable person for this important command. About this time Bocchus erected in the Capitol gilded figures, representing the surrender of Jugurtha to Sulla, at which Marius was so enraged that he could scarcely be prevented from removing them by force. The exasperation of both parties became so violent that they nearly had recourse to arms against each other; but the breaking out of the Social War, and the immediate danger to which Rome was now exposed, hushed all private quarrels, and made all parties fight alike for their own preservation and that of the republic. Never had Rome greater need of the services of all her generals, and Marius and Sulla both took an active part in the war against the common foe. But Marius was now advanced in years, and did not possess the same activity either of mind or body as his younger rival. He had therefore the deep mortification of finding that his achievements were thrown into the shade by the superior energy of his former quaestor, and that his fortune paled more and more before the rising sum. In 90 Sulla served as legate under the consul L. Caesar, but his most brilliant exploits were performed in the following year, when he was legate of the consul L. Cato. In this year he destroyed the Campanian town of Stabiae, defeated L. Cluentius near Pompeii, and reduced the Hirpini to submission. He next penetrated into the very heart of Samnium, defeated Papius Mutilus, the leader of the Samnites, and followed up his victory by the capture of Bovianum, the chief town of this people. While he thus earned glory by his enterprises against the enemy, he was equally successful in gaining the affections of his troops. He pardoned their excesses, and connived at their crimes; and even when they put to death Albinus, one of his legates and a man of praetorian rank, he passed over the offence with the remark that his soldiers would fight all the better, and atone for their fault by their courage. As the time for the consular comitia approached Sulla hastened to Rome, where he was elected, almost unanimously, consul for the year 88, with Q. Pompeius Rufus as his colleague.

The war against Mithridates had now become inevitable, and the Social War was not yet brought to a conclusion. The senate assigned to Sulla the command of the former, and to his colleague Pompeius the conduct of the latter. Marius, however, would not resign without a struggle to his hated rival the distinction which he had so long coveted; 