Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/784

Rh 760 K M E [HISTORY. of Rome was prompt and resolute. Both consuls took the field; 1 with each were five legates, among them the veteran Marius and his destined rival L. Cornelius Sulla, and even freedmen were pressed into service with the legions. But the first year's campaign opened disastrously. In central Italy the northern Sabellians, and in the south the Samnites, defeated the forces opposed to them. And though before the end of the year Marius and Sulla in the north, and the consul Csesar himself in Campania, succeeded in inflicting severe blows on the enemy, and on the Marsi especially, it is not surprising that, with an empty treasury, with the insurgents' strength still un- broken, and with rumours of disaffection in the loyal districts, opinion in Rome should have turned in the direc- tion of the more liberal policy which had been so often scornfully rejected and in favour of some compromise which should check the spread of the revolt, and possibly sow discord among their enemies. Towards the close of the year 90 the consul Caesar carried the "lex Julia," 2 by which the Roman franchise was offered to all communi- ties which had not as yet revolted ; early in the next year (^"0 ^ e J u l ian l aw was supplemented by the " lex Plautia Papiria," introduced by two of the tribunes, which enacted that any citizen of an allied community then domiciled in Italy might obtain the franchise by giving in his name to a prsetor in Rome within sixty days. A third law (lex Calpurnia) apparently passed at the same time empowered Roman magistrates in the field to bestow the franchise there and then upon all who were willing to receive it. This sudden opening of the closed gates of Roman citizen- ship was completely successful, and its effects were at once visible in the diminished vigour of the insurgents. By the end of 89 the Samnites and Lucanians were left alone in their obstinate hostility to Rome, and neither, thanks to Sulla's brilliant campaign in Samnium, had for the moment any strength left for active aggression. The termination of the Social War brought with it no peace in Rome. The old quarrels were renewed with increased bitterness, and the newly enfranchised Italians themselves complained as bitterly of the restriction 3 which robbed them of their due share of political influence by allowing them to vote only in a specified number of tribes. The senate itself was distracted by violent personal rivalries and all these feuds, animosities, and grievances were aggravated by the widespread economic distress and ruin which affected all classes. 4 Lastly, war with Mithradates had been declared ; it was notorious that the privilege of commanding the force to be sent against him would be keenly contested, and that the contest would lie between the veteran Marius and L. Cornelius Sulla. 5 It was in an atmosphere thus charged with the elements of disturbance that P. Sulpicius Rufus as tribune 6 brought forward his laws. He proposed (1) that the command of the Mithradatic war should be given to Marius, (2) that the new citizens should be distributed through all the tribes, (3) that the freedmen should no longer be confined to the four city tribes, (4) that any senator owing more 1 App., B. C., i. 39-49 ; Livy, Epit., Ixxii.-lxxvi. 2 For the lex Julia, see Cicero Pro Balbo, 8 ; Cell., iv. 4 ; App., B. C., i. 49. For lex Plautia Papiria, see Cic. Pro Archia, 4. and Schol. Bob., p. 353. 8 Veil. Pat., ii. 20 ; App., B. C., i. 49, 53. Madvig (R. Verf., i. 27) follows Appian in holding that the tribes to which the new voters were confined were newly created tribes. Cf. Moinmsen, R'om. Tribut, ii. 4 App., B. C., i. 54, and Mithr. 22 ; Oros., v. 18 ; Livy, Epit., Ixxiv. 8 It had been already declared a consular province for 87, and early in 88 seems to have been assigned to Sulla by decree of the senate. 6 Cf. Cic. Z> Orat., i. 25, iii. 31, and Brutus, 214 ; Veil. Pat., ii. 18, for Sulpicius himself. For his laws, see App. , B.C., i. 55 sq. ; Livy, Epit., Ixxvii.; Plutarch, Sulla, 8 sq. than 2000 denarii should lose his seat, (5) that those exiled on suspicion of complicity with the Italian revolt should be recalled. Whatever may have been Sulpicius's intentions, these proposals inevitably provoked a storm. The old voters bitterly resented the swamping of the existing constituency ; the senate rallied its forces to oppose the alteration in the franchise of the freedmen and the proposed purging of its own ranks ; and, lastly, both the senate and Sulla himself, now one of the consuls, pre- pared-to resist the transference of the Asiatic command to Marius. Both sides were ominously ready for violent measures. The consuls, in order to prevent legislation, proclaimed a public holiday. 7 Sulpicius replied by arm- ing his followers and driving the consuls from the forum. The proclamation was withdrawn and the laws carried, but Sulpicius's triumph was short-lived. From Nola in Campania, where lay the legions commanded by him in the Social War, Sulla advanced on Rome, and for the first time a Roman consul entered the city at the head of the legions of the republic. Resistance was hopeless. Marius and Sulpicius fled, 8 and Sulla, summoning the assembly of the centuries, proposed the measures he con- sidered necessary for the public security, the most import- ant being a provision that the sanction of the senate should be necessary before any proposal was introduced to the assembly. 9 Then, after waiting in Rome long enough to hold the consular elections, he left for Asia early in 87. Sulla had conquered, but his victory cost the republic dear. He had first taught political partisans to look for final success, not to a majority of votes in the forum or campus, but to the swords of the soldiery ; and he had shown that the legions, composed as they now were, could be trusted to regard nothing but the commands of a favourite leader. The lesson was well learnt. Shortly after his departure, Cinna as consul revived the proposals of Sulpicius ; 10 his colleague Octavius at the head of an armed force fell upon the new citizens who had collected in crowds to vote, and the forum was heaped high with the bodies of the slain. 11 Cinna fled, but fled like Sulla to the legions. When the senate declared him deposed from his consulship, he replied by invoking the aid of the soldiers in Campania in behalf of the violated rights of the people and the injured dignity of the consulship, and, like Sulla, found them ready to follow where he led. The neighbouring Italian communities, who had lost many citizens in the recent massacre, sent their new champion men and money; 12 while from Africa, whither he had escaped after Sulla's entry into Rome, came Marius with 1000 Numidian horsemen. He landed in Etruria, where his old veterans flocked to his standard, and at the head of some 6000 men joined Cinna before the gates of Rome. The senate had prepared for a desperate defence, but fortune was adverse, and after a brief resistance they gave way. Cinna was acknowledged as consul, the sentence of outlawry passed on Marius was revoked, and Cinna and Marius entered Rome with their troops. Marius's thirst for revenge was gratified by a frightful massacre, and he lived long enough to be nominated consul for the seventh time. But he held his consulship only a few weeks. Early in 86 he died, and for the next three years Cinna ruled Rome. Constitutional government was virtu- 667. M arias and Cir 7 App., loc. cit.,r)fjiepwv apytas iroKtov a favourite stroke of policy. Cf. Cicero Ad Q. F., ii. 4, 4, "dies comitiales exemit omnes .... Latinae instaurantur, nee deerant supplicationes. " 8 Marius finally escaped to Africa (see MARIUS) ; Sulpicius was taken and killed ; App., i. 60. App., B. C., i. 59, /j.rjStv tri &irpo&ovfVTOv ts rbv Sr/fior fptffQai. For the other laws mentioned by Appian, see Mommsen, ii. 258. 10 Livy, Epit., Ixxix.; Veil., ii. 20. 11 Cic. Pro Sestio, 77; Catil., iii. 24. 13 Tibur and Prseneste especially.