Page:Great Men and Famous Women Volume 1.djvu/53

 CAIUS MARIUS CAIUS MARIUS Extracts from " Cassar, a Sketch," by JAMES ANTHONY FROUDE, LL.D. c (I57-86B.C.) 'Aius MARIUS was at this time forty-eight years old.* Two-thirds of his life were over, and a name which was to sound throughout the world and be remembered through all ages, had as yet been scarcely heard of beyond the army and the political clubs in Rome. He was born at Arpinum, a Latin township, seventy miles from the capital, in the year 157 B.C. His father was a small farmer, and he was himself bred to the plough. He joined the army early, and soon attracted notice by his punctual dis- charge of his duties. In a time of growing loose- ness, Marius was strict himself in keeping discipline and in enforcing it as he rose in the service. He was in Spain when Jugurtha 1 was there, and made himself especially useful to Scipio ; he forced his way stead- ily upward, by his mere soldierlike qualities, to the rank of military tribune. Rome, too, had learnt to know him, for he was chosen tribune of the people the year after the murder of Caius Gracchus. Being a self-made man, he belonged naturally to the popular party. While in office he gave offence in some way to the men in power, and was called before the Senate to answer for himself. But he had the right on his side, it is likely, for they found him stubborn and imper- tinent, and they could make nothing of their charges against him. He was not bidding at this time, however, for the support of the mob. He had the integrity and sense to oppose the largesses of corn ; and he forfeited his popularity by trying to close the public granaries before the practice had passed into a system. He seemed as if made of a block of hard Roman oak, gnarled and knotted, but sound in all its fibres. His professional merit continued to recommend him. At the age of forty he became praetor, and was sent to Spain, where he left a mark again by the successful severity by which he cleared the province of banditti. He was a man neither given himself to talking, nor much talked about in the world ; but he was sought for wherever work was to be done, and he had made himself respected and valued in high circles, for after his return from the Peninsula he had married into one of the most distinguished of the patrician families. Marius by this marriage became a person of social consideration. His father had been a client of the Metelli ; and Csecilius Metellus, who must have known Marius by reputation and probably in person, invited him to go as second in com- t King of Numidia. He successfully withstood the Romans during several years.
 * B.C. 109.