Page:The Children's Plutarch, Romans.djvu/101

 towns showed that once the proud city of Carthage had stood. He hoped to receive help from the Roman governor of that region. But an officer from the governor came to say that Marius must at once leave the district, or else be treated as an enemy.

Marius sat thinking. He was sad at the idea that he should he driven from place to place like a wild beast. The officer asked what answer he should take.

“Tell your master,” said the wanderer, “that you have seen the exile Marius sitting amid the ruins of Carthage.”

I suppose he was reflecting how grand cities may fall, as Carthage did, and how powerful statesmen may also fall from their high estate, as he himself had done.

And so the unhappy general set out on his wanderings once more. Sulla had departed to the East to wage war against the enemies of Rome in Asia. Marius deemed that now his chance was come. He landed on the coast of Tuscany, in northern Italy.

“I proclaim freedom to all slaves who will help me,” he said to the people who met him on landing.

Not only slaves, but freemen also, came to his aid—peasants, shepherds, and other workingmen. They thought Marius was the friend of