Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 17.djvu/297

* EOME. (10) 271 BOS[£. territory) B.C. 146; (10) Asia (kingdom of and received the command of the .Mill.ridatic war Peiyanmin), B c. 121). A ew years lat.r, b.c -an honor which Marius coveted for himself, lib, an eleventh was added by the conquest of Then followed the fearful vears of civil war the southern part ot Transalpine Gaul, and was eoniinonly called, to distinguish it from the rest of the country, 'the Province;' hence the modern Provence. In Africa, the overthrow of Jugurtha (q.v. ), B.C. lOG, by the Consul JIarius, added yet fur- ther to the military renown and strengtii of the Republic, ileanwhile, from a new quarter of the world, a gigantic and unforeseen danger threat- ened the Itoman State. North of the Alps there had long been roaming in the region of the Up])er Danube an unsettled people called the Ciaibri (q.v.), whose original home was probably the northwest of Germany. They tirst came into col- lision with the Romans in Norieum, B.C. 113; after which they turned westward, and poured through the Helvetian valleys into Gaul, where they overwhelmed alike the native tribes and the Roman armies. At Arausio (Orange), on the Rhone, B.C. 105, a Roman army of 80.000 was annihilated: but instead of invading Italy, the . -- - (II.C. 88-82), the partisans of Marius cuntiiiuing to light liercely after their leader's death (u.c. 8(i) ; proscriptions and massacres were the or.ler of tho day. Sulla. I he leader of the aristoeracv. wliieli was nominally the jjarty of order, triumplie.1, hut the energy displayed by the revolutionists con- vinced him that the 'Roman francliisc' ci.uia never again be safely withdrawn from the 'Ital- ians,' and Roman citizens, therefore, they re- mained till the dissolution of the Empire :" but, on the other hand, Sulla's whole legislation wa» directed toward the destruction of the pcditical party of the burgesses and to the restnration to the senatorial ari-iloeracy and priesthood of the authority and influence they had possessed in the times of the I'unic wars. "That his design was to build up a strong and vigorous executive cannot admit of doubt, but the rottenness of Roman society was beyond the reach of cure by any liuman policy. It would be hopeless in our liniits to attempt even the most superficial sketeli barbarians blindly rushed through the passes of of the conq)licated history of this period, which the Pyrenees, wasted precious months in' con- ^vill be found given with considerable fullness of tests with native tribes of Spain as valiant and detail in the l)iograplues of its leading personages, hardy as themselves, and gave the Romans time to recover from the effects of their terrible defeat. Marius, who had just returned from his Xumid- ian victories, was reappointed consul; and at Aqua> Sextiae (Aix, in Provence) he overwhelmed the Teutones, a northern horde, who had accom- panied the Cimbri in their irruption into Spain (B.C. 102). Next year, on the Raudian Fields, in Transpadane Gaul, the same doom befell the Cimbri themselves. In the same year a second insurrection of the slaves in Sicily, which had reached an alarming height, was suppressed by the Consul JIarcus Aquillius. In the succeeding 3-ears the internal history of Rome is a scene of wild confusion and discord. Marius, an admirable soldier, but otherwise a PoiiPEY, Sektorhs, MrniRiDATEs, (JicERo, Cati- line, Cesar, Cbassls, Cato, Clouils Pulcheb, Brutus, Cassius, Axtonius, Augustus. The very titmost we can attempt is to enumerate results. Abroad the Roman army continued as before to prove irresistible. About thirteen years after the extermination of the northern barbarians, the Cimbri and Teutones, or in n.c. 88. broke out in the Far East the first of the three '.Mithri- datic wars.' Begun by Sulla, n.c. 88, they were brought to a successful close by Pompey, n.c. 65, although the general that had" really broken the power of Jlithridates was Lucullus. The result was the annexation of tho Kingdom of Pontus, as a new province of the Roman Republic. In B.C. ti4 m.in of mediocre talents, and utterlv unfit to plav Pompey marched southward with his arniv, de ^1. _ i_ J! _ i J . .1 ■ ; 1 /. ., ,^^.~^.J v„*; — 1. * .:..i-: t.-.- _r c ■. 1 _ the part of a statesman, was the idol of the poor citizens, who urged him to save the State from the misgovernment of the rich. His attempts were failures. Not less fruitless was the wise and patriotic effort of Livius Drusvis to eflfect a com])romise between the privileges of the rich posed Anfioclius Asiaticus, King of Syria, trans- forming his kingdom also into a Roman province, and in the following year he made Palestine a de- pendency of Rome. In n.c. 0.3 there was hatched at Rome the conspiracy of Catiline (q.v.), which. if it had not been frustrated bv the Consul Cicero, and the claims of the poor. The oligarchic party Avould have placed at least the city of Rome at the ' ' ... -. mercy of J, crew of aristocratic desperailoes and cut-throats. One thing now becomes particularly noticeable, the paralysis of the senate. In spite of all that Sulla did to make it once more the gov- erning body in the State, the power pas.scd out of its hands. Torn by jealousies, spites, and piques, it could do nothing but squabble or feebly attempt to frustrate the purpose of men whom it considered formidable. Henceforth the interest as well as the importance of Roman history atlaehcs to individuals, and the senate sinks deeper and deeper into insignificance, until at last it be- comes merely the council of the emperors. The famous coalition of Crassus. Pompey. and Cirsar (known as the first triumvirate). formeil in the year B.C. 00, showed how weak the (Jovern- ment and how powerful individuals had In- come; and the same fact is even more clearly shown by the lawless and bloody tribunates of Clodius and Milo (B.C. 58-.57), when Rome was for a while at the mercy of bravos and gladiators. The campaigns of Ciesar in Gaul (n.c. 58-31), by among the former, i.e. the senate, were enraged by his proposition to double their numbers by the introduction ot 300 equites ; the latter by his offer to the 'Latins' and "allied Italians' of the Roman franchise. Drusus fell B.C. 91, by the steel of an assassin. Hardly a year elapsed before the whole of the subject 'Italians,' the Jlarsians, Pelignians, Marrucinians. Vestinians, Picentincs, Samnites, Apulians, and Lucanians. were up in wild and furious revolt against Rome (Marsic or Social War) ; and, though the re- bellion was crushed in less than two years by the generalship of Marius, Sulla, and Pompeius Stra- bo (father of the great Pompey). aided by the shrewd diplomacy of Rome, the insurgents vir- tually triumphed : for the promise which Drusus had held out to them of the 'Roman franchise,' was made good by the Lex Plnutia Papiria, B.C. 89. The jealousy that had long existed on the part of Marius toward his younger and more gifted rival. Sulla (q.v.), kindled into a flame of liate when the latter was elected consul B.C. 88,