Page images
PDF
EPUB

MARIUS.

In council wise, and skilful in the field,

Pride and ambition to the last she held;

775

But temperance, justice, faith, and candour lost, To conquer without right was all her boast; Turning each new acquirement to a curse,

While all that should improve but made her worse. If still prescription pleads the world's esteem, 780 Her greatness, not her morals, be the theme.

C. MARIU S.

A. U. C. 649.

See, nurs'd by Furies, and for havock bred,
Where frowning Marius lifts his rugged head;
His stature tall, with giant strength endued,
Cruel by nature, and of manners rude;
To these were join'd, as if for terror meant,

785

A thund❜ring voice, and visage truculent.
A living column seem'd he in the wars,

Hewn from a quarry by the sword of Mars;

Though

Though at Arpinum a Plebeian born,3

790 By him seven times the consul's robe was worn. Through every function of the camp he pass'd, Till merit rais'd him to command at last. Conscious of mean descent, he feign'd to scorn The lazy greatness of the nobly born, Who doze, and yawn, and retrospective see Their floth excus'd by vigorous ancestry.

795

While these, proud symbols in their halls display'd, His cottage kindred shew'd the plough or spade: For still he deem'd it true substantial fame,

Not to inherit, but create a name;

Disdain'd the borrow'd splendor could be shed
By glory beaming from another's head:

As well his health or beauty might he claim,
To prop a weak, or grace a homely frame.

3 Is natus, et omnem pueritiam Arpini altus,-. SAL. Bel. Jug.

800

805

• Contemnunt novitatem meam, ego illorum ignaviam. Quanquam ego naturam unam, et communem omnium existumo, sed fortissimum quemque generosissimum. SAL. Bel. Jug.

"What

"What men were once, (he cries) I little care;
"What's pass'd, is pass'd; I value what they are.
"The dwarf, from Hector or Alcides sprung,
"Must still be feeble, though his sire was strong;
"And Helen's daughter, with a Gorgon's face,
"Would charm no hero by her mother's grace." 811
Yet all his toil the nobles to deride,"

Sprung less from principle than envious pride;

' At Marius, antea jam infestus nobilitati, tum vero multus atque ferox instare: singulos modo, modo universos lædere. SAL. Bel. Jug.

Notwithstanding his mean birth, coarse education, military life, and ferocious nature, Marius is always described by the Roman writers, particularly by Tully, as a person of consummate art, great pride, and unbounded ambition. On many occasions he owed his success at home as much to the dexterity of his management as to the splendour of his name and the fame of his atchievements. In his speeches, or those ascribed to him by Sallust, may be found the substance of almost all those arguments and reflections which have been ever since so frequently employed to raise the consequence of the people, and to depreciate the nobility.

Though persons of slender pretensions to ancestry are most frequently apt to boast of it, yet we sometimes find instances of the same weakness in men of high birth and unquestionable understanding. It was well said by Lord Chesterfield of Lionel Duke of Dorset, that his grace was as proud of his family as if his grandfather had been a blacksmith.

I

For

3

For though weak mortals should not boast of aught,
What good man e'er his ancestors forgot?

If bright the track their actions leave behind,
Fair emulation fires the offspring's mind;

815

But if foul deeds and shame their course disgrace, He quits the path, and runs a nobler race. 819 High birth, like riches, men too much may prize, But those alone who have it not, despise.

Foremost in fight for ever was he found,

Shar'd the coarse soldier's fare, his bed the ground, And lov'd the battle's shock, and the shrill trum

pet's sound.

Great his achievements, his ambition great,

825

He sav'd, adorn'd, and then destroy'd the state.

Damn'd in Rome's annals to eternal fame,

Her genius trembled at his dreadful name;

In ill unrivall❜d, had not Sylla stood

More hideous and defil'd with native blood." 830

Nihil illâ victoriâ fuisset crudelius, nisi mox Sullana esset secuta.

VEL. PAT. 1. ii. c. 22.

Alternate

« PreviousContinue »