senators still more; they armed all the clients and slaves, who pressed in crowds to the Capitol, where the assembly of the people was held, and were let loose with clubs and sticks on Gracchus and his friends. Thus fell Tiberius, with three hundred of his adherents, and their corpses were cast into the Tiber (B.c. 133).

This was the first citizen blood shed in Rome, and since that time untold miseries were inflicted on Italy by this evil; for while before that date, even during the most violent disputes, they had always kept within the bounds of law, the factions raged against each other henceforth with all the weapons of violence and of deception. Among the men who were victims of that first civil war was Scipio, the conqueror of Carthage. One morning he was found dead in his bed, and as he had been one of the warmest partizans of the senate, the opinion was universally entertained that he had been murdered at the instigation of the popular party.

Ten years after the death of Tiberius Gracchus, his younger brother, Caius, was elected tribune of the people. Caius was

equal to his brother in courage, justice, and love of humanity, and old surpassed him in overpowering eloquence, by which he moved even his opponents almost to tears. Inspired with the same love as Tiberius for the poor, miserable people, he strove to bring into operation the laws proposed by his brother. He also carried several measures, which all had the tendency to limit the authority of the senate, and to improve the condition of the more indigent classes. Thus many colonies were founded by his orders, and poor citizens were settled in them, and provided with lands; magazines were established, roads opened, the price of corn lowered by grants from the state treasury, and the material for the clothes of soldiers, hitherto furnished at the cost of the men, was provided by the state.

A ROMAN CITIZEN.

The senate was alarmed at these measures, and to see that Caius Gracchus was gaining more and more popular favour every day. They adopted the following step to get rid of him. They bribed

a tribune of the people, by name Livius Drusus, an eminent and a talented man, who, at their instigation, brought forward a num ber of proposals which were much more advantageous for the people than those of Gracchus. In this manner they succeeded in gaining over the hearts of the changeable multitude, and when, after the expiration of the year, they passed to the election of new tribunes of the people, Gracchus could not get himself re-elected.

It appeared now the proper time to the senate to set aside again the detested innovations, and the consul Opimius, a zealous aristocrat, and a vehement enemy of Gracchus, pressed for the abrogation of the measures he had carried.

While the consul was performing the usual sacrifices, one of his lictors turned to the adherents of Gracchus and called out to them: "Rioters, make room for the good citizens !" The lictor was immediately surrounded by the crowd and killed with iron bars, for no one was suffered to appear armed in the popular assemblies. Hereupon the consul Opimius hurried to the senate, related what had occurred, and was invested with the powers of a dictator. Opimius proceeded to call to arms all the senators and knights (equites), and when the people assembled again the next day he caused all his armed people to advance. Before the attack was made he had it announced that all citizens who passed over to his side should be pardoned. Most of them took advantage of this offer to save themselves, but a dreadful carnage took place of the remainder, in which 3000 citizens lost their lives. Caius Gracchus escaped after defending his friends for a long time with great bravery, and sought refuge with a slave in a grove situated outside the city; but when he saw that the wood was surrounded by armed men, he ordered the slave to stab him with a dagger. The bodies of the fallen were cast into the Tiber, and their property was confiscated (B.c. 121).

The most important laws of the two Gracchi were now cancelled again, and the condition of the poor people remained as miserable as it had been before.

CHAPTER XIX.

THE JUGURTHINE WAR (B.C. 118-104).

NUMIDIA was a district of North-West Africa, now corresponding to the province of Constantina, in the French colony of Algeria.

This little kingdom had fluctuated in its sympathies during the Punic wars, but had become ultimately a firm friend of Rome.

Micipsa, ruling over Numidia about this time (B.c. 134), had two sons, Hiempsal and Adherbal, and a nephew, Jugurtha, whom he brought up at his court at the same time as his sons.

Even as a boy Jugurtha surpassed his cousins in the beauty and vigour of his bodily make, and still more in the gifts of the mind, with which nature had endowed him. As a young man he was distinguished by daring and skill in the chase, and when in his twentieth year he commanded the Numidian auxiliary force, which his uncle sent to Publius Scipio in Spain; he obtained so great a reputation by his wisdom and bravery that Scipio ended by entrusting him with the most difficult undertakings, and distinguished him above all the other allies of Rome.

Micipsa saw with anxiety how dangerous this ambitious and far-reaching youth might be to his sons after his death, and determined to win him by his goodness, that afterwards gratitude might keep him from assuming a hostile attitude against his cousins. Accordingly he adopted him when a child, and divided his kingdom into three equal parts, of which, after his death, one would accrue to Hiempsal, the second to Adherbal, and the third to Jugurtha. Yet the hopes of the aged king were not destined to be fulfilled, for scarcely was he dead when Jugurtha, offended by Hiempsal, caused him to be attacked and slain in his palace. Adherbal, frightened at this crime, fled to Rome to seek protection there; but envoys from Jugurtha managed to bribe a part of the most influential senators, so that not only did their masters remain unpunished for the murder of Hiempsal, but at a new division of the Numidian kingdom, which was effected by the Romans, he received the larger share.

Jugurtha knew by this time that all could be had at Rome for gold, and did not hesitate to make himself master of the whole of Numidia. Under a frivolous pretext he attacked his cousin Adherbal, conquered almost his entire territory, and besieged him in the city of Cirta (the modern Constantina). In vain Adherbal appealed to the Roman senate for help; the bribed senators did nothing to save him, so that at last he was reduced to surrender to his enemy, who caused him to be cruelly put to death. Now, at length, the senate sent an army to Africa to dethrone the faithless prince; but the commanders, bribed by considerable sums of money, returned without accomplishing anything after, to save appearances, they had inflicted on Jugurtha a fine of thirty elephants and a number of horses and oxen.

When this was known at Rome the people's wrath was greatly excited, and pressed vehemently for the punishment of Jugurtha and his fellow-criminals. Accordingly Jugurtha was summoned to Rome to name those who had ventured to make so light of the dignity of the Roman Republic. Nevertheless, here again he succeeded in getting out of his difficulty by bribery; nay, his impudence went to such lengths that he caused at Rome itself a relation, who had the justest claim to the throne of Numidia after the death of Adherbal, to be put to death. When, after this crime, he returned to his kingdom, he was astonished at the mercenary spirit of the venal city of Rome, which, as he said to his followers, would be lost if only a buyer could be found for it.

But vengeance was soon to visit such a long list of crimes. At first Jugurtha seemed successful. He managed to draw a Roman army, sent after him, into a trap and made it pass under the jugum ; but the people proceeded to choose for their consul Quintus Metellus, a brave and skilful general, who united a firm inflexible will to an upright character and the most perfect integrity. All arts broke down against his resolution, even those with which Jugurtha had hitherto overcome all his enemies, and after a short time the consul had driven him into such straits, that he was obliged to surrender all his treasures, all his elephants, and the greater part of his horses and of his arms to the Romans, and to withdraw at length in the desert districts to the south of Numidia, where he was able to continue the war with the assistance of his son-in-law, Bocchus, King of Mauritania.

In the army of Metellus was a bold, ambitious man, Caius Marius, who had already made himself conspicuous in earlier campaigns for bravery and ready wit, and who was now projecting to supplant Metellus, and to secure for himself the fame of subduing Jugurtha and concluding this tedious war. He descended from a poor obscure family of the little city of Arpinum, and had none of the refined Grecian culture which was peculiar to the distinguished Romans of that period. A rough, stern warrior, he was an idol of the soldiers, and secured their greatest admiration by his fierce sinister spirit, his courage, his great bodily strength and his martial habits; but he was an object of the greatest anxiety to the magnates of Rome. By his wonderful military talent he had risen to the rank of prætor, while it was usually the case, that only men of the first families rose to this dignity, and now he went to Rome to canvass for his

election as consul. In order to obtain this end, he did not hesitate to employ even the most illegal means, and especially to calumniate his commander. He maintained that Metellus was dragging out the war from ambitious motives, that he might retain the supreme command over the army for a longer period, and he added that he, Marius, if he were elected consul would end the war with one campaign, and bring the detested enemy, Jugurtha, prisoner to Rome. The people trusted his promises, and as they were delighted to raise a man from their midst to the highest dignity in the state, they chose him consul in the comitia against the will of the senate and of all distinguished families.

As soon as Marius had attained this object he went to work with the most restless activity. He levied a new army, and, contrary to custom, enlisted for that purpose only citizens of the poorest class, crossed over to Africa, conquered one stronghold after another, and followed Jugurtha to the most desert regions of Numidia, peopled only by beasts of prey and venomous serpents. At length Jugurtha was obliged to leave his own country and to seek refuge with his son-in-law, Bocchus, in Mauritania. Marius sent his quæstor, Lucius Cornelius Sylla, who became later his bitterest enemy, to Mauritania, and Sylla succeeded in inducing Bocchus to deliver up his father-in-law, Jugurtha, because he was afraid of losing his own kingdom of Mauritania.

At length, then, Jugurtha became a prisoner in the hands of the Romans, and the war, which had inflicted so great disgrace on Rome, was finished. Marius conducted a splendid triumph on his return to Rome, adorned with all the rarities and barbaric trophies he had gained in Africa; but Jugurtha, after he had become almost mad through shame and suffering, was dragged along in chains before the chariot of his conqueror, cast into a subterranean vault, known as the Mammertine prison, near the Capitol, and died there of hunger six days after.

CHAPTER XX.

THE CIMBRI AND THE TEUTONES.

WHILE the Romans were fighting in Africa against Jugurtha, their country was menaced with a danger from the north, filling all minds with anxiety and terror. Wild tribes of people named