A CRIMINAL HISTORY OF MANKIND

to meet them as they poured into Italy. Fortunately, the barbarians had divided their forces. Marius
drove the Teutons back into Aix en Provence, where he annihilated them; then he caught up with
the other half, the Cimbri, and routed them at Vercellae, near Milan.
Once again, he was the hero of Rome. He was elected consul for the sixth time in succession - a
glorious but illegal achievement, since each of the two consuls - who were together virtually
governors of Rome - was only supposed to serve for a year at a time. He joined forces with two
popular demagogues, Saturninus and Glaucia, and set out to topple the conservatives and make
himself master of Rome. Unfortunately, his talents as a politician were mediocre - his manners
were too blunt and harsh. He tried intriguing with both sides at once and lost his friends and allies
in the process. The planned ‘revolution’ was a total failure; riots broke out and, as consul, Marius
was forced to call out the army against his former allies. They took refuge in the Capitol and were
murdered by a mob. Suddenly, the ‘saviour of Rome’ found himself a political has-been. It had all
happened so quickly - within a month or two of his victorious return - that he found it difficult to
grasp. He had always had an imperious temper; now he became suspicious and paranoid.
But the conservatives had also overreached themselves. There really was an urgent need for reform
- not just in Rome but in the whole of Italy. The people needed champions to defend them against
the wealthy; but as soon as a champion appeared, he was murdered. When this happened to a
reformer named Drusus - another ‘leftist’ -Italy flared into civil war. Once again, Marius was
needed. He and his old subordinate ‘Lucky Sulla’ - now his bitter rival - were placed in command
of the armies and marched off to slaughter men who had once fought under them - mostly
dissatisfied Italians who felt they had a right to become Roman citizens. At this point, a king named
Mithridates of Pontus - on the Black Sea - decided to seize this opportunity to acquire himself an
empire. He invaded Syria and Asia Minor and sent out secret orders that all Romans living in
conquered cities should be put to death. When the day came, more than a hundred thousand men,
women and children were dragged out into the streets and massacred.
The people of Rome were shattered by the news - it seemed incredible that Romans could be
treated like the inhabitants of Carthage and Corinth - mere cattle. The rich were even more shaken
by loss of revenues. The treasury was suddenly empty. The senate decided that, instead of
slaughtering the Italians, it might be a better idea to give them what they wanted and then send
them to fight Mithridates. So the Italians finally achieved their Roman citizenship.
It might be assumed that, in the face of the Asian threat, Rome would cease its internal squabbles.
But the Romans had become too accustomed to quarrelling amongst themselves. To begin with,
Marius and Sulla both thought they ought to have the honour of destroying Mithridates. The senate
preferred the patrician Sulla. Marius threw in his lot with a popular demagogue named Sulpicius,
who appealed directly to the people. They not only voted him command of the army; they also went
off looking for Sulla to tear him to pieces. Sulla had to flee from Rome. But he fled to his soldiers -
the ones who had helped him to put down the rebellion - and marched on Rome. After some bitter
fighting, it was Marius’s turn to flee, together with his friend Sulpicius, who was caught and
executed while Marius escaped to Africa. Having settled this little quarrel, Sulla made himself
master of Rome, murdered a few hundred of Marius’s supporters, passed some laws, and finally
marched off to fight Mithridates.
The moment his back was turned, Marius hurried back to Rome. Paranoid, vengeful, eaten up with
jealousy and hatred, he behaved like a maniac. Like Sulla, he had his faithful army - his soldiers
liked to call themselves ‘Marius’s mules’ - and he now began a reign of terror such as no great city