Chapter 1

at the plough as a servant and afterwards entering the army as a common soldier.]

[Footnote 55: Lucius Aurelius Cotta and Lucius Cæcilius Metellus were consuls B.C. 119, in which year Marius was tribune. The law which Marius proposed had for its object to make the Pontes narrower. The Pontes were the passages through which the voters went into the Septa or inclosures where they voted. After passing through the pontes they received the voting tablets at the entrance of the septa. The object of the law of Marius was to diminish the crowd and pressure by letting fewer persons come in at a time. Cicero speaks of this law of Marius (_De Legibus_, iii. 17). As the law had reference to elections and its object was among other things to prevent bribery, Plutarch's remark is unintelligible: the text is corrupt, or he has made a mistake.]

[Footnote 56: The higher magistrates of Rome, the curule ædiles, prætors, consuls, censors, and dictator had a chair of office called a Sella Curulis, or Curule seat, which Plutarch correctly describes as a chair with curved feet (See the cut in Smith's _Dictionary of Antiquities_, "Sella Curulis"). The name Curule is derived from Currus, a chariot, as the old writers say, and as is proved by the expression Curulis Triumphus, a Curule Triumph, which is opposed to an Ovatio, in which the triumphing general went on foot in the procession.

The Plebeian Ædiles were first elected B.C. 494, at the same time as the Plebeian tribunes. They had various functions, such as the general superintendence of buildings, the supply of water, the care of the streets and pavements, and other like matters. Their duties mainly belonged to the department of police, under which was included the superintendence of the markets, and of buying and selling. The Plebeian Ædiles were originally two in number.

The Curule Ædiles were first elected B.C. 365 and only from the Patricians, but afterwards the office was accessible to the Plebeians. The functions of the Plebeian Ædiles seem to have been performed by all the Ædiles indifferently after B.C. 368, though the Curule Ædiles alone had the power of making Edicts (edicta), which power was founded on their general superintendence of all buying and selling, and many of their rules had reference to the buying and selling of slaves (_Dig._ 21, tit. 1). The Curule Ædiles only had the superintendence of some of the greater festivals, on which occasions they went to great expense to gratify the people and buy popularity as a means of further promotion. (See Sulla, c. 5.)]

[Footnote 57: At this time there were six Prætors. The Prætor Urbanus or City Prætor was sometimes simply called Prætor and had the chief administration of justice in Rome. The Prætor Peregrinus also resided in Rome and had the superintendence in matters in dispute between Roman citizens and aliens (peregrini). The other Prætors had provinces allotted to them to administer; and after the expiration of their year of office, the prætors generally received the administration of a Province with the title of Proprætor. It appears (c. 5) that Marius either stayed at Rome during his prætorship or had some Province in Italy. As to the meaning of the Roman word Province, see Caius Gracchus, c. 19, note.]

[Footnote 58: Bribery at elections among the Romans was called Ambitus, which literally signifies "a going about;" it then came to signify canvassing, solicitation, the giving and promising of money for votes, and all the means for accomplishing this end, in which the recurrence of elections at Rome annually made candidates very expert. The first law specially directed against the giving of money (largitiones) was the Lex Cornelia Bæbia, B.C. 182; and there were many subsequent enactments, but all failed to accomplish their object. The Lex Bæbia incapacitated him who gave a bribe to obtain office from filling any office for ten years.]

[Footnote 59: His alleged intemperance consisted in not being able to endure thirst on such an occasion. His real offence was his conduct which made him suspected of acting as an agent of Marius in the election. It was one of the duties of the Censors, when revising the lists of Equites and Senators, to erase the names of those whom they considered unworthy of the rank, and this without giving any reason for it.]

[Footnote 60: The words Patron and Client are now used by us, but, like many other Roman terms, not in the original or proper sense. Dominus and Servus, Master and Slave, were terms placed in opposition to one another, like Patron and Client, Patronus and Cliens. A master who manumitted his slave became his Patronus, a kind of father (for Patronus is derived from Pater, father): the slave was called the Patron's Libertus, freedman; and all Liberti were included in the class Libertini. Libertinus is another example of a word which we use (libertine), though not in the Roman sense. But the old Roman relation of Patron and Client was not this. Originally the heads of distinguished families had a number of retainers or followers who were called their Clients, a word which perhaps originally meant those who were bound to hear and to obey a common head. It was a tradition that when Atta Claudius, the head of the great Claudian Gens, who were Sabines, was admitted among the Roman Patricians, he brought with him a large body of clients to whom land was given north of the Anio, now the Teverone. (Livius, 2, c. 16; Suetonius, _Tiberius_, c. 1.) The precise relation of the early clients to their leaders is one of the most difficult questions in Roman History, and much too extensive to be discussed here. It was the Patron's duty to protect his clients and to give them his aid and advice in all matters that required it: the clients owed to the Patron respect and obedience and many duties which are tolerably well ascertained. Long after the strictness of the old relation had been relaxed, the name continued and some of the duties, as we see in this sentence of Marius, where the Patron claimed to be exempted from giving evidence against his client. In the last periods of the Republic and under the Empire, Patron was sometimes simply used as Protector, adviser, defender, and Client to express one who looked up to another as his friend and adviser, particularly in all matters where his legal rights were concerned. Great men under the later Republic sometimes became the Patrons of particular states or cities, and looked after their interests at Rome. We have adopted the word Client in the sense of one who goes to an attorney or solicitor for his legal advice, but with us the client pays for the advice, and the attorney is not called his patron. A modern patron is one who patronises, protects, gives his countenance to an individual, or to some association of individuals, but frequently he merely gives his countenance or his name, that being as much as can be asked from him or as much as he will give.

The Clients must be distinguished from the Plebs in the early history of Rome, though there can be no doubt that part of the Plebeian body was gradually formed out of clients.]

[Footnote 61: Robbery and piracy were in like manner reckoned honourable occupations by the old Greeks (Thucydides, i. 5). These old robbers made no distinction between robbery and war: plunder was their object, and labour they hated. So says Herodotus (v. 6). A Thracian considered it a disgrace to till the ground; to live by plunder was the mark of a gentleman. When people can live by plunder, there must be somebody worth plundering. One object of modern civilisation is to protect him who labours from the aggression of him who does not.]

[Footnote 62: This fact renders it doubtful if Marius was of such mean birth as it is said. He married Julia, the sister of C. Julius Cæsar. This Cæsar was the father of C. Julius Cæsar, the dictator, who was consequently the nephew of Caius Marius.]

[Footnote 63: See _Penny Cyclopædia_, "Veins, Diseases of." Cicero (_Tusculan. Quæst._ 2. c. 22) alludes to this story of the surgical operation. He uses the word Varices.]

[Footnote 64: Q. Cæcilius Metellus was consul B.C. 109 with M. Junius Silanus. He obtained the Agnomen of Numidicus for his services in the Jugurthine war.]

[Footnote 65: Legatus is a participle from the verb Lego, which signifies to assign anything to a person to do; hence legatus is one to whom something is delegated. The Roman word Legatus had various senses. Here the word legatus, which is the word that Plutarch intends, is a superior officer who holds command under a Consul, Prætor, Proconsul, Proprætor.]

[Footnote 66: The story of Turpillius is told by Sallustius (_Jugurthine War_, 66), who speaks of his execution, but says nothing of his innocence being afterwards established. The Romans had in their armies a body of engineers called Fabri, and the director of the body was called Præfectus Fabrorum. Vaga, which Sallustius calls Vacoa, was one of the chief towns in Numidia.]

[Footnote 67: Sallustius, who tells the same story pretty nearly in the same way (_Jugurth. War_, c. 64), says that the son of Metellus was about twenty. The insult was not one to be forgiven by a man like Marius, to be told that it would be soon enough for him to be consul three-and-twenty years hence. This son is Q. Cæcilius Metellus Pius who afterwards fought against Sertorius in Spain.]

[Footnote 68: The Latin word which Plutarch has translated is Imagines. These Imagines were busts of wax, marble, or metal, which the Romans of family placed in the entrance of their houses. They corresponded to a set of family portraits, but they were the portraits of men who had enjoyed the high offices of the State. These Imagines were carried in procession at funerals. Polybius (vi. 53) has a discourse on this subject, which is worth reading. Marius, who was a Novus Homo, a new man, had no family busts to show.]

[Footnote 69: Lucius Calpurnius Bestia was consul B.C. 111, and Spurius Postumius Albinus B.C. 110. They successively conducted the war against Jugurtha without success. Sallustius (_Jugurth. War_, c. 85) has put a long speech in the mouth of Marius on this occasion, which Plutarch appears to have used.]

[Footnote 70: Though much has been said on the subject, there is nothing worth adding to what Plutarch tells. He gives the various opinions that he had collected.]

[Footnote 71: This passage of the Celtic Galli into Italy is mentioned by Livius (5, c. 34) and referred by him to the reign of Tarquinius Priscus. This is the first invasion of Italy from the French side of the Alps that is recorded, and it has often been repeated.]

[Footnote 72: The modern Sea of Azoff.]

[Footnote 73: The Greek is [Greek: phugê] φυγη, which hardly admits of explanation, though Coræs has explained it. I have followed Kaltwasser in adopting Reiske's conjecture of [Greek: phulê] φύλη.]

[Footnote 74: It is stated by Mannert (_Geographie der Griechen und Römer_, Pt. iii. 410), that the term Hercynian forest was not always used by the ancients to denote the same wooded tract. At this time a great part of Germany was probably covered with forest. Cæsar (_Gallic War_, vi. 24) describes it as extending from the country of the Helvetii (who lived near the lake of Geneva) apparently in a general east or north-east direction, but his description is not clear. He says that the forest had been traversed in its length for sixty days without an end being come to.]

[Footnote 75: Plutarch's description is literally translated; it shows that there was a confused notion of the long days and nights in the arctic regions. Herodotus (iv. 25) and Tacitus in his _Agricola_ have some vague talk of the like kind.]

[Footnote 76: The passage in Homer is in the 11th Book, v. 14, &c. This Book is entitled Necyia [Greek: nekyia] νέκυια, which is the word that Plutarch uses; it literally signifies an offering or sacrifice by which the shades of the dead are called up from the lower world to answer questions that are put to them.]

[Footnote 77: In B.C. 113 the Romans first heard of the approach of the Cimbri and Teutones. Cn. Papirius Carbo, one of the consuls of this year, was defeated by them in Illyricum (part of Stiria), but they did not cross the Alps. In B.C. 109 the consul M. Junius Silanus was defeated by the Cimbri, who demanded of the Roman Senate lands to settle in: the demand was refused. In B.C. 107 the consul L. Cassius Longinus fell in battle against the Galli Tigurini, who inhabited a part of Switzerland, and his army was sent under the yoke. This was while his colleague Marius was carrying on the campaign against Jugurtha in Africa. In B.C. 105 Cn. Manlius Maximus, the consul, and Q. Servilius Cæpio, proconsul, who had been consul in B.C. 106, were defeated by the Cimbri with immense slaughter, and lost both their camps. The name of Manlius is written Mallius in the Fasti Consulares, ed. Baiter.]

[Footnote 78: Scipio Africanus the younger was elected consul B.C. 147 when he was thirty-seven years of age, the law as to age being for that occasion not enforced. There was an old Plebiscitum (law passed in the Comitia Tributa) which enacted that no man should hold the same magistracy without an interval of ten full years. (Livius. 7, c. 42; 10, c. 13). The first instance of the law being suspended was in the case of Q. Fabius Maximus. One of Sulla's laws re-enacted or confirmed the old law.]

[Footnote 79: This canal of Marius is mentioned by Strabo (p. 183) and other ancient writers. The eastern branch of the Rhone runs from Arelate (Arles) to the sea, and the canal of Marius probably commenced in this branch about twenty Roman miles below Arles (which did not then exist), and entered the sea between the mouth of this branch and Maritima, now Martigues. The length of the canal of Marius might be about twelve Roman miles. Marseilles is east of Martigues. (D'Anville. _Notice de la Gaule Ancienne_.)]

[Footnote 80: The movements of the barbarians are not clearly stated. It appears from what follows that the Cimbri entered Italy on the north-east over the Noric Alps, for their march brought them to the banks of the Adige. Florus says that they came by the defiles of Tridentum (Trento). The Teutones, if they marched through the Ligurian country along the sea to meet Marius, who was near Marseilles, must have come along the Riviera of Genoa.]

[Footnote 81: Plutarch calls her a Syrian. Martha may have been a Syrian name, as well as a Jewish name. Syrians and Jews flocked to Rome in great numbers under the later Republic and the Empire, and got their living in various ways not always reputable. The Jews at Rome used to cause disturbances in the popular assemblies in Cicero's time. (Cic. _Pro Flacco_, c. 28.) Jews and Syrians are often mentioned together by the Roman writers. The Jews at Rome were greatly troubled at the assassination of the Dictator Cæsar, and they crowded round the place where the body was burnt for nights in succession. Cæsar had rather favoured the nation for their services in the Alexandrine War. (Suetonius, _Cæsar_, c. 84, and Casaubon's note.)]

[Footnote 82: He wrote on Natural History; among other things, a History of Birds, from which this story is probably taken. There is evidently an error in the text [Greek: êspazonto tous stratiotas] ἠσπάζοντο τοὺς στρατιοτάς. I have adopted Reiske's emendation.]

[Footnote 83: Pessinus was in Galatia, properly a part of Phrygia, and the seat of the temple of Cybele, the Mother of the Gods or the Great Mother. In the second Punic War the Romans sent ambassadors to Pessinus, and got permission to convey to Rome the Great Mother of the Gods, who was a sacred stone. The Sibylline Books had declared that when a foreign enemy was in Italy, he could be driven out, if the Idæan mother, for Cybele was so called also, was brought to Rome. The goddess was received at Rome (B.C. 203) with great respect, and placed in the temple of Victory. (Livius, 29, c. 10, &c.) Plutarch does not explain how the goddess now happened to be in Asia and Rome at the same time, for there is no account of her leaving Rome after she was taken there. The annual celebration called Megalesia, that is, the festival of the Great Mother, was instituted at Rome in honour of the goddess, and celebrated in the spring. (Herodianus, i. 32, &c.) It was a tradition that the stone fell from the skies at Pessinus. There was another great stone in Syria (Herodianus, v. 5), in the temple of the Sun, which was worshipped: the stone was round in the lower part, and gradually tapered upwards; the colour was black, and the people Aida that it fell from heaven. It is probable that these stones were ærolites, the falling of which is often recorded in ancient writers, and now established beyond all doubt by repeated observation in modern times. (See _Penny Cyclopædia_, "Ærolites.") There is a large specimen in the British Museum. The immediate cause of the Romans sending for the Great Mother was a heavy shower of stones at Rome, an occurrence which in those days was very common. One might have supposed that one of the Roman ærolites would have answered as well as the stone of Pessinus, but the stone of Pessinus had the advantage of being consecrated by time and coming from a distance, and it was probably a large stone. Cf. Plut. Lys. ch. 12.]

[Footnote 84: This is Aix, about eighteen Roman miles north of Marseilles. Places which were noted for warm springs or medicinal springs were called by the Romans Aquæ, Waters, with some addition to the name. The colony of Aquæ Sextiæ was founded by C. Sextius Calvinus B.C. 120, after defeating the Salyes or Saluvii, in whose country it was. The springs of Aix fell off in repute even in ancient times, and they have no great name now; the water is of a moderate temperature.

Other modern towns have derived their name from the same word Aquæ, which is probably the same as the Celtic word Ac or Acq. There is an Aix in Savoy, and Aix-la-Chapelle (Aachen) in the Rhine Province of Prussia. Sometimes the Aquæ took a name from a deity. In France there were the Aquæ Bormonis, the waters of the God Bormo (Bourbonnes-les-Bains): in England, Aquæ Sulis, the Waters of the Goddess Sulis, which by an error became Solis in our books, as if they were called the waters of the Sun. The inscriptions found at Bath name the goddess Sulia.]

[Footnote 85: Plutarch means to say that the Ambrones and Ligurians were of one stock, and some writers conclude that they were both Celts. This may be so or it may not, for evidence is wanting. Of all the absurd parade of learning under which ancient history has been buried by modern critics, the weightiest and the most worthless part is that which labours to discover the relationship of people of whom we have only little, and that little often conflicting, evidence.]

[Footnote 86: The Lar according to D'Anville, not the Arc.]

[Footnote 87: Statements of numbers killed are not worth much, even in any modern engagements. Velleius (ii. 12) makes the number of barbarians who fell in both battles above 150,000.]

[Footnote 88: The Romans called it Massilia; now Marseilles. It was an old Greek colony of the Phokæans. Strabo (p. 183) says that the people of Massilia aided the Romans in these battles and that Marius made them a present of the cut which he had formed from the Rhone to the sea, which the Massilians turned to profit by levying a toll on those who used it.]

[Footnote 89: A Greek lyric poet who lived in the seventh century B.C. His fragments have often been collected.]

[Footnote 90: This was an old Roman fashion. (Livius, 1, c. 37; 41, c. 16.)]

[Footnote 91: Plutarch often uses the word Fortune [Greek: tuchê] τύcη, the meaning of which may be collected from the passages in which it occurs. Nemesis [Greek: Nemesis] Νέμεσις is a Greek goddess, first mentioned by Hesiod, and often mentioned by the Greek Tragoedians. She is the enemy of excessive prosperity and its attendant excessive pride and arrogance; she humbles those who have been elevated too high, tames their pride and checks their prosperous career. Nemesis had a temple and statue at Rhamnus in Attica.]

[Footnote 92: The Roman Athesis, the Italian Adige, the German Etsch. The extravagance of this chapter of Plutarch is remarkable.]

[Footnote 93: The Eagle, Aquila, was the Roman standard in use at this time. Formerly the Romans had five symbols for their standards, the eagle, wolf, minotaur, horse, and wild boar, all of which were appropriated to respective divisions of the army. Marius in this Cimbrian war did away with all of them except the eagle. (Plinius, _N.H_. x. 4.)]

[Footnote 94: The Sequani were a Gallic people who were separated from the Helvetii by the range of the Jura, on the west side of which their territory extended from the Rhine to the Rhone and the Saone. (Florus