BOOK LXXIX.

Lucius Cornelius Cinna having, by force of arms, procured the enactment of several injurious laws, was driven out of the city by his colleague, Cneius Octavius, together with six plebeian tribunes. Thus deposed from the authority, he procured the command of his army under Appius Claudius, by bribery, and made war upon the city, having called to his assistance Caius Marius, and other exiles, from Africa. In this war, two brothers, (one of Pompeius’s army, the other of Cinna’s,) encountered each other without knowing it; and when the conqueror despoiling the enemy recognised his brother, he vented his grief in uncontrolled lamentation, and having prepared a funeral pile for him, he stabbed himself on it, and was consumed with him. Although this war might have been suppressed at first, yet owing to the treachery of Pompeius, who, by encouraging either party, gave power to Cinna, whilst he only succoured the patriotic party when their energies were exhausted; and also to the neglect of the consul; Cinna and Marius, with four armies, two of which were commanded by Sertorius and Carbo, gained strength and laid siege to the city. Marius took Ostia, which he plundered in the most cruel manner.