3. From the death of the Gracchi to the consulship 107 — Of Marius, Rome was in a tumult of corrupt intrigue, which rendered easy the usurpation and inhuman cruelty of Jugurtha, king of Numidia. Marius, a plebian of the lowest rank, became consul.

He was

unequaled at once as a general and a tyrant. He conquered

106 - Jugurtha, who was brought to Rome and starved in prison. In the same year Cicero, the great Roman orator, was born.

105

A vast horde of Cimbri and Teutons from northern Europe, invaded Gaul and defeated several Roman consuls.

100 Marius led an army against these barbarians and defeated them, more than 100,000 being slain or made prisoners. He was equally successful in a second engagement. During the war 200,000 barbarians were slain and 90,000 taken prisoners. A revolt of the slaves was put down about the same time with circumstances of extreme cruelty. More than a million of these unfortunates were slain or thrown to wild beasts for the amusement of the Roman populace.

4. 100- In this year Julius Cæsar, one of the greatest men of any time, and virtual founder of the Roman Empire, was born. His supreme ability put an end to civil dissention and saved society from total ruin.

90 — The Italian allies revolted against Rome. They claimed the privileges of Roman citizenship, which the Senate refused. A war of three years followed and half a million of men perished, when, having conquered them, the Senate granted their first request. 88-Mithridates, king of Pontus, talented and ambitious, sought to drive the Romans out of Asia and Greece, and warred with them for twenty-five years. Sylla procured the banishment of his rival, Marius, and conducted the war against Mithridates.

86-Marius regained power in the absence of Sylla and slaughtered his enemies, the patricians, without mercy, but soon after died.

83 Sylla, after obliging Mithridates to sue for peace, hastened to Rome, conquered his enemies, and slew more than 6,000 Roman citizens in revenge.

81- Sylla caused himself to be made perpetual dictator 77-But after three years resigned and soon after died from the effects of his vices. Civil war was continued for a time in Spain and Italy, but finally put down by Pompey, the greatest general of the patrician party.

70

*70

The war of the gladiators - men trained to fight in the theatres for the amusement of the populace — broke out under an able leader, Spartacus, who, collecting an army of 120,000 gladiators, endangered Rome itself, but he was conquered by Crassus. Spartacus was defeated and killed. It was the inhuman oppression of the patricians that produced all these dreadful conflicts. 65 - Pompey and Crassus, by paying court to the people, were made consuls. Pompey proceeded to Asia and made war on Mithridates, who was again formidable, whom he defeated and slew in battle. He subdued nearly all western Asia, visiting Jerusalem, and treating the Jews with kindness. He also cleared the Mediterranean of pirates, who had always infested it. 62- A dangerous conspiracy of Cataline, a patrician of the most corrupt morals, at the head of the depraved young nobility of the time, would have been successful but for the ability and eloquence of Cicero, who was consul. Cataline and his fellow conspirators were taken and slain.

63

59-Cæsar, Pompey, and Crassus formed the first "Triumvirate," and divided the rule of the world between them. Cæsar was the head of the popular party. He 57- took Gaul as his government. Here he spent eight years in his "Gallic wars," showing unparalleled talents

as a general, training his army to become invincible in battle, and completely subduing the fierce Gauls. He 55 entered Britain and laid the foundation of civilization there, thus carrying the march of empire to its farthest bounds in Europe.

5. 49- He was ordered to return and lay down his authority by the Roman Senate, headed by Pompey, who was now his enemy. They were the rival champions of the two parties in the state, the people and the patricians, whose quarrels had so long filled Rome with tumult and slaughter. The tribunes in Cæsar's interest interposed a veto, which the Roman Constitution authorized them to do. The Senate voted to suspend the Constitution, which really terminated the Roman Republic, Jan. 7, B. C. 49. Cæsar at once crossed the river Rubicon, the boundary of his government, and marched his army on Rome. Pompey and the aristocratic party fled in haste, leaving the public treasure behind. In sixty days Cæsar had possession of all Italy. Sicily, Sardinia, and Spain were next conquered from the officers of Pompey, when he returned to Rome, and was created dictator by his party. He treated all his enemies with clemency. Pompey had gone into Greece, 48- where he gathered a large army. Cæsar followed with his veteran legions, and defeated him in the battle of Pharsalia in Thessaly. Pompey fled to Egypt, where he was treacherously slain, to the great indignation of Cæsar, who would shed no blood but in necessary battle. Thus he became sole master of the world.

In a conflict with the Egyptians in Alexandria Cæsar set on fire their fleet, he being attended by but few troops, and the conflagration extended to the Alexandrian Library, filled with inestimable treasures of ancient literature, which were destroyed, to the great loss of future generations. Cæsar soon subdued Egypt,

47- defeated Pharnaces, son of Mithridates, and returned to Rome.

46 He soon passed into Africa, where he defeated his enemies. The celebrated Cato, an inflexible enemy of Cæsar, committed suicide rather than submit to him. In Spain he soon after defeated the sons of Pompey, the last of his foes in arms. He rebuilt Carthage and 45 Corinth. He projected many great public works and useful reforms. The whole power of Roman sovereign44-ty was formally conferred on him by the people, when

43

42

he was suddenly assassinated by a band of senators and certain conspirators, who imagined it possible to restore the ancient Republic. His nephew, Augustus, succeeded him soon after.

The eminent Cicero, never a friend to Cæsar, was assassinated by the connivance of Augustus.

The republican and aristocratic conspirators were defeated by Augustus and Antony at Philippi, in Greece. Brutus and Cassius, the republican leaders, and assassins of Cæsar, were slain. The second "Triumvirate," composed of Augustus, Antony and Lepidus, having acquired possession of all the powers of the state, ruthlessly murdered thousands of their political enemies. They soon grew jealous of each other, and fought and intrigued for eleven years, Augustus, with great prudence, firmly settling himself in Rome, and Antony becoming the slave of the beautiful and infamous Cleopatra, queen of Egypt.

31-At length, at the battle of Actium, Antony was defeated, and soon after both Antony and Cleopatra committed suicide. Egypt became formally a Roman province, and Augustus absolute emperor of the world.

SECTION IX.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

1. B. C. 28—In this year Augustus, having fully consolidated his power, was formally recognized emperor. During all the contests of factions, and when Rome was itself in the throes of revolution, the subjection of all the provinces to the imperial city, and whoever was in power there, was rigorously maintained. The inhabitants were protected from invasion, and if they were often oppressed by Roman governors, it was far less than under their native rulers, and, in general, they were not desirous of a change. Roman law and order, and the power of appeal from great injustice to the Roman senate or emperor, maintained a state of generally tranquil prosperity, only disturbed by the contests of rivals for the control of the imperial city and its power.

A long period of almost absolute quiet followed the establishment of the empire, which gave Rome and Italy great satisfaction, after nearly a hundred years of civil war. It is called the "Augustan Age," when industry and commerce, literature and the arts, reached their highest development.

The Roman Empire and the Christian era commenced nearly together. During the thirty years that followed the battle of Actium, which secured to Augustus the sole control of the civilized world, by the defeat of his last rival, Antony, he was occupied in organizing the vast machinery of his government, and centralizing all the parts of the administration in his own person. For near three hundred years Western Asia and Greece had been a scene of violent commotion. Rival adventurers were constantly seeking to reconstruct the empire of Alexander. Some of these had the genius and the good fortune to succeed, in part at least, and swayed a powerful scepter over a large region during their own lives, and, in some instances, their dominions were held together for several generations. But there was no sufficient base for a strong and permanent government. There was no stable element on