that he never changed his political idea, and that,
in these deviations as to men and as to means, whether,
for instance, he was ready to serve Caesar or to oppose
him, he was guided, even in the insincerity of his
utterances, by the sincerity of his purpose. I
think that I can remember, even in Great Britain,
even in the days of Queen Victoria, men sitting check
by jowl on the same Treasury bench who have been very
bitter to each other with anything but friendly words.
With us fidelity in friendship is, happily, a virtue.
In Rome expediency governed everything. All I
claim for Cicero is, that he was more sincere than
others around him.
[52] It was then that the foreign empire commenced,
in ruling which the simplicity and truth of purpose
and patriotism of the Republic were lost.
[53] The reverses of fortune to which Marius was subjected,
how he was buried up to his neck in the mud, hiding
in the marshes of Minturne, how he would have been
killed by the traitorous magistrates of that city
but that he quelled the executioners by the fire of
his eyes; how he sat and glowered, a houseless exile,
among the ruins of Carthage—all which things
happened to him while he was running from the partisans
of Sulla—are among the picturesque episodes
of history. There is a tragedy called the Wounds
of Civil War, written by Lodge, who was born some
eight years before Shakspeare, in which the story of
Marius is told with some exquisite poetry, but also
with some ludicrous additions. The Gaul who is
hired to kill Marius, but is frightened by his eyes,
talks bad French mingled with bad English, and calls
on Jesus in his horror!
[54] Brutus, ca.xc.
[55] Florus tells us that there were 2000 Senators
and Knights, but that any one was allowed to kill
just whom he would. “Quis autem illos potest
computare quos in erbe passim quisquis voluit occidit”
(lib. iii., ca. 21).
[56] About L487 10s. In Smith’s Dictionary
of Greek and Roman Antiquities the Attic talent is
given as being worth L243 15s. Mommsen quotes
the price as 12,000 denarii, which would amount to
about the same sum.
[57] Suetonius speaks of his death. Florus mentions
the proscriptions and abdication. Velleius Paterculus
is eloquent in describing the horrors of the massacres
and confiscation. Dio Cassius refers again and
again to the Sullan cruelty. But none of them
give a reason for the abdication of Sulla.
[58] Vol.iii., p.386. I quote from Mr. Dickson’s
translation, as I do not read German.
[59] In defending Roscius Amerinus, while Sulla was
still in power, he speaks of the Sullan massacres
as “pugna Cannensis,” a slaughter as foul,
as disgraceful, as bloody as had been the defeat at
Canne.
[60] Mommsen, vol.iii., p.385.
HIS EARLY PLEADINGS.—SEXTUS ROSCIUS AMERINUS.—HIS INCOME.
