Chapter 7 Summary

Chapter seven begins with Sulla organizing Marius's Triumph in Rome. Marius wants a short triumphal march so as to concentrate on the banquet in the temple of Jupiter afterward. Sulla considers this wish a mark of Marius's lack of patrician origins, because a true patrician would want to focus on the triumph itself. Sulla, learning that the captured Jugurtha has been sowing discord aimed at him, decides that instead of the customary hanging, Jugurtha will be executed by being buried alive.

After his triumph, Marius addresses the Senate. He argues that because of the many recent wars, the Italian allies of Rome have had their male, farmer population decimated. It is time, he argues, to free all slaves of Italian descent so that they can again work the farms of Italy and, if needed, serve in Roman legions. The Senate debates the measure...