fea with all expedition; and having levied in Africa some Maurusian horse, and collected together on the coast of Hetruria a confiderable number of flaves and country-people, who at the name of Marius came flocking to him, he in a short time got together an army that filled forty ships.

When Marius came to consider which party he should declare for, he reflected that Octavius was an honest man, and one that was for governing according to law; and that, on the contrary, Cinna was in open war, and at the fame time was a person sufpected by his rival in power, Sylla; from those confiderations he concluded that Cinna would be the most proper man to unite himfelf to, and he accordingly joined him with all his forces.

Having, in consequence of this determination, fent a message to Cinna, to let him know, that he fubmitted himself to him as conful, in whatsoever he should command him; Cinna received him with open arms, declared him proconful, and fent him the fafces, together with the other ensigns of authority.

But Marius declined them, alledging that

those marks of grandeur did not fuit with his present distress. So that he continued to wear a poor ordinary habit, and to let his hair grow, as it had done from the first day of his exile, walking flowly and heavily, like a man stricken in years, being then above seventy. All this was done merely to excite compaffion; for, under this mark of fubmiffion and humility, there still appeared that air of fierceness which was so natural to him, and it was evident that his mind was not fo much dejected, as exasperated, by the change of his condition.

As soon as he had paid his respects to Cinna, and harangued the foldiers, he immediately prepared for war; and it was not long before he made a confiderable alteration in the posture of affairs. Having seized upon all the fea-port towns, and cut off the enemy's supplies, he threw a bridge over the Tiber at Ostia, and then marched with his army towards the city.

Octavius, who gave himself too much up to the directions of foothfayers and fortunetellers, and being besides too rigid in the observance of the laws, so that he would not emancipate any of the flaves for the defence

of the city, though advised so to do, was able to make but a weak resistance. Before Marius entered Rome, he fent fome of his body guard, who feized on Octavius, forced him off the tribunal, and killed him upon the fpot.

zens.

While affairs remained in this posture, the fenate affembled, and fent ambassadors to Cinna and Marius, requesting them to come into the city peaceably, and spare the citiCinna, as conful, received the embaffy fitting on the tribunal, and returned a gracious anfwer by the messengers. Marius stood by, and faid nothing; but gave fufficient teftimony, by the fournefs of his countenance, and the sternness of his looks, that he would in a short time fill the city with maffacres.

And this he failed not to do. He entered the city, furrounded by his guards, chosen from among the flaves that had flocked to him, and which he called his Bardiæans, who instantly murdered, without distinction, all those he had doomed to deftruction. The least word or fign given them by Marius, was fufficient for this purpose. If any one of the fenators faluted him, and he did not return the the falute, or deign to look upon them, they were flain without any more ado, before his face: fo that his very friends could not approach him without dreadful forebodings and apprehenfions.

Maimed and headless carcases were frequently thrown about and trampled upon in the streets, and viewed by the citizens with horror and confternation. But the greatest grievances of all were, the outrages committed by the Bardiæans, who, after they had murdered their late masters, proceeded to abuse their wives and children. Nor could any bounds be fet to the diffoluteness, cruelty, and avarice of these infamous wretches, till at last Cinna and Sentorius surprised them one night as they lay afleep in the camp, and killed every one of them.

At length news arrived, that Sylla, having put an end to the war with Mithridates, and taken poffeffion of the provinces, was returning into Italy with a great army. The apprehenfion of a war hanging over his head gave some intermiffion to the cruelties of Marius, and he was chofen conful for the seventh time.

His new honour was not, however, of long continuance. Sinking under the burden of his cares, and particularly of his apprehenfions from Sylla, he fell into great troubles, nocturnal frights, and broken slumbers, which he endeavoured to quiet by hard drinking; till at length, according to Poffidonius, he fell into a pleurify, which soon put an end to his life.

But Caius Pifo, another historian, tells us, that Marius walking one night after supper with fome of his friends, entertained them with a recital of all his adventures; and after having observed to them the inconstancy and viciffitude of fortune, he concluded with faying, that it did not become a wife man any longer to truft to so fluctuating a deity : then, having embraced and taken leave of them, he went home, took to his bed, lay fick seven days, and expired about the time that he had attained the age of feventy.

Thus died Marius, on the feventeenth day of his seventh confulship, to the great joy and content of the whole people of Rome. He was the first man that had ever been chosen seven times conful, and was possessed of such a palace, and of riches so immenfe,

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