In the year 662 from the founding of the City, before the Social War was yet finished, the first civil war was set in motion at Rome; and in the same year the Mithridatic War, though less infamous, yet no less grievous, was begun.
1 Anno ab urbe condita DCLXII nondum finito sociali bello Romae primum bellum ciuile commotum est, eodemque anno Mithridaticum bellum etsi minus infame non tamen minus graue coeptum est.
Concerning the duration of the Mithridatic War, indeed, the tradition varies, as to whether it first began from this point or only then chiefly blazed up, especially since some say it was waged for thirty years, others for forty. But although these things, done in the same times and heaped together, blazed up amid tangled evils, I shall nevertheless set them out one by one, separately, if briefly.
2 equidem de Mithridatici belli spatio uarie traditum est, utrum abhinc primum coeperit an tunc praecipue exarserit, maxime cum alii triginta alii quadraginta annos gestum ferant. sed quamuis isdem gesta temporibus perplexis coaceruata malis exarserint, a me tamen speciatim, etsi breuiter, singula proferentur.
While Sulla, as consul, was about to set out with an army into Asia against Mithridates, but was still detained in Campania on account of the remnants of the Social War, Marius aspired to a seventh consulship and to taking on the Mithridatic War.
3 Marius, Sylla consule et contra Mithridatem in Asiam cum exercitu profecturo, in Campania tamen propter socialis belli reliquias consistente, adfectauit septimum consulatum et bellum suscipere Mithridaticum.
When Sulla learned this — being, in truth, an impatient young man, and driven by untempered anger — he first encamped before the City with four legions, where he killed Gratidius, the legate of Marius, as the first victim, as it were, of the civil war; then he burst into the City with his army and called for torches to set the City on fire. With everyone hiding in fear, he came with a swift column along the Sacred Way into the Forum.1
4 quo Sylla cognito inpatiens reuera iuuenis intemperataque ira percitus cum quattuor legionibus primum ante urbem consedit, ubi Gratidium Marii legatum quasi primam uictimam belli ciuilis occidit, mox urbem cum exercitu inrupit, faces ad inflammandam urbem poposcit. omnibus metu abditis, per Sacram uiam cito agmine in forum uenit.
1Sulla, born about 138 BC, was around fifty when he marched on Rome in 88.
Marius, having tried in vain to rouse the nobility, inflame the plebs, and finally to arm the equestrian order against Sulla, at last summoned slaves to arms with the hope of liberty and booty; having dared to resist to no purpose, he finally withdrew to the Capitol. But when Sulla’s cohorts burst in there, he fled with great slaughter of his men.
5 Marius cum permouere nobilitatem, inflammare plebem, equestrem denique ordinem perarmare aduersus Syllam frustra adtemptasset, postremo seruis spe libertatis et praedae ad arma sollicitatis, nequiquam repugnare ausus, tandem in Capitolium concessit. sed cum eo Syllanae cohortes inruissent, magna suorum caede diffugit.
There, then, Sulpicius, the colleague of Marius, was struck down, betrayed by his own slave; and the consuls decreed that the slave himself should be freed because he had informed against an enemy, but thrown from the Tarpeian rock because he had betrayed his master.2
6 ibi tunc Sulpicius Marii collega seruo suo prodente prostratus est; seruum uero ipsum, quod hostem indicauerat, manumitti, quod uero dominum prodiderat, saxo Tarpeio deici consules decreuerunt.
2Publius Sulpicius Rufus, tribune of the plebs in 88 BC, was Marius’s ally; “colleague” is Orosius’s word, not an office they shared.
Marius, in flight, being hemmed in by the pressure of his pursuers, hid himself in the marshes of Minturnae; from these he was unhappily dragged out, smeared with mud, in disgrace, and in a shameful spectacle brought to Minturnae and thrust into prison, where by his look alone he terrified the assassin sent to him.
7 Marius fugiens cum persequentum instantia circumsaeptus esset, in Minturnensium paludibus sese abdidit; e quibus infeliciter luto oblitus ignominioseque protractus, turpi autem spectaculo Minturnas deductus contrususque in carcerem percussorem ad se missum solo uultu exterruit.
Then, slipping out of his chains, he crossed over into Africa, and having summoned his son from Utica, where he was being kept under guard, he at once returned to Rome and was joined to the consul Cinna in a fellowship of crimes.
8 deinde lapsus e uinculis in Africam transfugit sollicitatoque ex Utica filio, ubi in custodia obseruabatur, continuo Romam regressus Cinnae consuli societate scelerum coniunctus est.
So, to ruin the whole commonwealth, they divided the army among themselves into four parts. For three legions were given to Marius; Gnaeus Carbo was put in command of one part of the forces; Sertorius received a part — that Sertorius, namely, who was already here an instigator of and partner in the civil war, and who, when this was over, afterwards stirred up another war in Spain, which he dragged out for many years with very great disasters for the Romans. The remaining portion of the army followed Cinna.
9 igitur ad profligandam uniuersam rempublicam exercitum sibi in quattuor partes diuiserunt. tres siquidem legiones Mario datae, parti copiarum Cn. Carbo praepositus est, partem Sertorius accepit, ille scilicet Sertorius, iam hic ciuilis belli incentor et particeps, qui etiam hoc finito aliud post in Hispania bellum excitauit, quod per multos annos maximis Romanorum cladibus traxit. cetera uero exercitus portio Cinnam secuta est.
Gnaeus Pompeius, moreover, who had been summoned with his army by the senate to come to the aid of the commonwealth, and had long kept himself in suspense, on the watch for a change in affairs, being scorned by Marius and Cinna, betook himself to Octavius, the other consul, and soon clashed with Sertorius.
10 porro autem Cn. Pompeius, qui a senatu cum exercitu arcessitus, ut reipublicae opitularetur, et diu sese nouarum rerum aucupatione suspenderat, contemptus a Mario uel Cinna ad Octauium alterum consulem sese contulit et mox cum Sertorio conflixit.
The coming of night broke off the ill-starred battle; six hundred soldiers were slaughtered on each side.
11 infelicem pugnam interuentus noctis diremit; sescenteni ex utraque parte milites trucidati sunt.
On the following day, while the bodies, lying intermingled, were being sorted for burial, a soldier of Pompeius recognized the body of his brother, whom he himself had killed: for in the clash the helmet had taken from both the recognition of a face, and fury had taken away reflection; though ignorance lessens the guilt but little, when he may seem not to have known about his brother, whom beyond doubt he knew to be a fellow citizen.
12 postera die cum permixtim corpora ad sepulturam discernerentur, miles Pompeianus fratris sui, quem ipse interfecerat, corpus adgnouit: in concursu enim utrique cognitionem uultus galea, considerationem furor ademerat; quamuis parum sit culpae circa ignorantiam, ut uideatur nescisse de fratre quem non ambigitur scisse de ciue.
And so the victor, more unhappy than the vanquished, when he recognized both his brother’s body and his own parricide, cursed the civil wars, and at once running his own breast through with his sword, pouring out tears and blood together, he threw himself upon his brother’s corpse.
13 itaque uictor uicto infelicior, ubi et fratris corpus agnouit et parricidium suum, exsecratus bella ciuilia ilico pectus suum gladio transuerberans simulque lacrimas et sanguinem fundens super fraternum sese cadauer abiecit.
And what did it avail for the confounding of that cruel undertaking that, at the very first outset of the civil wars, the infamous report spread abroad that brothers had clashed — unaware, indeed, that they were brothers, but aware that they were citizens; that a brother, victor by crime, had sought the spoils of a slain brother, and soon, as one guilty of so great a savagery, had avenged with the same sword and the same hand, by his own death, the parricide he had committed?
14 Et quid hoc profuit ad confusionem crudelis incepti, quod in primo statim bellorum ciuilium exordio infamis fama percrebruit, concurrisse ignaros quidem fratres sed conscios ciues, petisse fratrem scelere uictorem spolia fratris occisi ac mox tantae immanitatis reum eodem gladio atque eadem manu per suam necem parricidium, quod admiserat, uindicasse?
Did so sad an example move the animosities of factions bent on war? Did the terror of such an error drive anyone back from the danger of crime? Did this piety and reverence for nature, which we share even with the beasts, […]? Did anyone tremble at what one man committed by killing and dying, because it could be done to himself, and, overcome by conscience, draw back from any such undertaking?
15 numquid intentarum animositates partium tam triste mouit exemplum? numquid apud quemquam periculum sceleris reppulit terror erroris? numquid haec, quae communis est etiam cum beluis, pietas et reuerentia naturae? ** quod unus perimendo ac pereundo commisit, quia in se agi posset intremuit seseque ab huiusmodi incepto conscientia uictus remouit?
On the contrary, for nearly forty years following, civil wars were so continuously waged that the greatness of glory was thought to be weighed by the greatness of crime. For after such a lesson all would have shunned the dangers of parricide in such warfare, had they not desired the parricides themselves.
16 quin potius annis fere quadraginta consequentibus in tantum continuata sunt bella ciuilia, ut magnitudo laudis adpendenda ex magnitudine sceleris putaretur. omnes enim post tale documentum in tali militia parricidiorum pericula refugissent, nisi parricidia ipsa uoluissent.
So Marius, entering the colony of Ostia by force, practised every kind of lust, avarice, and cruelty there.
17 Igitur Marius coloniam Ostiensem ui ingressus omnia ibi genera libidinis auaritiae et crudelitatis exercuit.
Pompeius died, struck by lightning; and his army, seized by a pestilence, was almost entirely carried off. For eleven thousand men died from the camp of Pompeius, and six thousand on the side of the consul Octavius were struck down by the plague.
18 Pompeius fulmine adflatus interiit; exercitus uero eius pestilentia correptus paene totus absumptus est. nam undecim milia uirorum de castris Pompei mortua, sex milia autem de parte Octauii consulis siderata sunt.
Marius broke into the cities of Antium and Aricia as an enemy, killed everyone in them except the traitors, and gave their goods over to his men to plunder. Afterwards the consul Cinna with his legions and Marius with his fugitives entered the City and killed all the noblest men of the senate and very many men of consular rank.
19 Marius Antium et Ariciam ciuitates hostiliter inrupit cunctosque in his praeter proditores interfecit, bona suis diripienda permisit. post Cinna consul cum legionibus et Marius cum fugitiuis urbem ingressi nobilissimos quosque e senatu et plurimos consulares uiros interfecerunt.
But how small a part is this of the misery displayed? […] to sum up in a single word the slaughter of good men, whose numbers were so great, its duration so long, its cruelty so extreme, and its variety so manifold?
20 Sed quota haec portio ostentatae miseriae est? ** uno uerbo definisse caedem bonorum, cuius fuit tanta numerositas, tanta diuturnitas, tanta crudelitas tantaque diuersitas?
Nevertheless it is fairer that I should have withheld something useful from my case than have heaped so much horror upon what is known, whether these things are set before the informed or the uninformed.
21 uerumtamen aequius est me aliquid utilitatis subtraxisse causae quam tantum horroris ingessisse notitiae, siue peritis haec siue imperitis obiciantur.
For we are speaking of our fatherland, of our fellow citizens, and of our ancestors, who, driven by these evils, did things so abominable that their descendants shudder even to hear of them; and they surely do not wish these things to be overly exaggerated — either out of the restraint that comes of sufficient knowledge, if they know them, or out of regard for compassionate reverence, if they do not.
22 de patria siquidem, de ciuibus et de maioribus nostris haec loquimur, qui his exagitati malis tam abominanda gesserunt, de quibus etiam auditis posteri perhorrescant, qui profecto nolunt ista nimis exaggerari aut sufficientis notitiae moderatione, si sciunt, aut misericordis reuerentiae contemplatione, si nesciunt.
So Marius, when he had heaped up for spectacle and adornment the heads of slaughtered citizens — brought in to banquets, set before the Capitol, gathered at the Rostra — and had seized a seventh consulship, with Cinna consul for the third time, was snatched away at the very outset of his consular rule by a death that came at last, and late.
23 Igitur Marius cum interfectorum ciuium capita inlata conuiuiis, oblata Capitoliis, conlata Rostris ad spectaculum ornatumque congereret ac septimum consulatum cum Cinna tertium consule peruasisset, in exordio consularis imperii sera tandem morte praereptus est.
Cinna supplemented the deaths of good men with the slaughter of bad ones. For since the band of fugitives brought in by Marius was insatiable in plundering and allotted no share to the consuls, the authors of the plunder, it was lured into the Forum as if to receive pay, surrounded by soldiers, and destroyed unarmed. Eight thousand fugitives were slain that day in the Forum of the City; and this same Cinna, consul for the fourth time, was killed by his own army.
24 Cinna bonorum neces malorum caede suppleuit. nam cum introducta per Marium fugitiuorum manus insatiabilis praedandi esset nullamque partem auctoribus praedae consulibus ministraret, in forum quasi stipendii causa sollicitata, militibusque circumdata, inermis extincta est. caesa sunt illa die in foro urbis octo milia fugitiuorum, idemque Cinna quarto consul ab exercitu suo interfectus est.