landowners, there was little doubt that it would be passed . But no law could even be proposed unless all ten of the tribunes desired it . The senators induced one of the ten to refuse to present it . Legally , Tiberius could do nothing more ; but he reasoned that when a man refused to agree to so good a law, he was not fit to be tribune, and he in duced the assembly to pass a vote putting the man out of office. When the tribune refused to give up his office, then by orders of Tiberius , he was pulled down from his place . However good this new law may have been , it was ex ceedingly difficult to carry it out , and , what was worse, Tiberius had broken the laws in passing it . As long as he was a tribune , he was safe ; and therefore, although this , too , was illegal , he tried to get himself elected tribune for the following year. The nobles were angry and indignant . They rushed out of the senate house . A riot followed , and Ti berius was slain . Before this , the different parties in Rome had tried their best to get their own way ; but this was the first time that they had tried to get what they wanted un lawfully and with violence . If the government of any country allows lawbreakers to go unpunished , or even if the citizens are permitted to uphold the laws by unlawful means, that country is sure to become weak . So it was that the act of kind , honest , mistaken Tiberius Gracchus in 133 B. C. was the beginning of the downfall of the republic . Ten years later, Tiberius's brother, Caius Sem - pro'ni-us Gracchus, proposed that a law should be passed requir ing the state to sell grain to the people at much less than the usual price . Then he won over the merchants, bank
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ers, and other business men by getting laws passed giving them instead of the nobles control of the courts . The com mon people and the men whose property was in money were friends of Caius; but the senators, whose property was chiefly in land, were his enemies , for they were afraid he would propose a land law , or agrarian law , like that brought forward by his brother Tiberius . They had good reason to be afraid , for this is exactly what he did do . Then he founded colonies at Tarentum and Capua. No one objected to his founding colonies ; but when he pro posed that the Latins should have all the rights of Roman citizens , the proud people of Rome were indignant. Be fore long, there was a riot and Caius was slain .
The brothers were dead , and no one came forward to care for the rights of the poor . The slaves , too , were be coming more and more wretched , if that were possible. In Sicily they were especially miserable , and at length they revolted . They fought like demons , for they knew well that if they were captured , torture and death would await them . Four times they overcame the armies of the Ro mans ; but at last they had to yield . Then followed terri ble scenes of suffering. Thousands of these prisoners were thrown from cliffs or were crucified .
The poor freemen of Rome were hardly happier than the slaves , for in that city gold was the only power . No one could hope to win even a just cause in the courts unless he had gold with which to bribe the judges . Ju-gur'tha of Numidia said of Rome, O city , you would sell yourself if you could only find a buyer .
Jugurtha had good reason to make this speech . Masi nissa , king of Numidia , had died and Jugurtha had seized the kingdom . The rightful heirs appealed to Rome for help. Rome sent generals and soldiers to regain the king dom and punish Jugurtha, but for a long time he found it an easy matter to bribe the generals . At length , however, he was conquered by a commander named Caius Ma'ri - us. He was brought to Rome and had to walk in chains at the triumph of Marius . When the procession was about to ascend to the Capitol , he was thrust into the Mamertine dungeons and left to die of hunger. This Caius Marius was the son of some hard -working country folk . He entered the army as a young man and was so brave and obedient that his general , the famous Scipio Africanus, began to take special notice of him . One evening some one asked Scipio, When you are gone , where will the Romans find another general equally great ? Here , perhaps, replied Scipio , laying his hand kindly upon the shoulder of Marius. The young soldier was too excited to sleep that night. Such words as these , coming from so famous a general , seemed to him like the predic tion of an oracle . He pushed onward with all his might, and before long he became a ' tribune . While he held this office, he carried a law that lessened the power of the no bles . Then the common folk admired him . Soon he op posed a law which the common folk wanted , but which he thought not best for them ; and now the nobles were in clined to admire him . Both parties began to say , That
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young Marius is a bold , sturdy fellow. He does what he thinks best and fears no one."
As an officer in the army, Marius was so wise that the other officers respected him , and so simple in all his ways that the common soldiers loved him . If the soldiers had only dry bread for their dinner , the commander, too , dined upon dry bread . If they were digging a trench or throw ing up a bulwark , they often found Marius among them working as hard as they. They wrote to their friends at Rome about the brave and honest general, and when he wished to be elected consul , he had little difficulty in getting the office . He was now at the head of the army, and a strong, powerful army he made it . He trained the soldiers to take long marches, to carry their bag gage , and to care for their own food . Marius's mules ," the jesters of Rome called them .
The soldiers needed all the training they could get, for soon the Romans were obliged to carry on war , not to increase their power or to punish rebellious states , but to defend their own state . For many years they had felt no fear of attacks by any foreign nation ; but now there came tidings from the north that a vast company of barbarians were
LEGIONARY ON THE MARCH
