2.
121—Twelve years later his brother, Caius Gracchus, attempted the same thing and was likewise slain. This point was vital to the internal liberties of Rome. The failure of the Gracchi announced the overthrow of the constitution; and, after seventy years of civil anarchy and the murderous conflict of rival factions, the empire was found the only refuge against the ruin of the state. Vigorous Rome, who could govern all the world but herself, must have a master, and became the prey of the strongest. It is a melancholy history, a sad conclusion for a people whose strength and grandeur of character had made them masters of the world, but a perfectly legitimate result of the immoral principle that lay at the foundation of the state. That principle legalized the doctrine of force, or robbery on the grandest scale. They carried it out with great consistency and skill, with all the ability of a race eminently sagacious and steady in the pursuit of an end. The conservative force that dwelt in their organization, so instinctively and exceptionally wise, and the power of religious faith, strong in a hardy and simple people, however weakened by pagan ignorance and superstition, long maintained the integrity of their institutions—but Greek culture, too imperfect not to culminate in skepticism, came in to confuse their moral sense at the same time that boundless wealth flowed into their hands to corrupt their manners, that slavery assumed gigantic proportions to demoralize labor, and the conquest of the world relieved them from the severe discipline that might not, otherwise, have left them the leisure to become deeply vicious.
The sternness of even Roman character was unequal to the heavy strain and virtue gave way. The native vigor of the race made them as excessive in unrestrained passion as wise in council and invincible in war. The cruelty and rapacity that were common in the civil wars of the Republic, and under many of the early emperors, educated giants in crime, and only the Roman spirit in the army, and the vigorous organization everywhere maintained through the institutions established in the subject world by Roman law, could have held its vast dominions together. Rome had vitality and sense to govern others, even in the midst of civil war.
3. From the death of the Gracchi to the consulship 107—Of Marius, Rome was in a tumult of corrupt intrigue, which rendered easy the usurpation and inhuman cruelty of Jugurtha, king of Numidia. Marius, a plebian of the lowest rank, became consul. He was unequaled at once as a general and a tyrant. He conquered 106—Jugurtha, who was brought to Rome and starved in prison. In the same year Cicero, the great Roman orator, was born.
A vast horde of Cimbri and Teutons from northern 105—Europe, invaded Gaul and defeated several Roman consuls.
100—Marius led an army against these barbarians and defeated them, more than 100,000 being slain or made prisoners. He was equally successful in a second engagement. During the war 200,000 barbarians were slain and 90,000 taken prisoners. A revolt of the slaves was put down about the same time with circumstances of extreme cruelty. More than a million of these unfortunates were slain or thrown to wild beasts for the amusement of the Roman populace.
4.
100—In this year Julius Cæsar, one of the greatest men of any time, and virtual founder of the Roman Empire, was born. His supreme ability put an end to civil dissention and saved society from total ruin.
90—The Italian allies revolted against Rome. They claimed the privileges of Roman citizenship, which the Senate refused. A war of three years followed and half a million of men perished, when, having conquered them, the Senate granted their first request.