It may be that something of the same awe that had overpowered the Gaul took possession of them, for now they determined to help their prisoner to escape.
Marius was brought out of his gloomy prison and taken once more to the seashore and placed on board a ship.
A favourable wind carried the vessel swiftly to Africa, where Marius landed, to find his son already there and awaiting him.
After young Marius had listened to the tale of his father’s adventures, he was sent to Hiempsal, King of Numidia, to beg for protection for his father and himself.
Marius, meanwhile, went to Carthage. But scarcely had he reached it when Sextilius, the Roman governor, sent an officer to bid him leave the province.
‘Sextilius forbids you to stay in this province,’ said the officer. ‘If you do, he declares he will put the decree of the Senate in execution, and treat you as an enemy to the Romans.’
After all he had gone through, must he be persecuted still? In grief as well as in anger Marius sat silent and dismayed.
At length the officer asked what answer he should take back to Sextilius. ‘Go tell him,’ answered he, ‘that you have seen Gaius Marius sitting in exile among the ruins of Carthage.’
Meanwhile, young Marius had reached the King of Numidia, and was treated by him with kindness.
But each time that he proposed to go back to his father, Hiempsal had some polite reason for not allowing him to leave his court.