Marius and his followers were still under the ban of exile, so the first thing Cinna demanded was that the sentence should be withdrawn.
But Marius was now within sight of his revenge, and he was too impatient to begin his cruel work to wait for the decision of the people.
When only a few tribes had voted, he dashed into the Forum, closely followed by a band of slaves, which band he called his bodyguard.
The slaves were ruffians hired to do his bidding, and now, at a word or sign from their master, they began to murder the citizens. The glance of Marius was enough to show them whom to slay. Soon they did not even look to him for a sign, but simply fell upon all whose greetings Marius did not return.
Octavius was cut down as he sat in his consular chair, and his head was taken to Cinna.
Catulus, too, who had fought side by side with Marius against the Cimbri, was doomed, although his friends begged that his life might be spared. Marius answered their petitions roughly, saying only, ‘He must die.’
But Catulus did not wait for the cruel sentence to be carried out. He shut himself up in a room, and making a huge fire, he suffocated himself.
These were days of terror in Rome, for no man knew if his life was safe.
At length even Cinna grew ashamed of the cruelty of Marius’s slaves, and he and Sertorius put a number of the ruffians to death. After this the citizens’ lives were in less danger.
The time had now come to elect Consuls for the year 86 B.C. As usual the people assembled, but they had no choice save to vote for Marius and Cinna. To do otherwise would have been to court death.