[126] Minturnæ is near the mouth of the Liris, now the Garigliano, and in a swampy district. The lower course of the Garigliano is through a flat, marshy, unhealthy region. If Marius landed near Circeii he could not well have passed Teracina without being seen. It in probable therefore that he landed south of Terracina.
[127] Ænaria, now Ischia, is forty miles south of the mouth of the Liris.
[128] Marius and his adherents had been declared enemies to the State; and in the declaration it was not forgotten that Marius had attempted to excite the slaves to rebellion. The head of Sulpicius was already stuck up in the Forum (Appian, Civil Wars, i. 60; Velleius, ii. 19).
[129] A divorce at Rome was effected by the husband or wife giving a written notice. In the time of Cicero, at least, either party might effect the divorce. If the divorce was owing to the adultery of the wife, the husband was entitled to retain a part of the marriage-portion; a sixth, according to Ulpian (Frag. vi.). The marriage-portion or Dos (which Plutarch translates by the Greek word φέρνη) was that property which on the occasion of a woman's marriage was transferred to the husband by the woman or by another, for the purpose of enabling the husband to bear the additional burden of a wife and family. All the woman's property which did not become dos, remained her own, except in one of the forms of marriage (conventio in manum), when, pursuant to the nature of the union by which the wife came into her husband's power and assumed towards him the relation of a daughter, all her property became her husband's; as is distinctly asserted by Cicero (Topica, 4; compare Ulpian, Frag. xix. 18). As the dos was given to the husband for a particular purpose, it was consistent that it should be returned when the marriage was dissolved. The means of recovering the dos was by action. The liability to restore the dos would be one check on the husband lightly separating from his wife. When Cicero's brother Quintus divorced his wife Pomponia, he had a good deal of trouble in finding means to return her portion. (Cicero, Ad Attic. xiv. 13). The law of dos comprised a great number of rules, and is a difficult subject. Rein (Das Römische Privatrecht, p. 204) has given a sketch of the Roman Law of Divorce that is useful to scholars; and he has in another place (p. 193, &c.) treated of the Law of Dos. It is difficult to avoid, error in stating anything briefly on the subject of Divorce and Dos.
[130] Plutarch does not say what the copper coins were; nor is it important. The penalty was merely nominal, but it was accompanied by what the Romans called Infamia. Fannia showed on this occasion that she was a better woman than Marius took her to be. Tinnius is perhaps not a Roman name. There are many errors in proper names in Plutarch's text. Perhaps the true reading is Titinius. (See the note of Sintenis).
[131] All or nearly all of the Italian cities had a municipal constitution. The chief magistrates were generally two, and called Duumviri. The Council was called the Decuriones or Senate.
[132] This is the island of Gerba in the regency of Tunis, close to the shore and to the town of Gabs or Cabes. It is now a large and populous island inhabited by an industrious manufacturing population. It is about 200 miles south of Tunis, which is near the site of Carthage. Cercina is a group of smaller islands above 50 miles north of Meninx, now called the Karkenna islands. These distances show that Marius must have been rambling about for some time this coast. (Penny Cyclopædia, art. "Tunis.")
[133] Cn. Octavius Nepos and L. Cornelius Cinna were consuls B.C. 87. Cinna had sworn to maintain the interests of the Senate (Sulla, c. 10), but when Sulla had left Italy for the Mithridatic war, Cinna declared himself in favour of the new citizens, and attempted to carry the measure for incorporating them with the old tribes. It is said that he received a considerable sum of money for undertaking this. The parties of Cinna and Octavius armed for the contest which was expected to take place when this measure was proposed. Octavius drove his opponents out of the Forum with great slaughter, and Cinna left the city. He was joined by great numbers of the new citizens and then formed an army. The Senate passed a decree that Cinna was neither consul nor a citizen, inasmuch as he had deserted the city, and offered freedom to the slaves if they would join him. L. Cornelius Merula, who was elected consul in place of Cinna, was flamen dialis, or Priest of Jupiter. He put himself to death by opening his veins, after Marius and Cinna entered Rome. (Appian, Civil Wars, i. 74).
[134] Now Talamone, on the coast of Tuscany near Orbitello.
[135] Rome had long before this derived supplies of corn from Sicily and other parts out of Italy. Perhaps this may prove that the cultivation in the Campagna of Rome and the countries south of Terracina had not improved with the increase of Rome. But other countries are better suited for grain than the low lands of this side of Italy, and so far as concerns the cost of transport, grain might be brought from Sardinia and Sicily as cheaply as from many parts of Italy, and cheaper than from the plains of Apulia, which is a good corn country.