Plutarch: Lives of the noble Grecians and Romans
select guard of the slaves who had joined him, whom he called
Bardyaei. These proceeded to murder a number of citizens, as he gave
command, partly by word of mouth, partly by the signal of his nod.
At length Ancharius, a senator, and one that had been praetor, coming
to Marius, and not being resaluted by him, they with their drawn
swords slew him before Marius's face; and henceforth this was their
token, immediately to kill all those who met Marius and saluting him
were taken no notice of, nor answered with the like courtesy; so that
his very friends were not without dreadful apprehensions and horror,
whensoever they came to speak with him.
When they had now butchered a great number, Cinna grew more remiss
and cloyed with murders; but Marius's rage continued still fresh and
unsatisfied, and he daily sought for all that were any way suspected
by him. Now was every road and every town filled with those that
pursued and hunted them that fled and hid themselves; and it was
remarkable that there was no more confidence to be placed, as things
stood, either in hospitality or friendship; for there were found but
a very few that did not betray those that fled to them for shelter.
And thus the servants of Cornutus deserve the greater praise and
admiration, who, having concealed their master in the house, took the
body of one of the slain, cut off the head, put a gold ring on the
finger, and showed it to Marius's guards, and buried it with the same
solemnity as if it had been their own master. This trick was
perceived by nobody, and so Cornutus escaped, and was conveyed by his
domestics into Gaul.
Marcus Antonius, the orator, though he, too, found a true friend, had
ill-fortune. The man was but poor and a plebeian, and as he was
entertaining a man of the greatest rank in Rome, trying to provide
for him with the best he could, he sent his servant to get some wine
of neighboring vintner. The servant carefully tasting it and bidding
him draw better, the fellow asked him what was the matter, that he
did not buy new and ordinary wine as he used to do, but richer and of
a greater price; he, without any design, told him as his old friend
and acquaintance, that his master entertained Marcus Antonius, who
was concealed with him. The villainous vintner, as soon as the
servant was gone, went himself to Marius, then at supper, and being
brought into his presence, told him, he would deliver Antonius into
his hands. As soon as he heard it, it is said he gave a great shout,
and clapped his hands for joy, and had very nearly risen up and gone
to the place himself; but being detained by his friends, he sent
Annius, and some soldiers with him, and commanded him to bring
Antonius's head to him with all speed. When they came to the house,
Annius stayed at the door, and the soldiers went up stairs into the
chamber; where, seeing Antonius, they endeavored to shuffle off the
murder from one to another; for so great it seems were the graces and
charms of his oratory, that as soon as he began to speak and beg his
life, none of them durst touch or so much as look upon him; but
hanging down their heads, every one fell a weeping. When their stay
seemed something tedious, Annius came up himself and found Antonius
discoursing, and the soldiers astonished and quite softened by it,
and calling them cowards, went himself and cut off his head.
Catulus Lutatius, who was colleague with Marius, and his partner in
the triumph over the Cimbri, when Marius replied to those that
interceded for him and begged his life, merely with the words, "he
must die," shut himself up in a room, and making a great fire,
smothered himself. When maimed and headless carcasses were now
frequently thrown about and trampled upon in the streets, people were
not so much moved with compassion at the sight, as struck into a kind
of horror and consternation. The outrages of those that were called
Bardyaei, was the greatest grievance. These murdered the masters of
families in their own houses, abused their children, and ravished
their wives, and were uncontrollable in their rapine and murders,
till those of Cinna's and Sertorius's party, taking counsel together,
fell upon them in the camp and killed them every man.
In the interim, as if a change of wind was coming on, there came news
from all parts that Sylla, having put an end to the war with
Mithridates, and taken possession of the provinces, was returning
into Italy with a great army. This gave some small respite and
intermission to these unspeakable calamities. Marius and his friends
believing war to be close at hand, Marius was chosen consul the
seventh time, and appearing on the very calends of January, the
beginning of the year, threw one Sextus Lucinus, from the Tarpeian
precipice; an omen, as it seemed, portending the renewed misfortunes
both of their party and of the city. Marius, himself now worn out
with labor and sinking under the burden of anxieties, could not
sustain his spirits, which shook within him with the apprehension of
a new war and fresh encounters and dangers, the formidable character
of which he knew by his own experience. He was not now to hazard the
war with Octavius or Merula, commanding an inexperienced multitude or
seditious rabble; but Sylla himself was approaching, the same who had
formerly banished him, and since that, had driven Mithridates as far
as the Euxine Sea.
Perplexed with such thoughts as these, and calling to mind his
banishment, and the tedious wanderings and dangers he underwent, both
by sea and land, he fell into despondency, nocturnal frights, and
unquiet sleep, still fancying that he heard some one telling him,
that
-- the lion's lair
Is dangerous, though the lion be not there.
Above all things fearing to lie awake, he gave himself up to drinking
deep and besotting himself at night in a way most unsuitable to his
age; by all means provoking sleep, as a diversion to his thoughts.
At length, on the arrival of a messenger from the sea, he was seized
with new alarms, and so what with his fear for the future, and what
with the burden and satiety of the present, on some slight
predisposing cause, he fell into a pleurisy, as Posidonius the
philosopher relates, who says he visited and conversed with him when
he was sick, about some business relating to his embassy. Caius
Piso, an historian, tells us, that Marius, walking after supper with
his friends, fell into a conversation with them about his past life,
and after reckoning up the several changes of his condition, that
from the beginning had happened to him, said, that it did not become
a prudent man to trust himself any longer with fortune; and,
thereupon, taking leave of those that were with him, he kept his bed
seven days, and then died.
Some say his ambition betrayed itself openly in his sickness. and
that he ran into an extravagant frenzy, fancying himself to be
general in the war against Mithridates, throwing himself into such
postures and motions of his body as he had formerly used when he was
in battle, with frequent shouts and loud cries. With so strong and
invincible a desire of being employed in that business had he been
possessed through his pride and emulation. Though he had now lived
seventy years, and was the first man that ever was chosen seven times
consul, and had an establishment and riches sufficient for many
kings, he yet complained of his ill fortune, that he must now die
before he had attained what he desired. Plato, when he saw his death
approaching, thanked the guiding providence and fortune of his life,
first, that he was born a man and a Grecian, not a barbarian or a
brute, and next, that he happened to live in Socrates's age. And so,
indeed, they say Antipater of Tarsus, in like manner, at his death,
calling to mind the happiness that he had enjoyed, did not so much as
omit his prosperous voyage to Athens; thus recognizing every favor of
his indulgent fortune with the greatest acknowledgments, and
carefully saving all to the last in that safest of human treasure
chambers, the memory. Unmindful and thoughtless persons, on the
contrary, let all that occurs to them slip away from them as time
passes on. Retaining and preserving nothing, they lose the enjoyment
of their present prosperity by fancying something better to come;
whereas by fortune we may be prevented of this, but that cannot be
taken from us. Yet they reject their present success, as though it
did not concern them, and do nothing but dream of future
uncertainties; not indeed unnaturally; as till men have by reason and
education laid good foundation for external superstructures, in the
seeking after and gathering them they can never satisfy the unlimited
desires of their mind.
Thus died Marius on the seventeenth day of his seventh consulship, to
the great joy and content of Rome, which thereby was in good hopes to
be delivered from the calamity of a cruel tyranny; but in a small
time they found, that they had only changed their old and worn-out
master for another young and vigorous; so much cruelty and savageness
did his son Marius show in murdering the noblest and most approved
citizens. At first, being esteemed resolute and daring against his
enemies, he was named the son of Mars, but afterwards, his actions
betraying his contrary disposition, he was called the son of Venus.
At last, besieged by Sylla in Praeneste, where he endeavored in many
ways, but in vain, to save his life, when on the capture of the city
there was no hope of escape, he killed himself with his own hand.
LYSANDER
The treasure-chamber of the Acanthians at Delphi has this
inscription: "The spoils which Brasidas and the Acanthians took from
the Athenians." And, accordingly, many take the marble statue, which
stands within the building by the gates, to be Brasidas's; but,
indeed, it is Lysander's, representing him with his hair at full
length, after the old fashion, and with an ample beard. Neither is
it true, as some give out, that because the Argives, after their
great defeat, shaved themselves for sorrow, that the Spartans
contrariwise triumphing in their achievements, suffered their hair to
grow; neither did the Spartans come to be ambitious of wearing long
hair, because the Bacchiadae, who fled from Corinth to Lacedaemon,
looked mean and unsightly, having their heads all close cut. But
this, also, is indeed one of the ordinances of Lycurgus, who, as it
is reported, was used to say, that long hair made good-looking men
more beautiful, and ill-looking men more terrible.
Lysander's father is said to have been Aristoclitus, who was not
indeed of the royal family, but yet of the stock of the Heraclidae.
He was brought up in poverty, and showed himself obedient and
conformable, as ever anyone did, to the customs of his country; of a
manly spirit, also, and superior to all pleasures, excepting only
that which their good actions bring to those who are honored and
successful; and it is accounted no base thing in Sparta for their
young men to be overcome with this kind of pleasure. For they are
desirous, from the very first, to have their youth susceptible to
good and bad repute, to feel pain at disgrace, and exultation at
being commended; and anyone who is insensible and unaffected in
these respects is thought poor spirited and of no capacity for
virtue. Ambition and the passion for distinction were thus implanted
in his character by his Laconian education, nor, if they continued
there, must we blame his natural disposition much for this. But he
was submissive to great men, beyond what seems agreeable to the
Spartan temper, and could easily bear the haughtiness of those who
were in power, when it was any way for his advantage, which some are
of opinion is no small part of political discretion. Aristotle, who