between the time when a god is first suspected to be an idol and his final
overthrow. But the aristocracy had made the first inroad on the
constitution by interfering at the elections with their armed followers
and killing their antagonists. The example once set could not fail to be
repeated, and the rule of an organized force was becoming the only
possible protection against the rule of mobs, patrician or plebeian.

The danger from the Germans was no sooner gone than political anarchy
broke loose again. Marius, the man of the people, was the saviour of his
country. He was made consul a fifth time and a sixth. The party which had
given him his command shared, of course, in his pre-eminence. The
elections could be no longer interfered with or the voters intimidated.
The public offices were filled with the most violent agitators, who
believed that the time had come to revenge the Gracchi and carry out the
democratic revolution, to establish the ideal Republic and the direct rule
of the citizen assembly. This, too, was a chimera. If the Roman Senate
could not govern, far less could the Roman mob govern. Marius stood aside
and let the voices rage. He could not be expected to support a system
which had brought the country so near to ruin. He had no belief in the
visions of the demagogues, but the time was not ripe to make an end of it
all. Had he tried, the army would not have gone with him, so he sat still
till faction had done its work. The popular heroes of the hour were the
tribune Saturninus and the praetor Glaucia. They carried corn laws and
land laws--whatever laws they pleased to propose. The administration
remaining with the Senate, they carried a vote that every senator should
take an oath to execute their laws under penalty of fine and expulsion.
Marius did not like it, and even opposed it, but let it pass at last. The
senators, cowed and humiliated, consented to take the oath, all but one,
Marius's old friend and commander in Africa, Caecilius Metellus. No stain
had ever rested on the name of Metellus. He had accepted no bribes. He had