for them. Marius had his personal grievances. The aristocrats were
stealing from him even his military reputation, and claiming for Sylla the
capture of Jugurtha. He was willing, perhaps anxious, to take the Eastern
command. Sulpicius Rufus, once a champion of the Senate and the most
brilliant orator in Rome, went over to the people in the excitement. Rufus
was chosen tribune, and at once proposed to enfranchise the remainder of
Italy. He denounced the oligarchy. He insisted that the Senate must be
purged of its corrupt members and better men be introduced, that the
people must depose Sylla, and that Marius must take his place. The Empire
was tottering, and the mob and its leaders were choosing an ill moment for
a revolution. The tribune carried the assembly along with him. There were
fights again in the Forum, the young nobles with their gangs once more
breaking up the Comitia and driving the people from the voting-places. The
voting, notwithstanding, was got through as Sulpicius Rufus recommended,
and Sylla, so far as the assembly could do it, was superseded. But Sylla
was not so easily got rid of. It was no time for nice considerations. He
had formed an army in Campania out of the legions which had served against
the Italians. He had made his soldiers devoted to him. They were ready to
go anywhere and do anything which Sylla bade them. After so many murders
and so many commotions, the constitution had lost its sacred character; a
popular assembly was, of all conceivable bodies, the least fit to govern
an empire; and in Sylla's eyes the Senate, whatever its deficiencies, was
the only possible sovereign of Rome. The people were a rabble, and their
voices the clamor of fools, who must be taught to know their masters. His
reply to Sulpicius and to the vote for his recall was to march on the
city. He led his troops within the circle which no legionary in arms was
allowed to enter, and he lighted his watch-fires in the Forum itself. The
people resisted; Sulpicius was killed; Marius, the saviour of his country,
had to fly for his life, pursued by assassins, with a price set upon his
head. Twelve of the prominent popular leaders were immediately executed