Cinna at their head, to demand the restoration of the old constitution.
Cinna had been sworn to maintain Sylla's reforms, but no oath could be
held binding which was extorted at the sword's point. A fresh Sulpicius
was found in Carbo, a popular tribune. A more valuable supporter was found
in Quintus Sertorius, a soldier of fortune, but a man of real gifts, and
even of genius. Disregarding the new obligation to obtain the previous
consent of the Senate, Cinna called the assembly together to repeal the
acts which Sylla had forced on them. Sylla, it is to be remembered, had as
yet won no victories, nor was expected to win victories. He was the
favorite of the Senate, and the Senate had become a byword for incapacity
and failure. Again, as so many times before, the supremacy of the
aristocrats had been accompanied with dishonor abroad and the lawless
murder of political adversaries at home. No true lover of his country
could be expected, in Cinna's opinion, to sit quiet under a tyranny which
had robbed the people of their hereditary liberties.

The patricians took up the challenge. Octavius, the other consul, came
with an armed force into the Forum, and ordered the assembly to disperse.
The crowd was unusually great. The country voters had come in large
numbers to stand up for their rights. They did not obey, They were not
called on to obey. But because they refused to disperse they were set upon
with deliberate fury, and were hewn down in heaps where they stood. No
accurate register was, of course, taken of the numbers killed; but the
intention of the patricians was to make a bloody example, and such a scene
of slaughter had never been witnessed in Rome since the first stone of the
city was laid. It was an act of savage, ruthless ferocity, certain to be
followed with a retribution as sharp and as indiscriminating. Men are not
permitted to deal with their fellow-creatures in these methods. Cinna and
the tribunes fled, but fled only to be received with open arms by the
Italians. The wounds of the Social war were scarcely cicatrized, and the