College, with a handsome income, when he was no more than fourteen. Two
years later, during the rule of Cinna, his father arranged a marriage for
him with a lady of fortune named Cossutia. But the young Caesar had more
ambitious views for himself. His father died suddenly at Pisa, in B.C. 84;
he used his freedom to break off his engagement, and instead of Cossutia
he married Cornelia, the daughter of no less a person than the all-
powerful Cinna himself. If the date commonly received for Caesar's birth
is correct, he was still only in his seventeenth year. Such connections
were rarely formed at an age so premature; and the doubt is increased by
the birth of his daughter, Julia, in the year following. Be this as it
may, a marriage into Cinna's family connected Caesar more closely than
ever with the popular party. Thus early and thus definitively he committed
himself to the politics of his uncle and his father-in-law; and the
comparative quiet which Rome and Italy enjoyed under Cinna's
administration may have left a permanent impression upon him.

The quiet was not destined to be of long endurance. The time was come when
Sylla was to demand a reckoning for all which had been done in his
absence. No Roman general had deserved better of his country than Sylla.
He had driven Mithridates out of Greece, and had restored Roman authority
in Asia under conditions peculiarly difficult. He had clung resolutely to
his work, while his friends at home were being trampled upon by the
populace whom he despised. He perhaps knew that in subduing the enemies of
the State by his own individual energy he was taking the surest road to
regain his ascendency. His task was finished. Mithridates was once more a
petty Asiatic prince existing upon sufferance, and Sylla announced his
approaching return to Italy. By his victories he had restored confidence
to the aristocracy, and had won the respect of millions of his countrymen.
But the party in power knew well that if he gained a footing in Italy
their day was over, and the danger to be expected from him was aggravated