[53] The reverses of fortune to which Marius was subjected, how he was
buried up to his neck in the mud, hiding in the marshes of Minturne,
how he would have been killed by the traitorous magistrates of that
city but that he quelled the executioners by the fire of his eyes;
how he sat and glowered, a houseless exile, among the ruins of
Carthage--all which things happened to him while he was running from
the partisans of Sulla--are among the picturesque episodes of history.
There is a tragedy called the _Wounds of Civil War_, written by Lodge,
who was born some eight years before Shakspeare, in which the story of
Marius is told with some exquisite poetry, but also with some ludicrous
additions. The Gaul who is hired to kill Marius, but is frightened by
his eyes, talks bad French mingled with bad English, and calls on Jesus
in his horror!

[54] Brutus, ca.xc.

[55] Florus tells us that there were 2000 Senators and Knights, but
that any one was allowed to kill just whom he would. "Quis autem illos
potest computare quos in erbe passim quisquis voluit occidit" (lib.
iii., ca. 21).

[56] About L487 10s. In Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman
Antiquities the Attic talent is given as being worth L243 15s. Mommsen
quotes the price as 12,000 denarii, which would amount to about the
same sum.

[57] Suetonius speaks of his death. Florus mentions the proscriptions
and abdication. Velleius Paterculus is eloquent in describing the
horrors of the massacres and confiscation. Dio Cassius refers again
and again to the Sullan cruelty. But none of them give a reason for