t a most illustrious military and
civil career to a most unseemly conclusion; through passion and
unreasonable love of power and insatiable desire of
self-aggrandizement driven to terminate his course in an old age of
cruelty and ferocity. Let this, however, be judged of by the facts as
they will presently appear.

III. Marius was the son of obscure parents, who gained their living by
the labour of their hands, and were poor. His father's name was
Marius; his mother's name was Fulcinia. It was late before he saw Rome
and became acquainted with the habits of the city, up to which time he
lived at Cirrhaeato,[54] a village in the territory of Arpinum, where
his mode of life was rude, when contrasted with the polite and
artificial fashions of a city, but temperate and in accordance with
the old Roman discipline. He first served against the Celtiberians
when Scipio Africanus was besieging Numantia, and he attracted the
notice of his commander by his superiority in courage over all the
other young soldiers, and by the readiness with which he adapted
himself to the change in living which Scipio introduced among the
troops, who had been corrupted by luxurious habits and extravagance.
He is said also to have killed one of the enemy in single combat in
the presence of the general. Accordingly Marius received from Scipio
various honourable distinctions; and on one occasion, after supper,
when the conversation was about generals, and one of the company,
either because he really felt a difficulty or merely wished to flatter
Scipio, asked him where the Roman people would find such another
leader and protector when he was gone, Scipio with his hand gently
touched the shoulder of Marius, who was reclining next to him, and
said, "Perhaps here." So full of promise was the youth of Marius, and
so discerning was the judgment of Scipio.

IV. Now it is said that Marius, mainly encouraged by these words,
which he viewed as a divine intimation, entered on a political career,
and obtained the tribuneship, in which he was assisted by Caecilius
Metellus,[55] of whose house the family of Marius had long been an
adherent. During his tribuneship Marius proposed a law on the mode of
voting, which apparently tended to deprive the nobles of their power
in the Judicia: the measure was opposed by Cotta, the consul, who
persuaded the Senate to resist the proposed law, and to summon Marius
to account for his conduct. The decree proposed by Cotta was dra