Part 12 (1/2)

Meanwhile a dangerous enemy was threatening Italy within her own borders. In 73 a band of gladiators, under the leaders.h.i.+p of one of their number, named SPARTACUS escaped from the training school at Capua and took up a strong position on Mount Vesuvius. They were joined by large numbers of slaves and outcasts of every description, and were soon in a position to defeat two Praetors who were sent against them.

The next year they a.s.sumed the offensive; and Spartacus found himself at the head of 100,000 men. Four generals sent against him were defeated; and for two years he ravaged Italy at will, and even threatened Rome.

But intestine division showed itself in his ranks; his lieutenants grew jealous of him, and his strength began to wane.

In 71 the command of the war was given to CRa.s.sUS, who finished it in six months. Spartacus fell, fighting bravely, near Brundisium. Pompey, returning from the Sertorian war in Spain, met five thousand of those who had escaped from the array of Spartacus. These he slew to a man.

Cra.s.sus pointed the moral of his victory by hanging, along the road from Rome to Capua, six thousand captives whom he had taken.

Mithradates meanwhile, taking advantage of the troubles at Rome, was again in arms, and in 74 LUCIUS LICINIUS LUCULLUS was sent against him.

Lucullus, of plebeian birth, first distinguished himself in the Social War, where he gained the favor of Sulla, and accompanied him, as Quaestor, in his campaign against Mithradates in 88. With Cotta he was chosen to the consuls.h.i.+p in 74. The province of Cilicia was a.s.signed to him, Bithynia to Cotta. Mithradates invaded Bithynia, defeated Cotta, and besieged him at Chalcedon.

Lucullus, after reorganizing and disciplining his army, went to the aid of his colleague, drove the king into Pontus, and defeated him at Cabira in 72, and his fleet at Tenedos in 71, compelling him to take refuge with his son-in-law, TIGRaNES, King of Armenia.

Lucullus endeavored to work reforms in the administration of provincial governments in the East. The revenues of the provinces were farmed out, and the measures of Lucullus were intended to protect the tax-payers against the tax-gatherers (_publicani_). His reforms met with bitter opposition at Rome, especially from the Equites, whose chief source of income was often this same tax-farming. Intrigues against him by persons sent from Rome began to create dissatisfaction among his troops. He had been a severe disciplinarian, and so it was all the easier to turn the soldiers against him.

In 68 he won a victory over Tigranes and Mithradates, at the river Arsanias; but his legions refused to follow him farther, and he was obliged to lead them into winter quarters in Mesopotamia. The next year his soldiers again mutinied, and he was replaced by Pompey.

Returning to Rome, Lucullus spent the rest of his days in retirement, dying about 57. He was very rich, and was famed for the luxurious dinners which he gave.

POMPEY AND CRa.s.sUS.

The Sullan system stood for nine years, and was then overthrown, as it had been established, by a soldier. It was the fortune of Pompey, a favorite officer of Sulla, to cause the first violation of the laws laid down by his general.

GNEIUS POMPEIUS MAGNUS (106-48) led a soldier's life from his boyhood to his death. When a youth of seventeen he fought by his father's side in the civil struggles between Marius and Sulla. He was a partisan of the latter, and connected himself with the cause of the aristocracy. He defeated the followers of Marius in Sicily and Africa, and in 81 was allowed to enjoy a triumph, though still an Eques and not legally qualified. Sulla then greeted him with the surname of Magnus, which he ever afterwards bore. He was then sent to Spain, with what success we have seen in the previous chapter. In 70 Pompey and MARCUS LICINIUS CRa.s.sUS were elected Consuls amid great enthusiasm.

Cra.s.sus (108-53), the conqueror of Spartacus, had ama.s.sed immense wealth by speculation, mining, dealing in slaves, and other methods. Avarice is said to have been his ruling pa.s.sion, though he gave large sums to the people for political effect.

Neither Pompey nor Cra.s.sus, according to the laws pa.s.sed by Sulla, was eligible to the consuls.h.i.+p. The former had never been Quaestor, and was only thirty-five years old; the latter was still Praetor, and ought to have waited two years.

The work of Sulla was now quickly undone. The Tribunes regained their prerogative, the veto. The control of the criminal courts was transferred again from the Senate to the Equites, and the former body was cleared of its most worthless members, who had been appointed by Sulla.

For three years (70-67) after the expiration of his consuls.h.i.+p, Pompey remained quietly at Rome. He was then put in charge of an expedition against the Greek pirates. From the earliest times these marauders had been in the habit of depredating on the sh.o.r.es of the Mediterranean.

During the civil wars of Rome they had become much bolder, so that the city was compelled to take an active part against them. They had paralyzed the trade of the Mediterranean, and even the coasts of Italy were not safe from their raids.

GABINIUS, a Tribune, proposed that Pompey should hold his command for three years; that he should have supreme authority over all Roman magistrates in the provinces throughout the Mediterranean, and over the coasts for fifty miles inland. He was to have fifteen lieutenants, all ex-praetors, two hundred s.h.i.+ps, and all the troops he needed.

In three months the pirates were swept from the sea.

The next year (66) Pompey's powers were still further enlarged by the MANILIAN LAW, proposed by the Tribune Manilius. By this law the entire control of the Roman policy in the East was given to Pompey. His appointment was violently opposed by the Senate, especially by CATULUS, the ”father of the Senate,” and by the orator HORTENSIUS; but CICERO with his first political speech (_Pro Lege Manilia_) came to Pompey's a.s.sistance, and to him was given the command by which he became virtually dictator in the East. His operations there were thoroughly successful, and, though he doubtless owed much to the previous victories of Lucullus, he showed himself an able soldier. Mithradates was obliged to flee across the Black Sea to Panticapaeum (Kertch).

In the year 64 Pompey went to Syria, took possession of the country in the name of Rome, and made it a province.

Next he was invited to act as judge between Hyrca.n.u.s and Aristobulus, two aspirants to the Jewish throne. His decision was contrary to the wishes of the people, and to enforce it he led his army against Jerusalem, which he captured after a siege of three months. He installed Hyrca.n.u.s on the throne on condition of an annual tribute.

Meanwhile Mithradates had returned to Pontus for the prosecution of his old design; but so great was the terror inspired by the Roman arms, that even his own son refused to join him. Desperate at the turn affairs had taken, the aged monarch put an end to his own life in 63, after a reign of fifty-seven years. With him ceased for many years all formidable opposition to Rome in Asia.

Besides Syria, Pontus, to which Bithynia was joined, and Crete were now made provinces. Cilicia was reorganized, and enlarged by the addition of Pamphylia and Isauria. The three countries in Asia Minor not yet provinces, but dependencies, were Galatia, ruled by Deiotarus; Cappadocia, by Ariobarzanes; and Paphlagonia, by Attalus.