their imperious mistress--their last struggle for independence, called
the Social War, in which three hundred thousand of the young men of
Italy fell, and in which Sulla so much distinguished himself as to be
regarded as the rival of Marius, who had ruled Rome since the slaughter
of the Cimbrians and Teutones. Sulla, who had served under Marius in
Africa, dissolute like Antony, but cultivated like Caesar--a man full of
ambition and genius, and belonging to one of the oldest and proudest
patrician families, the Cornelian gens--was no mean rival of the old
tyrant and demagogue, and he was sent against Mithridates, the most
powerful of all the Oriental kings.

This Asiatic potentate had encouraged the insurgents in Italy, and was
also at war with the Romans. Marius viewed with envy and hatred the
preference shown to Sulla in the conduct of the Mithridatic War, and
succeeded, by his intrigues and influence with the people, in causing
Sulla to be superseded, and himself to be appointed in his place.

[Sidenote: Civil wars between Marius and Sulla.]

Hence that dreadful civil contest between these two generals, in which
Rome was alternately at the mercy of both, and in which the most
horrible butcheries took place that had ever befallen the city--a reign
of terror, a burst of savage passion, especially on the part of Marius,
who had lately abandoned himself to wine and riotous living. He died
B.C. 86, victor in the contest, in his seventh consulate, worn out by
labor and dissolute habits, nearly seventy years of age.

[Sidenote: Death of Marius.]

His opportune death relieved Rome of a tyrannical rule, and opened the