Livy, Periochae 76-80
Titus Livius or Livy (59 BCE - 17 CE): Roman historian, author of the authorized version of the history of the Roman republic.
A large part of Livy's History of Rome since the Foundation is now lost, but fortunately we have an excerpt, called the Periochae, which helps us reconstruct the general scope. This translation was made by Jona Lendering.
From Book 79 |
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[79.1] [87] When consul Lucius Cornelius Cinna was carrying dangerous laws by violence and arms, he along with six tribunes of the plebs was expelled from the city by his colleague Gnaeus Octavius and deprived of his office, but with bribes, he brought the army of Appius Claudius in his power and carried the war into the city, recalling Gaius Marius and other exiles from Africa. |
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[79.2] (In this war, two brothers, one from the army of Pompeius and one from Cinna's, unknowingly engaged, and when the winner was stripping the man he had killed, he cried heavily when he recognized his brother and built a pyre, on which he stabbed himself, and was consumed by the same fire.) |
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[79.3] And although [the civil war] could have been suppressed at the very beginning, by the treason of Gnaeus Pompeius (who supported both sides and did not bring help to the optimates till their position had become desparate) and by the slowness of the consul, the position of Cinna and Marius was strengthened, so that they were able to besiege the city with four armies, two of which were given to Quintus Sertorius and Carbo. |
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[79.4] Marius captured the colony at Ostia and sacked it cruelly. |
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