eople at a very low price; and also a law for founding new colonies
in Sicily, Achaia, and Macedonia. In the election of the magistrates for
the following year Saturninus was again chosen Tribune. Glaucia was at
the same time a candidate for the Consulship, the two other candidates
being M. Antonius and C. Memmius. The election of Antonius was certain,
and the struggle lay between Glaucia and Memmius. As the latter seemed
likely to carry his election, Saturninus and Glaucia hired some
ruffians, who murdered him openly in the comitia. All sensible people
had previously become alarmed at the mad conduct of Saturninus and his
partisans, and this last act produced a complete reaction against them.
The Senate felt themselves now sufficiently strong to declare them
public enemies, and invested the Consuls with dictatorial power. Marius
was unwilling to act against his associates, but he had no alternative,
and his backwardness was compensated by the zeal of others. Driven out
of the forum, Saturninus, Glaucia, and the Quaestor Saufeius took refuge
in the Capitol, but the partisans of the Senate cut off the pipes which
supplied the citadel with water before Marius began to move against
them. Unable to hold out any longer, they surrendered to Marius. The
latter did all he could to save their lives: as soon as they descended
from the Capitol, he placed them, for security, in the Curia Hostilia;
but the mob pulled off the tiles of the Senate-house, and pelted them
till they died. The Senate gave their sanction to the proceeding by
rewarding with the citizenship a slave of the name of Scaeva, who claimed
the honor of having killed Saturninus.

Marius had lost all influence in the state by allying himself with such
unprincipled adventurers. In the following year (B.C. 99) he left Rome,
in order that he might not witness the return of Metellus from exile, a
measure which he had been unable to prevent. He set sail for Cappadocia
and Galatia under the pretense of offering sacrifices which he had vowed
to the Great Mother. He had, however, a deeper purpose in visiting these
countries. Finding that he was losing his popularity while the Republic
was at peace, he was anxious to recover his lost ground by gaining fresh
victories in war, and accordingly repaired to the court of Mithridates,
in hopes of rousing him to attack the Romans.

The mad scheme of Saturninus, and the discredit into which Marius had
fallen, had given new strength to