It sometimes happened
that a consul waited for his election to open for the first time a book of
military history or a Greek manual of the art of war.[2]
[Sidenote: B.C 109.]
An army so composed and so led was not likely to prosper. The Numidians
were not very formidable enemies, but, after a month or two of
manoeuvring, half the Romans were destroyed and the remainder were obliged
to surrender. About the same time, and from similar causes, two Roman
armies were cut to pieces on the Rhone. While the great men at Rome were
building palaces, inventing new dishes, and hiring cooks at unheard-of
salaries, the barbarians were at the gates of Italy. The passes of the
Alps were open, and if a few tribes of Gauls had cared to pour through
them, the Empire was at their mercy. Stung with these accumulating
disgraces, and now really alarmed, the Senate sent Caecilius Metellus, the
best man that they had and the consul for the year following to Africa.
Metellus was an aristocrat, and he was advanced in years; but he was a man
of honor and integrity. He understood the danger of further failure; and
he looked about for the ablest soldier that he could find to go with him,
irrespective of his political opinions.
Caius Marius was at this time forty-eight years old. Two thirds of his
life were over, and a name which was to sound throughout the world and be
remembered through all ages had as yet been scarcely heard of beyond the
army and the political clubs in Rome.
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