WAR WITH SERTORIUS.--Not many years after _Sulla's _death, his reforms were annulled. This was largely through the agency of _Cneius Pompeius_, who had supported _Sulla_, but was not a uniform or consistent adherent of the aristocratic party. He did not belong to an old family, but had so distinguished himself that Sulla gave him a triumph. Later he rose to still higher distinction by his conduct of the war against _Sertorius_ in Spain, a brave and able man of the Marian party, who was supported there for a long time by a union of Spaniards and Romans. Not until jealousy arose among his officers, and _Sertorius_ was assassinated, was the formidable rebellion put down (72). THE GLADIATORIAL WAR.--_Pompeius_ had the opportunity still further to distinguish himself on his way back from Spain. A gladiator, _Spartacus_, started a revolt among his companions. He called about him slaves and outlaws until with an army of one hundred thousand men he defeated the Roman generals, and threatened Rome itself. For two years they ravaged Italy at their will. They were vanquished by _Marcus Crassus_ in 71, in two battles, in the last of which _Spartacus fell_. The remnant of them, a body of five thousand men, who had nearly reached the Alps, were annihilated by _Pompeius_. POMPEIUS: CRASSUS: CICERO.--_Crassus_ was a man of great wealth and of much shrewdness. _Pompeius_ was bland and dignified in his ways, a valiant, though sometimes over-cautious, general. These two men, in 70 B.C., became consuls. They had resolved to throw themselves for support on the middle class at Rome. _Pompeius_, sustained by his colleague, secured the abrogation of some of the essential changes made by _Sulla_. The _Tribunes_ received back their powers, and the independence of the _Assembly of the Tribes_ was restored. The absolute power of the Senate over the law-courts was taken away. These measures were carried in spite of the resistance of that body. Pompeius was aided by the great advocate, _Marcus Tullius Cicero_. He was born at _Arpinum_ in 106 B.C., of an equestrian family. He had been a diligent student of law and politics, and also of the Greek philosophy, and aspired to distinction in civil life. He studied rhetoric under _Molo_, first at Rome and then at _Rhodes_, during a period of absence from Italy, which continued about two years. On his return (in 77 B.C.), he resumed legal practice. _Cicero_ was a man of extraordinary and various talents, and a patriot, sincerely attached to the republican constitution. He was humane and sensitive, and much more a man of peace than his eminent contemporaries. His foibles, the chief of which was the love of praise, were on the surface; and, if he lacked some of the robust qualities of the great Roman leaders of that day, he was likewise free from some of their sins. The captivating oratory of Cicero found a field for its exercise in the impeachment of _Verres_, whose rapacity, as Roman governor of Sicily, had fairly