last consulship of Corvinus, while Marius after his first consulship enjoyed the remaining five in uninterrupted succession. XXIX. It was in his last consulship that Marius got most odium, from his participating in many of the violent measures of Saturninus. One of them was the assassination of Nonius,[108] whom Saturninus murdered because he was a rival candidate for the tribuneship. Saturninus, being made a tribune, introduced a measure about the land, to which[109] was added a clause that the Senate should come forward and swear that they would abide by whatever the people should vote, and would make no opposition. In the Senate Marius made a show of opposing this clause in the proposed law, and he said that he would not take the oath, nor did he think that any man in his senses would, for if the law was not a bad one, it was an insult for the Senate to be compelled to make such concession, instead of giving their consent voluntarily. What he said, however, was not his real mind, but his object was to involve Metellus in a difficulty which he could not evade. For Marius, who considered falsehood to be a part of virtue and skill, had no intention to observe what he had promised to the Senate; but as he knew that Metellus was a man of his word, and considered truth, as Pindar calls it, the foundation of great virtue, he wished to entrap Metellus into a refusal before the Senate, and as he would consequently decline taking the oath, he designed in this way to make him odious to the people for ever: and it fell out so. Upon Metellus declaring that he would never take the oath, the Senate separated; but a few days after, Saturninus summoned the Senators to the Rostra, and urged them to take the oath. When Marius came forward there was profound silence, and all eyes were turned upon him to see what he would do. Marius, however, forgetting all his bold expressions before the Senate, said his neck was not broad enough for him to be the first to give his opinion on so weighty a matter all at once, and that he would take the oath and obey the law, if it was a law; which condition he cunningly added as a cloak to his shame. The people, delighted at Marius taking the oath, clapped their hands and applauded, but the nobility were much dejected and hated Marius for his tergiversation. However, all the senators took the oath in order, through fear of the people, till it came to the turn of Metellus, and though his friends urged and entreated him to take the oath and so to avoid the severe penalties which the law of Saturninus enacted against those who refused, he would not swerve from his purpose or take the oath, but adhering firmly to his principles and prepared to submit to any penalty rather than do a mean thing, he left the Forum, saying to those about him, that to do a wrong thing was mean, to act honourably when there was no danger was in any man's power, but that it was the characteristic of a good man to do what was right, even when it was