[Footnote 133: Cn. Octavius Nepos and L. Cornelius Cinna were consuls B.C. 87. Cinna had sworn to maintain the interests of the Senate (Sulla, c. 10), but when Sulla had left Italy for the Mithridatic war, Cinna declared himself in favour of the new citizens, and attempted to carry the measure for incorporating them with the old tribes. It is said that he received a considerable sum of money for undertaking this. The parties of Cinna and Octavius armed for the contest which was expected to take place when this measure was proposed. Octavius drove his opponents out of the Forum with great slaughter, and Cinna left the city. He was joined by great numbers of the new citizens and then formed an army. The Senate passed a decree that Cinna was neither consul nor a citizen, inasmuch as he had deserted the city, and offered freedom to the slaves if they would join him. L. Cornelius Merula, who was elected consul in place of Cinna, was flamen dialis, or Priest of Jupiter. He put himself to death by opening his veins, after Marius and Cinna entered Rome. (Appian, _Civil Wars_, i. 74).] [Footnote 134: Now Talamone, on the coast of Tuscany near Orbitello.] [Footnote 135: Rome had long before this derived supplies of corn from Sicily and other parts out of Italy. Perhaps this may prove that the cultivation in the Campagna of Rome and the countries south of Terracina had not improved with the increase of Rome. But other countries are better suited for grain than the low lands of this side of Italy, and so far as concerns the cost of transport, grain might be brought from Sardinia and Sicily as cheaply as from many parts of Italy, and cheaper than from the plains of Apulia, which is a good corn country.] [Footnote 136: Metellus Pius was now carrying on the war against the Samnites, who were still in arms. He came to Rome at the invitation of the Senate. (Appian, _Civil Wars_, i. 68.)] [Footnote 137: The Roman writers often mention the Chaldæans. They were adventurers from Asia who made their living in the great superstition market of Rome by foretelling future events. Whether they were really Chaldæans does not appear. The death of Octavius is told somewhat differently by Appian (_Civil Wars_, i. 71). His head was cut off and placed on the Rostra, and many other heads also. He was the first consul whose head was exposed on the Rostra. Other atrocities are mentioned by Appian, c. 72, &c. It was the fashion in England less than a hundred years back to place traitors' heads on Temple Bar, London. "I have been this morning at the Tower, and passed under the new heads at Temple Bar; where people make a trade of letting spy-glasses at a halfpenny a look" (Horace Walpole, Letter to George Montague, Aug. 16, 1746).]