[50] Clemens of Alexandria, in his exhortation to the Gentiles, is very severe upon the iniquities of these rites. "All evil be to him," he says, "who brought them into fashion, whether it was Dardanus, or Eetion the Thracian, or Midas the Phrygian." The old story which he repeats as to Ceres and Proserpine may have been true, but he was altogether ignorant of the changes which the common-sense of centuries had produced. [51] De Legibus, lib. ii., c. xiv. [52] It was then that the foreign empire commenced, in ruling which the simplicity and truth of purpose and patriotism of the Republic were lost. [53] The reverses of fortune to which Marius was subjected, how he was buried up to his neck in the mud, hiding in the marshes of Minturnæ, how he would have been killed by the traitorous magistrates of that city but that he quelled the executioners by the fire of his eyes; how he sat and glowered, a houseless exile, among the ruins of Carthage--all which things happened to him while he was running from the partisans of Sulla--are among the picturesque episodes of history. There is a tragedy called the _Wounds of Civil War_, written by Lodge, who was born some eight years before Shakspeare, in which the story of Marius is told with some exquisite poetry, but also with some ludicrous additions. The Gaul who is hired to kill Marius, but is frightened by his eyes, talks bad French mingled with bad English, and calls on Jesus in his horror! [54] Brutus, ca. xc. [55] Florus tells us that there were 2000 Senators and Knights, but that any one was allowed to kill just whom he would. "Quis autem illos potest computare quos in urbe passim quisquis voluit occidit" (lib. iii., ca. 21). [56] About £487 10_s._ In Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities the Attic talent is given as being worth £243 15_s._ Mommsen quotes the price as 12,000 denarii, which would amount to about the same sum. [57] Suetonius speaks of his death. Florus mentions the proscriptions and abdication. Velleius Paterculus is eloquent in describing the horrors of the massacres and confiscation. Dio Cassius refers again and again to the Sullan cruelty. But none of them give a reason for the abdication of Sulla. [58] Vol. iii., p. 386. I quote from Mr. Dickson's translation, as I do not read German. [59] In defending Roscius Amerinus, while Sulla was still in power, he speaks of the Sullan massacres as "pugna Cannensis," a slaughter as foul, as disgraceful, as bloody as had been the defeat at Cannæ. [60] Mommsen, vol. iii., p. 385.