Caius Marius   

WE are altogether ignorant of any third name of Caius Marius; as
also of Quintus Sertorius, that possessed himself of Spain or of
Lucius Mummius that destroyed Corinth, though this last was surnamed
Achaicus from his conquests, as Scipio was called Africanus, and
Metellus, Macedonicus. Hence Posidonius draws his chief argument to
confute those that hold the third to be the Roman proper name, as
Camillus, Marcellus, Cato; as in this case, those that had but two
names would have no proper name at all. He did not, however, observe
that by his own reasoning he must rob the women absolutely of their
names; for none of them have the first, which Posidonius imagines
the proper name with the Romans. Of the other two, one was common to
the whole family, Pompeii, Manlii, Cornelii (as with us Greeks, the
Heraclidae, and Pelopidae), the other titular, and personal, taken
either from their natures, or actions, or bodily characteristics, as
Macrinus, Torquatus, Sylla; such as are Mnemon, Grypus, or
Callinicus among the Greeks. On the subject of names, however, the
irregularity of custom, would we insist upon it, might furnish us with
discourse enough.
There is a likeness of Marius in stone at Ravenna, in Gaul, which
I myself saw quite corresponding with that roughness of character that
is ascribed to him. Being naturally valiant and warlike, and more
acquainted also with the discipline of the camp than of the city, he
could not moderate his passion when in authority. He is said never
to have either studied Greek, or to have use of that language in any
matter of consequence; thinking it ridiculous to bestow time in that
learning, the teachers of which were little better than slaves. So
after his second triumph, when at the dedication of a temple he
presented some shows after the Greek fashion, coming into the theatre,
he only sat down and immediately departed. And, accordingly, as
Plato used to say to Xenocrates the philosopher, who was thought to
show more than ordinary harshness of disposition, "I pray you, good
Xenocrates, sacrifice to the Graces;" so if any could have persuaded
Marius to pay his devotions to the Greek Muses and Graces, he had
never brought his incomparable actions, both in war and peace, to so
unworthy a conclusion, or wrecked himself, so to say, upon an old
age of cruelty and vindictiveness, through passion, ill-timed
ambition, and insatiable cupidity. But this will further appear by and
by from the facts.
He was born of parents altogether obscure and indigent, who
supported themselves by their daily labour; his father of the same
name with himself, his mother called Fulcinia. He had spent a
considerable part of his life before he saw and tasted the pleasures
of the city; having passed previously in Cirrhaeaton, a village of the
territory of Arpinum, a life, compared with city delicacies, rude
and unrefined, yet temperate, and conformable to the ancient Roman
severity. He first served as a soldier in the war against the
Celtiberians, when Scipio Africanus besieged Numantia; where he
signalized himself to his general by courage far above his comrades,
and particularly by his cheerfully complying with Scipio's reformation
of his army, being almost ruined by pleasures and luxury. It is
stated, too, that he encountered and vanquished an enemy in single
combat, in his general's sight. In consequence of all this he had
several honours conferred upon him; and once when at an
entertainment a question arose about commanders, and one of the
company (whether really desirous to know, or only in complaisance)
asked Scipio where the Romans, after him, should obtain such another
general, Scipio, gently clapping Marius on the shoulder as he sat next
him, replied, "Here, perhaps." So promising was his early youth of his
future greatness, and so discerning was Scipio to detect the distant
future in the present first beginnings. It was this speech of
Scipio, we are told, which, like a divine admonition, chiefly
emboldened Marius to aspire to a political career. He sought, and by