Sylla   

Bocchus had long hated and dreaded his son-in-law, Jugurtha, who had
now been worsted in the field and had fled to him for shelter; and
it so happened he was at this time entertaining a design to betray
him. He accordingly invited Sylla to come to him, wishing the seizure
and surrender of Jugurtha to be effected rather through him, than
directly by himself. Sylla, when he had communicated the business
to Marius, and received from him a small detachment, voluntarily put
himself into this imminent danger; and confiding in a barbarian, who
had been unfaithful to his own relations, to apprehend another man's
person, made surrender of his own. Bocchus, having both of them now
in his power, was necessitated to betray one or other, and after long
debate with himself, at last resolved on his first design, and gave
up Jugurtha into the hands of Sylla.
For this Marius triumphed, but the glory of the enterprise, which
through people's envy of Marius was ascribed to Sylla, secretly grieved
him. And the truth is, Sylla himself was by nature vainglorious, and
this being the first time that from a low and private condition he
had risen to esteem amongst the citizens and tasted of honour, his
appetite for distinction carried him to such a pitch of ostentation,
that he had a representation of this action engraved on a signet ring,
which he carried about with him, and made use of ever after. The impress
was Bocchus delivering, and Sylla receiving, Jugurtha. This touched
Marius to the quick; however, judging Sylla to be beneath his rivalry,
he made use of him as lieutenant, in his second consulship, and in
his third as tribune; and many considerable services were effected
by his means. When acting as lieutenant he took Copillus, chief of
the Tectosages, prisoner, and compelled the Marsians, a great and
populous nation, to become friends and confederates of the Romans.
Henceforward, however, Sylla, perceiving that Marius bore a jealous
eye over him, and would no longer afford him opportunities of action,
but rather opposed his advance, attached himself to Catulus, Marius's
colleague, a worthy man, but not energetic enough as a general. And
under this commander, who intrusted him with the highest and most
important commissions, he rose at once to reputation and to power.
He subdued by arms most part of the Alpine barbarians; and when there
was a scarcity in the armies, he took that care upon himself and brought
in such a store of provisions as not only to furnish the soldiers
of Catulus with abundance, but likewise to supply Marius. This, as
he writes himself, wounded Marius to the very heart. So slight and
childish were the first occasions and motives of that enmity between
them, which, passing afterwards through a long course of civil bloodshed
and incurable divisions to find its end in tyranny, and the confusion
of the whole state, proved Euripides to have been truly wise and thoroughly
acquainted with the causes of disorders in the body politic, when
he forewarned all men to beware of Ambition, as of all the higher
Powers the most destructive and pernicious to her votaries.
Sylla, by this time thinking that the reputation of his arms abroad
was sufficient to entitle him to a part in the civil administration,
betook himself immediately from the camp to the assembly, and offered
himself as a candidate for a praetorship, but failed. The fault of
this disappointment he wholly ascribes to the populace, who, knowing
his intimacy with King Bocchus, and for that reason expecting, that
if he was made aedile before his praetorship, he would then show them
magnificent hunting-shows and combats between Libyan wild beasts,
chose other praetors, on purpose to force him into the aedileship.
The vanity of this pretext is sufficiently disproved by matter-of-fact.
For the year following, partly by flatteries to the people, and partly
by money, he got himself elected praetor. Accordingly, once while
he was in office, on his angrily telling Caesar that he should make
use of his authority against him, Caesar answered him with a smile,
"You do well to call it your own, as you bought it." At the end of
his praetorship he was sent over into Cappadocia, under the pretence
of reestablishing Ariobarzanes in his kingdom, but in reality to keep
in check the restless movements of Mithridates, who was gradually