ἐν τούτῳ δὲ ὥσπερ τροπαίας τινος ἀμειβούσης ἐφοίτων ἄγγελοι πανταχόθεν ὡς Σύλλας συνῃρηκὼς τὸν Μιθριδατικὸν πόλεμον καὶ τὰς ἐπαρχίας ἀνειληφὼς ἐπιπλέοι μετὰ πολλῆς δυνάμεως, καὶ τοῦτο βραχεῖαν ἐπίσχεσιν ἐποίησε καὶ παῦλαν ὀλίγην ἀφάτων κακῶν, ὅσον οὔπω τὸν πόλεμον ἥκειν ἐπʼ αὐτοὺς οἰομένων. ὕπατος μὲν οὖν ἀπεδείχθη τὸ ἕβδομον Μάριος, καὶ προελθὼν αὐταῖς Καλάνδαις Ἰανουαρίαις, ἔτους ἀρχῇ, Σέξτον τινὰ Λουκῖνον κατεκρήμνισεν ὃ κἀκείνοις καὶ τῇ πόλει τῶν αὖθις ἐδόκει κακῶν γεγονέναι σημεῖον μέγιστον.
Meanwhile, as if a change of wind were coming on, messengers arrived from all quarters with reports that Sulla had finished the war with Mithridates, had recovered the provinces, and was sailing for home with a large force. This gave a brief stay and a slight cessation to the city’s unspeakable evils, since men supposed that the war was all but upon them. Accordingly, Marius was elected consul for the seventh time, and assuming office on the very Calends of January, which is the first day of the year, he had a certain Sextus Lucinus thrown down the Tarpeian rock. This was thought to be a most significant portent of the evils that were once more to fall both upon the partisans of Marius and upon the city.
αὐτὸς δὲ ἤδη τοῖς τε πόνοις ἀπειρηκὼς καὶ ταῖς φροντίσιν οἷον ὑπέραντλος ὢν καὶ κατάπονος, τὴν ψυχὴν πρὸς τοσαύτην αὖθις ἐπίνοιαν νέου πολέμου καὶ καινῶν ἀγώνων καὶ φόβων ὑπὸ ἐμπειρίας δεινῶν καὶ καμάτου τρέμουσαν οὐκ ἀνέφερε, λογιζόμενος ὡς οὐ πρὸς Ὀκτάβιον οὐδὲ Μερούλαν σύγκλυδος ὁμίλου καὶ στασιώδους ὄχλου στρατηγοὺς ὁ κίνδυνος ἔσοιτο, Σύλλας δὲ ἐκεῖνος ἔπεισιν ὁ τῆς πατρίδος αὐτὸν ἐξελάσας πάλαι, νῦν δὲ Μιθριδάτην συνεσταλκὼς εἰς τὸν Εὔξεινον Πόντον.
But Marius himself, now worn out with toils, deluged, as it were, with anxieties, and wearied, could not sustain his spirits, which shook within him as he again faced the overpowering thought of a new war, of fresh struggles, of terrors known by experience to be dreadful, and of utter weariness. He reflected, too, that it was not Octavius or Merula in command of a promiscuous throng and a seditious rabble against whom he was now to run the hazard of war, but that the famous Sulla was coming against him, the man who had once ejected him from the country, and had now shut Mithridates up to the shores of the Euxine Sea.
ὑπὸ τοιούτων θραυόμενος λογισμῶν, καὶ τὴν μακρὰν ἄλην αὐτοῦ καὶ φυγὰς καὶ κινδύνους διὰ γῆς καὶ θαλάττης ἐλαυνομένου λαμβάνων πρὸ ὀφθαλμῶν, εἰς ἀπορίας ἐνέπιπτε δεινὰς καὶ νυκτερινὰ δείματα καὶ ταραχώδεις ὀνείρους, ἀεί τινος ἀκούειν φθεγγομένου δοκῶν δειναὶ γάρ κοῖται καὶ ἀποιχομένοιο λέοντος. μάλιστα δὲ πάντων φοβούμενος τὰς ἀγρυπνίας ἐνέβαλεν εἰς πότους ἑαυτὸν καὶ μέθας ἀώρους καὶ παρʼ ἡλικίαν, ὥσπερ ἀπόδρασιν τῶν φροντίδων τὸν ὕπνον μηχανώμενος.
Tortured by such reflections, and bringing into review his long wandering, his flights, and his perils, as he was driven over land and sea, he fell into a state of dreadful despair, and was a prey to nightly terrors and harassing dreams, wherein he would ever seem to hear a voice saying:— Dreadful, indeed, is the lion’s lair, even though it / be empty. / And since above all things he dreaded the sleepless nights, he gave himself up to drinking-bouts and drunkenness at unseasonable hours and in a manner unsuited to his years, trying thus to induce sleep as a way of escape from his anxious thoughts,
τέλος δὲ ὡς ἧκέ τις ἀπαγγέλλων ἀπὸ θαλάσσης, νέοι προσπίπτοντες αὐτῷ φόβοι, τὰ μὲν δέει τοῦ μέλλοντος, τὰ δὲ ὥσπερ ἄχθει καὶ κόρῳ τῶν παρόντων, ῥοπῆς βραχείας ἐπιγενομένης εἰς νόσον κατηνέχθη πλευρῖτιν, ὡς ἱστορεῖ Ποσειδώνιος ὁ φιλόσοφος, αὐτὸς εἰσελθεῖν καὶ διαλεχθῆναι περὶ ὧν ἐπρέσβευεν ἤδη νοσοῦντι φάσκων αὐτῷ.
And finally, when one came with tidings from the sea, fresh terrors fell upon him, partly because he feared the future, and partly because he was wearied to satiety by the present, so that it needed only a slight impulse to throw him into a pleurisy, as Poseidonius the philosopher relates, who says that he went in personally and conversed with Marius on the subjects of his embassy after Marius had fallen ill.
Γάϊος δέ τις Πείσων, ἀνήρ ἱστορικὸς, ἱστορεῖ τὸν Μάριον ἀπὸ δείπνου περιπατοῦντα μετὰ τῶν φίλων ἐν λόγοις γενέσθαι περὶ τῶν καθʼ ἑαυτὸν πραγμάτων, ἄνωθεν ἀρξάμενον· καὶ τὰς ἐπʼ ἀμφότερα πολλάκις μεταβολὰς ἀφηγησάμενον εἰπεῖν ὡς οὐκ ἔστι νοῦν ἔχοντος ἀνδρὸς ἔτι τῇ τύχῃ πιστεύειν ἑαυτόν· ἐκ δὲ τούτου τοὺς παρόντας ἀσπασάμενον καὶ κατακλιθέντα συνεχῶς ἡμέρας ἑπτὰ τελευτῆσαι.
But a certain Caius Piso, an historian, relates that Marius, while walking about with his friends after supper, fell to talking about the events of his life, beginning with his earliest days, and after recounting his frequent reversals of fortune, from good to bad and from bad to good, said that it was not the part of a man of sense to trust himself to Fortune any longer; and after this utterance bade his friends farewell, kept his bed for seven days consecutively, and so died.
τινὲς δὲ τὴν φιλοτιμίαν αὐτοῦ φασιν ἐν τῇ νόσῳ παντάπασιν ἀποκαλυφθεῖσαν εἰς ἄτοπον ἐξοκεῖλαι παρακοπήν, οἰομένου τὸν Μιθριδατικὸν στρατηγεῖν πόλεμον, εἶτα, ὥσπερ ἐπʼ αὐτῶν εἰώθει τῶν ἀγώνων, σχήματα παντοδαπὰ καὶ κινήματα σώματος μετὰ συντόνου κραυγῆς καὶ πυκνῶν ἀλαλαγμάτων ἀποδιδόντος.
Some, however, say that his ambitious nature was completely revealed during his illness by his being swept into a strange delusion. He thought that he had the command in the Mithridatic war, and then, just as he used to do in his actual struggles, he would indulge in all sorts of attitudes and gestures, accompanying them with shrill cries and frequent calls to battle.
οὕτως δεινὸς αὐτῷ καὶ Βνσπαραμνθητος ἐκ φιλαρχίας καὶ ζηλοτυπίας ἔρως ἐντετήκει τῶν πράξεων ἐκείνων. διὸ ἔτη μὲν ἑβδομήκοντα βεβιωκώς, ὕπατος δὲ πρῶτος ἀνθρώπων ἑπτάκις ἀνηγορευμένος, οἶκόν τε καὶ πλοῦτον ἀρκοῦντα βασιλείαις ὁμοῦ πολλαῖς κεκτημένος, ὠδύρετο τὴν ἑαυτοῦ τύχην ὡς ἐνδεὴς καὶ ἀτελὴς ὧν ἐπόθει προαποθνῄσκων.
So fierce and inexorable was the passion for directing that war which had been instilled into him by his envy and lust of power. And therefore, though he had lived to be seventy years old, and was the first man to be elected consul for the seventh time, and was possessed of a house and wealth which would have sufficed for many kingdoms at once, he lamented his fortune, in that he was dying before he had satisfied and completed his desires.
Πλάτων μὲν οὖν ἤδη πρὸς τῷ τελευτᾶν γενόμενος ὕμνει τὸν αὐτοῦ δαίμονα καὶ τὴν τύχην, ὅτι πρῶτον μὲν ἄνθρωπος, εἶτα Ἕλλην, οὐ βάρβαρος οὐδὲ ἄλογον τῇ φύσει θηρίον γένοιτο, πρὸς δὲ τούτοις, ὅτι τοῖς Σωκράτους χρόνοις ἀπήντησεν ἡ γένεσις αὐτοῦ.
Plato, however, when he was now at the point of death, lauded his guardian genius and Fortune because, to begin with, he had been born a man and not an irrational animal; again, because he was a Greek and not a Barbarian; and still again, because his birth had fallen in the times of Socrates.
καὶ νὴ Δία τὸν Ταρσέα λέγουσιν Ἀντίπατρον ὡσαύτως ὑπὸ τὴν τελευτὴν ἀναλογιζόμενον ὧν τύχοι μακαρίων μηδὲ τῆς εἰς Ἀθήνας οἴκοθεν εὐπλοίας ἐπιλαθέσθαι, καθάπερ φιλοχρήστου τῆς τύχης ἅπασαν δόσιν εἰς μεγάλην χάριν τιθέμενον καὶ σῴζοντα τῇ μνήμῃ διὰ τέλους, ἧς οὐδέν ἐστιν ἀνθρώπῳ ταμιεῖον ἀγαθῶν βεβαιότερον.
And indeed they say that Antipater of Tarsus, when he was in like manner near his end and was enumerating the blessings of his life, did not forget to mention his prosperous voyage from home to Athens, just as though he thought that every gift of a benevolent Fortune called for great gratitude, and kept it to the last in his memory, which is the most secure storehouse of blessings for a man.
τοὺς δὲ ἀμνήμονας ς καὶ ἀνοήτους ὑπεκρεῖ τὰ γιγνόμενα μετὰ τοῦ χρόνου· διὸ μηθὲν στέγοντες μηδὲ διατηροῦντες ἀεὶ κενοὶ μὲν ἀγαθῶν, πλήρεις δὲ ἐλπίδων πρὸς τὸ μέλλον ἀποβλέπουσι, τὸ παρὸν προϊέμενοι. καίτοι τὸ μὲν ἂν ἡ τύχη κωλῦσαι δύναιτο, τὸ δὲ ἀναφαίρετόν ἐστιν·
Unmindful and thoughtless persons, on the contrary, let all that happens to them slip away as time goes on; therefore, since they do not hold or keep anything, they are always empty of blessings, but full of hopes, and are looking away to the future while they neglect the present. And yet the future may be prevented by Fortune, while the present cannot be taken away;
ἀλλʼ ὅμως τοῦτο τῆς τύχης ὡς ἀλλότριον ἐκβάλλοντες ἐκεῖνο τὸ ἄδηλον ὀνειρώττουσιν, εἰκότα πάσχοντες, πρὶν γὰρ ἐκ λόγου καὶ παιδείας ἕδραν ὑποβαλέσθαι καὶ κρηπῖδα τοῖς ἔξωθεν ἀγαθοῖς, συνάγοντες αὐτὰ καὶ συμφοροῦντες ἐμπλῆσαι τῆς ψυχῆς οὐ δύνανται τὸ ἀκόρεστον.
nevertheless these men cast aside the present gift of Fortune as something alien to them, while they dream of the future and its uncertainties. And this is natural. For they assemble and heap together the external blessings of life before reason and education have enabled them to build any foundation and basement for these things, and therefore they cannot satisfy the insatiable appetite of their souls.
ἀποθνῄσκει δ’ οὖν Μάριος ἡμέρας ἑπτακαίδεκα τῆς ἑβδόμης ὑπατείας ἐπιλαβών. καὶ μέγα ἔσχε παραυτίκα τὴν Ῥώμην χάρμα καὶ θάρσος ὡς χαλεπῆς τυραννίδος ἀπηλλαγμένην· ὀλίγαις δὲ ἡμέραις ᾔσθοντο νέον ἀντηλλαγμένοι καὶ ἀκμάζοντα ἀντὶ πρεσβύτου δεσπότην τοσαύτην ὁ υἱὸς αὐτοῦ Μάριος ὠμότητα καὶ πικρίαν ἀπεδείξατο, τοὺς ἀρίστους καὶ δοκιμωτάτους ἀναιρῶν.
So, then, Marius died, seventeen days after entering upon his seventh consulship. And immediately Rome was filled with great rejoicing and a confident hope that she was rid of a grievous tyranny; but in a few days the people perceived that they had got a nerve and vigorous master in exchange for the old one; such bitterness and cruelty did the younger Marius display, putting to death the best and most esteemed citizens.
δόξας δὲ καὶ τολμητὴς καὶ φιλοκίνδυνος εἶναι πρὸς τοὺς πολεμίους ἐν ἀρχῇ παῖς Ἄρεος ὠνομάζετο, ταχὺ δὲ τοῖς ἔργοις ἐλεγχόμενος αὖθις Ἀφροδίτης υἱὸς ἐκαλεῖτο. τέλος δὲ κατακλεισθεὶς εἰς Πραινεστὸν ὑπὸ Σύλλα καὶ πολλὰ φιλοψυχήσας μάτην, ὡς ἦν ἄφυκτα τῆς πόλεως ἁλισκομένης, αὐτὸς αὑτὸν ἀπέκτεινεν.
He got the reputation of being bold and fond of danger in fighting his enemies, and in the beginning was called a son of Mars; but his deeds soon showed what he really was, and he was called instead a son of Venus. And finally he was shut up in Praeneste by Sulla, and after many vain attempts to save his life, when the city was captured and he could not escape, he slew himself.
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