Cicero of Arpinum: A Political and Literary Biography Being a Contribution to the History of Ancient Civilization and a Guide to the Study of Cicero's Writings

WHEN Cornelius Cinna ruled Rome and Italy, the republican form and the outward countenance of the commonwealth were unchanged. At the same time there was no genuine government either of the people (whose champion Cinna pretended to be) or of the senate, or of any combination of both. In 86 the consuls were Cinna and Marius; the latter's place was taken by Valerius Flaccus. In 85 the consuls were Cinna and Carbo. In 84 the consuls were likewise Cinna and Carbo. They had themselves returned for two consecutive years as chief magistrates.¹ Sulla's laws of 88 B. C. had been formally cancelled. There was even a census in 86. What Lectio Senatus may this have been, when so many heads of the aristocracy were in Sulla's camp? But Cinna ruled in accordance with his own whim and will, and he was extremely cruel besides. (N. D. 3, 81.) The equestrian class meanwhile, the bankers, investors, and promoters, were doubly active at home to recoup themselves for losses consequent upon the temporary occupation of Asia Minor by Mithridates. As a class these financiers in a way stood quite solidly for the new ruler. They must, as practical students of current affairs, have been substantially convinced, more than fairly satisfied, that Sulla would never return or control. They enriched themselves under Cinna's government.²

About this time a distant kinsman of Cicero's attained a kind of fame for his day and time. This was M. Marius Gratidianus, a very zealous and clamorous member of the popular party. The fact that he was twice praetor abundantly proves that he was a satellite of Cinna. A grandmother of Cicero was a Gratidia. One of her nephews was adopted by a Marius, probably a brother of the great Marius. This cousin of Cicero's father thus assumed the most renowned name in all that Arpinatian region and was

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