Caius Marius

After the battle, Marius collected such of the arms and spoils of the Barbarians as were handsome, entire, and fitted to make a show in his triumphal procession; all the rest he heaped up on a huge pyre and set on foot a magnificent sacrifice.

The soldiers had taken their stand about the pyre in arms, with chaplets on their heads, and Marius himself, having put on his purple-bordered robe and girt it about him, as the custom was, had taken a lighted torch, held it up towards heaven with both hands, and was just about to set fire to the pyre, when some friends were seen riding swiftly towards him, and there was deep silence and expectancy on the part of all.

But when the horsemen were near, they leaped to the ground and greeted Marius, bringing him the glad news that he had been elected consul for the fifth time,[*](For the year 101 B.C. ) and giving him letters to that effect. This great cause for rejoicing having been added to the celebration of their victory, the soldiers, transported with delight, sent forth a universal shout, accompanied by the clash and clatter of their arms, and after his officers had crowned Marius afresh with wreaths of bay, he set fire to the pyre and completed the sacrifice.

However, that power which permits no great successes to bring a pure and unmixed enjoyment, but diversifies human life with a blending of evil and of good-be it Fortune, or Nemesis, or Inevitable Necessity, within a few days brought to Marius tidings of his colleague Catulus, which, like a cloud in a calm and serene sky, involved Rome in another tempest of fear.