he saw Antonius speaking and the soldiers awed and completely softened by his eloquence; on which he abused them, and running up to Antonius, cut off his head with his own hand.  The friends of Catulus Lutatius, who had been joint consul with Marius and with him had triumphed over the Cimbri, interceded for him with Marius, and begged for his life; but the only answer they got was, “He must die!” and accordingly Catulus shut himself up in a room, and lighting a quantity of charcoal, suffocated himself.  Headless trunks thrown into the streets and trampled underfoot excited no feeling of compassion, but only a universal shudder and alarm.  But the people were most provoked by the licence of the Bardiaei, who murdered fathers of families in their houses, defiled their children, and violated their wives; and they went on plundering and committing violence, till Cinna and Sertorius combining, attacked them when they were asleep in the camp, and transfixed them with spears.

XLV.  In the meantime, as if the wind was beginning to turn, reports reached Rome from all quarters that Sulla had finished the war with Mithridates, and recovered the provinces, and was sailing against the city with a large force.  This intelligence caused a brief cessation and pause to unspeakable calamities, for Marius and his faction were in expectation of the immediate arrival of their enemies.  Now being elected consul[139] for the seventh time, on the very Calends of January, which is the beginning of the year, Marius caused one Sextus Lucinus[140] to be thrown down the Tarpeian rock, which appeared to be a presage of the great misfortunes that were again to befal the partisans of Marius and the State.  But Marius was now worn out with labour, and, as it were, drowned with cares, and cowed in his spirit; and the experience of past dangers and toil made him tremble at the thoughts of a new war, and fresh struggles and alarms, and he could not sustain himself when he reflected that now he would have to hazard a contest, not with Octavius or Merula at the head of a tumultuous crowd and seditious rabble, but that Sulla was advancing—­Sulla, who had once driven him from Rome, and had now confined Mithridates within the limits of his kingdom of Pontus.  With his mind crushed by such reflections, and placing before his eyes his long wanderings and escapes and dangers in his flight by sea and by land, he fell into a state of deep despair, and was troubled with nightly alarms and terrific dreams in which he thought he heard a voice continually calling out,

    “Dreadful is the lion’s lair
    Though he is no longer there.”