Eutropius, Short History 5

The translation of Eutropius' Short History offered here is by John Selby Watson and was published in 1886. The text was found at Tertullian.org. The notes were added by Jona Lendering.

[1] While the war was going on in Numidia against Jugurtha, the Roman consuls, Marcus Manlius and Quintus Caepio,^note[In fact the consul Gnaeus Mallius Maximus and the proconsul Quintus Servilius Caepio.] were defeated by the Cimbri, Teutones, Tigurini, and Ambrones, nations of Germany and Gaul, near the river Rhône; and, being reduced by a terrible slaughter, lost their very camp, as well as the greater part of their army. Great was the consternation at Rome, such as was scarcely experienced during the Punic wars in the time of Hannibal, from dread that the Gauls might again march to the city.

Marius, in consequence, after his victory over Jugurtha, was created consul the second time,^note[104 BCE] and the war against the Cimbri and Teutones was committed to his management. The consulship was also conferred on him a third and fourth time, in consequence of the war with the Cimbri being protracted; but in his fourth consulship he had for his colleague Quintus Lutatius Catulus.^note[102 BCE.] He came to battle, accordingly, with the Cimbri, and in two engagements killed two hundred thousand of the enemy, and took eighty thousand prisoners, with their general Teutobodus; for which service he was elected consul a fifth time during his absence.^note[101 BCE.]

[2] In the meantime the Cimbri and Teutones, whose force was still innumerable, passed over into Italy. Another battle was fought with them, by Caius Marius and Quintus Catulus, though with greater success on the part of Catulus, for in that battle, in which they both commanded, a hundred and forty thousand were either slain in the field or in the pursuit, and sixty thousand taken prisoners. Of the Roman soldiers in the two armies three hundred fell. Thirty-three standards were taken from the Cimbri; of which the army of Marius captured two, that of Catulus thirty-one. This was the end of the war: a triumph was decreed to both the consuls.

[3] In the consulship of Sextus Julius Caesar and Lucius Marcius Philippus, in the six hundred and fifty-ninth year from the building of the city,^note[91 BCE; Eutropius uses 750 as the foundation of Rome.] when almost all other wars were at an end, the Piceni, Marsi, and Peligni, excited a most dangerous war in Italy; for after they had lived for many years in subjection to the Roman people, they now began to assert their claim to equal privileges.

This was a very destructive war. Publius Rutilius, one of the consuls,^note[In 90 BCE.] Caepio, a nobleman in the flower of his age, and Porcius Cato, another consul,^note[In 89 BCE.] were killed in it. The generals against the Romans on the part of the Piceni and Marsi were Titus Vettius, Hierius Asinius, Titus Herennius, and Aulus Cluentius. The Romans fought against them successfully under the conduct of Caius Marius, who had now been made consul for the sixth time,^note[In 100 BCE.] also under Cnaeus Pompey, but particularly under Lucius Cornelius Sulla, who, among other signal exploits, so completely routed Cluentius, one of the enemy's generals, with his numerous forces, that he lost only one man of his own army.

The war, however, was protracted for four years, with great havoc; at length, in the fifth, it was terminated by Lucius Cornelius Sulla when consul, who had greatly distinguished himself on many occasions when praetor in the same war.

[4] In the six hundred and sixty-second year from the foundation of the city,^note[88 BCE; Eutropius uses 750 as the foundation of Rome.] the First Civil War began at Rome; and in the same year also the Mithridatic War.^note[The First Mithridatic War, 89-85 BCE.] 

Marius, when in his sixth^note[The seventh, in fact.] consulship, gave rise to the Civil War; for when Sulla. the consul, was sent to conduct the war against Mithridates, who had possessed himself of Asia and Achaea, and delayed his army for a short time in Campania, in order that the remains of the Social War, of which we have just spoken, and which had been carried on within the limits of Italy, might be extinguished, Marius showed himself ambitious to be appointed to the Mithridatic War. Sulla, being incensed at this conduct, marched to Rome with his army. There he fought with Marius and Sulpicius; he was the first to enter the city in arms; Sulpicius he killed; Marius he put to flight; and then, having appointed Cnaeus Octavius and Lucius Cornelius Cinna the consuls for the year ensuing,^note[87 BCE.] set out for Asia.

[5] For Mithridates, who was king of Pontus, and possessed Armenia Minor and the entire circuit of the Pontic sea with the Bosphorus, first attempted to expel Nicomedes, an ally of the Romans, from Bithynia; sending word to the Senate, that he was going to make war upon him on account of the injuries which he had received. Answer was returned by the Senate to Mithridates, that if he did so he himself should feel the weight of a war from the Romans. Incensed at this reply, he immediately invaded Cappadocia, and expelled from thence Ariobarzanes the king, an ally of the Roman people. He next marched into Bithynia and Paphlagonia, driving out the kings, Pylaemenes and Nicomedes, who we