“I have decided to stick to love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.” M.L. King
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"People of Rome, go back to your houses!" he thundered. "The crisis is past. Rome is safe. And I, Gaius Marius, have great pleasure in announcing to you that a fleet of grain ships arrived in Ostia harbor yesterday. The barges will be coming upstream all day today, and by tomorrow there will be grain available from the State granaries of the Aventine at one sestertius the modius, the price which Lucius Appuleius Saturninus's grain law laid down. However, Lucius Appuleius is dead, and his law invalid. It is I, Gaius Marius, consul of Rome, who gives to you your grain! The special price will continue until I step down from office in nineteen days' time. After that, it is up to the new magistrates to decide what price you will pay. The one sestertius I shall charge you is my parting gift to you, Quirites! For I love you, and I have fought for you, and I have won for you. Never, never forget it! Long live Rome!"
And down from the rostra he stepped amid a wave of cheers, his arms above his head, that fierce twisted grin a fitting farewell, with its good side and its bad side. Catulus Caesar stood rooted to the spot.
"Did you hear that?" he gasped to Scaurus. "He just gave away nineteen days of grain in his name! At a cost to the Treasury of thousands of talents! How dare he!"
"Are you going to get up on the rostra and contradict him, Quintus Lutatius?" asked Sulla, grinning. "With all your loyal young Good Men standing there getting off free?"
"Damn him!" Catulus Caesar was almost weeping.
Scaurus broke into peals of laughter. "He did it to us again, Quintus Lutatius!" he said when he was able. "Oh, what an earthshaker that man is! He stuck it to us, and he's left us to pay the bill! I loathe him but by all the gods, I do love him too!'' And away he went into another paroxysm.
"There are times, Marcus Aemilius Scaurus, when I do not even begin to understand you!" Catulus Caesar said, and stalked off in his best camel manner.
"Whereas I, Marcus Aemilius Scaurus, understand you all too well,'' said Sulla, laughing even harder than Scaurus.
****
Sulla sighed. "I'd be happy to reach praetor."
A facial hemiparesis enabled its sufferer to blow the most wonderfully derisive noises; Marius blew one now. "Rubbish!" he said vigorously. "You are consul material, Lucius Cornelius. In fact, one day you'll be the First Man in Rome."
"I thank you for your faith in me, Gaius Marius." Sulla turned a smile upon Marius almost as twisted as Marius's were these days. "Still, considering the difference in our ages, I won't be vying with you for the title," he said. Marius laughed.
"What a battle of the Titans that would be!"
"People of Rome, go back to your houses!" he thundered. "The crisis is past. Rome is safe. And I, Gaius Marius, have great pleasure in announcing to you that a fleet of grain ships arrived in Ostia harbor yesterday. The barges will be coming upstream all day today, and by tomorrow there will be grain available from the State granaries of the Aventine at one sestertius the modius, the price which Lucius Appuleius Saturninus's grain law laid down. However, Lucius Appuleius is dead, and his law invalid. It is I, Gaius Marius, consul of Rome, who gives to you your grain! The special price will continue until I step down from office in nineteen days' time. After that, it is up to the new magistrates to decide what price you will pay. The one sestertius I shall charge you is my parting gift to you, Quirites! For I love you, and I have fought for you, and I have won for you. Never, never forget it! Long live Rome!"
And down from the rostra he stepped amid a wave of cheers, his arms above his head, that fierce twisted grin a fitting farewell, with its good side and its bad side. Catulus Caesar stood rooted to the spot.
"Did you hear that?" he gasped to Scaurus. "He just gave away nineteen days of grain in his name! At a cost to the Treasury of thousands of talents! How dare he!"
"Are you going to get up on the rostra and contradict him, Quintus Lutatius?" asked Sulla, grinning. "With all your loyal young Good Men standing there getting off free?"
"Damn him!" Catulus Caesar was almost weeping.
Scaurus broke into peals of laughter. "He did it to us again, Quintus Lutatius!" he said when he was able. "Oh, what an earthshaker that man is! He stuck it to us, and he's left us to pay the bill! I loathe him but by all the gods, I do love him too!'' And away he went into another paroxysm.
"There are times, Marcus Aemilius Scaurus, when I do not even begin to understand you!" Catulus Caesar said, and stalked off in his best camel manner.
"Whereas I, Marcus Aemilius Scaurus, understand you all too well,'' said Sulla, laughing even harder than Scaurus.
****
Sulla sighed. "I'd be happy to reach praetor."
A facial hemiparesis enabled its sufferer to blow the most wonderfully derisive noises; Marius blew one now. "Rubbish!" he said vigorously. "You are consul material, Lucius Cornelius. In fact, one day you'll be the First Man in Rome."
"I thank you for your faith in me, Gaius Marius." Sulla turned a smile upon Marius almost as twisted as Marius's were these days. "Still, considering the difference in our ages, I won't be vying with you for the title," he said. Marius laughed.
"What a battle of the Titans that would be!"