MARIVAUX. "Dost thou dare to kill Marius?" he flung down his weapon and fled. The people of Minturnæ then persuaded their magistrates to banish Marius, and a vessel was found to bear him from his country. He proceeded to Ætnia (Ischia), and thence to Africa. He landed at Carthage; and whilst he was seated there, a messenger came from the governor Sextilius with an order that he should leave the province. "Go and tell him," said the unfortunate man, "that you have seen the exiled Marius sitting on the ruins of Carthage." Marius proceeded to Cærcina, a small island not far from the continent, and here received intelligence that the consuls Cinna and Octavius, having quarrelled, had had recourse to arms. Marius determined to proceed to the assistance of Cinna, who had been driven by his colleague from Rome; and landing with a considerable body of exiles, he soon changed the face of affairs, and reinstated Cinna in his office. He himself refused to enter Rome till the decree of his banishment was repealed. This affected deference to the laws of his country was soon laid aside, and the streets of Rome flowed with the blood of the best of her citizens. Marius was elected consul for the seventh time, B.C. 86; but his age and infirmities rendered him little able to sustain the weight of public affairs. The intelligence that Sylla was returning victorious from the Mithridatic war alarmed him, and drove him for relief to intoxication. This hastened his end, and he died on the seventeenth day of his seventh consulship, B.C. 86, at the age of seventy. His ashes were thrown into the Anio by the order of Sylla. The Life of Marius has been written by Plutarch; that by Rutilius Rufus has been lost. An account of the proscription of Marius may be found in Appian.