CHAPTER IX.

Sertorius in Spain.--Warning of Cicero to the Patricians.--Leading Aristocrats.--Caesar with the Army in the East.--Nicomedes of Bithynia.--The Bithynian Scandal.--Conspiracy of Lepidus.--Caesar returns to Rome.--Defeat of Lepidus.--Prosecution of Dolabella.--Caesar taken by Pirates.--Senatorial Corruption.--Universal Disorder.--Civil War in Spain.--Growth of Mediterranean Piracy.--Connivance of the Senate.--Provincial Administration.--Verres in Sicily.--Prosecuted by Cicero.--Second War with Mithridates.--First Success of Lucullus.--Failure of Lucullus, and the Cause of it.--Avarice of Roman Commanders.--The Gladiators.--The Servile War.--Results of the Change in the Constitution introduced by Sylla