They were Marius and Sylla.

Their very names have been, in all ages of the world, since their day, the symbols of rivalry and hate.

They were the representatives respectively of the two great parties into which the Roman state, like every other community in which the population at large have any voice in governing, always has been, and probably always will be divided, the upper and the lower; or, as they were called in those days, the patrician and the plebeian.

Sylla was the patrician; the higher and more aristocratic portions of the community were on his side.

Marius was the favorite of the plebeian masses.