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Marius & SullaContents
SummaryThey are known for their brilliance on the battlefield and less than stellar records as political leaders. They lived at the same time and were friends, then enemies, then allies, then enemies again. The story of Marius and Sulla is not one to be missed. Marius was born first, an equestrian with greatness on his mind. He was not worried when his political aspirations, which eventually got him elected consul, became military greatness — he was sent off to fight and was ready for anything that hit him. The Northern Africans were too good in the end, however, and it took a young genius named Sulla to settle the score. He betrayed the king and made Rome a world leader as it always was. Marius, however, took all the credit for the encounter. This infuriated Sulla to no end and he wanted revenge. When Marius was not expecting it, after a brief hiccup when Italy revolted and threatened the Republic, Sulla marched a Roman army into Rome itself and took the city by force. He proceeded to Asia Minor, where he was ordered to defeat the Persian Empire, and Marius took back Rome again, murdering countless aristocrats in the process. Sulla returned and marched on Rome again. When he finally took it back, he started a proscription and killed hundreds of Marius’ supporters. The BeginningMarius and Sulla are, without doubt, two of the most influential and tyrannical figures of the late Republic. They were also enemies [OwOw]. No previous leader in Roman history had more power than Sulla, and the people were rallied behind Marius like no other. On the other hand, both of them killed countless civilians just because they were allied with the other. Marius and Sulla profoundly changed the fate of the Roman world. Marius was born as a commoner in Arpinum, only gaining power through his incredible skill as a military leader [NardoNardo2003]. He was very hardy, willing to withstand the elements, and good at hand to hand combat, so the higher officers, including Scipio, took a liking to him [FieldenFielden2000]. Scipio in particular really liked how Marius fought and made sure he road was littered with political and military...benefits [OwOw]. After a short while, he was well respected militarily, but given his equestrian background the patricians with real power in Rome did not trust him. He started getting involved in politics in earnest when he was elected quaestor in 123 B.C.E., but that was not enough [FieldenFielden2000]. He was eager to prove himself. The Jugurthan WarAfter many years of waiting, the chance finally came. He eventually was sent off to fight a war in Northern Africa [OwOw]. Marius’ thirst for power was too much and he tried to depose his overall commander, Metellus, by winning the support of his men (who wrote home saying how great Marius was, spreading the word about this upstart pleb). Marius returned to Rome himself in 105 B.C.E. and argued in the Senate that Metellus was not a fit leader, saying that he, Marius, would bring back Jugurtha alive or kill him [FieldenFielden2000]. This won him him the consulship, and he returned to Northern Africa. In that area, he was one of the most influential leaders, and one of his younger leaders, Lucius Sulla, was not happy about this. Sulla was a lower level patrician and it angered him that Marius, a mere equestrian, was his commander. The fight in Northern Africa was not going too well, so something needed to be done. Marius, right after being elected consul, established reforms to the army, letting any human in the Roman Republic join, to get more recruits. He also changed the formations of the army to be more effective [OwOw]. The Roman Army was effective before, but these changes made it one of the most formidable and efficient forces on earth in the centuries to come, which unfortunately continued the downward trend of the Republic as well. All of these reforms, however, were not enough. Sulla, crafty as he was, orchestrated a conspiracy. Jugurtha was betrayed to Sulla by his cousin, named Bocchus, in 105 B.C.E. [SmithSmith], which eventually led to the downfall of his civilization and the Roman victory. Sulla was naturally awaiting great glory for being the orchestrator of the Roman success when Marius, being the overall Roman leader, claimed that he was fully responsible for the betrayal, which absolutely outraged Sulla. Marius’ RuleWhen Marius returned home, he continued to be consul. There was a military campaign which needed to protect the northern realms of Rome from Germanic tribes. Some tribes were looking for new land in Gaul and Northern Italy and they stepped to far for Rome to ignore them any longer [OwOw]. As is accustomed with early barbaric tribes, Marius led the Romans to a stunning success. This showed, however, that Marius was a military leader, not a political one — he was great on the battlefield but helpless in the courtroom. The people loved him — they even called him the third founder of Rome [OwOw] — so he is still considered to be politically successful [RogersRogers2006]. Marius, after his great victory, was very much liked by the Roman people. He was elected consul a total of seven times. The tribune, Saturninus, tried to get a bill passed which gave veterans land in southern France if Marius and the rest of the Senate would pledge an oath to follow the people of Rome, which Marius grudgingly agreed to. After an outrage by the plebians (who didn’t like that all Latin and Italian veterans who helped Marius got land) and some violence at the elections, the Senate backstabbed Marius by forcing him to kill Saturninus and ruining his career. The Social WarBecause of the previous bill, giving land to Italian veterans, which never got implemented, and a few other qualms that built up over the years, a full scale war erupted between the Italians and the Romans [OwOw], called the Social War. It was mostly the Oscan tribes, which lived near to Rome and didn’t like how little they could affect Roman politics, that started the war [MackayMackay]. The Samnites never got accustomed to being ruled by Rome and were constantly struggling against their protectors. The various tribes decided that the best way to mock Rome would be to set up a joke version of it. To this end, they formed a Senate, elected Consuls and Praetors, and took on much of the Roman political system while ignoring the city itself completely. Rome was struck hard by this other system — for a time, all business was stopped in Rome and the togas of the people were removed, to symbolize the fact they were no longer at peace. The war had begun. It was very bloody, killing a consul and soldiers on both sides. L. Julius Caesar, the remaining consul, eventually made it back to Rome and gave the Italians Roman citizenship [MackayMackay], ending the war. Sulla, a successful military leader at that time, took over command of the Roman armies when L. Julius Caesar returned to Rome [MackayMackay]. He was well-respected after this and, when the Italians were under control, was ordered by the senate to defeat Mithradates, the leader of Asia Minor, for the Roman people [RogersRogers2006]. This did not go over too well with the people of Rome — they favored Marius and wanted him to go instead [NardoNardo2003]. Even again the people, the Senate was on his side, so Sulla then went off to do his duty in Asia Minor — instead, however, Sulla marched on Rome, the first time a Roman general had ever done so [OwOw]. Sulla’s Dictatorship & Marius’ RevengeSulla used this army to control the situation. Because Marius had no such army, he was driven out of Rome in hours [OwOw]. Eventually, through military pushing to get the Senate to pass bills, Sulla effectively instated himself as dictator. He killed off many Romans who did not agree with him, including Sulpicius, and dominated like no other Roman the Rupublic had ever seen. He effectively dissolved the pleb’s body of legislature, completely removing any power remaining to the tribunes (remember, Sulpicius was a tribune). Once he had secured the power he gave himself, he set off to bring glory to the empire by defeating Persia in Asia Minor [OwOw]. While he was away, things started to go wrong. Cinna, the man who acted as a temporary “slave” consul to control the people while Sulla was away did not do what Sulla wanted, and instead reinstituted many of the laws that Sulla revoked. Cinna then started to raise an army to take back Rome from Sulla’s entrenched forces, while Marius marched on Rome with his body of supporters. Together, they took back took back Rome [OwOw]. In this second administration, Marius was positively brutal to the supporters of Sulla and killed them by the thousands [RogersRogers2006]. This angered Cinna and he killed off Marius’ troops, but spared Marius by sending him off to replace the now-exiled Sulla as the Roman general against Mithradates [OwOw]. Sulla, in these years of Cinna’s betrayal, was taking Greece back from the Persians. He was supposed to defeat Persia once and for all, though all he really did was take back Greece — he signed a peace treaty with Mithradates instead of defeating him. He was a devout worshipper of Apollo and made it as far as the Oracle at Delphi, the Temple of Apollo, before stopping. Knowing there was something suspicious going on in Rome due to messengers’ notes, Sulla began to rally the troops around him by putting them in very nice Greek cities that had been retaken for Rome [OwOw]. Finally, Sulla came back and marched on Rome again in 83 B.C.E., taking it from the people and Cinna and making himself a dictator. Sulla was finally done will all the people who tried to steal his power and systematically killed off these people by the thousands in a famous process called proscription. One day, he put up a list of 80 names. These people were to be killed — anyone, including family, who resisted or attempted to help was to be killed as well. Most of them were political enemies or simply people Sulla didn’t like. The next day, an additional 220 names were published. The bloodbath was not over, however — the very next day, a third list of 220 names was put up, and all these people were to be killed on sight [NardoNardo2003]. This so-called “List of the Condemned” was unheard of and showed how powerful Sulla was. There was no question that it was brutal, probably one of the most brutal events in Rome’s history. Said Plutarch:
While in power, Sulla did not just proscript his enemies — he also did some good. Italians were finally able to join the Senate and equestrians were also allowed in as well. These eased political tensions enough for his political massacres to continue. Strangely, Sulla mysteriously retired two years after he took absolute power and died a year later [RogersRogers2006]. Marius and Sulla were two of the most influential military leaders in the Roman Republic. Their political reforms, fueled by a need to destroy each other’s morale, where one of the largest causes of the end of the 500 year rule of the people in the greatest nation on earth [OwOw]. While their military prowess was unmatched, the political trauma was only adequate, and the natural hatred surrounding them ruined the Republic.
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BibliographyCross, Susan. Bust of Gaius Marius. http://web.mac.com/heraklia/Caesar/contemporaries/marius/index.html [cited January 2, 2008]. Fielden, Jerry. “The Life of Caius Marius.” (2000). http://www.jerryfielden.com/essays/MARIUS.HTM [cited November 8, 2007]. Kamm, Anthony. The Romans: An Introduction. http://www.the-romans.co.uk/marius.htm [cited January 2, 2008]. Mackay, Christopher S. Class 366: Social War. http://web.archive.org/web/20010211121035/ http://www.ualberta.ca/~csmackay/CLASS_366/Social.War.html [cited January 2, 2008]. Nardo, Don. From Founding to Fall: A History of Rome. Lucent Books, 2003. Ow, Yong-Ling. “Marius and Sulla.” Suite 101. http://janusquirinus.org/essays/Apollo/Background/MS1.html [cited September 28, 2007]. Petrius, Marcus. The Romans, Part III: 113 BC - 27 AD: Social Reform and Civil War. http://www.allempires.com/article/index.php?q=social_reform_and_civil_war [cited January 2, 2008]. Rogers, Nigel. Ancient Rome. Hermes House, 2006. Smith, Andrew. Attalus: Sources for Greek and Roman History. http://www.attalus.org/index.html [cited January 2, 2008].
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