Roman History

Challenges to the Republic 146 to 60 BCE

In this period there can be two labels given to politicians, Popularis and Optimatis. The Popularies as mentioned sought support from the lower classes, and tended to introduce more reform legislation to win the support of the people. The Optimates looked more towards the conservative, upper echelons of society for support. These two sides should not be looked at as modern political parties or even sides for that matter. The two terms are best used to provide a vague definition of a particular politicians tactics.

The next great military problem that faced Rome after the fall of Carthage in 146 BCE was in North Africa. After the Third Punic War, Rome had left large tracks of land to their allies, the kings of Numidia. In 112, Jugurtha, the king of Numidia and whom this war is named after besieged the city of Citra. This city was an important grain supply for Rome and at the time of the siege, several equestrian grain merchants were trapped within the city. When the city finally fell to Jugurtha these merchants were killed along with the rest. The threat Rome’s grain supply and the brutal murder of Roman citizens inflamed the people of Rome and the Senate declared war on Jugurtha in 111 BCE. The significance of this war is actually fairly minimal. Jugurtha defeated a few Roman armies, but was soon defeated in 106 BCE. What makes this war significant is that it gave rise to two of the most important politicians in Roman history, Gaius Marius and Cornelius Sulla.

Gaius Marius used the war against Jugurtha to his own political advantage. Marius was born into a wealthy equestrian family, he was not the son of a poor peasant as Plutarch’s bibliography suggests. Like many of his peers, Marius’s goal was to become consul and ennoble his family. Marius was elected to the position of consul in 107 BCE, and became the first in his family to reach such a prestigious position. The term used for the first man in a family to reach the position of consul is “novus homo”. In recruiting troops for the campaign against Jugurtha, Marius solved the manpower shortage afflicting Rome by recruiting soldiers from landless citizens. This move was logical, but it had dangerous consequences as Roman Legions became more attached to their individual commanders then to the state. Generals now had sufficient citizen support from the army and could compete on a political level against other senators. In fact being a General gave one an advantage in the political arena.

Through training and methodical, slow warfare, Marius was able to force Jugurtha off the offensive. Marius in his campaigns was assisted by a young noble quaestor named Cornellius Sulla, the man who would in the future become Marius’s greatest enemy. In fact, at the end of the campaign it was Sulla who was able to capture Jugurtha through a series of complex political maneuvers with Jugurtha’s relatives. Sulla would later claim that since he had been the one to capture Jugurtha, that he was entitled to the glory associated with the defeat of Jugurtha, not Marius.

After the defeat of Jugurtha and Marius’s subsequent victories in the wars against the Cimbri and the Teutones, Marius enjoyed immense support from both the Roman people and the Senate. However, his fame was not to last. In 100 BCE in order to cultivate greater power, Marius supported two equestrian politicians in their bid for the position of preator. This turned out to be Marius’s undoing, as the two equestrians he was supporting murdered another popular candidate for the job in order to ensure their election. Their ploy failed and they were murdered by their enemies. Marius, disgraced by this incident fled to the East to scout for new opportunities to win military glory to rebuild his political career. Marius’s fall from political life brought upon a decade of optimate control in the political realm of Rome.

In 91 BCE, Livius Drusus, the son of the Livius Drusus who had helped to bring down Gaius Gracchus, and had possibly procured his murder, came to power as tribune. His goal was to use the office of tribune to enact several policies to secure power for himself and his moderate optimates allies. Drusus has 3 major reforms. Firstly, he wanted to double the number of senators by admitting the richest of the equestrian families. This was a brilliant stroke as it would remove the tension between these two classes as the most powerful voices in the equestrian class would now be senators, thus weakening the equestrian class. Secondly, he wanted to provide the poor with land and grain through allotments and the establishment of colonies. Lastly, and perhaps most ambitiously, Drusus wanted to grant Roman citizenship to the Roman allies. These proposals inflamed the senate, the common Roman citizens and even the allies that Drusus sought to provide with citizenship. For the richest of the Italian allies, citizenship would mean the loss of public land. Before Drusus was able to bring about the proposal to vote on his bill, he was stabbed and killed by an unknown assassin.

What followed after the death of Drusus was the greatest threat to Rome’s power since Hannibal. After the failure to grant the Italian allies citizenship, several allies broke off and declared their independence. The war, or civil war, as it can be more accurately described as, is known as the Italian or Social War. From 90 to 88 BCE, the armies of Rome would face each other in the Italian Peninsula. Out of the darkness facing Rome, Marius returned from his self imposed exile to offer his services to save the Roman Republic. However, his optimate enemies feared his political potential and the failed to make good use of him. In 90 BCE, one of the consuls at Rome, the cousin of Julius Caesar, carried a bill called the “Lex Julia” and bestowed citizenship rights upon all the Italian allies who were still loyal to Rome, or were willing to lay down their arms. The Social War can be seen as having two effects. Firstly, it created a dangerous precedent for civil war with the Italian Peninsula. Secondly, it added another 500 000 people to the Roman census rolls. All freemen from the Po River to the Straights of Messana were now Roman citizens.

The efforts of procure an end to the Social War were not aimed simply at restoring peace within the peninsula, a new threat had arisen to challenge Rome’s power in the East. Mithriadates IV, the king of Pontus, had taken advantage of Social War and the resentment that those in the East had towards Roman rule to launch his own series of wars. Mithriadates goal was to build an Empire in the East that would surpass that of Alexander. By the end of 90 BCE, he had already gained control of the western coast of the Black Sea and the interior of Asia Minor. Those living in Asia Minor welcomed Mithriades as they had become dissatisfied with Roman taxes. Mithriades used the fact that the Romans were hated in Greece as they were in Asia Minor. Using his agents, he procured the support of Athens and used the city as a base to conquer southern Greece.

Both Sulla and Marius sought command against Mithriades in what is called the first Mithriadic War. Initially, Sulla was given command. However, the tribune at the time, Sulpcius Rufus wanted to make use of the voting power of Marius’s veterans to secure his political future. Rufus’s bill became law, but not without excessive violence. Sulla used his powers as consul to enact religious holidays in order to stop the law making process. This decision led to riots and Sulla was hunted down in the streets and driven from his home. Ironically, Sulla found refuge within the residence of Marius. Once Sulla has revoked the religious holidays, Marius allowed Sulla to escape, believing that he would go into exile. Instead, Sulla hastened to Campania where his army was stationed at Nola and with a portion of his army turned around and marched on Rome. For the first time in the Roman Republic, the competition of political figures had resulted in all out civil war. Perhaps, most ironic of all was that the ability for a politician to command an army to use against Rome was made possible by Marius’s innovations to deal with the manpower problem in the War against Jugurtha. The loyalty of soldiers was now to their commanders, the ones who paid them and looked after them, and not to the state.

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