Finally, after chasing after other anti-Marian alliances around the Meditteranean, young Crassus had sailed to Greece and became an ally of Sulla. There was, however, even one who outshone Crassus in Sulla's eyes. Gnaeus Pompeius had also raised a private army, and this army had won a series of brilliant victories over the Marian forces who were blocking Sulla's path to power. When the two met they greeted each other as Imperator-or General. This was a title that usually took an accomplished soldier many years to earn. Gnaeus Pompeius-"Pompey" was twenty-three years old. He had inherited the largest private estate in Italy from his father, the deceitful Pompeius Strabo. As the young man had apparently attempted to court Cinna also, before Sulla's arrival, perhaps he had also inherited his father's penchant for switching sides. It must also be said that Gnaeus Pompeius had no personal squabble with the Marians and the mutiny in Cinna's camp could have shown the young man who was the better 'deal.' Pompey had a gift for knowing where the most bountiful opportunities were. Both Pompey and Crassus realized that they had been given an incredible opportunity to move up the ladder much faster than their fathers. The civil war had completely upended the chessboard of the politcal game. Pompey's enemies referred to him as "Adulescentulus carnifex"-or teenage butcher. To the Romans the passions of youth were violent and dangerous, and they thought only discipline and custom could control them. With Roman society in such an uproar and the rules of the game changing so rapidly-who could rein the young men in? Sulla was not going to be a good role model as far as teaching young men to control their violence. In order to paint a picture of himself as defender of Rome and not her oppressor, apparently Sulla induced one last uprising from the Samnites. Samnium and Campania were again looted and pillaged without any restraint and the Samnites were butchered wherever they could be found. The Samnites had joined the Marians as their cause was just about to fall. By 83 BC, after a year of civil war one consul had fled to Italy for the safety of Africa, while the younger Marius who was the other consul, was backed up into the hill town of Praeneste-which was twenty-five miles east of Rome!
The Samnites had begun a last ditch effort to wipe out Rome. They had started to mass before the Colline Gate on the northeastern wall of the city. The fighting started by the early afternoon and went long into the night. Once the fighting was over the victory was final. Sulla's enemies had no more armies left in Italy to continue the war. The bloodbath at the Colline Gate made Sulla the absolute unchallenged master of Rome. 3,000 prisoners were taken at the Colline Gate and were joined with other Samnites who had already been taken captive on the Campus Martius-a flood plain that stretched north beyond the walls of the Capitol. It was here that as far back as the kings, civilians had to come to take the oath that would make them soldiers. Campus Martius meant the Plain of Mars who was the god of war. Also here they were ranked in a strict hierarchy of wealth and status. At the top were those wealthy enough to buy their own horses, the equites. Below the equestrian class were five further classes of infantry. At the bottom were those citizens to poor to by a slingshot-the proletarii. These seven classes were further divided into units called centuries. This arrangement helped the class system to be promulgated with great intricacy. It also encouraged citizens to want to climb the ladder of success.
If you became an equestrian membership in the Senate became a possibility. If you were able to join the Senate the very tempting prospect of becoming a senior magistrate-a praetor or even a consul might become a reality. The Ovile or "sheepfold" was on the Campus Martius. This was a structure with barriers and aisles, very similar to the kind used to house livestock-thus its name. The Ovile was where the elections to the magistracies would be held, and the voters would be herded into different blocs. The organization of these blocs varied from election to election in a confusing fashion. The voting system was very heavily weighted in favor of the wealthier members of society. In fact, different things s skewed the results in favor of the rich that there was often little point in the other classes even turning out. However, for those citizens wealthy enough to get election fever, the excitement of voting day was one if not the greatest of Roman civic life. There was another building set back a bit from the Ovile called the Villa Publica, it was a walled complex of government buildings. This is where Sulla had the Samnite captives brought. They were in a beautifully adorned two story reception hall. This hall was appointed so magnificently because it was where the censors would collate data every five years that showed where a citizen stood in the labyrinth of Roman society. Every five years a citizen had to register himself there. Everything from the name of his wife, the number of his children, slaves-all the way down to his liquid cash and his wife's jewels and clothes had to be registered and reviewed there. As far as prestige went, Romans considered the censorship even greater than the consulship. The duties of a censor were considered so sensitive that only the most senior and reputable citizens could be entrusted with them.
The image is a painting called The Last Day of Pompeii by Briullov. For anyone reading this blog -I still have a pretty good sized amount of info to type out-but there is a lot of work yet to be done! I almost wanted to rush to the ending of the Caesar-Cleopatra-Antony-Octavian story, but the book I am using for nearly all of this research -Tom Holland's, RVBICON-published in 2003 by Doubleday in the United States is so excellent that it makes me want to include as much as I can. I can only do so much as everything I do needs to be written on notebook paper before typing it-and I am a poor typist and my fingers get sore from writing-so I would highly suggest to anyone that can buy this book to buy it-I am definitely going to find a way to get it. Dr. Holland has written a book that I think even a person with abolutely NO interest in history would find fascinating. Dr Holland earned the highest degree at Cambridge and then went on to get his PhD from Oxford so he knows his stuff to say the least! After I find a way to beg someone to buy me this book (yes I know I am pathetic-and poor:-). I will still be very happy with this series because of an entirely accidental find with a discount book (yes I actually own a few instead of library) that asks some questions about our characters that I don't want to give away yet. So I am very happy to do this blog and I hope that folks can bear with me -I do struggle with my illness and medication issues from time to time, and I do not want my other blog to just 'die' completely while I work on this one-and finally -finally after years of wanting to write a fictional story -I have finally settled on the basic storyline -what a joke eh? Almost forty -four and have always wanted to write -and not once -ever have I completed any of my fictional writing-it may come to nothing-but I would rather have tried and failed than not to have tried at all. Again -please do yourself a favor and buy Dr. Holland's book-I have enjoyed it so much I am even going to review it at my other blog-and other recent authors some completely new to me and some much adored oldies. I actually feel like seeing if the English mystery writer Ruth Rendell has an email -in all seriousness-so I can thank her for the years of pleasure she has given me as a loyal reader of her books-actually I will check to see if Dr Holland does too while I am at it! Peace and be well to anyone stopping by! ps a final note-it appears that Dr Holland has written three works of fiction -at least-maybe more by now-The Bone Hunter, Slave of My Thirst and Lord of the Dead-so I will keep an eye out for these and any others also.
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