Empires: Rome - The Playboy & The General Part Six

With his gangs of slaves still tearing through the city, Marius had been elected to his long prophesied seventh consulship. He was not long in the office this time. Marius had problems with violent bouts of drinking and a fortnight later he was dead. This had left Cinna as the governments undisputed leader. Cinna had a tyrant's contempt for precedent and stayed in the consulship for three consecutive years. In 84 BC Sulla was prepared to invade Italy. Cinna thought he would surprise him by engaging his forces in Greece. This turned out to be a bad mistake as Cinna's soldiers mutinied and he was murdered in the resulting mayhem. Most Romans feared the return of Sulla's battle-hardened legions. Even with the loss of Cinna, the Marians had retained their grip on power as Sulla rejected proposals for peace proposed by neutrals in the Senate. They prepared to do battle for the ultimate prize of power in Rome. The blood feud between Sulla and Marius had been passed down a generation to Marius's son, a good looking playboy who had the same hatred for Sulla that his father did.

On 6 July 83 BC the ancient temple of Jupiter, the largest and holiest building in Rome had been struck by lightning. This was a very bad portent. As flames billowed across the Forum, which more than anything symbolized Roman unity, an even more ominous feature could be seen. As the fire raged it gave the Forum below it an angry reddish color. Red was the color of Mars, the god of war and bloodshed. Sulla later claimed that Bellona, Mars' female equivalent had given him a premonition of the disaster. Shortly after landing in Italy, one of his slaves had fallen into a hypnotic trance. In the trance it was revealed that unless victory were immediate, the Capitol would be destroyed by fire. As this same fire raged, the younger Marius hurried to the scene and instead of rescuing the prophecies of the Sibyl, or the statue of the god-he helped himself to the temple treasures that would enable him to pay for more legions. The Romans were stuck between the proverbial rock and a hard place. They hated watching the younger Marius at the age of twenty-six abusing the constitution and getting himself elected to the consulship of 82 BC by doing so, but the alternative to the Marians hardly seemed better.

However unpopular the Marians may have been, there was a very sinister air that clung to Sulla. Sulla of course had his own record of violence by now and there was no great uprising of support to greet his return. Sulla's claim to be restoring the Republic was treated at best with suspicion and at worst with derision. One thing had changed by now-Sulla was no longer the pariah among his peers that he had been during his first march on Rome in 88 BC. Five years later his entourage had many noblemen in it, many of whome were pursuing personal vendettas against the Marians. Marcus Licinius Crassus, whose father had led the opposition to the Marians and subesquently been executed was from one of Rome's most celebrated patrician families. Crassus's brother had also been killed and the family's estates in Italy seized. These would have been of great size and value as the family was extremely wealthy. Young Crassus had even been able to live a life of relative luxury while living in exile in Spain. His father had once been a governor of Spain and had turned this position into yet another money making venture for the family. When Cinna had died, this had got the young man thinking of claiming his patrimony in full. Crassus, even though he was a private citizen, had taken the unheard of measure of recruiting his own private army of two and a half thousand men.

The image is an artists rendition of the temple to Jupiter. For anyone reading this or my other blog-sorry so very slow lately. I have had quite a time fighting exhaustion and weakness. Hopefully this will not be a long-term problem. Peace and be well to anyone stopping by!