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!

Empires: Rome - The Playboy & The General Part Five

They were introduced to a city in which there were not the slightest shreds of independence left and all prosperity was gone. After Sulla met and vanquished two armies sent to Greece by Mithridates, the Roman conquest of Athens was confirmed beyond a shadow of a doubt. Shortly after their armies had met, Sulla and Mithridates held a summit. Both of these men had very good reasons to come to a peace settlement. Mithridates knew that his days of taking swings ay Roman power were over and he was desperate to hold onto his kingdom. Sulla was very anxious to get back home and make sure things were as he left them. Mithridates had to accept limits on his offensive power and return all of the territory he had conquered. What Mithridates had got away with, however, was remarkable. The murderer of eighty-thousand Italians was still on the throne of Pontus. He was the first man to emerge virtually unscathed from his conflicts with the Republic. Rome would come to regret not finishing him off for good.

Sulla wasn't finished with Greece by a long-shot however. In the province of Asia, Roman rule was restored. Sulla imposed a five years back tax on the cities and they were expected to pay the full costs of the war. Sulla returned to Greece in 84 BC and in a lasting slap in the face to the people of Athens, he took the columns of the temple of Zeus down for transport back to Rome. The Olympic games were so stripped of its stars that only the sprint could be held. The most satisfying revenge Sulla had was on Greek philosophy. There was a complete looting of Athenian libraries. In the future if anyone would like to study Aristotle, he would have to do so in Rome. It was Rome, however, that would see the full force of Sulla's ruthlessness. The government he had established had collapsed, and Sulla himself had been condemned to death in abstentia. His property had been razed and his family forced to flee. No one who had seen Sulla in action in the East could have any doubt as to what his response would be to these provocations.

The brutality of the political order Sulla had left behind, had been increasing fighting between political factions. It was a conflict over the perrenial boondoggle of the Italians' voting rights that had finally pushed the two consuls of 87 BC into open warfare. Cinna had been expelled from Rome by Octavius originally. However, he instantly thought of ways to get back at his former colleague. Cinna convinced the legion still camped at the besieged city of Nola to leave and march on Rome for the second time in just over a year. He also had a famous name backing him. Gaius Marius had returned from Africa and on his way to Rome he recruited an army of personal slaves as he traveled through Italy. Marius then joined forces with Cinna and turned on Rome. Marius had become psychotic with bitterness and rage, and he launched a brutal purge of his enemies. Octavius had refused to flee and had been killed as he sat in his consul's chair. His head had been brought to Cinna, who displayed it in triumph on the Rostra. Many other opponents of Marius had been brutally killed or had fled to safety. The image is of the famous Arch of Constantine. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triumphal_Arch_of_Constantine

Empires: Rome - The Playboy & The General Part Four

Finally, after the shocking events of 88BC, Sulla began marching east. As the new year rolled around there was even an outward appearance of normality. The streets were empty of soldiers. Two consuls, elected by the Roman people, sat in their chairs of state and the Senate met to advise them-one could almost be forgiven for thinking not a lot had changed. Athens was the next destination of Sulla and his men. Athens had a very unique position in the Greek world. Here, more than any other Hellenic city there was a reverence and a devotion to her history. The Athenians never forgot -or neglected to tell anyone else that it was they who saved Greece at the Battle of Marathon. Athens was a very great power at one time and long ago had the greatest naval power in the Meditteranean. The Parthenon still stood upon the Acropolis, as a kind of reminder of her former glorious days. The Athenians memories of empire were just that-memories and the Romans regarded with great humor, the slightest hint that they still believed themselves a great power. However, even though Athenians may have regarded their Roman masters as bullying hicks, they knew better than to voice such opinions publicly. The Romans had no problem whatsoever plundering their defeated enemies, but they had always rewarded their friends, and Athens benefited from this policy as well.

The greatest 'gift' of this 'friendship' had come in 165 BC, following the final war against Macedon. The Senate had taken note that the island republic of Rhodes had been lacking in her enthusiasm in backing Rome in this conflict. Rhodes had been the major trading depot in the Meditteranean a long time. Rome had opened a toll-free harbor on the island of Delos and presented it to Athens. Subsequently Rhodes had seen her revenues go down the tubes. Athens had grown very wealthy from this arrangement-so wealthy in fact that by the start of the first century her currency had been recognized as legal tender throughout the Greek world. The Romans had shown that they could make or break economies with the same success they fought with on the battlefield. However, in 88BC with Mithridates armies camped in triumph on the opposite shores of the Aegean, the rules changed. The pro-Roman Athenian business elite watched in horror as their impoverished countrymen sent an embassy to Mithridates, which he welcomed, asking that if they provided him with a harbor if he would restore their democracy. The business classes in Athens knew what this would mean and began fleeing the city.

Democracy was officially restored. There were great scenes of jubilation and even greater scenes of slaughter. The revolution was led by a philosopher, Aristion. Aristion perhaps expected an easy go of things with Italy in a civil war and an alliance with Mithridates in the works. Democracy and independence both seemed to be in place to the jubilant Athenians. Little did they know how short-lived this revolution would be, for in the spring of 87 BC Sulla landed in Greece. Sulla headed directly for Athens. To their horror, the Athenians found themselves with five Roman legions commanded by Rome's most ruthless general camped outside the city's walls. The only tactic Aristion had was to compose songs about Sulla's face and his wife. These would be proclaimed from the city walls, as Sulla began to lose his patience-for both the comedy of which he was the subject and the people of Athens themselves. Sulla ordered the groves under which Plato and Aristotle chopped down. He sent an Athenian peace delegation back when they began to lecture him on the city's past saying, "Rome did not send me here to be lectured on ancient history." (Plutarch, Sulla, 13.) Once Sulla gave the order for the city to be brought back under heel and his troops license to plunder and kill, many Athenians committed suicide. These people remembered the fate of Corinth and could not bear to see the utter destruction of their city. The ruination brought by Sulla's troops was indeed terrible. All men who had served in the democratic government were executed and their supporters had the right to vote taken away. The businessmen who had run for their lives when the revolt had started came back to the city. The image is a bust of Sulla done at the height of his power.

I have at least two-if not up to three or four more posts ready to go-fighting this exhaustion or whatever it is has sapped my strength so bad that it is even a bit trying to type-hopefully this will not last much longer, and I will try to post as I am able to. Peace and be well to anyone stopping by!

Empires: Rome - The Playboy & The General Part Three

The officer informing Sulla of this was one of Marius's men and had come to take command of his army. As Sulla did some quick thinking in his tent, no one except him realized how dangerous this rivalry had become. Sulla had at Nola, 30,000 men under his command, only the legions of Pompeius Strabo, who were finalizing the campaign against the rebels on the other side of Italy had enough men to rival him. Marius, back in Rome didn't have any legions. How had Marius missed this line of thinking in Sulla's mind? Obviously the thought that Sulla would come out of the pen he had been forced into like a raging bull had never crossed Marius's mind. There was a reason for this however. In the history of the Republic, no Roman general had led his men against the city of Rome. What Sulla was thinking was unimaginable to Roman citizens. The Roman army was not the private militia of the general who commanded it, and its loyalty was owed to whoever was appointed to its command by due process of the constitution. What Sulla was pondering was a blasphemy in a way and Marius had no reason to think that the rules had changed.

Sulla had great popularity with his troops and when he broke the news to them from Rome they stoned Marius's envoy to death. Sulla left behind a single legion to continue the siege at Nola and marched northwards to Rome. The news of his decision to take power into his own hands was greeted in Rome with disbelief. However, as he got closer to the city delegations were sent to shame Sulla into stopping his putsch. His only reply to these men had been that he was marching on Rome "to free her of her tyrants." Sulla indeed did the unthinkable when he crossed the pomerium with his legions. The pomerium was the furrow that was said to have been originally ploughed by Romulus himself-the founder of the city-as a kind of sacred boundary. The citizens of Rome threw tiles and such things as they could find at Sulla's soldiers with such ferocity that they started to turn back for a bit until Sulla ordered that fire-arrows be shot at the rooftops, where the barrage of the citizens projectiles was coming from. Flames began to erupt down the length of Rome's highways and Sulla himself rode down the via Sacra-the greatest of them all in triumph. Sulla's men took up positions outside the Senate House. Marius and Sulpicius had fled the city after they had made a failed attempt to raise the city's slaves against Sulla's legions.

The unimaginable had happened. A Roman general had crossed over the sacred pomerium and was now the master of the city. Future generations would see this as a great turning point. This was the time the augurs of the Sibylline prophecies had warned-the passing away of an old age and the beginning of a new. Now that Sulla had besieged his own city, citizens long after his time would think, "It happened once and who might be the next to raise the stakes this high in the pursuit of personal glory and fame?" Very quickly, Sulla forced the Senate into passing sentences against Marius, Sulpicius and ten others. All but Sulpicius, who was betrayed by a slave and murdered, escaped, including Marius's young son. Marius himself would reach the safety of Africa after a series of close calls with death by contract killers.

Sulla was to continually cast his march on Rome and subsequent dictatorship as a defense of her most sacred institutions and ancient traditions. He was anxious to confront Mithridates, but understandably nervous about what might happen in his abscence. If he interfered too blatantly in the annual elections for consulship he would make a joke of his claim that he pulled of his coup to restore the Republic. Sulla's allies did not win election to the consulship in 87 BC. One of the candidates was a conservative as Sulla himself was. However, the other, Cornelius Cinna, had threatened Sulla with prosecution. Sulla decided that before he would agree to their taking office he made them both swear a public oath of loyalty on the sacred hill of the Capitol that they would not overturn his legislation.

To reward an ally, and also thinking it would help secure his own position, Sulla gave the command of Strabo's legions to Pompeius Rufus, his colleague in the consulship of 88 BC. This turned out to have rather unpleasant consequences for Rufus. He arrived at Strabo's camp to take command of his new army with only a bill in his hand. Strabo duly presented Pompeius Rufus to the troops and then left the camp-on business he claimed. The next day Rufus began a ritual sacrifice to celebrate his new command. Strabo's troops turned on him and he ended up being the sacrificial victim instead! Of course, Strabo claimed to be outraged and immediately came back to the camp, but no action was taken against his troops. Later generations would see Rufus's fate as a judgment of Sulla's coup-"there was nothing left which could shame warlords into holding back on military violence-not the law, not the institutions of the Republic, not even the love of Rome." (Appian 1.60.)

Hopefully the next post will be here soon-it is ready to go-just need to get my energy levels back somewhat after feeling so rotten for a few days now. Peace and be well to anyone stopping by!

Empires: Rome - The Playboy & The General Part Two

By election time in 89 BC, Sulla left his army and began heading north to Rome. His reputation preceded him as he had forced the capitulation of all the cities held by the rebels, except for Nola, which continued to hold out against Rome and would for some time. Sulla got his wish, his reputation as the conqueror of Samnium brought him into the office of consul. Within a few weeks came even sweeter news for Sulla; he was confirmed in the command against Mithridates. This was a great victory against his old commander and foe, Marius-indeed this must have been a great humiliation for Marius. However, Marius was not aout to give in. He began a very public and strict regimen of training. Eventually crowds came to cheer on the old favorite of the Republic as he worked on his skills at running, riding, throwing the javelin and with the sword. Of course, what Marius really needed was political support, which he began looking for. In his ferocious competition with Sulla, he mostly neede someone on his side in the office of the tribune. A tribune would have the power to propose a law to the people that Sulla's command against Mithridates be transferred back to himself.

Marius found his tribune in Publius Sulpicius Rufus, a man who had been a lifelong advocate for Italian rights. Rufus was a man to whom both principles and causes mattered. This part is very important to our story here. Sulpicius had been afraid that conservatives in the Senate were scheming to water down the enfranchisement of the Italians. He proposed legislation to ensure that it would be done fairly, canvassed the consuls, then presented his bill to the people. Sulpicius was enraged when both Sulla and his colleague in the consulship, Pompeius Rufus, ended up opposing the bill and ensuring its defeat after making what Sulpicius had regarded as commitments to support it. Before this incident, Sulpicius Rufus had regarded Pompeius Rufus as an intimate friend, now he felt betrayed and wanted revenge. Marius came along at precisely the right time to secure a new poltical alliance with him.

The general and the tribune came to an agreement advantageous to them both. Marius agreed to support Sulpicius's legislation, and in return Sulpicius promised to propose a bill transferring Sulla's command to Marius. This led to a deadly series of events, when Sulpicius proceeded to reintroduce his bill, his supporters rioted in the streets of Rome. Sulla heard of the unrest and hurried back to Rome. He tried to meet with Pompeius Rufus privately, but Sulpicius became aware of the meeting and arrived with some men to disband it. The confrontation that followed resulted in Pompeius Rufus's son being murdered and Pompeius Rufus himself barely got away with his life. Sulla, probably much to his chagrin had to take refuge from the mob in his most mortal enemy's house-Marius! For Sulla, there were more humiliations to follow. Even though Sulla was a consul he was now powerless in the face of Sulpicius's demands. At this time it was the tribune's mobs and not the consul's fasces who ruled Rome. Sulla was forced to agree that the pro-Italian legislation be passed, and that Pompeius Rufus be kicked out of the office of tribune in return for his treachery. For agreeing to this, Sulla appears to have been offered nothing more than the promise to be able to continue in his office as consul and to return to fight the siege of Nola. However, Sulla had no reason at all to believe his command against Mithridates was threatened. Sulla was about to find out how wrong he was about this. A messenger arrived at Sulla's camp at Nola and informed him that there had been a plebiscite in Rome. It had been proposed by Sulpicius, ratified by the Roman people and passed into law. By its terms, Sulla was demoted from his command against Mithridates-and of course his replacement was Gaius Marius.

The image is of an era quite a bit off from 'our' timeline here-as it is supposed to be that of a later Roman emperor's family around 250 AD-I was just wanting to get some better images here than I have been lately-and there are more posts to go to see images of Sulla and other people and places more relevant to our story. Peace and be well to anyone stopping by!

Empires: Rome - The Playboy & The General Part One

Gaius Marius had a very fierce competitor in the person of one of his former officers, Lucius Cornelius Sulla. What was more, not only were the men competitors-but they despised each other. Gaius Marius was the epitome of the loyal Roman general. He had come from the backwater of Arpinum and had no nobility whatsoever in his background. He rose through the ranks on sheer ability alone. By the time of our story here, Marius had won election to the highest magisterial office of consul an unprecedented six times. Most men -both by precedent and circumstance alone, were lucky to attain the office of consul once in their lives. Marius had also married into the Julian patrician lineage, which was in a state of decline at the time, but still very proud. The Julian line claimed it had its origin with the goddess Venus. This family will also become very important later. Marius, with his provincial upbringing and lack of pedigree, was a great example of what glory an outsider could achieve in the Republic.

Sulla, by contrast had a noble birth, however, when his father died he was left in poverty. In the days of Sulla's wild youth his means were incredibly small compared to his ambitions. He had been going downhill for awhile, living in forlorn quarters and in the company of some wild companions-comics, prostitutes and drag queens were all part of his retinue in those days. Sulla would display a lasting affection for drag queens all his life. "Metrobius, the female impersonator, had seen better days, but Sulla never ceased to insist that he was in love with him all the same."(Plutarch, Sulla.36). Sulla may indeed have loved drag queens-but as we shall see-he wasn't very in touch with his own feminine, nurturing side at all. Sulla was a heavy drinker. In him, some could see the barroom philosopher combined with the abilities of a gigolo. Sulla did have a kind of magnetic sexual appeal-according to most accounts of him. He had a good physique, stunning blue eyes and golden colored hair. As handsome as he was, his physical appearance was marred by only one thing-he had a violent, purple complexion and when he became angry odd white spots would appear all over his face.

This flaw did not seem to matter in the least to one of two women who would come to have a huge impact on the trajectory of his life. One of Rome's wealthiest courtesans had become so enamored of him that she left him everything she owned in her will. About the same time Sulla's wealthy patron died, his stepmother also died, also appointing him as sole heir to her estate. Sulla was thirty years old, an age when many in the aristocracy of Rome had already been climbing the precarious moutain slopes of fame and glory in Rome, when he at last had the money he needed to launch his political career. The office Sulla needed to attain to challenge Marius-was the consulship-the office Marius had achieved six times already. If Sulla could only win election to this office, then he would have enormous authority.

A consul was not a dictator or king, but was the closest thing the Republic had to one. The consul wore a toga bordered with the same purple associated with royalty and a special chair of state. The consul would also be accompanied by twelve men called lictors, each carrying on his shoulder, the fasces -symbolizing his authority not as a dictator, but as an elected official of the people. Rome did have a fasces associated with the office of dictator (I will talk about this later too) that had an axe attached to the regular bundle of scourging rods. Of course, even if Sulla were to win election to this office he would have to move fast. The fasces of a consul was not a symbol of tyranny, as it would come to be known, but of an authority bestowed freely by the people. The consul served a one year term only, and was joined in office by colleagues who were his exact equal. There was a great tension in the competitive ideals of the Republic, which were cut-throat in their intensity-and the way magistrates of the Republic had to act in office-with a great deal of attention paid to being -or at least looking as if they were acting with propriety. But it would be the only chance Sulla would have to get the eastern command in the Mithridatic war. If he could get this position he hoped to use it to get power and glory that would eclipse that of his hated rival, Gaius Marius.

For anyone who reads this blog-I very much appreciate you sticking with me here. Lately I have been struggling with health issues and insomnia. I do hope to have the next post here very soon, as it is ready to go. The image is a bust of General Gaius Marius. Peace and be well to anyone stopping by!