Empires: Rome -Sulla: Dictator Part Three

After retirement Sulla began to relive the wild and edgy days of his youth. In reality he had never lost his taste for this lifestyle. When Sulla was dictator, he had put together the largest parties in Rome's history. They had to have been-for the whole city was invited. Huge amounts of food and vintage wines were consumed-in fact wine had even flowed from the public fountains. Sulla's parties were now much more smaller and intimate affairs now that he was a private citizen. He entertained members of the old crowd of people of his younger days: drag queens, actors, dancers and those with simply no talent at anything at all. These people were given money to never perform again. Sulla was as true to his old friendships as he was a feared and hated spectre to his enemies. All of Sulla's old entourage had been given something from the estates of those he had vanquished whether they had talent or not. Sulla did seem to enjoy his retirement at his villa in Campania immensely. In his mind he had restored the Republic and brought the glorious days of old back. However, even if many agreed with him, the good times had been bought with brutality and bloodshed.

Cities very close to Sulla's retirement villa bore witness to this, as they still had their battle wounds from trying to fight him. The rebel fortress city of Nola finally fell in 80 BC. Nola had held out for almost a decade, its resolved made all the stronger by witnessing the awful atrocities that had led other towns to incinerate themselves rather than surrender. Sulla established a colony of his veterans in the city-both to punish it and occupy it. This was one of many such colonies imposed across Samnium and Campania. To further humiliate Nola he gave it a new name- Colonia Felix-the Felix part referring back to himself. In another show of how he could never forgive or forget old enemies, even dead ones-he sold Marius's exquisite villa at a very low price to his daughter Cornelia. Sulla's outrageous cruelty would never be forgotten or forgiven. He had given Romans their first taste of what it was like to live under a tyrant. Also, after Sulla had marched on Rome he had shown that there really were no barriers that couldn't be broken in the quest for ultimate power.

As horrible as Sulla was in so many ways, he had also worked furiously to see that he would not have a successor. It isn't strange at all that historians of the future who were used to all power being held by one man found Sulla such an enigma. We can surely agree with their bewilderment, as they found it bizarre that he had voluntarily walked away from absolute power. The contradictions would remain until the very end. When Sulla died in 79 BC, there wasn't even agreement on how to deal with his funeral. One consul wanted to deprive him of any funeral honors at all, the other wanted to give him a state funeral. This dispute was solved, quite appropriately in Sulla's case, by the threat of violence. A huge escort of Sulla's veterans brought their general from Campania to Rome, and the Roman people were "as terrified of Sulla's army and his corpse as if he were still alive." (Appian, 1. 106). The image is one of the more complimentary busts of Sulla. I have much more done that is ready to go-I just do not want to promise anything in case net connection problems come back. Peace and be well to anyone stopping by!

Empires: Rome -Sulla: Dictator Part Two

Many Greek rulers had chosen to depict themselves as younger than they really looked. This was not the case with the Republic. The marble busts and portraiture of Rome seemed to place great value on imaging aging statesmen as they really appeared-wrinkles, thinning hair and all of the ravages of time. The Senate, which had been the traditional ruling body, derived its name from "senex" or old man and liked to dignify themselves with the title of "Fathers." The notion that an assembly of men who had not only physical wealth, but also a wealth of experience and wisdom that would act as a barrier against the wild and irresponsible members of society such as the young and the poor, was a notion held dear in every conservative's heart. Being a conservative, Sulla now aimed to uplift the Senate to its former glamorous state after being the same man who had so reduced its numbers. Sulla not only increased the numbers of men in the Senate to the largest in Roman history, but also increased the number of praetorships on offer any one year to eight, and of quaestorships from eight to twenty. Sulla clearly intended that the higher offices of power had new faces in them regularly.

One office that Sulla brought lower instead of higher was the office of the tribunate. Knowing that his old enemy Sulpicius had been a tribune, Sulla's debilitation of that office was a delicious act of personal revenge, as were all of Sulla's disputes and blood feuds. Never again would a tribune be allowed to propose a bill against a consul-in fact Sulla barred them from proposing bills altogether. Also, in Sulla's new plan a tribune was barred from seeking further magistracies. Sulla was a one man demolition team as far as the ancient pillars of the constitution were concerned. It wasn't only in legislative matters that Sulla sought to change things. Troubled by Rome's congestion and overpopulation he pushed back the boundary of the pomerium, Rome's ancient sacred boundary and was the first Roman in history to do so. He had the Senate House rebuilt to accomodate its larger numbers. However, because the original building had been sanctified by the Republic's heroes, Romans mourned its loss, saying "its enlargement appeared to have shrunk it." (Cicero, On the Ends of Good and Evil, 5.2). Sulla only appeared to be bounded by custom on the sacred grounds of the Capitol.

The temple of Jupiter had been burned to the ground but its outline remained. The columns that Sulla had stolen from Athens were put in the new temple, but the temple itself remained within its ancient boundaries. Well before the new temple was rebuilt, however, Sulla had resigned his office. Knowing about just a few of the dictators of the blood-soaked twentieth century makes this amazing to me. He simply let go of the reigns of power sometime in late 81 BC. Sulla was the man responsible for the deaths of more Roman citizens than any other Roman in history, one would think he would have been scared of leaving office until death took him. Apparently his courage, nerve, luck or insanity-very probably a combination of all of those was validated. Perhaps just the terror of his name was enough, "fearing neither the people at home nor the exiles abroad...Such was the extent of his daring and good luck." (Appian, 1. 103-104). Sulla did serve as consul the year after he resigned his dictatorship, and the year after that he did not hold any office at all. The image is a model of how the sacred Capitoline Hill in Rome may have appeared. I hope to finish up with Sulla's dictatorship very soon-there is only a bit left to go-maybe tonight-need to rest a bit now. Peace and be well to anyone stopping by!

Empires: Rome -Sulla: Dictator Part One

Many Romans felt that if the census was not done properly the whole fabric of society would crumble. Sulla had chosen an ironic place to keep prisoners of war, and that 'irony' was about to become more terrible. He had sent orders for the Senate to meet him at the temple of Bellona, which was within hearing range of the Villa Publica. It was Bellona who had warned Sulla to win victory quickly or see the Capitol destroyed. With his choice of her temple to give his speech to the senators at, Sulla was going to make two things known at least. He was favored by the gods-in his case it would be very appropriate to add goddesses-he also felt favored by the goddess Venus, and was sent by divine power to be the savior of Rome. When Sulla began speaking of victory over Mithridates, the senators began to hear screams of agony coming from the Samnite prisoners in the Villa Publica. "Some criminals are receiving their punishment, there is no need for worry, it is all being done on my orders," Sulla told his 'captive' audience. (Plutarch, Sulla.30.). Sulla was making a gesture that wasn't lost on anyone, by executing the Samnite prisoners in the Villa Publica. If the very census was flawed upon which rested the hierarchies of status and prestige that it decreed, then the very bedrock upon which the whole edifice rested was corrupt and needed desperate intervention. Sulla-with divine blessings would perform the necessary repairs, no matter how much blood would be spilled.

Sulla left Rome for Praeneste-the final holdout of the Marian cause to make his victory complete. On his way there he learned that the city had surrendered and Marius's son was dead. Rome was now without consuls. Sulla wasn't worried about this at all-he celebrated the vanquishing of his most hated enemy's bloodline by awarding himself the title of Felix- "The Fortunate One." The reign of Sulla was to be a ferocious and savage bloodbath. His death squads began killing even as the Samnites were being slaughtered in the Villa Publica. Even Sulla's most ardent supporters, so used to blood being spilled, were appalled at the carnage. In the early stages of the purge a list was posted in the Forum. It condemned the entire Marian leadership to death. Their properties were declared forfeit. Their sons and grandsons were barred from holding office. Anyone who helped to hide or protect them was also condemned to death. Eventually more lists appeared-hundreds and maybe thousands of names were involved. Names were being put on the lists who had no Marian sympathies whatsoever. However, the wealth of these people made them targets. Swimming pools, villas and pleasure gardens could now be the equivalent of a death sentence. A large part of the surfeit of wealth that was gained from the execution of people on the proscription lists wound up in the hands of Sulla's supporters and proteges.

The severed heads of those killed in the bloodbath would be brought back to Rome. Sulla might keep a prized victims head as a trophy in his house, after he had given the bounty hunter the promised fee. This grotesque system of accounting finally led to a break in the relationship between Sulla and Crassus. Crassus who had exploited the system of the proscription lists so much to add to his own wealth-of which he already had plenty, had only gotten away with so much of it because he was Sulla's ally of the battle of the Colline Gate. Sulla's patience with him had finally snapped when Crassus had put the name of an innocent millionaire on a death list with a little too much insouciance. Crassus was one of the few men in Rome who could afford not to care about a break with Rome's new master. Sulla's conservative nature had not changed a bit over the years. He had a patrician's contempt for new ideas, even after bringing the massive cycles of bloodshed and upheavals upon Rome. Sulla, who once had made his bed in flophouses was now the richest man in Roman history. He didn't wish to impose a radical new system of government on Rome, but he had to find a way to 'legalize' his position because he was too scared to put himself before the judgment of the voters.

Lucky as ever, there was an example in Rome's ancient past when citizens had wielded absolute power without being elected. Sulla 'lightly' strongarmed the Senate into bringing out the antiquated old office of dictator and appoint him to it. Not a believer in term limits, Sulla said he was to remain dictator until the constitution had been 'revised.' Of course, only he would be the decider of when this task was complete. Sulla had twenty-four lictors compared to a consuls twelve, and this summed up nicely how greatly out of proportion Sulla's power was to that of other magistrates. A huge irony that cast a very large shadow over Sulla's 'revising' of the consitution was that his job as dictator was to make sure that no man in the future could do the very things he had done to gain power in Rome. Sulla felt he had to be perceived as without guilt in starting the civil war. He also voiced the idea through his propaganda that overarching ambition had tempted Marius and Sulpicius into puttin themselves above the Republic and that it was the corruption and decay or the Republic's own institutions that had helped them to rise to power. But as always Sulla was portrayed as the savior and corrector of problems such as these. Sulla must have got a psychological kick out of changing some the the laws. For instance, each magistracy was to have an age barrier, and Sulla who had courted prostitutes and other streetwise types in his twenties, must have delighted in the fact that these new laws would discriminate against young rising stars. The new laws Sulla enacted made sure that there would only be a single path to the ultimate prize of the consulship with no short-cuts or side-stepping. Sulla's revisions also made middle-age the 'appropriate' age when a man became powerful. The image is a model of the Campus Martius as it would have appeared around 300 AD. Peace and be well to anyone stopping by! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lictor

Empires: Rome - The Playboy & The General Part Seven

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.

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!