Download GAIUS MARIUS, LUCIUS APULEIUS SATURNINUS and GAIUS

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GAIUS MARIUS, LUCIUS APPULEIUS SATURNINUS and
GAIUS SERVILIUS GLAUCIA
We saw how the ‘War against Jugurtha’ and the fight against the
Germanic CIMBRI and TEUTONES who were threatening the
Italian peninsula brought the new man GAIUS MARIUS an
unprecedented string of consulships, the last, for 100 BC, an unheard
of sixth.
GAIUS MARIUS
(157 – 86 BC)
POLITICS IN THE YEARS LEADING TO 100 BC AND
THE ‘CRISIS’ OF 100 BC ITSELF
While there were other figures who left an impact on the politics of the
state, in the late 100s BC two politicians in particular stand out as
‘populist’ leaders: LUCIUS APPULEIUS SATURNINUS and
GAIUS SERVILIUS GLAUCIA.
SATURNINUS
1. a) SATURNINUS had served as a quaestor in 104 BC and, as
such, had overseen the imported grain at Ostia (Rome’s port).
b) For reasons that are not clear (for no charges were ever
brought against him) he was removed from his post by the
Senate.
c) This in itself appears to have been enough to drive him to a
more ‘populist’ outlook.
2. In 103 BC he was elected as a ‘tribune of the plebs’ and entered
into an agreement with MARIUS (consul for the third time).
Lucius Appuleius Saturninus was also a moneyer in 104 BC
and his name appears on the silver denarii he minted
3. Marius needed the passage of a measure so that land would become
available for demobilized veterans of his.
4. SATURNINUS proposed to pass into legislation a bill to provide
each veteran with an allotment of 100 iugera in the Roman
province of AFRICA in the region where many of them had served.
5. He also worked hard to see that Marius was elected yet again to
one of the consulships for 102 BC.
GLAUCIA
Co-operating with Saturninus, Gaius Servilius GLAUCIA served as a
‘tribune of the plebs’ in 101 BC and would go on to be one of the
praetors in 100 BC.
Since neither Saturninus nor Glaucia was above using questionable
means to achieve his ends and together they came to represent a force
to be reckoned with from the point of view of those in the ‘optimate’
camp, the very late 100s were years of considerable upheaval.
Examples of ‘optimate’ – ‘populist’ conflict in the late 100s
1. As one of the ‘tribunes of the plebs’ in 103 BC,
SATURNINUS was instrumental in bringing actions against
military commanders who had failed so badly against the
Germanic tribes before Marius had been put in charge.
2. In 102 BC Q. Caecilius METELLUS (who had been at odds with MARIUS
in the war against Jugurtha), as one of the censors, tried very hard (but
failed) to deprive SATURNINUS of his senatorial status.
3. In 101 BC SATURNINUS made public certain secret agreements
that some of the members of the nobility had made with
ambassadors who arrived in Rome from King Mithridates VI of
Pontus (in Asia Minor below the Black Sea) carrying large sums of money
with which to bribe senators so that Mithridates would receive
favourable terms from the Senate as he pursued his ambitions in
Asia Minor.
4.
a) Also in 101 BC SATURNINUS, working with Gaius
Servilius GLAUCIA (a ‘tribune’ for that year), put
MARIUS even more in his debt by forcing through another
agrarian measure to make land available for Marius to
distribute to his veterans now that he had returned the victor
against the Cimbri and Teutones.
b) Employing threats, he ignored the opposition of the tribunes,
other than GLAUCIA, and arranged for the necessary land to be
found in the Po Valley which the Cimbri had recently occupied,
even though the land belonged to provincial subjects whom the
Cimbri had driven out.
c) i) A clause in this law required all senators, within five days of
its passage, to swear an oath to observe it or be expelled
from the Senate and suffer a heavy fine.
ii) Only Q. Caecilius METELLUS refused to swear the oath
and ended up in exile.
5.
In the elections held in the summer of 101, SATURNINUS used
all the means at his disposal to have himself elected to a second
‘tribuneship’ for 100 BC, GLAUCIA elected to a praetorship, and
MARIUS elected to his sixth consulship.
THE YEAR 100 BC
1. a) The year 100 BC was to prove that Gaius MARIUS was
neither a ‘populist’ nor, indeed, that interested in politics.
b) He had been forced to ally with ‘populist’ leaders in order to
get the land he needed to satisfy his veteran troops to whom he
had made promises in return for their service.
2. While the details are not always clear to us, during 100 BC those in
the ‘optimate’ (conservative) camp appear to have determined to
bring an end to this excessive exercise of power by these ‘populists’.
3. SATURNINUS and GLAUCIA hoped to ward off any attempt to
bring them down once their terms in office expired by having
themselves re-elected in the elections in the summer of 100 BC:
a) SATURNINUS would aim for a third term as a ‘tribune of the
plebs’ for 99 BC;
b) GLAUCIA would aim for one of the consulships of 99 BC.
4. In the elections for the ‘tribuneships’ (which occurred before the
elections to the ‘state magistracies’) SATURNINUS was successful
in his aim.
5. Despite objections that the law required a period of two years
between a praetorship and a consulship, GLAUCIA presented
himself as a candidate in the state elections.
6. a) One of the ‘optimate’ candidates for a consulship, Marcus
Antonius Orator, was elected without serious opposition.
b) The other ‘optimate’ candidate, Gaius Memmius, who seemed to
have a very good chance of being elected to the second consular
position was beaten to death by thugs hired by SATURNINUS and
GLAUCIA during the voting.
7. The Senate
a) met in the face of such extremism,
b) declared SATURNINUS and GLAUCIA ‘public enemies’, and
c) passed “the FINAL DECREE of the SENATE” (the SENATUS
CONSULTUM ULTIMUM) advising the consuls to take action to
ensure the safety of the state.
8. The senior consul was GAIUS MARIUS.
9. Marius, already distressed, it is contended, by the excesses of his
political allies, determined that he had little choice: he should use his
authority to ensure public order and move against Saturninus, Glaucia,
and their supporters – despite how they had served his interests in the
past.
10. When Marius made his move there was a pitched battle in the Forum.
11. Defeated, SATURNINUS and GLAUCIA took refuge on the
Capitol but were forced to capitulate, MARIUS promising that
their lives would be spared.
12. After their arrest they were taken to the ‘Senate House’.
13. There is every indication that MARIUS, having saved them from
being lynched, wished to see them have a fair trial at a later date.
14. HOWEVER, “a mob” (apparently ‘optimate’ supporters)
climbed on to the roof of the Senate House, tore off the tiles, and
stoned many of those who had been arrested to death, including
SATURNINUS and GLAUCIA.
[This action would become an “issue” 37 years later]
A. After these momentous developments, the Senate declared most
of the legislation for which Saturninus had been responsible
‘null-and-void’.
B. i) MARIUS, despite his role in bringing down the two
“populists”, did not win any support from those with ‘optimate’
views and was shunned by the Senate.
ii) He was also no longer trusted by anyone in the ‘populist’
camp either.
LOCATION OF THE
‘SENATE HOUSE’
(The ‘CURIA HOSTILIA’)
in 100 BC
The much later Senate House
(about AD 300) – a reconstruction
of that built under Augustus
(27 BC – AD 14)
C. Isolated politically and lacking any organized support, MARIUS
went into voluntary exile in Asia Minor.
D. i) The ‘domestic scene’ after the events of 100 BC remained very
quiet.
ii) BUT looming more and more during the 90s was the growing
dissatisfaction amongst many of the Roman state’s allies in Italy
over their relationship with Rome.
iii) By 91 BC this dissatisfaction would erupt into open warfare in
the short, but fierce “SOCIAL WAR” (‘the war with the socii
[allies]’).
E. Many of Rome’s allies in Italy would soon declare a new federated
state – ITALIA - which, for a short time, would mint its own
coinage depicting, for example, the Italian “bull” goring the Roman
“wolf”.
Italian bull
goring Roman
wolf
The legend is in Oscan
Head of “ITALIA”
ALLIES signing a
PACT
Denarius of the Marsic Federation: the head of ITALIA with
the legend in Oscan UILETIV (= VITELIU = ITALIA) and
an Italian warrior