They sought alliances with many of the Italian cities Caesar would give up almost all of his provinces, but keep at least Illyricum and one legion until the start of his second consulship. Diss. His only saving graces appear to be that his patriotism can’t be in doubt, and that the Republican party is just a vehicle for him, rather than an ideological stronghold. L. Domitius Ahenobarbus was put in charge of an investigation into the bribery and violence of recent months. This began with the escape of a band of gladiators led by Spartacus from a school in Capua, but soon expanded into a full-blown revolt. Secondly, the article is about Sulla and Marius and has almost nothing to do with their factional associations. Cambridge University Press, Apr. The combined Roman forces were able to defeat the besieging forces (battle of the Nile). Ridley, Ronald T. “The Dictator’s Mistake: Caesar’s Escape from Sulla.” JSTOR. In 65 BC he reached Crimea, where he seized power from his disloyal son Machares, and began to plot for his return. On 17 January the news that he was already at Ancona reached the city, and Pompey decided to Rome. By 56 BC the triumvirate appeared to be in trouble. 82, between the consular army of Norbanus, and the Sullans under Metellus. My study of history has lead me away from the ancient world for the time being but I will be sure to look at these sources once I have the time and once I’ve worked through the rest of my current reading list, Again I find extreme bias with your work, to say “Optimate, who respected the rules and traditions of the Roman state” inferring that all Optimates did so is wrong, remember the first to march on Rome with an army, a precedent which spelled the end of the Roman Republic and it’s traditions was an Optimate, Sulla, First of all, that is exactly what Populares and Optimates were, here is an encyclopedia Britannica post on the subject https://www.britannica.com/topic/Optimates-and-Populares. The other towns in Thessaly opened their gates to Caesar. Caesar was still in Gaul, so this only left Pompey in Rome. the city gates after the populares army had already been defeated. As further readings about it, if you like it, I would like to mention the following studies: BADIAN E., Roman Imperialism in the Late Republic, Oxford 1968 (2nd ed.). Caesar probably stayed in Egypt for another couple of months after the battle, going on a river tour down the Nile with the by now heavily pregnant Cleopatra. Only Vercingetorix was executed after the triumph. On one occasion Caesar's men lined their fortifications with the severed heads of their enemies. But he supports their interests”(Sherwin White 5). The consul Gabinius protested and was attacked. Caesar was also able to use propaganda, portraying his enemies as the tool of a barbarian king, to convince some of the Republicans to desert to him. Trans. He ordered the consuls and senate to move south to Campania. Metellus in I07 had obediently gone home when deprived of Africa, and they expected Sulla to do likewise in 88. He only had access to two legions, both of which had served under Caesar and were thus of doubtful loyalty. Democrats have been increasing their base in the Electoral College at the same time. By this time Lucullus had lost much of his political support in Rome, and in 66 BC Pompey was given command of the war. Defeated Mithradates in Greece. It is for this reason that Marius is most often compared with the likes of Pyrrhus and with the Demos of Tarentum. It also demonstrated how powerless the Senate was to effectively do anything to prevent this as Sulla marched on Rome not just once but 2 times in 88 and 83 B.C. Crassus finally began his invasion of Parthia, only to be defeated and killed at Carrhae. Caesar was helped by Bocchus of Mauretania and P. Sittius, a Roman serving under Bocchus, who invaded Juba's kingdom. For our purposes, it’s enough to know this highly simplified version. However he was also a fairly skilful political operator. Sulla fled, sailing to Greece, where the Mithradatic War veterans had maintained their loyalty to him. There is no doubt that the Roman Republic was a very successful system, but it had a number of flaws which would ultimately spell its doom. According to one source, his friends applauded him because of their respect and his enemies because he was dead.[1]. Once again Bibulus refused to allow it to pass. Early in the year Clodius and Milo ran into each other near Bovillae outside Rome, and Clodius was killed after taking refuge in a nearby tavern. However, the danger was very real and Plutarch, much as is outlined above, describes the reasoning behind the decision to make Marius consul following his defeat of Jugurtha, “This would not be the first time, they reckoned, that considerations of legality had given way before considerations of what was good for Rome, and the reasons for doing so now were certainly no less compelling than when they had illegally appointed Scipio consul…”(Plutarch 132). Marius was a novus homo from Arpinum whose ancestors were from a moderately distinguished equestrian background. Gnaeus Carbo attempted to lift the Siege of Praeneste but failed and fled to Africa. The pay was very good and best of all, there were promises of land for soldiers who survived their term of service. Part of his time was spent preparing for the celebration of four triumphs in succession, to mark his victories in Gaul, Egypt, Pharnaces and Juba. He was then chosen to bring Caesar’s peace offer to the Senate. Caesar had his year as consul and his command in Gaul, but had made permanent enemies in the Senate, who spent the entire time he was in Gaul preparing to bring him down on his return. Sulla was a much more adept politician than Marius however. Strictly speaking this move by Rufus and Marius, though reprehensible to Roman sensibilities, was perfectly legal under Roman law and by rights Marius should have been placed in charge of Sulla’s army. As Harriet goes on to conclude, “It was this republic of Sulla, not a more traditional one, that proved so unstable in the 70s bc and beyond, as it slowly disintegrated, even as no second lawgiver emerged to propose a systematic and workable revision of Sulla’s system of government”(Harriet 12-13). and played a major role in Roman politics. Sulla believed that the popular assemblies and the Tribunes of the Plebs were largely responsible for political instability in Rome (rather ignoring the role of ambitious aristocrats such as himself). This did not happen at first, as A. N. Sherwin-White states, ”The Marian army reforms took a sinister turn only when a general appealed to his troops to help him against the Senate or the Comitia. Marcellus announced that he would raise the issue of replacing Caesar in Gaul, making him vulnerable to prosecution. I strongly suspect that those who think they can control him once in office are in for a rude surprise. This brings us to the account by Livy of the last king of Rome and a hated tyrant, Tarquinius Superbus. As Sulla likely saw it, he was breaking the law to uphold the law. Caesar, as a proconsul and governor of Gaul, had the right to command troops within his province. The elections were held early in 55 BC, and as planned Pompey and Crassus were duly elected. In the Britain of the late 1920’s a biography of Sulla was written by a G.P. His main task at Rome was to make sure that he was elected as one of the Consuls for 48 C. His first problem was that only the existing consuls could run the election, and they were with Pompey in Greece. If one had to list all the things Pompeius ‘Magnus’ wasn’t, it’d be vying for top of the list with an albino black sheep, I lost all remaining faith in the book at that moment. From that point, the path to Rome was blocked only No doubt many of these actions brought him the goodwill or at least the approval of much of the aristocracy, his removal of most powers of the Tribune’s of the Plebs and his granting control of the law courts to the senate (juries would now until the law was again altered be composed entirely of senators) seem to have been particularly popular with a significant group of senators (and increasingly unpopular with many other people), not to mention the fact that building Sulla up could be and was used to take credit from and attack the reputation of Marius. She would be relentless in her pursuit of a functional one-party state. Sulpicius Rufus, reputedly an honest man. I am, as well, perfectly willing to entertain as a strategy helping to elect one of them, and immediately setting about to undermine him or her, in order to give American more wriggle-room. At first Caesar attempted to win over the optimates, acting in an apparently reasonable way. No, nothing nearly as fun as any of that! LINTOTT A.W., Electoral Bribery in the Roman Republic, JRS 80 (1990), pp. Naturally such political giants as Sulla or Marius played a large role in making or breaking the careers of many other men and also became symbols of certain viewpoints, ideas and values with which people could and did identify (then and now). The Civil war of Marius and Sulla—probably Pompey then joined Catulus in time to take part in the final battle of the brief civil war at Cosa in Etruria. Despite Bibulus's best efforts, Caesar managed to cross to Greece with seven legions, but the rest of his army, under Mark Antony, was trapped at Brundisium. Known for extravagant lifestyle. Let’s be perfectly clear – a Clinton presidency would be a catastrophe for freedom and liberty, for actual traditional American values. As White demonstrates the soldiers were at first used for voting purposes and as the mob to which Marius could appeal to, but they would not remain this way. [1] The campaign was successful, and Marius was rewarded with re-election as consul and a triumph. Senator slaying season! The first saw the Senate, supported by Caesar's heir Octavian, fight Mark Antony, Caesar's master of the horse. The campaign only took three months, and by the end of the summer of 67 BC the pirates had been defeated. Both comments and pings are currently closed. After an attempt to introduce voting reform failed he was expelled from the city, raised an army, and returned to besiege Rome.