033 - Marius and Sulla

Hello, and welcome to the History of Rome, episode 33, Marius and Sulla. After emerging as the hero of the Social War, Lucius Cornelius Sulla had been elected consul in 88 BC. With the brief civil war put to rest, Roman attention was immediately diverted east, where Mithridates IV, king of Pontus, was threatening the newly incorporated province of Asia located on the far side of the Aegean.

Trouble had been brewing for years, and in 88 BC Mithridates did not simply cross the line, he jumped over it. After several run-ins with the Roman legions garrisoned in the east, Mithridates decided that the Westerners had to go and Anatolia should be returned to her native people. To this end, he initiated a mass slaughter that was to become known as the Asiatic Vespers. Enlisting the help of locals in cities across the Turkish peninsula, anyone who so much as spoke with a Latin accent was targeted for death. Over 80,000 Roman citizens and allies were murdered across the east, coinciding with the king's invasion of Asia.

The Romans were justifiably horrified and immediately raised an invasion force to avenge the slaughter. Sulla was the natural choice to lead the invasion, but old Marius had his mind set on one last fling with glory, and arranged for the senate's choice of Sulla to lead to be annulled by the people's assemblies. This annulment was guaranteed when armed gladiatorial bodyguards in the employ of Marius and his allies literally threw senators out of the senate so a quorum could not be reached to overturn the decision, to overturn the original decision the senate had come to originally.

The introduction of mob violence into Roman politics precipitated by the Gracchi was starting to become less and less an exception and more and more the rule. Sulla was forced to flee for his life and made his way to the army encamped along the Adriatic.

The army was ready for the planned invasion, but before they sailed east, Sulla would march them west. He incited the troops, most of whom were loyal to Sulla anyway, into a frenzy over the anti-democratic thuggery of Marius. Ready to follow Sulla anywhere, the consul pointed them towards Rome and announced that with their help he was going to evict Marius from the city.

His officers were appalled. It was illegal for the legions to cross the traditional city limits of Rome, and as much as they disapproved of Marius, they simply could not abide by Sulla's brazen flouting of the law. When they reached the city, all but one of Sulla's officers, a close lieutenant named Lucullus, refused to cross the line. Sulla respected their decision, but was not dissuaded from his plan and took the troops right into Rome.

Inside the city, Marian partisans organized gladiators and slaves into a defense force, but they were no match for trained legionnaires, and in the brief street fighting that ensued, Sulla's army had no trouble turning the pathetic defenders to heel. Marius himself barely escaped with his life and fled, along with his son to Africa. Sulla restored order to Rome, had Marius declared an enemy of the state, and put the senate back in control of the city.

All of this drama filled the entirety of Sulla's era's consul, and it wasn't until 87 BC that he was actually able to lead his army out of the city to the east, where they should have already commenced the retaliatory campaign against Mithridates.

But the minute Sulla left town, Marius began to plot his return. Many in Rome, who had been ambivalent in the political showdown between Marius and Sulla, had been pushed over to the Marian camp by Sulla's completely illegal and immoral seizure of the city. In 87 BC, the people of Rome did themselves no favors if they hoped to keep turmoil in the city to a minimum by electing as co-consuls Gnaeus Octavius, a staunch conservative and Sulla partisan, and Lucius Cornelius Cinna, a populare who was fast becoming the leader of the anti-Sulla forces in Rome.

While not necessarily pro-Marius, Cinna nonetheless saw an alliance with the old general as an advantageous way to box out Sulla's allies. Throughout 87 BC, Octavius and Cinna clashed repeatedly, until Cinna was driven out of town by an angry mob. Once outside Rome, Cinna immediately began gathering men who were to help him fight his way back to power.

Marius, meanwhile, was raising an army in Africa with the intention of following the precedent Sulla had just set by marching on Rome and capturing the city. When Marius crossed the short span of the Mediterranean back into Italy at the head of a loyal army, Cinna saw an opportunity to strengthen his own position. He formally joined with Marius and the combined forces stormed into Rome.

What followed was five straight days of terror and bloodshed. Marius simply released his army inside the city with orders to kill anyone allied with, or suspected of allying with, or suspected of having the same name as someone who was allied, with Sulla. Noble families fled or fought depending on their disposition. Hundred Sulla partisans were killed and their heads were displayed in the forum.

Finally, after five days of unchecked violence, Cinna could stand no more and ordered his own troops to put a stop to Marius' men. The army from Africa was ordered to stand down and those who refused were killed by Cinna's troops. Order finally restored, elections for next year's consulships were held.

That Marius and Cinna were elected came as no surprise to anyone. Anyone who opposed them was either dead or fled. For Marius, the election to his seventh consulship fulfilled the promise of his legendary encounter with the seven eagle chicks so many years before. Satisfied that his destiny had been met, the old general died in 86 BC, just two weeks after his election, leaving Cinna in sole control of Rome.

While all this drama was unfolding back home, Sulla was off in the east leading the effort to re-pacify Greece. Mithridates had overrun the province of Asia and had made the Greek cities along the Aegean coast his accomplices in the mass murder of Latins in Anatolia. Welcomed as a liberator, the king pressed his luck by going one step further and attempted to push the Romans out of Greece altogether. In his effort, he was backed by the Armenian kingdom, which was reaching the zenith of its own power. Combined, the two hoped to retake the eastern Mediterranean from the alien westerners. The ensuing war with Rome would have far-reaching consequences. Rather than being pushed back to where they came from, the Romans wound up planting their standards even further from home.

When Sulla crossed over to Epirus in 87 BC, he found that Mithridates was well on his way to turning the Greeks against Rome. In Athens, a puppet tyrant had been installed and was backed by a Pontic army led by Mithridates' most able general, Archelaus. This would be as far west as Mithridates would make it, however, as the mere sight of the 40,000 Roman soldiers was enough to convince the remaining Greek cities to remain loyal.

Sulla's first order of business was to bring Athens back into the Roman fold. When he arrived, though, the city was obstinate and shut its gates, so Sulla was forced to sit back and lay a siege. While encamped outside the city, refugees from the Marian reign of terror began to trickle in, and Sulla first received the news that Marius had returned to power and that he had been officially exiled from Rome. He maintained his focus on the task at hand, however, and for the rest of the year and through the beginning of 86 BC, Sulla remained at the gates of Athens.

Finally, in March of 86, the vigilance of the Athenian defenders waned and Sulla stormed the walls in a midnight raid. Once inside, Sulla was not feeling particularly generous and did nothing to rein his troops in. The slaughter was only halted after Greek friends of Sulla begged him to stop the carnage.

The Pontic army under Archelaus had sailed north, and Sulla left Athens to lick its many wounds. On his way out the door, however, Sulla set fire to the Athenian port of Piraeus, a final reminder of what happens to those who stand against Rome.

Sulla caught up with Archelaus north of Athens in the Greek province of Boeotia. The Pontic army by this point numbered 120,000, three times larger than the Roman legions chasing them. Sulla studiously avoided being drawn into a fight until he found terrain that would mitigate Archelaus' overwhelming numerical advantage. Finally, at Chaeronea, Sulla found his spot. He lured Archelaus into attacking when the Romans held fortified high ground. With Sulla personally dashing from wing to wing to keep up with wave after wave sent in by Archelaus, the Romans outlasted the increasingly stretched-thin Pontic army. Seeing a shot, Sulla charged and chased the opposing army back towards their camp, encircling them before they reached home base. The final casualty figure showed that while the Pontic army had been slaughtered, the Romans emerged from the battle practically unscathed.

With this smashing victory in Greece, Sulla remained as popular as ever with the people of Rome, despite the continuing hostility from the elites left in the city and the fact that he technically was an exile. Sulla was re-elected consul in 85 BC and decided that Sulla needed to be formally relieved of duty, not because there was any doubt he would triumph over Mithridates, but because there was no doubt he would eventually triumph over Mithridates. And that victory would leave Sulla unquestionably the most powerful man in Rome.

So Sulla raised an army and placed men with strong anti-Sulla passions in charge. They were to find Sulla, relieve him of his command, and combine the two armies. However, when the army led by Lucius Valerius Flaccus and Gaius Flavius Fimbria arrived and camped beside Sulla's army, things went backward. Sulla encouraged the new arrivals to defect over to his side and pretty soon the new army was hemorrhaging troops.

Flaccus, unable to make Sulla stand down, led his army north, officially to track down the army Mithridates himself was leading towards Greece, but unofficially to simply distance himself from the seductive charisma of Sulla. The dissension in the ranks spread, however, and the remaining troops soured on Flaccus. Eventually, his second-in-command Fimbria led a mutiny. Flaccus was murdered and Fimbria took over.

But being a staunch Marian partisan, the new leader had no intention of joining with Sulla, he just wanted to take Mithridates himself and steal Sulla's thunder.

Sulla himself remained behind in Boeotia, readying himself for the rematch with Archelaus, who was being reinforced from the east by the Armenians, and soon was back at the head of an army, again numbering more than 100,000. The two sides met at Orchomenos, but the outcome was no different this time around. The superior tactical ability of Sulla, which was executed by the far more disciplined Roman soldiers, was too much for the Pontic army. Once again, Archelaus was forced to make a run for it as Sulla annihilated the army he left behind.

After crossing the Hellespawn into Asia, Fimbria found Mithridates and fought a limited battle that saw Rome get the better of the Pontic king. But without support from the Roman navy patrolling the Aegean, Mithridates was able to slip away from Fimbria. The navy, led by Lucullus, Sulla's most loyal officer, was not about to come to the aid of a political enemy.

Mithridates, however, could see the handwriting on the wall, and in late 85 BC he offered to come to terms with the Romans. The Pontic king met with Sulla, much to Fimbria's dismay, and peace terms were hashed out. Mithridates was to remain in control of Pontus, but had to otherwise withdraw his forces from every other region he occupied. Rome would move in and occupy these territories, extending Roman dominion even further into the east.

The territories that had rebelled and the newly acquired regions were forced to pay a steep price for challenging Rome. Not only was the annual tax burden increased, but Sulla demanded five years worth of back taxes at the same rate. The financial punishment left most of Anatolia deep in debt and unable to direct their wealth towards any other end than paying back Rome. This, in addition to filling Rome's coffers, kept them from making further mischief.

With the war against Mithridates settled, Sulla returned to his war against his domestic political opponents. Fimbria, who had taken command of the province of Asia, was of immediate concern. The mutinous general talked a good game, but the minute Sulla crossed the Hellespont, Fimbria committed suicide, knowing he was no match for Sulla and would likely be executed one way or the other for his actions.

With the east fully pacified, Sulla began to strategize about a return to Rome. Cinna, who had effectively run the city for the past few years unopposed, was well aware that if Sulla came back, the party would come to an abrupt end. Taking advantage of some minor commotion in Illyria, Cinna raised an army to quell the unrest. The fact that Illyria lay directly between Sulla and Rome had nothing to do with Cinna's desire to march an army there, of course.

In his haste, bordering on panic, to get his army in place, Cinna, however, pushed his troops too hard, force-marching them through snowdrifts to reach Illyria in time to block Sulla's path. In one of history's little twists of fate, Cinna's soldiers mutinied and stoned the four-time consul to death. The path to Rome now lay open, and hearing the news, Sulla immediately ordered his troops to head home.

Sulla, it seemed, was marching on Rome... again. There will be no episode next week, as I will be spending the weekend moving across town. But in two weeks, we'll return for Sulla's second march on Rome, the crowning of Rome's first dictator for life, and, inexplicably, the retirement of Rome's first dictator for