While the Senate and the populares were struggling, Roman armies were fighting continually on the frontiers, particularly in northern Italy and Macedonia.
In 118 Micipsa King of Numidia died. He left his kingdom to be ruled by his two sons Adherbal and Hiempsal, and a nephew Jugurtha. They quarreled and divided the kingdom. Jugurtha caused Hiempsas to be assassinated and drove Adherbal from the country. Adherbal fled to Rome to appeal for aid, for he had an alliance with Rome inherited from his ancestors. Jugurtha also sent an emissary, with lots of cash. The Senate decided on partition of Numidia, with Jugurtha getting the richer half. In 113, Jugurtha attacked Adherbal’s capital Cirta, which was defended by Italians who had settled there for business. Rome sent a delegation to investigate, the result of which was the forcing of Cirta to surrender. Adherbal and all the city’s defenders were put to death.
The slaughter of so many Italians raised a storm of protest in Rome, where business interests forced the Senate to declare war. The first Roman army sent was bribed and settled, which the Senate accepted. The opponents of the Senate did not. Another war began, in which the Roman army was defeated and then surrendered, with bribery again playing a role. A tribune proposed to bring to trial those guilty of misconduct with Jugurtha was passed by the Assembly. In 109 a consul named Metellus took control. With him was an officer named Marius, an equestrian, whom Sallust described as the darling “of all the artisans and rustics whose hands furnished thei only wealth and prosperity.” Marius was a “new man” whom the Senate disdained. The tribal assemblies appointed him commander of the army.
Metellus was successful against Jugurtha, but he could not finish him off. Marius wanted to return to Rome to run for consul in 108, but Metellus refused then relented. Marius was elected consul, but the Senate wanted to keep Metellus in command. The populares passed a law in the Assembly conferring command on Marius, which the Senate accepted. Marius took control; with him as quaestor was Sulla. Finally Marius defeated Jugurtha and returned to Rome to be elected for consul in 104, which was unprecedented, because of an imminent invasion from the north.
Two immediate results from the war: further reduction of prestige of the Senate; a coalition of equestrians and populares could hold sway over the Senate. Perhaps a third was the precedent of military exigency superceding Roman law. The fourth was the troops Marius used in his wars.
If the Senate depended on rank for their auctoritas, it makes sense that the populares would use talent at their chief criterion. It so happened at this time that rank did not mean talent, and the Senate was incompetent in Africa and in the north against the Cimbri and Teutones.
At Arausio (Orange) two Roman armies were destroyed, the worst single defeat since Cannae, and it was due to friction between the two Roman commanders. Marius was called upon to protect Rome from this northern threat. Marius set about to reform the army. Like he did in the war with Jugurtha, he used those whose lack of property had previously disqualified them for service. Military service became a career choice for those who were landless and unemployed. Upon discharge, these troops looked to their commanders to secure them lands. Thus these soldiers were more loyal to their commander than to Rome. It is worth noting what in effect was the military’s solution for the economic problems in Italy, brought about by the utter failure of the Senate to address these problems.
Marius was reelected consul in 103 and 102 because the threat was ongoing. After several battles and one more consulship Marius prevailed, saving Rome from a second Gallic sacking.
No military threat, Marius nonetheless was intent on seeking a 6th consulship. Nor did he have a political platform. He did, however, intend to give his veterans land. The Senate opposed this measure, and since the urban poor had nothing to gain from it, they followed their patrons’ lead and opposed it by force. Marius’ veterans of course beat them and Marius won the election, but the violence was unprecedented.
Note well who opposed the soldiers, and who supported them.
Recall that Gaius Gracchus had attempted to reform the judiciary. In 91, a tribune named Drusus, of a prominent senatorial family, proposed a reform of the juries. He proposed increasing the size of the Senate to 600 by adding 300 equestrians and to have the juries chosen half from the new Senate and half from the remaining equestrian. He also proposed new grain distributions to help the urban poor and woo their support. To compensate for the allies’ loss of land, he offered to enfranchise them. The Senate opposed the bill, as did the urban poor. Including several distinct measures in one bill was unconstitutional, so the Senate declared the whole bill invalid. So Drusus introduced the franchise bill by itself for a second vote, but before the vote took place he was assassinated. Thus died the last civilian reformer in Roman history.
Drusus’ assassination caused the Social Wars of 91-89. First the Italian allies made a formal request of citizenship from the Senate, which the Senate refused. So they declared their independence, an area that included almost all the central and southern parts of Italy. They made a formidable foe. Having long served in the Roman military, they knew Roman fighting tactics and discipline. Marius was important in the battles, but the results were indecisive. The allies had enough successes that other Roman allies began to join them. So the Romans offered citizenship to those allies who had not revolted and to those who would lay down arms.
The following year the Romans began to win. Sulla broke the power of the allies in the south. Moreover, the Romans kept extending citizenship, to the point that by 88 the revolt died out. Rather than enroll the new citizens in all of the 35 Roman tribes, which could allow them to dominate in the Assembly, they voted in certain tribes only, so that their influence could be restricted. Of course the allies were unhappy with this settlement and it continued to be an issue. With the extension of citizenship came the adoption of Roman public and private law, which served to Latinize the Italians.
The reason the Senate was so anxious to settle the Social Wars was due to danger in the East. In 121 Mithradates had succeeded to the throne of Cappadocia, a small kingdom on the southern coast of the Black Sea that was strongly Hellenistic. He extended his kingdom over the eastern and northern shores of the Black Sea, hence the name Pontus. From 112 to 92 he tried five times to extend his kingdom into Asia Minor and five times he withdrew. Finally in 89 he waged war, believing the time was right due to Rome’s involvement in the Social Wars. At his command on a set date his forces and sympathizers, those whom the Roman suzerainty had exploited, massacred 80,000 Romans and Italians living in Asia. Athens threw him their support. Thus Rome lost Asia, its most lucrative possession.
In Rome, Marius, then 86, wanted the command against Mithradates. Marius allied himself with a tribune against Sulla, who supported the Senate. When Sulla left to fight Mithradates, a law was passed transferring his command to Marius. Sulla returned to Rome with his army, where he outlawed those responsible for deposing him and “passing” a series of reforms that strengthened the hand of the Senate, the most important of which was the revival of the senatorial veto over laws passed in the Assembly.
Ultimately Sulla prevailed against Mithradates. A general named Flaccus was sent to succeed him in command, but Sulla refused to give it up. They agreed to campaign separately. Flaccus was killed by his own troops because he refused to let them plunder.
While in Greece, however, the Marian party has reasserted itself in Rome. Marius, who had escaped to Mauritania, now returned and marched on Rome. They forced their opponents to surrender, forced the repeal of Sulla’s laws, and massacred the leading senators. It was at this time that Flaccus was sent to take Sulla’s command. The war with Mithradates complete, Sulla was now ready to return to Rome at the head of a victorious army. The Senate wanted to negotiate to prevent further civil war. The consuls Cinna and Carbo took an army to meet him. Cinna was killed by his own troops. Carbo would not let the Senate yield to Sulla’s demands. In the spring of 83 Sulla landed at Brundisium with an army of 40,000 who swore an oath of allegiance to him. He was joined in this fighting by Pompey. In the course of the fighting the Marians at one point tried to attack Rome but were prevented from doing so by Sulla who destroyed them. Since soldiers were fighting for either personal gain or out of personal loyalty, one chose sides according to one’s chances of winning, which explains why there were many desertions to Sulla’s army.
Back in Rome, Sulla proceeded to list the names of his enemies in the Forum: public notice was given that they could be killed with impunity and their property was to be confiscated. Rewards were offered to those who brought about these deaths. As result of the confiscation of land, 150,000 of Sulla’s veterans got land. One would think it a matter of policy to provide land for veterans, but this the Senate would not do. Thus the Senate fostered among veterans an intense loyalty to commanders, who might not have had the Senate’s interests in mind. His arrangements were sanctioned by the Senate that gave him full power for the future.
It appears that Sulla saved Rome, but he exposed the truth that the state was at the mercy of a determined general with an army whose fidelity was won simply by the hope of gain. As early as the Social War Sulla aimed to win the affection of his troops by letting them plunder. Throughout his career he rewarded them well and ultimately gave them land. Julius Caesar was one of his students.
Sulla didn’t merely want power; he wanted to reestablish stability in the Roman republic. To do this he was made dictator. His general aim was to restore the Senate to the position prior to Tiberius Gracchus. He reinstated the Senatorial veto over the Assembly. The Senate would choose the commanders of the army. Administratively, he set a 10 year interval during which time a person could not hold the same office. One of his working assumptions was that no consul would ever threaten the Senate. He retired in 79. His reforms did not last long; what persisted was the memory of his example and his methods. In 49 Cicero describes Pompeians as thinking that proscriptions worked for Sulla, why not for them.