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The Roman Revolution
Gaius Marius
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| Gaius Marius |
Marius is the next figure in the story of the fall of the Republic. In contrast to the Gracchus brothers, Marius was a self-made man with no aristocratic background. He came from humble origins and made a spectacular career for himself through the Roman army.
In 112, Rome went to war with the kingdom of
Numidia, which
bordered the Roman province of Africa (what had once been Carthage). Despite
some early defeats, its king
Jugurtha was able to hold out for quite a long
time (the war lasted from 112 to 104). One consul after another took armies
into Africa only to be outmaneuvered in the desert and to come up
empty-handed.
Critics blamed the system. The Roman army was commanded by the aristocracy, with posts granted on the basis of family relations and bribes rather than ability. In truth, this was the same system that had beaten Hannibal, but these armies weren't winning. Jugurtha was little more than a barbarian king, the critics argued, and Rome should be able to conquer him in a single campaign. The only reasonable explanation was incompetence and corruption in the Senate.
In this setting, Gaius Marius ran for consul. He had won some victories in Africa under Metellus, but he claimed that only if he were made consul could he bring Jugurtha to ground and end the war. The campaign worked, and he was elected consul for 108.
Marius raised a new army, captured Jugurtha and delivered him to Rome for execution. One of Marius' trusted commanders in the war was Lucius Cornelius Sulla, of whom more later.
No sooner had Marius wrapped up matters in Africa than disaster
struck in Gaul. At
Arausio, in southern France, an entire consular army was wiped
out by the Cimbri and Teutones, Germanic tribes from northern Germany.
After the loss at Arausio in 105, there was suddenly no army between Rome and the
barbarians, conjuring up memories of the invasion and sack of Rome by the Gauls in 391.
The plea went out immediately to Marius to save Rome. He again
raised an army, being elected consul again (he was in fact elected consul
five times in a row, which was unprecedented in Roman history), and
again Marius came to the rescue. At
Aquae Sextiae in 102, and at
Vercellae the
next year, Marius won successive victories that were so decisive
that the Gauls not only ceased to be a threat to Rome, they ceased to be a
threat to anyone.
At these triumphs, as in Africa, Marius' right-hand man was Cornelius Sulla. In fact, Sulla himself was beginning to gain his own following.
But the man of the hour was Gaius Marius, the defender of Rome, its leading citizen. He had won his victories partly on his own skill and partly on the strength of his reforms of the army. But a faction in the Senate despised him. He was, after all, a new man and not truly one of them. He had won his victories at their expense, and his influence and popularity were to the detriment of their own political ambitions.