The Grass Crown

by Colleen McCullough

  He rotated through a full circle, pretending that he was peering this way and that into the crowd. After repeating this several times, he turned back to face the crowd again and shrugged, lifting his hands in a gesture of futile appeal.

  "Where is Publius Sulpicius?" he asked, seeming amazed. "Whom have I killed since I brought my army into Rome? A few slaves and freedmen, a few ex-gladiators. Rabble. Not respectable Romans. Why then isn't Publius Sulpicius here to speak to you, to refute what I am telling you? I call upon Publius Sulpicius to come forward and refute me in decent and honorable debate—not inside the Curia Hostilia, but out here in full view of his 'sovereign People'!" He cupped his hands around his mouth and roared, "Publius Sulpicius, tribune of the plebs, I demand that you come forward to answer me!"

  But his only answer was the crowd's silence.

  "He is not here to answer, People of Rome, because when I—the legally elected consul!—entered this city accompanied by my only friends, my soldiers, to seek justice for myself and for them, Publius Sulpicius ran away. But why did he run away? Did he fear for his life? Why should he do that? Have I tried to kill any elected magistrate, or even any ordinary respectable resident of Rome? Do I stand here in full armor holding a dripping sword in my right hand? No! I stand here in the purple-bordered toga of my high office, and my only friends, my soldiers, are not present to hear what I am saying to you. They do not need to be present! I am their legally elected representative as much as I am your legally elected representative. Yet Sulpicius is not here! Why is he not here? Do you truly believe he is fearful for his life? If he is, People of Rome, then he is because he knows what he did was illegal and treasonous. For myself, I would rather give him the benefit of the doubt, and wish with all my heart that he was here today!"

  Time to stop again, time to peer into the crowd, to pretend to hope Sulpicius was present. Sulla cupped his hands around his mouth and roared, "Publius Sulpicius, tribune of the plebs, I demand that you stand forth to answer me!"

  No one appeared.

  "He is gone, People of Rome. He fled in the company of the man who duped him as surely as he duped you— Gaius Marius!" cried Sulla.

  And now the crowd began to stir, to murmur; that was one name no member of the People of Rome liked to hear spoken of in tones of condemnation.

  "Yes, I know," said Sulla very slowly and carefully, making sure his exact words were relayed outward, "Gaius Marius is everybody's hero. He saved Rome from Jugurtha of Numidia. He saved Rome and Rome's world from the Germans. He went to Cappadocia and single-handedly ordered King Mithridates to go home—you didn't know that, did you? Yet I stand here willing to tell you another of Gaius Marius's great deeds! Many of his greatest deeds are unsung. I know of them because I was his loyal legate in his campaigns against Jugurtha and the Germans. I was his right-hand man. It is the fate of right-hand men not to be known, not to be famous. And I do not grudge Gaius Marius one tittle of his glorious reputation. It is deserved! But I too have been Rome's loyal servant. I too went to the east and single-handedly ordered King Mithridates to go home. I led the first Roman army across the river Euphrates into unknown lands."

  He stopped again, seeing with pleasure that the crowd was now settling down, that he had at least managed to convince it of his absolute earnestness.

  "I have been Gaius Marius's friend as well as his right-hand man. For many years I was his brother-in-law—until my wife, who was the sister of his wife, died. I did not divorce her. There was no kind of animosity between us. His son and my daughter are first cousins. When some days ago the henchmen of Publius Sulpicius murdered many young men of fine family and great potential, including the son of my colleague Quintus Pompeius—a young man who happened to be my son-in-law, the husband of Gaius Marius's niece—I was obliged to flee for my life from the Forum. And where did I choose to go, sure my life was sacrosanct there? Why, I went to the house of Gaius Marius, and was sheltered by him."

  Yes, the crowd was definitely settling down well. He had introduced the subject of Gaius Marius in the right way.

  "When Gaius Marius won his great victory against the Marsi, I acted as his right-hand man yet again. And when my army—the army I led to Rome—awarded me the Grass Crown for saving it from certain death at the hands of the Samnites, Gaius Marius rejoiced that I, his unsung assistant, had at last won a reputation for myself upon the battlefield. In terms of importance and the number of enemy lives taken, my victory was a greater one than his, but did that affect him? Of course it did not! He rejoiced for me! And did he not choose to make his reappearance in the Senate on the day of my inauguration as consul? Did his presence not enhance my standing?"

  They were completely absorbed now, and no one spoke; Sulla pushed on toward his peroration.

  "However, People of Rome, all of us—you—me—Gaius Marius—must from time to time face and deal with very unpleasant facts. One such fact concerns Gaius Marius. He is neither young enough nor well enough to conduct a huge foreign war. His mind is damaged. That apparatus, as all of you know, does not seem to recover as does the body it inhabits recover. The man you have seen for the last two years walking, swimming, exercising, curing his body of its severe affliction, cannot cure his mind. It is that mental malady I blame for his actions of late. I excuse his excesses in the name of the love I bear him. As must you. Rome is facing a worse conflagration than the one from which she is currently emerging. A greater and far more dangerous power than the Germans has arisen in the person of an eastern king with properly trained and properly equipped armies whose men he numbers in the hundreds of thousands. A man with fleets of hundreds of decked war galleys. A man who has succeeded in obtaining the collaboration of foreign peoples Rome has sheltered and protected—and now give us no thanks. How can I, People of Rome, continue to stand by while you in your ignorance convey the command in this war from me—a man in my prime!—to him— a man past his prime?"

  No lover of public speaking, he was feeling the strain. But when he stopped to allow the heralds to catch up he managed to stand as if he wasn't thirsty, as if his knees weren't trembling, as if he didn't care how the crowd reacted.

  "Even had I been willing to give up my lawfully conferred command of the war against King Mithridates of Pontus in favor of Gaius Marius, People of Rome, the five legions comprising my army were not willing. I stand here not only as the legally elected senior consul, but as the legally appointed representative of Rome's soldiers. It was they who elected to march to Rome—not to conquer Rome, not to use Romans like enemies!—but to show the People of Rome how they feel about an illegal law extracted from an assembly of civilians by a tongue far more gifted than mine, and at the instigation of a sick old man who happens to be a hero. Yet before they were allowed an opportunity to have audience with you, my soldiers were forced to deal with gangs of armed ruffians who refused them peaceful entry. Gangs of armed ruffians got together from out of the ranks of slaves and freedmen by Gaius Marius and Publius Sulpicius. That my soldiers were not refused entry by the respectable citizens of Rome is manifest—the respectable citizens of Rome are here today to listen to me as I put forward my case and the case of my soldiers. I and they ask only one thing. That we be allowed to do what we were legally and validly appointed to do—fight King Mithridates."

  He drew a breath, and when next he spoke produced a voice as loud and brazen as a trumpet call.

  "I go to the East in the knowledge that no man enjoys better health, that I have suffered no cerebral catastrophes, that I am in a position to give Rome what Rome must have— victory against the evil foreign king who wants to crown himself King of Rome, who killed eighty thousand of our men and women and children as they clung to altars crying on the gods to protect them! My command is fully according to the law. In other words, the gods of Rome have given this task to me. The gods of Rome repose their trust in me."

  He had won. As he stepped aside for a much greater orator to take his place in the person of Quintus Mucius Scaevola Pontifex M
aximus, he knew he had won. For in spite of their susceptibility to those of silver tongue and golden voice, the men of Rome were sane and sensible, and could understand common sense when it was put to them as reasonably as it was forcibly.

  "I could wish you had found some other way to assert yourself, Lucius Cornelius," said Catulus Caesar to him as the meeting finally broke up, "but I must support you."

  "What other way did he have?" demanded Antonius Orator. "Go on, Quintus Lutatius, give me another way!"

  It was the brother, Lucius Caesar, who answered. "One way was for Lucius Cornelius to stay in Campania with his legions and refuse to give up his command."

  Crassus the Censor snorted. "Oh, certainly! And then after Sulpicius and Marius gathered the rest of the legions in Italy together, what do you suppose would have happened? If neither side stepped down, it would have been real civil war, not war against mere Italians, Lucius Julius! At least by coming to Rome, Lucius Cornelius did the only thing which could have avoided armed confrontation between Romans. The very fact that there are no legions in Rome was his greatest guarantee of success!"

  "You're right, Publius Licinius," said Antonius Orator.

  And thus it was left; everybody deplored Sulla's tactics, but no one could think of an alternative.

  For ten more days Sulla and the leaders of the Senate continued to speak daily in the Forum Romanum, gradually winning the People over with a remorseless campaign aimed at discrediting Sulpicius and gently dismissing Gaius Marius as a sick old man who ought to be content to rest on his laurels.

  After those summary executions for looting, Sulla's legions behaved impeccably, and found themselves taken to the hearts of many civilian residents, fed and pampered a little—especially once the news got round that this was the fabled army of Nola, that this was the army had really won the war against the Italians. Sulla was careful, however, to provision his troops without placing additional strain on the city's food supplies, and left the pampering up to free choice. But there were those among the populace who eyed the troops skeptically, and remembered that they had marched on Rome of their own volition; therefore if these soldiers were defied or annoyed, a mass slaughter might take place for all their general's fine words in the Forum. After all, he had not sent them back to Campania. He was keeping them within Rome. Not the act of one who would refuse to use them should the occasion arise.

  "I don't trust the People," said Sulla to the leaders of the Senate, a body so small now that only its leaders were left. "The moment I'm safely overseas, a new Sulpicius is likely to appear. So I intend to pass legislation which will make that impossible."

  He had entered Rome on the Ides of November, dangerously late in the year for a massive program of new laws. Since the lex Caecilia Didia had stipulated that three market days must elapse between the first contio addressing a new law and its ratification, there was every chance that Sulla's term as consul would be over before he had succeeded in his aims. To make matters worse, the other lex Caecilia Didia forbade the tacking together of unrelated items in one law. And the one way legally open to him to get his program finished in time was perhaps the most perilous course of all; to present every one of his new laws to the Whole People in one contio, and have them discussed together. Thus enabling everyone to see his ultimate design from the beginning.

  It was Caesar Strabo who solved Sulla's dilemma.

  "Easy," said that cross-eyed worthy when applied to. "Add another law to your list, and promulgate it first of the lot. Namely, a law waiving the provisions of the lex Caecilia Didia prima for your laws only."

  "The Comitia would never pass it," said Sulla.

  "Oh, they will—if they see enough soldiers!'' said Caesar Strabo cheerfully.

  He was quite right. When Sulla convoked the Assembly of the Whole People—which contained patricians as well as plebeians—he discovered it was very willing to legislate on his behalf. Thus the first law presented to it was one waiving the provisions of the lex Caecilia Didia prima in the case of his laws alone; since it covered itself as well, the first lex Cornelia of Sulla's program was promulgated and passed on one and the same day. The time was now getting toward the end of November.

  One by one, Sulla introduced six more laws, their order of presentation extremely carefully worked out; it was vital that the People not see his ultimate design until it was too late for the People to do anything about unraveling it. And during all this he strove assiduously to avoid any hint of confrontation between his army and the residents of Rome, understanding very well that the People mistrusted him because of those soldiers.

  However, since he cared not a jot for the love of the People, only that they obey him, he decided that it would do no harm to institute a whispering campaign within Rome—if his laws were not passed, the city would undergo a bloodbath of epic proportions. For when his own neck was at stake Sulla would stop at nothing. As long as the People did as they were told, they were at complete liberty to hate Sulla as passionately as he had come to hate them. What he could not allow to happen, of course, was that bloodbath; did it happen, his career would be over forever. But, understanding the mechanics of fear, Sulla foresaw no bloodbath. And he was right.

  His second lex Cornelia seemed innocuous enough. It commanded that three hundred new members be added to the Senate, which contained only forty men. Its wording was deliberately designed to avoid the stigma attached to laws recalling expelled or exiled senators, for the new senators were to be appointed by the censors in the normal way; the censors were not directed to reinstall any senator expelled for debt. As the fund to get the expelled senators out of debt was working as smoothly under Catulus Caesar as Capua had for the duration of the war, there could be no impediment to the censors' reinstating expelled senators. Also, the inroads made upon the Senate by the deaths of so many members would finally be properly repaired. Catulus Caesar had been given the unofficial job of keeping pressure upon the censors, which meant that the Senate would be better than full strength very soon, Sulla was sure. Catulus Caesar was a formidable man.

  The third lex Cornelia began to reveal Sulla's fist clenched and menacing. It repealed the lex Hortensia, a law which had been on the tablets for a full two hundred years. Under the provisions of Sulla's new law, nothing could be brought before the tribal assemblies unless it had first received the stamp of the Senate's approval. This not only muzzled the tribunes of the plebs, it muzzled the consuls and praetors as well; if the Senate did not issue a senatus consultum, neither the Plebeian Assembly nor the Assembly of the Whole People could legislate. Nor could the tribal assemblies alter the wording of any senatus consultum.

  Sulla's fourth lex Cornelia came down from the Senate to the Assembly of the Whole People as a senatus consultum. It strengthened the top-heaviness of the Centuries by removing the modifications to this body which it had undergone during the early days of the Republic. The comitia centuriata was now returned to the form it had enjoyed during the reign of King Servius Tullius, when its votes were skewed to give the First Class very nearly fifty percent of the power. Under Sulla's new law, the Senate and the knights were henceforward to be as strong as ever they were during the time of the kings.

  The fifth lex Cornelia showed Sulla's sword out and ready. It was the last one in his program to be promulgated and passed in the Assembly of the Whole People. In future no discussion or voting on laws could take place in the tribal assemblies. All legislation had to be discussed and passed by Sulla's new top-heavy Centuriate Assembly, where the Senate and the Ordo Equester could control everything, particularly when they were closely united—as they always were in opposition to radical change or the conveyance of privileges to the lower Classes. From now on, the tribes possessed virtually no power, either in the Assembly of the Whole People or in the Plebeian Assembly. And the Assembly of the Whole People passed this fifth lex Cornelia knowing it was passing a sentence of extinction upon itself; it could elect those magistrates it was empowered to elect, but could do nothin
g else. To conduct a trial in a tribal assembly required the passage of a law first.

  All the laws of Sulpicius were still on the tablets, still nominally valid. But of what use were they? What did it matter if the new citizens of Italy and Italian Gaul and the freedman citizens of the two urban tribes were to be distributed across the entire thirty-five tribes? The tribal assemblies could not pass laws, could not conduct trials.

  There was a weakness, and Sulla was aware of it. Had he not been anxious to leave for the East he could have worked to overcome it, but it wasn't something he could achieve in the time he had at his disposal. It concerned the tribunes of the plebs. He had managed to draw their teeth; they couldn't legislate, they couldn't put men on trial. But he could not manage to pull out their claws—oh, such claws! They still had the powers the Plebs had invested upon them when they were first created. And among those powers was the power of the veto. In all his legislation, Sulla had been careful not to direct any of it at the magistrates themselves, only at the institutions in which the magistrates functioned. Technically he had done nothing overtly treasonous. But to remove the power of the veto from the tribunes of the plebs could be construed as treasonous. As going against the mos maiorum. Tribunician powers were almost as old as the Republic. They were sacred.

  In the meantime, the program of laws concluded itself. Not in the Forum Romanum, where the People were accustomed to present themselves and where the People saw what was going on. The sixth and the seventh leges Corneliae were presented to the Centuriate Assembly on the Campus Martius—surrounded by Sulla's army, now encamped there.