1. First Man in Rome

by Colleen McCullough

  5

  Tidying up Africa was a pleasure, not only for Gaius Marius, but for Lucius Cornelius Sulla too. Military duties were exchanged for administrative, admittedly, yet neither man disliked the challenge of organizing a brand-new Africa Province, and two kingdoms around it. Gauda was now King of Numidia; not much of a man himself, he had a good son in Prince Hiempsal who would be king, Marius thought, fairly quickly. Reinstated as an official Friend and Ally of the Roman People, Bocchus of Mauretania found his realm enormously enlarged by the gift of most of western Numidia; where once the river Muluchath had been his eastern boundary, this now lay only fifty miles to the west of Cirta and Rusicade. Most of eastern Numidia went into a much bigger Africa Province to be governed by Rome, so that Marius could dower all the knights and landowners in his clientele with the rich coastal lands of the Lesser Syrtis, including the old and still powerful Punic town of Leptis Magna, as well as Lake Tritonis and the port of Tacape. For his own uses, Marius kept the big, fertile islands of the Lesser Syrtis; he had plans for them, particularly for Meninx and Cercina. "When we get round to discharging the army," Marius said to Sulla, "there comes the problem of what to do with them. They're all Head Count, which means they have no farms or businesses to go back to. They'll be able to enlist in other armies, and I suspect a lot of them will want to do that, but some won't. However, the State owns their equipment, which means they won't be allowed to keep it, and that means the only armies they'll be able to enlist in will be Head Count armies. With Scaurus and Piggle-wiggle opposing financing of Head Count armies in the House, there's a distinct possibility Head Count armies of the future will be rare birds, at least after the Germans are dealt with oh, Lucius Cornelius, wouldn't it be grand to be in that campaign? But they'll never agree to it, alas." "I'd give my eyeteeth," said Sulla. "You could spare them," said Marius. "Go on with what you were saying about the men who will want their discharges," Sulla prompted. "I think the State owes Head Count soldiers a little more than their share of the booty at the end of a campaign. I think the State should gift each man with a plot of land to settle on when he elects to retire. Make decent, modestly affluent citizens of them, in other words." "A military version of the land settlements the Brothers Gracchi tried to introduce?" asked Sulla, frowning slightly. "Precisely. You don't approve?" "I was thinking of the opposition in the House." "Well, I've been thinking that the opposition would be much less if the land involved wasn't ager publicus in Rome's public domain. Start even talking about giving away the ager publicus, and you're asking for trouble. Too many powerful men are leasing it. No, what I plan to do is secure permission from the House or the People, if the House won't do it hopefully, it won't come to that to settle Head Count soldiers on nice big plots of land on Cercina and Meninx, right here in the African Lesser Syrtis. Give each man, say, a hundred iugera, and he will do two things for Rome. First of all, he and his companions will form the nucleus of a trained body of men who can be called up for duty in the event of any future war in Africa. And secondly, he and his companions will bring Rome to the provinces Rome's thoughts, customs, language, way of life." But Sulla frowned. "I don't know, Gaius Marius it seems wrong to me to want to do the second thing. Rome's thoughts, customs, language, way of life those things belong to Rome. To graft them onto Punic Africa, with its Berbers and Moors beneath that again well, to me it seems a betrayal of Rome." Marius rolled his eyes toward the roof. "There is no doubt, Lucius Cornelius, that you are an aristocrat! Live a low life you might have done, but think low you don't." He reverted to the task at hand. "Have you got those lists of all the odds and ends of booty? The gods help us if we forget to itemize the last gold-headed nail and in quintuplicate!" "Treasury clerks, Gaius Marius, are the dregs of the Roman wine flagon," said Sulla, hunting through papers. "Of anybody's wine flagon, Lucius Cornelius."

  On the Ides of November a letter came to Utica from the consul Publius Rutilius Rufus. Marius had got into the habit of sharing these letters with Sulla, who enjoyed Rutilius Rufus's racy style even more than Marius did, being better with words than Marius was. However, Marius was alone when the letter was brought to his office, which fact pleased him; for he liked the opportunity to go through it first to familiarize himself with the text, and when Sulla sat listening to him mutter his way across the endless squiggles trying to divide them up into separate words, it tended to put him off. But he had hardly begun to read it aloud to himself when he jumped, shivered, leaped to his feet. “Jupiter!'' he cried, and ran for Sulla's office. He burst in, white-faced, brandishing the scroll. "Lucius Cornelius! A letter from Publius Rutilius!" "What? What is it?" "A hundred thousand Roman dead," Marius began, reading out important snatches of what he had already read himself. "Eighty thousand of the dead are soldiers... The Germans annihilated us.... That fool Caepio refused to join camps with Mallius Maximus ... insisted on staying twenty miles to the north ... Young Sextus Caesar was badly wounded, so was young Sertorius ... Only three of the twenty-four tribunes of the soldiers survived ... No centurions left ... The soldiers who did survive were the greenest, and have deserted ... A whole legion of propertied Marsi dead, and the nation of the Marsi has already lodged a protest with the Senate ... claiming huge damages, in court if necessary ... The Samnites are furious too ..." "Jupiter!" breathed Sulla, flopping back into his chair. Marius read on to himself for a moment, murmuring a little too softly for Sulla to hear; then he made a most peculiar noise. Thinking Marius was about to have some sort of seizure, Sulla got quickly to his feet, but didn't have time to get around his desk before the reason came out. "I am consul!" gasped Gaius Marius. Sulla stopped in his tracks, face slack. "Jupiter!" he said again, could think of nothing else to say. Marius began to read Rutilius Rufus's letter out loud to Sulla, for once beyond caring how much he stumbled as he sorted the squiggles into words.

  "The day wasn't over before the People got the bit between their teeth. Manius Aquillius didn't even have time to resume his seat before all ten tribunes of the plebs were off their bench and streaming out the door toward the rostra, with what looked like half of Rome jammed into the Comitia well, and the other half filling the whole of the lower Forum. Of course the whole House followed the tribunes of the plebs, leaving Scaurus and our dear friend Piggle-wiggle shouting to nothing more than a couple of hundred capsized stools. "The tribunes of the plebs convened the Plebeian Assembly, and within no time flat, two plebiscites were tabled. It always amazes me that we can manage to trot out something better phrased and drafted in the twinkling of an eye than we can after several months of everyone and his uncle having a go at it. Just goes to show that everyone and his uncle do little else than fragment good laws into bad. "Cotta had told me that Caepio was on his way to Rome as fast as he could to get his version in first, but intended to keep his imperium by staying beyond the pomerium and having his son and his agents go to work on his behalf inside the city. That way, he thought he would be safe and snug with his imperium wrapped protectively around him until his version of events became the official version. I imagine he thought and no doubt correctly that he'd manage to have his governorship prorogued, and so retain his imperium and his tenure of Gaul-across-the-Alps for long enough to let the stench dissipate. "But they got him, did the Plebs! They voted overwhelmingly to strip Caepio of his imperium at once. So when he does reach the outskirts of Rome, he's going to find himself as naked as Ulysses on the beach at Scheria. The second plebiscite, Gaius Marius, directed the electoral officer me to enter your name as a candidate for the consulship, despite your inability to be present in Rome for the elections."

  "This is the work of Mars and Bellona, Gaius Marius!" said Sulla. "A gift from the gods of war." "Mars? Bellona? No! This is the work of Fortune, Lucius Cornelius. Your friend and mine, Lucius Cornelius. Fortune!' ' He read on.

  "The People having ordered me to get on with the elections, I had little choice but to do so. "Incidentally, after the plebiscites were tabled, none other than Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus feeling a pro
prietary interest because he regards himself as the founder of our province of Gaul-across-the-Alps, I imagine tried to speak from the rostra against the plebiscite allowing you to stand for consul in absentia. Well, you know how choleric that family are arrogant lot of bad-tempered so-and-sos, all of them! and Gnaeus Domitius was literally spitting with rage. When the crowd got fed up with him and shouted him down, he tried to shout the crowd down! I think being Gnaeus Domitius he had a fair chance of succeeding too. But something gave way inside his head or his heart, for he keeled over right there on the rostra as dead as last week's roast duck. It rather put a damper on things, so the meeting broke up and the crowd went home. The important work was done, anyway. "The plebiscites were passed the next morning, without one dissenting tribe. Leaving me to get the elections under way. I let no grass grow beneath my feet, I can tell you. A polite request to the College of Tribunes of the Plebs got everything going. They polled the new college within days. A very likely-looking and superior lot stood too, I imagine because of matters like warring generals. We have the late lamented Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus's elder son, and the late lamented Lucius Cassius Longinus's elder son. I gather Cassius is out to prove that not every member of his family is an irresponsible killer of Roman soldiers, so he ought to be good value as far as you're concerned, Gaius Marius. And Lucius Marcius Philippus got in, and ho-hum! a Clodius of the Very Many Claudius-Clodius brigade. Ye gods, how they do breed! "The Centuriate Assembly polled yesterday, with the result that as I said a few columns back Gaius Marius was returned as senior consul by every single century in the First Class, plus all of the Second Class required to make up the numbers. Certain senior senators would have loved to destroy your chances, but you are far too well known as a patron of honor and sincere supporter of big business (especially after your scrupulous honoring of all your promises in Africa). The voting knights had no qualms of conscience about details such as running for consul a second time within three years, or standing for consul in absentia."

  Marius looked up from the scroll exultantly. "How's that for a mandate from the People, Lucius Cornelius? Consul a second time, and I didn't even know I was standing!" He stretched his arms above his head as if reaching for the stars. "I shall bring Martha the prophetess to Rome with us. She shall see with her own eyes my triumph and my inauguration as consul on one and the same day, Lucius Cornelius! For I have just made up my mind. I'll triumph on New Year's Day." "And we'll be off to Gaul," said Sulla, more interested in this development by far. "That is, Gaius Marius, if you will have me." "My dear fellow, I couldn't do without you! Or without Quintus Sertorius!" "Finish the letter," said Sulla, finding that he needed more time to assimilate all this staggering news before it became necessary to discuss it at length with Marius.

  "So when I see you, Gaius Marius, it will be to hand over the trappings of my office to you. I wish I could say I was glad with every tiniest part of me. For Rome's sake, it was vital that you be given the German command, but oh, I wish it could have been done in a more orthodox way! I think of the enemies you will add to those you have already made, and my whole body quails. You have caused too many changes in the way our lawmaking machinery functions. Yes, I know every single one was necessary if you were to survive. But, as it was said by the Greeks about their Odysseus, the strand of his life was so strong it rubbed all the life-strands it crossed until they snapped. I think Marcus Aemilius Scaurus Princeps Senatus has some right on his side in this present situation, for I acquit him of the narrow-minded bigotry of men like Numidicus Piggle-wiggle. Scaurus sees the passing of the old way Rome operated, as indeed do I. And yes, I understand Rome is busy building its own funeral pyre, that if the Senate could be trusted to leave you alone to deal with the Germans in your own way and your own time, none of these startling, extraordinary, unorthodox, and novel measures would be necessary. But I grieve nonetheless."

  Marius's voice hadn't wavered, nor his decision to read it all out to Sulla, even though the conclusion was less satisfying, and took the keenest edge off his pleasure. "There's a little more," he said. "I'll read it."

  "Your candidacy, I must add in closing, frightened all of honor and repute away. Some decent fellows had got as far as putting their names up for consul, but they all withdrew. As did Quintus Lutatius Catulus Caesar, declaring he wouldn't work with you as his colleague any more than he would with his lapdog had it been elected. Consequently your colleague in the consulship is a man of straw. Which may not dismay you unduly, for he certainly won't give you any battles. I know you're dying to hear who he is, but grant me my little tittle! I would only say of him, he's venal, though I think you already know that about him. His name? Gaius Flavius Fimbria."