1. First Man in Rome

by Colleen McCullough

  Publius Rutilius Rufus turned out not to be the first magistrate to visit Marius at Cumae; the returned hero had scarcely settled into a routine when his steward came inquiring if he would see the noble Lucius Marcius Philippus. Curious as to what Philippus wanted for he had never met the man, and knew the family only in the most cursory way Marius bade his man bring the visitor into his study. Philippus didn't prevaricate; he got straight to the reason for his call. A rather soft-looking fellow, thought Marius too much flabby flesh around his waist, too much jowl beneath his chin but with all the arrogance and self-assurance of the Marcius clan, who claimed descent from Ancus Marcius, the fourth King of Rome, and builder of the Wooden Bridge. "You don't know me, Gaius Marius," he said, his dark brown eyes looking directly into Marius's own, "so I thought I would take the earliest opportunity to rectify the omission given that you are next year's senior consul, and that I am a newly elected tribune of the plebs." "How nice of you to want to rectify the omission," said Marius, his smile devoid of any irony. "Yes, I suppose it is," said Philippus blandly. He sat back in his chair and crossed his legs, an affectation Marius had never cared for, deeming it unmasculine. "What may I do for you, Lucius Marcius?" "Actually, quite a lot." Philippus poked his head forward, his face suddenly less soft, distinctly feral. "I find myself in a bit of financial bother, Gaius Marius, and I thought it behooved me to shall we say offer my services to you as a tribune of the plebs. I wondered, for instance, if there was a small trifle of legislation you'd like passed. Or perhaps you would just like to know that you have a loyal adherent among the tribunes of the plebs back in Rome while you're away keeping the German wolf from our door. Silly Germans! They haven't yet realized that Rome is a wolf, have they? But they will, I'm sure. If anyone can teach them the wolfish nature of Rome, you will." The mind of Marius had moved with singular speed during this preamble. He too sat back, but didn't cross his legs. "As a matter of fact, my dear Lucius Marcius, there is a small trifle I'd like passed through the Plebeian Assembly with a minimum of fuss or attention. I would be delighted to assist you to extricate yourself from your financial bother if you can spare me any legislative bother." "The more generous the donation to my cause, Gaius Marius, the less fuss or attention my law will receive," said Philippus with a broad smile. "Splendid! Name your price," said Marius. "Oh, dear! Such bluntness!" "Name your price," Marius repeated. "Half a million," said Philippus. "Sesterces," said Marius. "Denarii," said Philippus. "Oh, I'd want a lot more than just a trifle of legislation for half a million denarii," said Marius. "For half a million denarii, Gaius Marius, you will get a lot more. Not only my services during my tribunate, but thereafter as well. I do pledge it." "Then we have a deal." "How easy!" exclaimed Philippus, relaxing. "Now what is it I can do for you?'' "I need an agrarian law," said Marius. "Not easy!" Philippus sat up straight, looking stunned. "What on this earth do you want a land bill for? I need money, Gaius Marius, but only if I am to live to spend what's left over after I pay my debts! It is no part of my ambitions to be clubbed to death on the Capitol, for I assure you, Gaius Marius, that a Tiberius Gracchus I am not!" "The law is agrarian in nature, yes, but not contentious," said Marius soothingly. "I assure you, Lucius Marcius, that I am not a reformer or a revolutionary, and have other, better uses for the poor of Rome than to gift them with Rome's precious ager publicus! I'll enlist them in the legions and make them work for any land I give them! No man should get anything for nothing, for a man is not a beast." "But what other land is there to give away than the ager publicus? Unless you intend that the State should buy more of it? Or acquire more of it? But that means finding money,'' said Philippus, still very uneasy. "There's no need to be alarmed," said Marius. "The land concerned is already in Rome's possession. While ever I retain my proconsular imperium over Africa, it is in my province to nominate a use for land confiscated from the Enemy. I can lease it to my clients, or auction it to the highest bidder, or give it to some foreign king as a part of his domains. All I have to do is make sure the Senate confirms my dispositions." Marius shifted, leaned forward, and continued. "But I have no intention of baring my arse for the likes of Metellus Numidicus to sink his teeth into, so I intend to go on as I have always gone on in the past strictly according either to law, or general practice and precedent. Therefore on New Year's Day, I intend to yield up my proconsular imperium over Africa without giving Metellus Numidicus so much as a glance at my bare arse. "All the main dispositions of territory I acquired in the name of the Senate and People of Rome have already been given senatorial sanction. But there is one matter I do not intend to broach myself. It is a matter so delicate, in fact, that I intend to accomplish my purpose in two separate stages. One this coming year, one the year after. "Your job, Lucius Marcius, will be to implement the first stage. Briefly, I believe that if Rome is to continue fielding decent armies, then the legions must become an attractive career for a man of the Head Count, not just an alternative he is pushed to by patriotic zeal in emergencies, or boredom at other times. If he is offered the routine inducements a small wage and a small share in whatever booty a campaign produces he may not be attracted. But if he is assured a piece of good land to settle on or sell up when he retires, the inducement to become a soldier is powerful. However, it cannot be land within Italy. Nor do I see why it should be land in Italy." "I think I begin to see what you want, Gaius Marius," Philippus said, chewing at his full lower lip. "Interesting." "I think so. I have reserved the islands in the Lesser Syrtis of Africa as places on which I can settle my Head Count soldiers after their discharge which, thanks to the Germans, is not going to be for some time. This time I shall use to secure the People's approval for allocating land on Meninx and Cercina to my soldiers. But I have many enemies who will try to stop me, if for no other reason than that they've made whole careers out of trying to stop me," said Marius. Philippus nodded his head up and down like a sage. "It is certainly true that you have many enemies, Gaius Marius." Not sure that sarcasm underlay this remark, Marius gave Philippus a withering look, then went on. "Your job, Lucius Marcius, is to table a law in the Plebeian Assembly reserving the islands of the African Lesser Syrtis in the Roman ager publicus without lease or subdivision or sale unless by further plebiscites. You will not mention soldiers, and you will not mention the Head Count. All you have to do is very casually and quietly make sure that these islands are put into a storage cupboard well enough locked to keep greedy hands off them. It is vital that my enemies do not suspect that I am behind your little law." "Oh, I think I can manage," said Philippus more cheerfully. "Good. On the day that the law goes into effect, I will have my bankers deposit half a million denarii in your name in such a way that your change in fortune cannot be traced back to me," said Marius. Philippus rose to his feet. "You have bought yourself a tribune of the plebs, Gaius Marius," he said, and held out a hand. "What is more, I shall continue to be your man throughout my political career." "I'm glad to hear it," said Marius, shaking the hand. But as soon as Philippus had taken his leave, Marius sent for warm water, and washed both his hands.

  "Just because I make use of bribery does not mean I have to like the men I bribe," said Gaius Marius to Publius Rutilius Rufus when he arrived in Cumae five days later. Rutilius Rufus pulled a face of resignation. "Well, he was as true as his word," he said. "He authored your modest little agrarian law as if he'd thought of it all by himself, and he made it sound so logical that no one even argued for the sake of argument. Clever fellow, Philippus, in a slimy sort of way. Accorded himself laurels for patriotism by telling the Assembly that he felt some tiny, insignificant part of the great African land distribution ought to be saved 'banked' was the word he used! for the Roman People's future. There were even those among your enemies who thought he was only doing it to irritate you. The law passed without a murmur." "Good!" said Marius, sighing in relief. "For a while I can be sure the islands will be waiting for me, untouched. I need more time to prove the worth of the Head Count legionary before I dare give him a retirement gif
t of land. Can't you hear it now? The old-style Roman soldier didn't have to be bribed with a present of land, so why should the new-style soldier get preferential treatment?" He shrugged. "Anyway, enough of that. What else has happened?" "I've passed a law enabling the consul to appoint extra tribunes of the soldiers without holding an election whenever a genuine emergency faces the State," said Rutilius. "Always thinking of what tomorrow might bring! And have you picked any tribunes of the soldiers under your law?" "Twenty-one. The same number who died at Arausio." "Including?" "Young Gaius Julius Caesar." "Now that is good news! Relatives mostly aren't. Do you remember Gaius Lusius? Fellow my brother-in-law's sister Gratidia married?" "Vaguely. Numantia?" "That's him. Awful wart! But very rich. Anyway, he and Gratidia produced a son and heir, now aged twenty-five. And they're begging me to take him with me to fight the Germans. Haven't even met the sprog, but had to say yes all the same, otherwise my brother, Marcus, would never have heard the end of it." "Speaking of your vast collection of relatives, you'll be pleased to know young Quintus Sertorius is at home in Nersia with his mother, and will be fit enough to go to Gaul with you." "Good! As well Cotta went to Gaul this year, eh?" Rutilius Rufus blew a rudely expressive noise. "I ask you, Gaius Marius! One ex-praetor and five backbenchers to form a delegation charged with reasoning with the likes of Caepio? But I knew my Cotta, where Scaurus and Dalmaticus and Piggle-wiggle did not. I had no doubt that whatever could be salvaged out of it, Cotta would." "And Caepio, now he's back?" "Oh, his chin's above water, but he's paddling mighty hard to stay afloat, I can tell you. I predict that as time goes on, he'll tire until only his nostrils are showing. There's a huge swell of public feeling running against him, so his friends on the front benches are unable to do nearly as much for him as they'd like." "Good! He ought to be thrown into the Tullianum and left to starve to death," said Marius grimly. "Only after hand-cutting the wood for eighty thousand funeral pyres," said Rutilius Rufus, teeth showing. "What of the Marsi? Quietened down?" "Their damages suit, you mean? The House threw it out of the courts, of course, but didn't make any friends for Rome in so doing. The commander of the Marsic legion name's Quintus Poppaedius Silo came to Rome intending to testify, and I'll bet you can't guess who was prepared to testify for him too," said Rutilius Rufus. Marius grinned. "You're right, I can't. Who?" "None other than my nephew young Marcus Livius Drusus! It seems they met after the battle Drusus's legion was next to Silo's in the line, apparently. But it came as a shock to Caepio when my nephew who happens to be his son-in-law put his name up to testify in a case which has direct bearing on Caepio's own conduct." "He' s a pup with sharp teeth," said Marius, remembering young Drusus in the law court. "He's changed since Arausio," said Rutilius Rufus. "I'd say he's grown up." "Then Rome may have a good man for the future," said Marius. "It seems likely. But I note a marked change in all those who survived Arausio," said Rutilius Rufus sadly. "They've not yet succeeded in mustering all the soldiers who escaped by swimming the Rhodanus, you know. I doubt they ever will." "I'll find them," said Marius grimly. "They're Head Count, which means they're my responsibility." "That's Caepio's tack, of course," said Rutilius Rufus. "He's trying to shift the blame onto Gnaeus Mallius and the Head Count rabble, as he calls that army. The Marsi are not pleased at being labeled Head Count, nor are the Samnites, and my young nephew Marcus Livius has come out in public and sworn on oath that the Head Count had nothing to do with it. He's a good orator, and a better showman." "As Caepio's son-in-law, how can he criticize Caepio?" Marius asked curiously. "I would have thought even those most against Caepio would be horrified at such lack of family loyalty." "He's not criticizing Caepio at least not directly. It's very neat, really. He says nothing about Caepio at all! He just refutes Caepio's charge that the defeat was due to Gnaeus Mallius's Head Count army. But I notice that young Marcus Livius and young Caepio Junior aren't quite as thick as they used to be, and that's rather difficult, since Caepio Junior is married to my niece, Drusus's sister," said Rutilius Rufus. “Well, what can you expect when all you wretched nobles insist upon marrying each other's cousins rather than letting some new blood in?" Marius demanded, and shrugged. "But enough of that! Any more news?" "Only about the Marsi, or rather, the Italian Allies. Feelings are running high against us, Gaius Marius. As you know, I've been trying to recruit for months. But the Italian Allies refuse to co-operate. When I asked them for Italian Head Count since they insist they've no propertied men left of an age for service they said they had no Head Count either!" "Well, they're rural peoples, I suppose it's possible," said Marius. "Nonsense! Sharecroppers, shepherds, migrating field workers, free farm laborers when has any rural community not had plenty of their like? But the Italian Allies insist there is no Italian Head Count! Why? I asked them in a letter. Because, they said, any Italian men who might have qualified as Head Count were now all Roman slaves, mostly taken for debt bondage. Oh, it is very bitter!" said Rutilius Rufus gravely. "Every Italian nation has written in strong terms to the Senate protesting at its treatment by Rome not just official Rome, mark you, but private Roman citizens in positions of power too. The Marsi the Paeligni the Picentines the Umbrians the Samnites the Apulians the Lucanians the Etrurians the Marrucini the Vestini the list is complete, Gaius Marius!" "Well, we've known there's trouble brewing for a long time," said Marius. "My hope is that the common threat of the Germans knits up our rapidly unraveling peninsula." "I don't think it will," said Rutilius Rufus. "All the nations say that Rome has taken to keeping their propertied men away from home so long that their farms or businesses have fallen into bankruptcy from inadequate care, and all the men lucky enough to have survived a career fighting for Rome have come home to find themselves in debt to Roman landowners or local businessmen with the Roman citizenship. Thus, they say, Rome already owns their Head Count as slaves scattered from one end of the Middle Sea to the other! Particularly, they say, where Rome needs slaves with agricultural skills Africa, Sardinia, Sicily." Marius began to look equally uneasy. "I had no idea things had come to such a pass," he said. "I own a lot of land in Etruria myself, and it includes many farms confiscated for debt. But what else can one do? If I didn't buy the farms, Piggle-wiggle or his brother, Dalmaticus, would! I inherited estates in Etruria from my mother Fulcinia's family, which is why I've concentrated on Etruria. But there's no getting away from the fact that I'm a big landowner there.''

  "And I'll bet you don't even know what your agents did about the men whose farms you confiscated," said Rutilius. "You're right, I don't," said Marius, looking uncomfortable. ' 'I had no idea there were so many Italians enslaved to us. It's like enslaving Romans!" "Well, we do that too when Romans fall into debt." "Less and less, Publius Rutilius!" "True." "I shall see to the Italian complaint the moment I'm in office," said Gaius Marius with decision. Italian dissatisfaction hovered darkly in the background that December, its nucleus the warlike tribes of the central highlands behind the Tiber and Liris valleys, led by the Marsi and the Samnites. But there were other rumblings as well, aimed more at the privileges of the Roman nobility, and generated by other Roman nobles. The new tribunes of the plebs were very active indeed. Smarting because his father was one of those incompetent generals held in such odium at the moment, Lucius Cassius Longinus tabled a startling law for discussion in a contio meeting of the Plebeian Assembly. All those men whom the Assembly had stripped of their imperium must also lose their seats in the Senate. That was declaring war upon Caepio with a vengeance! For of course it was generally conceded that Caepio, if and when tried for treason under the present system, would be acquitted. Thanks to his power and wealth, he held too many knights in the First and Second Classes in his sway not to be acquitted. But the Plebeian Assembly law stripping him of his seat in the Senate was something quite different. And fight back though Metellus Numidicus and his colleagues did, the bill proceeded on its way toward becoming law. Lucius Cassius was not going to share his father's odium. And then the religious storm broke, burying all other considerations under its fury; since
it had its funny side, this was inevitable, given the Roman delight in the ridiculous. When Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus had dropped dead on the rostra during the row about Gaius Marius's standing for the consulship in absentia, he left one loose end behind that it was not in his power to tie up. He was a pontifex, a priest of Rome, and his death left a vacancy in the College of Pontifices. At the time, the Pontifex Maximus was the ageing Lucius Gaecilius Metellus Dalmaticus, and among the priests were Marcus Aemilius Scaurus Princeps Senatus, and Publius Licinius Crassus, and Scipio Nasica. New priests were co-opted by the surviving members of the college, a plebeian being replaced by a plebeian, and a patrician by a patrician; the colleges of priests and of augurs normally stood at half-plebeian, half-patrician. According to tradition, the new priest would belong to the same family as the dead priest, thus enabling priesthoods and augurships to pass from father to son, or uncle to nephew, or cousin to cousin. The family honor and dignitas had to be preserved. And naturally Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus Junior, now the head of his branch of the family, expected to be asked to take his father's place as a priest. However, there was a problem, and the problem's name was Scaurus. When the College of Pontifices met to co-opt its new member, Scaurus announced that he was not in favor of giving the dead Ahenobarbus's place to his son. One of his reasons he did not mention aloud, though it underlay everything he said, and loomed equally large in the minds of the thirteen priests who listened to him; namely, that Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus had been a pigheaded, argumentative, irascible, and unlikable man, and had sired a son who was even worse. No Roman nobleman minded the idiosyncrasies of his peers, and every Roman nobleman was prepared to put up with quite a gamut of the less admirable character traits; provided, that is, that he could get away from these fellows. But the priestly colleges were close-knit and met within the cramped confines of the Regia, the little office of the Pontifex Maximus and young Ahenobarbus was only thirty-three years old. To those like Scaurus who had suffered his father for many years, the idea of suffering the son was not at all attractive. And, as luck would have it, Scaurus had two valid reasons to offer his fellow priests when moving that the new place not go to young Ahenobarbus. The first was that when Marcus Livius Drusus the censor had died, his priesthood had not gone to his son, nineteen at the time. This had been felt to be just a little too underage. The second was that young Marcus Livius Drusus was suddenly displaying alarming tendencies to abandon his natural inheritance of intense conservatism; Scaurus felt that if he was given his father's priesthood, it would draw him back into the fold of his tradition-bound ancestors. His father had been an obdurate enemy of Gaius Gracchus, yet the way young Drusus was carrying on in the Forum Romanum, he sounded more like Gaius Gracchus! There were extenuating circumstances, Scaurus argued, particularly the shock of Arausio. So, what nicer and better way could there be than to co-opt young Drusus into his father's priestly college? The thirteen other priests, including Dalmaticus Pontifex Maximus, thought this was a splendid way out of the Ahenobarbus dilemma, particularly because old Ahenobarbus had secured an augurship for his younger son, Lucius, not long before he died. The family could not therefore argue that it was utterly devoid of priestly clout. But when Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus the younger heard that his expected priesthood was going to Marcus Livius Drusus, he was not pleased. In fact, he was outraged. At the next meeting of the Senate he announced that he was going to prosecute Marcus Aemilius Scaurus Princeps Senatus on charges of sacrilege. The occasion had been the adoption of a patrician by a plebeian, this complicated affair needing a sanction from the College of Pontifices as well as the Lictors of the Thirty Curiae; young Ahenobarbus alleged that Scaurus had not attended to the requirements properly. Well aware of the real reason behind this sudden espousal of sacerdotal punctiliousness, the House was not a bit impressed. Nor was Scaurus, who simply got to his feet and looked down his nose at the puce-faced Ahenobarbus. "Do you, Gnaeus Domitius not even a pontifex! accuse me, Marcus Aemilius, pontifex and Leader of the House, of sacrilege?" asked Scaurus in freezing tones. "Run away and play with your new toys in the Plebeian Assembly until you finally grow up!" And that seemed the end of the matter. Ahenobarbus flounced out of the House amid roars of laughter, catcalls, cries of "Sore loser!" But Ahenobarbus wasn't beaten yet. Scaurus had told him to run away and play with his new toys in the Plebeian Assembly, so that was precisely what he would do! Within two days he had tabled a new bill, and before the old year was done he had pushed it through the discussion and voting processes into formal law. In future, new members for priesthoods and for augurships would not be co-opted by the surviving members, said the lex Domitia de sacerdotiis; they would be elected by a special tribal assembly, and anyone would be able to stand. "Ducky," said Metellus Dalmaticus Pontifex Maximus to Scaurus. "Just ducky!" But Scaurus only laughed and laughed. "Oh, Lucius Caecilius, admit he's twisted our pontifical tails beautifully!" he said, wiping his eyes. "I like him the better for it, I must say." "The next one of us to pop off, he's going to be running for election," said Dalmaticus Pontifex Maximus gloomily. "And why not? He's earned it," said Scaurus. "But what if it's me? He'd be Pontifex Maximus as well!" "What a wonderful comeuppance for all of us that would be!" said Scaurus, impenitent. "I hear he's after Marcus Junius Silanus now," said Metellus Numidicus. "That's right, for illegally starting a war with the Germans in Gaul-across-the-Alps," said Dalmaticus Pontifex Maximus. "Well, he can have the Plebeian Assembly try Silanus for that, where a treason charge means going to the Centuries," said Scaurus, and whistled. "He's good, you know! I begin to regret that we didn't co-opt him to take his father's place." "Oh, rubbish, you do not!" said Metellus Numidicus. "You are enjoying every moment of this ghastly fiasco." "And why shouldn't I?" asked Scaurus, feigning surprise. "This is Rome, Conscript Fathers! Rome as Rome ought to be! All of us noblemen engaged in healthy competition!" "Rubbish, rubbish, rubbish!" cried Metellus Numidicus, still seething because Gaius Marius would be consul very soon. "Rome as we know it is dying! Men elected consul a second time within three years and who weren't even present in Rome to show themselves in the toga Candida the Head Count admitted into the legions priests and augurs elected the Senate's decisions about who will govern what overturned by the People the State paying out fortunes to field Rome's armies New Men and recent arrivals running things tchah!"