THE MAN AT the center of the latest crisis was Marcus Livius Drusus. Not unlike the Gracchi, Drusus was an ambitious young noble on the make. He was one of the most talented orators of a new generation that had grown up on the speeches of Crassus and Antonius. He carried himself with the arrogant confidence of a young man who expected the world to come to him. He loved being the center of attention, and when an architect once boasted that he could build a wonderfully secluded house that provided security and discretion, Drusus said, “If you possess the skill you must build my house in such a way that whatever I do shall be seen by all.”18
Drusus did not traffic in populare circles—he was a scion of the optimate and raised to be a talented, if arrogant, future leader of the nobility. His father, Drusus the Elder, had fully ingratiated himself with the optimates for his attacks on Gaius Gracchus, and later shared a censorship with Scaurus in 109. It is not surprising that Scaurus tapped the son of his old colleague to carry a package of bills to the Assembly to restore judicial power to the Senate.19
Knowing that transferring the jury pool back to the Senate would trigger Equestrian resistance, Drusus and the optimates planned to build the same coalition pioneered by Gaius Gracchus, except use its power this time to build the Senate up rather than tear it down. First, Drusus proposed enlarging the Senate from three hundred to six hundred men. That way even if “the Senate” controlled the courts, it would only be after it was augmented by three hundred prominent Equestrians. This was a provocative proposal, as existing senators might not like to see their prestige watered down—nor be happy about the arrival of uncouth commoners. But the senatorial prohibition on engaging in commerce meant if a potential new senator was a merchant, he would have to either give up his trade or decline admission. Either way, the new senators would all be landed gentry like the old senators, with only the men of business left out in the cold.20
As the Equestrians were quite capable of mobilizing public support for their interests, Drusus was ready with a slate of programs to feed the old Gracchan coalition. For the plebs urbana, Drusus proposed a new subsidized grain dole. For the rural poor, Drusus proposed an agrarian law that was modeled on the original Lex Agraria of Tiberius Gracchus. This was all very popular with the Roman voters, but put the Italians on alert. They had successfully deflected the Gracchan commission; now it appeared Drusus was coming back for another pass. This was the issue that led Silo to visit his friend Drusus, where each wound up pledging their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor to the cause of Italian citizenship.21
But though Drusus’s intention was to make everyone happy by promising everyone everything—he boasted that “he had left nothing for anyone else to distribute”—this time the people dwelt on the downsides. Neither rural farmers nor senatorial elites liked subsidizing grain for the plebs urbana. The old senators were wary of adding three hundred new members and diluting their own power. The Equestrians worried they were about to be shut out of power altogether. And of course, nearly all Romans from every class and occupation opposed Italian citizenship.22
DRUSUS AND HIS optimate backers also faced stiff opposition from one of the consuls for the year, Lucius Marcius Philippus. Philippus was an old rival of Scaurus and Crassus going back to the crisis years of 104–100. Philippus was the one who said there were only two thousand men who owned property in Italy while proposing a radical land redistribution bill of his own. In fine Roman fashion, now that a similar bill was being proposed by his enemies, Philippus opposed it vehemently. He was backed by the publicani, who rightly felt threatened by Drusus’s package of laws. On the day of the vote, Drusus had done his work well and it looked like everything was going to pass. But then, Philippus marched into the Forum and tried to shut down the Assembly. One of Drusus’s men “seized him by the throat and did not let go until blood poured into his mouth and eyes.” Philippus managed to get away but he was furious at the maltreatment of a consul.23
Given the state of the historical record, it is hard to know exactly which of his reforms Drusus managed to enact. We know he carried the land bill and grain bill, as well as the jury reform. But either because it never made it to the rostra or was voted down, the Italian citizenship bill never materialized. It appeared that the Italians were about to have their prize snatched away. Again. The Italian veterans who had served together under Marius got together with the disgruntled Equestrians who had been kicked out of Rome in 95. Their mutual grumbling turned awfully seditious.24
Even before the bill was dropped, a violent splinter faction of Italians formed a plot to assassinate the consul Philippus and his colleague Sextus Julius Caesar * at the Latin Festival. Drusus successfully warned the consuls in advance and they left the festival alive, but it raised the uncomfortable question of how Drusus had come to hold such dangerous knowledge in the first place—who was he in league with? But as late as September 91, it seemed like Drusus still had the support of most of the Senate; the steady hands of Scaurus and Crassus kept most of the senators with him.25
While they kept a firm hand on current events, a group of optimate grandees met at Crassus’s villa in September 91 to discuss loftier subjects. Among the small party were Crassus’s old friends Antonius and Scaevola along with two promising students: Publius Sulpicius Rufus and Gaius Aurelius Cotta. Old Scaurus was not present, but as fit his persona, he was known to be off at his own estate, “somewhere in the vicinity.”26
We know about this dinner party because it is the setting of one of Cicero’s most important dialogues, On the Orators. Cicero learned of the gathering years later from one of the participants and used it as the setting for a wide-ranging dialogue on the history, theory, and practice of oratory. Fascinating as the details of this discussion are, the more relevant point is why Cicero chose that time and place to set his dialogue. Cicero enjoyed placing characters at the moment of maximum experience and wisdom—the moment before death. And death hung over the men gathered at Crassus’s villa. Within a few years, nearly every one of them would be dead. Cicero did not just set On The Orators at the end of his heroes’ lives; he set it on the brink of a civil war that, unbeknownst to all of them, was just weeks from breaking out.27
The only one of the group not to die violently was the host, Lucius Crassus, who had the good sense to die before any of the fighting started. With Philippus once again raising hell in the Senate about annulling Drusus’s laws, Crassus rose in defense and delivered yet another long and eloquent address that returned the Senate to its senses. But likely already sick from some unspecified ailment, the exertion of the speech drove Crassus to bed, and a week later he died. He was not yet fifty. Cicero said of Crassus’s sudden death:
This was a melancholy occurrence to his friends, a grievous calamity to his country, and a heavy affliction to all the virtuous part of mankind; but such misfortunes afterwards fell upon the commonwealth, that life does not appear to me to have been taken away from Lucius Crassus by the immortal gods as a privation, but death to have been bestowed on him as a blessing. He did not live to behold Italy blazing with war, or the senate overwhelmed with popular odium, or the leading men of the state accused of the most heinous crime… or, finally, that republic in every way disgraced, in which, while it continued most flourishing, he had by far the preeminence over all other men in glory.28
With his rivals distracted by the death of their friend, Philippus pounced. He induced the Senate to nullify Drusus’s laws, either on a religious pretext or for the violence inflicted on Philippus personally at the Assembly. And though he is often cast along with the other radical tribunes in Roman history, Drusus was not ready to take the same plunge as his predecessors Saturninus and the Gracchi brothers. He accepted his fate and did nothing to veto the annulment. Though he did say: “Although I have the power to oppose the decrees of the senate, I will not do so, because I know that the guilty will soon receive their punishment.”29
It is difficult to tell when exactly the Italians reentered the picture
, but with the final annulment of Drusus’s laws, word surely went out that the time had come for action. It did not take long for Quintus Poppaedius Silo to rally ten thousand men to join him in a demonstrative march on Rome. When they neared the city one of the praetors went out to meet the Italians and said: “Whither do you go, Poppaedius, with so great a company?” Silo responded, “To Rome, for I have been summoned by the tribunes of the plebs, to share in the citizenship.” The praetor responded, “You may obtain what you seek far more easily, and much more honorably, if you do not approach the Senate in a hostile manner; for the Senate will not be compelled, but entreated and petitioned, to bestow such a favor upon the Latins, who are their allies and confederates.” Silo turned around and went home, but this was the beginning, not the end.30
After the Italians went home, someone decided Marcus Livius Drusus was going to pay for the trouble he had caused. We don’t know who plotted his death, whether it was Italians believing he had betrayed them or someone nursing a personal grudge. But someone wanted Drusus dead. The tribune grew suspicious and started conducting business in his home, which he thought would protect him. But as he shooed out callers at the end of one evening, Drusus suddenly cried out in pain thanks to a knife lodged in either his hip or groin (depending on the visual you’d prefer). Still brimming with pride despite his failures, Drusus died saying, “O my relatives and friends, will my country ever have another citizen like me?” The killers were never found and no inquest was made into the murder. Everyone just wanted to forget about this whole nasty business and let things get back to normal. But things were a long way from normal.31
THE CITIZENS OF Rome did not know what they were getting into when they rejected the Italian citizenship bill. Given the surprise they all showed when the Social War erupted under their feet, they were clearly oblivious to the ramifications of dropping the bill. For the Romans, it was just another rejection in a long series of rejections of Italian citizenship. No big deal. But for the Italians it was the last straw.32
Ignorant of the hornet’s nest they had just bashed with a stick, it slowly dawned on the Romans that something might be wrong. At the very least, Silo and his march of ten thousand men was enough to put the Senate on notice that something was happening out there. So after Drusus’s murder, the Senate dispatched agents to various Italian cities to take the temperature of the Allies. Most of these agents reported no trouble at all—at least on the surface. But in the city of Asculum, located on the far side of the Apennines northeast of Rome, a report came in that Roman citizens had been seized as hostages. A praetor hurried to the city to investigate. With the residents of Asculum on the verge of revolt anyway, they attacked the praetor and murdered him. Then the insurrectionaries rampaged through the city killing any other Roman citizen they could find. These murders marked the beginning of the revolt of Asculum and the beginning of the Social War.33
The speed with which the revolt spread is a testament to how long the Italians had been planning. A wide crescent covering most of east-central Italy erupted in a massive coordinated insurrection involving at least a dozen Italian tribes. The Latins remained steadfast with Rome, and the Umbrians and Etruscans kept aloof, but east-central Italy departed the Roman confederation en masse. Two principal tribes led the revolt. First were the Samnites in the south, who had chafed under Roman domination for hundreds of years and who now took the opportunity to bloody a few noses. Joining them were the Marsi in the north, among whom Silo was a principal leader. Contemporary Romans considered the Marsi to be the main drivers of the revolt and often referred to the war as the Marsic War. It was not until later that it became known as the War Against the Allies, which is how socii, the Latin word for “Ally,” led to the Anglicized name for the conflict: the Social War.34
Rebel leaders from across this central Italian crescent of insurrection met in the city of Corfinium. They rechristened the city Italia and established a capital. Roman historians would describe the Italians forming a government modeled on the Roman structure of consuls, praetors, and a Senate. But in realty the structure was far more decentralized. Individual tribes operated under their own leaders, who communicated with each other via a collective war council in Italia. That council presented to Rome its central demand: Either we are equal citizens in the Republic or we are independent. The choice was civitas or libertas.35
With the Senate not realizing yet the scope of the crisis they were falling into, they rejected the ultimatum out of hand. So the Italian armies gathered under their local generals and launched a simultaneous uprising in late 91. Since all the Italian generals were intimately familiar with both Roman politics and war, they knew exactly what to hit first. Going all the way back to the tribal wars of the early Republic, the Romans planted Latin colonies in the backyards of defeated enemies. These communities remained outposts of Roman military authority. The first thing the Italians did was attack these Latin colonies, then seize control of the roads to cut off Rome’s ability to communicate outside their own sphere in Latium. It was a simple and effective strategy that caught the Romans with their togas down.36
THE POPULATION OF Rome was dumbfounded as each scrap of news from outside Rome revealed yet another city or tribe in revolt. The Senate scrambled to organize a response to the crisis. They ordered provisional governors to stay at their posts until further notice, and then assigned every consul and praetor for the year 90 to the province of Italy. It was a concentration of sovereign magistrates on the peninsula not seen since the Second Punic War.37
But before they could wage a war, the Roman leadership had to spend valuable time establishing which of them was to blame for the insurrection. A tribune named Quintus Varius Hybridia proposed a commission to purge those who had supported Italian citizenship and thus “incited the Italians” with false promises and selfish demagoguery.38 Tribunes loyal to the men who might be targeted by the commission tried to veto the bill, but as was now painfully routine, a violent mob menaced the tribunes into fleeing the Assembly. The bill passed, and it was time to go head-hunting.39
Staffed by an all-Equestrian jury and led by ex-consul Philippus, the Varian Commission attacked its enemies with reckless abandon. At least a half-dozen prominent senators were prosecuted, including Scaurus and Antonius. The old optimates avoided conviction because they were, after all, some of the most powerful men in Rome. But their less august friends did not fare so well. Among those exiled was Gaius Aurelius Cotta, one of the young men at Crassus’s house that fateful night in September 91. His exile is probably the reason he lived through the civil wars.40
But though Scaurus was not convicted by the Varian Commission, the princeps senatus had come to the end of the line. Now past his seventieth birthday, the old master of the Senate had lived long enough to see the Metellan faction he had led for nearly thirty years disintegrate around him. Metellus Numidicus was dead as were most of his brothers and cousins. Of the next generation, only Numidicus’s son Metellus Pius showed promise. With Crassus unexpectedly dead, and their shared protégés all targeted and exiled, the faction splintered. Other families sensed the weakness of the Metelli and closed in for the kill. As the historian Velleius Paterculus notes: “Thus it is clear that, as in the case of cities and empires, so the fortunes of families flourish, wane, and pass away.” While Scaurus lived, the Metellans remained a dominant power in Rome, but the old man followed his friend Crassus and died in early 89.41
WHILE THESE POLITICAL prosecutions unfolded, the campaign season arrived in the spring of 90, and the Romans were ready to start a counteroffensive in multiple theaters. Consul Lucius Julius Caesar* was assigned to the Samnites in the south, while Publius Rutilius Lupus operated in the north against the Marsi. Meanwhile, proconsul Sextus Caesar was dispatched across the Apennines to Asculum. Spread out beneath the senior magistrates were an array of legates and praetors who operated with an unusual amount of independence. Among them were the men who would define the next violent phase of Roman politics: Metellus
Pius, Pompey Strabo, Cinna, Quintus Sertorius, even old Marius came out of retirement. But no one used his service in the Social War to better political advantage than Lucius Cornelius Sulla.42
Sulla had stayed on the sidelines during the explosive political battles of 104–100 that climaxed with Saturninus’s insurrection. When things started getting back to normal in 99, Sulla made a bid for praetor but was rebuffed by the voters, the story being that the voters were not happy Sulla was trying to skip out on being aedile. He was still old friends with King Bocchus of Mauretania and the people wanted Sulla to throw some fancy African-themed games. But wanting to get on with his career, Sulla promised to throw the desired games if he was elected praetor. Running again the next year, he was elected. The games were magnificent.43
After his year in Rome, the Senate ordered Sulla to Cilicia to keep an eye on the pirates preying on Mediterranean shipping. But while in the east, he was ordered on a delicate mission. For the last few years the kings of Pontus and Bithynia had fought over the border kingdom of Cappadocia. An interminable round of squabbling between the Pontic king Mithridates VI and the Bithynian king Nicomedes III led the Senate to throw up their hands and order both Nicomedes and Mithridates to confine themselves to their own kingdoms. Cappadocia would henceforth be free of foreign tribute and govern themselves. By “govern themselves” the Senate of course meant Cappadocia would be ruled by a pro-Roman puppet king. For this job they selected a pliant young noble named Ariobarzanes. Sulla was instructed to guarantee the new puppet king’s peaceful ascension to the throne.44
Sulla successfully installed Ariobarzanes and then traveled even farther east to settle a border dispute with the Armenians. The trip made Sulla the first Roman ambassador to formally sit down with envoys from the Parthian Empire, the heirs of the great Persian Empire in the far-off Iranian highlands. Rome and Parthia were destined for endless rounds of conflict in Syria and Mesopotamia once the Romans enveloped the Mediterranean, but at this point the Romans hadn’t even moved beyond the Aegean Sea. At this first summit, however, Sulla gave the Parthians a taste of Roman manners. He laid out the chairs with himself in the middle facing the other two, making Parthia the equal not of Rome but Cappadocia. When the Parthian king found out his ambassador took this inferior seat, he had him put to death.45
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