Marius himself would hardly profit from the political possibilities that were created by his reform. During riots in Rome, he sided with the senate to maintain order in the capital, thus for the time being saving the rule of the optimates. But it was not long before a new crisis made itself felt. When for a second time a proposal to extend Roman citizenship to the allies had come to naught by the opposition of the senate, the allies rose en masse against the dominant city. The ensuing Social War (so called after the socii or allies), from 91 to 88 BC, was one of the most dangerous wars Rome ever had to fight. Etruscans, Umbrians, and Samnites united and formed a separate state called Italia, which was, in a sense, an imitation of Rome with its own senate and two annually chosen commanders in chief. The war was very bloody. In Rome, the recognition dawned that the war could only be won by promising Roman citizenship to the Italian allies. When that happened, the resistance against Rome rapidly collapsed. In the end, only the Samnites fought on, until they were brought to their knees by the ruthless Cornelius Sulla, one of the outstanding Roman commanders of the time and a convinced supporter of the optimates. In 88 BC, Italy was pacified, and the whole area from the river Po down was now united in Roman citizenship.
In the same year, 88 BC, Mithridates of Pontos overran the Roman province of Asia. The senate reacted by ordering the Roman army that had just subdued the Samnites to march east under the command of Sulla. This was a war, everybody believed, that would yield rich booty and much prestige. The political opponents of Sulla and the optimates, therefore, begrudged him his command. A tribune of the people and ally of Marius had the
Assembly relieve Sulla of his position and transfer the command to Marius. Sulla reacted with a march on Rome that unleashed nearly 60 years of civil wars in which the republic itself would perish. That Sulla could make his legions march on Rome was the result of the fundamental change that the Roman army had undergone since Marius’ new recruitment. For now, their commander and patronus was for the soldiers more important than the will of either the senate or the assembly of the people. In Rome, Sulla had his opponents killed (Marius had fled the city just in time), restored the authority of the senate, and had his command against Mithridates formally renewed. Then he left for the east. One year later, the followers of Marius in their turn seized power in Rome. Political opponents were massacred, and Marius was re-elected consul for 86 BC, in which year he died. Thepopulares, who now dominated the state, began on their part to wage war on Mithridates and sent another army to the east, ignoring Sulla. Meanwhile, Sulla had defeated the king’s forces in Greece, captured Athens, and crossed over to Asia, where after a few years Mithridates had to give up his short-lived conquests but was allowed to keep his old kingdom, for Sulla was in a hurry to return to Rome. In 83 BC, he landed in Italy.
The party of the populares had prepared themselves for Sulla’s return but was, as it turned out, no match for him. Some nobiles in Italy even recruited their own troops, and then joined Sulla. One of these was the young Pompey (Pompeius), who thereby found favor with Sulla when the latter entered Rome in 82 BC. The senate, dominated again by the optimates, installed Sulla as dictator for an indefinite period with the task of reorganizing the state. In the three years of his dictatorship—a foretaste of the monarchy that would come later—Sulla had many populares and their supporters executed and the position of the senate vis-a-vis the tribunes and the people’s assembly considerably strengthened. Proposals to the assembly henceforth first needed the approval of the senate, which in effect ended the independent lawmaking power of the people and rendered the office of the tribunate toothless, the more so since from now on former tribunes would be excluded from a magisterial and senatorial career. The consulate was detached from the command of an army, for in future the consuls had to stay in Rome, while the legions would all be based in the provinces under the command of proconsuls, praetors, or propraetors as provincial governors. This demilitarization of Italy and of the consulate would prove to be one of the enduring measures initiated by Sulla.
In 79 BC, Sulla resigned—one year later he died—and people could see how his constitution would work in practice. Sulla had wished to turn the political clock back in favor of the senate, but in fact his policy was frustrated by the ambitions of individual nobiles. Those who wanted more power for themselves than was permitted by the reorganization of Sulla—and that applied to many nobiles—soon saw the new constitution as a straitjacket and preferred the full restoration of the tribunate and the people’s assembly, because only by means of these institutions could they hope to bypass the senate for their own political ends. Many poorer citizens too, who had set their hopes on further land distribution, looked forward to a restoration of the old constitution. Thus, in the years following 79 BC, there was much agitation against the optimates dominating the senate. It was a period of unrest in various respects. After the demise of the great maritime powers of the Hellenistic east and of Carthage in the west, the whole of the Mediterranean was menaced by pirates, making all sea travel and every coast unsafe. It was also in these years that the slaves in Italy rose in a
Great uprising led by the Thracian Spartacus. It was a veritable war (73-71 BC) that was only ended after two years by Crassus, then the richest man in Rome and one of those politicians who wanted to abolish many of Sulla’s reforms that hindered their own careers. The same Pompey who had already made a name for himself in 82 BC and who now returned from Spain, where he had finally put down the remnants of an anti-Sullan movement, joined him in crushing the last bands of the slaves, so that both men, Crassus and Pompey, could pose as saviors of Rome. With their troops in Italy threatening the capital, they were duly elected as consuls for the year 70 BC. In that year, they pushed through the restoration of the tribunate and of the people’s assembly to their former powers. Pompey would be the first to reap the fruits thereof.
World History
