1. First Man in Rome Read online

  THE FOURTH YEAR (107 B.C.) IN THE CONSULSHIP OF LUCIUS CASSIUS LONGINUS AND GAIUS MARIUS (I)

  No consulship ever mattered to its owner the Marius's first consulship mattered to him. He proceeded to his inauguration on New Year's Day secure in the knowledge that his night watch for omens had been unimpeachable, and that his white bull had gorged itself on drugged fodder. Solemn and aloof, Marius stood looking every inch the consul, splendidly tall, far more distinguished than any of those around him in the crisp fine early morning air; the senior consul, Lucius Cassius Longinus, was short and stocky, didn't look imposing in a toga, and was completely overshadowed by his junior colleague. And at long last Lucius Cornelius Sulla walked as a senator, the broad purple stripe on the right shoulder of his tunic, attending his consul, Marius, in the role of quaestor. Though he didn't have the fasces for the month of January, those crimson-tied bundles of rods being the property of the senior consul, Cassius, until the Kalends of February, Marius nevertheless summoned the Senate for a meeting the following day. "At the moment," he said to the assembled senators, almost all of whom elected to attend, for they didn't trust Marius, "Rome is being called upon to fight wars on at least three fronts, and that excludes Spain. We need troops to combat King Jugurtha, the Scordisci in Macedonia, and the Germans in Gaul. However, in the fifteen years since the death of Gaius Gracchus we have lost sixty thousand Roman soldiers, dead on various fields of battle. Thousands more have been rendered unfit for further military service. I repeat the length of the period, Conscript Fathers of the Senate fifteen years. Not even half a generation in length." The House was very silent; among those who sat there was Marcus Junius Silanus, who had lost more than a third of that total less than two years earlier, and was still fending off treason charges. No one had ever dared before to say the dreaded total number in the House, yet all present knew very well that Marius's figures erred on the side of conservatism. Numbed by the sound of the figures pronounced in Marius's upcountry Latin, the senators listened. "We cannot fill the levies," Marius went on, "for one cogent reason. We no longer have enough men. The shortage of Roman citizen and Latin Rights men is frightening, but the shortage of Italian men is worse. Even conscripting in every district south of the Arnus, we stand no hope of recruiting the troops we need to field this year. I would presume the African army, six legions strong, trained and equipped, will return to Italy with Quintus Caecilius Metellus, and be used by my esteemed colleague Lucius Cassius in Further Gaul of the Tolosates. The Macedonian legions are also properly equipped and of veteran status, and will, I am sure, continue to do well under Marcus Minucius and his young brother." Marius paused to draw breath; the House continued to listen. "But there remains the problem of a new African army. Quintus Caecilius Metellus has had six full-strength legions at his disposal. I anticipate being able to reduce that total to four legions if I have to. However, Rome doesn't have four legions in reserve! Rome doesn't even have one legion in reserve! To refresh your memories, I will give you the precise numbers a four-legion army contains." There was no need for a Gaius Marius to refer to notes; he simply stood there on the consuls' dais slightly in front of his ivory curule chair and gave the figures out of his memory. "At full strength: 5,120 infantrymen per legion, plus 1,280 noncombatant freemen and another 1,000 non-combatant slaves per legion. Then we have the cavalry: a force of 2,000 mounted troops, with a further 2,000 non-combatant freemen and slaves to support the horse. I am therefore faced with the task of finding 20,480 infantrymen, 5,120 noncombatant freemen, 4,000 noncombatant slaves, 2,000 cavalry troopers, and 2,000 noncombatant cavalry support men." His eyes traveled the House. "Now the noncombatant forces have never been difficult to recruit, and will not be difficult to recruit, I predict there is no property qualification upon the noncombatant, who can be as poor as a foothills sharecropper. Nor will the cavalry be difficult, as it is many generations since Rome fielded mounted troopers of Roman or Italian origin. We will as always find the men we want in places like Macedonia, Thrace, Liguria, and Gaul-across-the-Alps, and they bring their own noncombatants with them, as well as their horses." He paused for a longer space of time, noting certain men: Scaurus and the unsuccessful consular candidate Catulus Caesar, Metellus Dalmaticus Pontifex Maximus, Gaius Memmius, Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus, Scipio Nasica, Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus. Whichever way these men jumped, the senatorial sheep would follow. "Ours is a frugal state, Conscript Fathers. When we threw out the kings, we abrogated the concept of fielding an army largely paid for by the State. For that reason, we limited armed service to those with sufficient property to buy their own arms, armor, and other equipment, and that requirement was for all soldiers Roman, Latin, Italian, no difference. A man of property has property to defend. The survival of the State and of his property matter to him. He is willing to put his heart into fighting. For that reason, we have been reluctant to assume an overseas empire, and have tried time and time again to avoid owning provinces. "But after the defeat of Perseus, we failed in our laudable attempt to introduce self-government into Macedonia because the Macedonians could not understand any system save autocracy. So we had to take Macedonia over as a province of Rome because we couldn't afford to have barbarian tribes invading the west coast of Macedonia, so close to our own Italy's east coast. The defeat of Carthage forced us to administer Carthage's empire in Spain, or risk some other nation's taking possession. We gave the bulk of African Carthage to the kings of Numidia and kept only a small province around Carthage itself in the name of Rome, to guard against any Punic revival and yet, look at what has happened because we gave so much away to the kings of Numidia! Now we find ourselves obliged to take over Africa in order to protect our own small province and crush the blatantly expansionist policies of one man, Jugurtha. For all it takes, Conscript Fathers, is one man, and we are undone! King Attalus willed us Asia when he died, and we are still trying to avoid our provincial responsibilities there! Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus opened up the whole coast of Gaul between Liguria and Nearer Spain so that we had a safe, properly Roman corridor between Italy and Spain for our armies but out of that, we found ourselves obliged to create yet another province." He cleared his throat; such a silence! "Our soldiers now fight their campaigns outside of Italy. They are away for long periods, their farms and homes are neglected, their wives unfaithful, their children unsired. With the result that we see fewer and fewer volunteers, are forced increasingly to call up men in the levies. No man who farms the land or conducts a business wants to be away from it for five or six or even seven years! And when he is discharged, he is liable to be called up again the moment the volunteers don't volunteer.'' The deep voice grew somber. "But more than anything else, so many of these men have died during the past fifteen years! And they have not replaced themselves. The whole of Italy is empty of men with the necessary property qualifications to form a Roman army in the traditional mould." The voice changed again, was raised to echo round the naked rafters of the ancient hall, built during the time of King Tullus Hostilius. "Well, ever since the time of the second war against Carthage, the recruiting officers have had to wink an eye at the property qualifications. And after the loss of the younger Carbo's army six years ago, we have even admitted to the ranks men who couldn't afford to buy their own armor, let alone equip themselves in other ways. But it has been covert, unapproved, and always a last resort. "Those days are over, Conscript Fathers. I, Gaius Marius, consul of the Senate and People of Rome, am hereby serving notice upon the members of this House that I intend to recruit my soldiers, not conscript them I want willing soldiers, not men who would rather be at home! And where am I going to find some twenty thousand volunteers, you ask? Why, the answer's simple! I am going to seek them among the Head Count, the absolute bottom of the social strata, too poor to be admitted to one of the Five Classes I am going to seek my volunteers among those who have no money, no property, and very often no steady job I am going to seek my volunteers among those who never before have been offered the opportunity t
o fight for their country, to fight for Rome!" A swelling murmur arose, and increased, and increased, until the whole House was thundering: "No! No! No!" Showing no anger, Marius waited patiently, even as the anger of others beat around him tangibly in shaking fists and purpling faces, the scraping of more than two hundred folding stools as the swishing togas of men leaping to their feet pushed them across the old stone floor, buffed by the passage of centuries of feet. Finally the noise died down; roused to ire though they were, they knew they hadn't yet heard it all, and curiosity was a powerful force, even in the irate. "You can scream and yell and howl until vinegar turns into wine!" shouted Marius when he could make himself heard. "But I am serving notice upon you here and now that this is what I am going to do! And I don't need your permission to do it, either! There's no law on the tablets says I cannot do it but within a matter of days there will be a law on the tablets says I can do it! A law which says that any lawfully elected senior magistrate in need of an army may seek it among the capite censi the Head Count the proletarii. For I, senators, am taking my case to the People!" "Never!" cried Dalmaticus. "Over my dead body!" cried Scipio Nasica. "No! No! No!" cried the whole House, thundering. "Wait!" cried the lone voice of Scaurus. "Wait, wait! Let me refute him!" But no one heard. The Curia Hostilia, home of the Senate since the foundation of the Republic, shuddered to its very foundations from the noise of infuriated senators. "Come on!" said Marius, and swept out of the House, followed by his quaestor, Sulla, and his tribune of the plebs, Titus Manlius Mancinus. The Forum crowds had gathered at the first rumblings of the storm, and found the well of the Comitia already packed with Marius's supporters. Down the steps of the Curia and across to the rostra along the back of the Comitia marched the consul Marius and the tribune of the plebs Mancinus; the quaestor Sulla, a patrician, remained on the Senate House steps. "Hear ye, hear ye!" roared Mancinus. "The Assembly of the Plebs is called into session! I declare a contio, a preliminary discussion!" Forth to the speaker's platform at the front of the rostra stepped Gaius Marius, and turned so that he partially faced the Comitia and partially the open space of the lower Forum; those on the steps of the Senate House mostly saw his back, and when all the senators save the few patricians began to move down the tiers of the Comitia to where from its floor they could look straight at Marius and harass him, the ranks of his clients and supporters who had been summoned to the Comitia in readiness suddenly blocked their onward passage, and would not let them through. There were scuffles and punches, teeth were bared and tempers flared, but the Marian lines held. Only the nine other tribunes of the plebs were allowed to proceed to the rostra, where they stood along its back with stern faces and silently debated whether it was going to be possible to interpose a veto and live. "People of Rome, they say I cannot do what is necessary to ensure the survival of Rome!" Marius shouted. "Rome needs soldiers, Rome needs soldiers desperately! We are surrounded on all fronts by enemies, yet the noble Conscript Fathers of the Senate as usual are more concerned with preserving their inherited right to rule than ensuring the survival of Rome! It is they, People of Rome, who have sucked the blood of Romans and Latins and Italians dry by their indifferent exploitation of the classes of men who have traditionally been Rome's soldiers! For I say to you, there are none of these men left! Those who haven't died on some battlefield thanks to the greed, the arrogance, and the stupidity of some consular commander are either too maimed to be of further use as soldiers, or currently serving in the legions! "But there is an alternative source of soldiers, a source ready and eager to volunteer to serve Rome as soldiers! I am referring to the men of the Head Count, the citizens of Rome or of Italy who are too poor to have a vote in the Centuries, too poor to own land or businesses, too poor to buy soldiers' gear! But it is time, People of Rome, that the thousands upon thousands of these men should be called upon to do more for Rome than queue up whenever cheap grain is offered, push and shove their way into the Circus on holidays in search of gratification, breed sons and daughters they cannot feed! The fact that they have no worth should not make them worthless! Nor do I for one believe that they love Rome any less than any man of substance! In fact, I believe their love for Rome is purer by far than the love displayed by most of the honorable members of the Senate!" Marius raised himself up in swelling indignation, threw wide his arms to embrace, it seemed, the whole of Rome. "I am here with the College of Tribunes at my back to seek a mandate from you, the People, which the Senate will not give me! I am asking you for the right to call upon the military potential of the Head Count! I want to turn the men of the Head Count from useless insignificants into soldiers of Rome's legions! I want to offer the men of the Head Count gainful employment a profession rather than a trade! a future for themselves and their families with honor and prestige and an opportunity to advance! I want to offer them a consciousness of dignity and worth, a chance to play no mean part in the onward progress of Rome the Mighty!" He paused; the Comitia stared up at him in profound silence, all eyes fixed on his fierce face, his glaring eyes, the indomitable thrust of chin and chest. "The Conscript Fathers of the Senate are denying these thousands upon thousands of men their chance! Denying me the chance to call upon their services, their loyalty, their love of Rome! And for what? Because the Conscript Fathers of the Senate love Rome more than I do? No! Because they love themselves and their own class more than they love Rome or anything else! So I have come to you, the People, to ask you to give me and give Rome! what the Senate will not! Give me the capite censi, People of Rome! Give me the humblest, the lowliest! Give me the chance to turn them into a body of citizens Rome can be proud of, a body of citizens Rome can make use of instead of merely enduring, a body of citizens equipped and trained and paid by the State to serve the State with hearts and bodies as soldiers! Will you give me what I ask? Will you give Rome what Rome needs?" And the shouting began, the cheering, the stamping of feet, the audible breaking of a tradition ten centuries old. Nine tribunes of the plebs looked sideways at each other, and agreed without speaking not to interpose a veto; for all of them liked living.