Speaker 1: Section eleven of the grochy Marius and Sulla by A. H. Beasley.
Speaker 1: This librovox recording is in the public domain. Read by Pamelinagami,
Speaker 1: Chapter nine Sulpicious, the terrible disintegration which the social war
Speaker 1: had brought on Italy was faithfully reproduced in Rome. There too,
Speaker 1: every man's hand was against his neighbor, creditor and debtor,
Speaker 1: tribune and consul, Senate and anti senate fiercely confronted each other.
Speaker 1: Personal interests had become so much more prominent, and old
Speaker 1: party divisions were so confused by the schemes of Italianizing
Speaker 1: politicians aristocratic in their connections, but cleaving to part at
Speaker 1: least of the traditional democratic program, that it is very
Speaker 1: hard to see where the views of one faction blended
Speaker 1: with those of another, and where they clashed. Still harder
Speaker 1: is it to dissect the character of individual rules. To decide,
Speaker 1: for instance, how far a man like Sulpicius was swayed
Speaker 1: by disinterested principles, and how far he fought for his
Speaker 1: own hand. We need not make too much of the
Speaker 1: fact that he appealed to force, because violence was the
Speaker 1: order of the day, and submission to the law simply
Speaker 1: meant submission to the law of force. But there are
Speaker 1: some parts of his career apparently so inconsistent as almost
Speaker 1: to defy explanation, which in any case can be little
Speaker 1: more than guess work. Publius Sulpicious Rufus was now in
Speaker 1: the prime of life, having been born in one twenty
Speaker 1: four b c. He was an aristocrat, an orator of
Speaker 1: great force and fire, and a friend of Drusus, whose
Speaker 1: views he shared and inherited. Cicero speaks of him in
Speaker 1: no grudging terms. Of all the speakers I have heard,
Speaker 1: Sulpicious was the grandest, and so to speak, most tragic.
Speaker 1: Besides being powerful, his voice was sweet and resonant. His
Speaker 1: gestures and movements, elegant though they were, had nothing theatrical
Speaker 1: about them, and his oratory, though quick and fluent, was
Speaker 1: neither redundant nor verbose. The year before his tribunet had
Speaker 1: been a turbulent one at Rome. The social war and
Speaker 1: Asiatic disturbances had brought about a financial crisis. Debtors, hard
Speaker 1: pressed by their creditors, invoked obsolete penalties against Jusury in
Speaker 1: their defense, and the creditors, because the praetor Islia attempted
Speaker 1: to submit the question to trial, murdered him in the
Speaker 1: open forum. The debtors responded by a cry for tabulaoi,
Speaker 1: or a sweeping remission of all debts. Of these debtors,
Speaker 1: many doubtless, would belong to the lower orders. But from
Speaker 1: a proposal of Sulpicious made the next year, it appears
Speaker 1: probable that some were found in the ranks of the Senate.
Speaker 1: War had made money tight, to use the phraseology of
Speaker 1: our modern stock exchange, and reckless extravagance could no longer
Speaker 1: be supported by borrowing. Sulpicious inherited the policy of Drusus,
Speaker 1: which was to reconstruct the senatorial government on an Italian basis.
Speaker 1: Like Drusus, he had to conciliate prejudices in order to
Speaker 1: carry out his design. Plutarch says that he went about
Speaker 1: with six hundred men of the Equestrian order, whom he
Speaker 1: called his anti Senate. No doubt it was to please
Speaker 1: these equitais, who would belong to the party of creditors,
Speaker 1: that he proposed that no one should be a senator
Speaker 1: who owed more than two thousand dinari e. No doubt, too,
Speaker 1: he would have filled the vacancies thus created by the
Speaker 1: expulsion of reckless anti Italian optimists from the ranks of
Speaker 1: these equities, just as Drusus had done. Just like Druces, too,
Speaker 1: he had to court the proletariat, and this he did
Speaker 1: by proposing to enroll freedmen in the tribes. This, as
Speaker 1: they were generally dependent on men of his own order,
Speaker 1: he could do without prejudice to the new modeled aristocracy
Speaker 1: which he was attempting to organize. He also proposed to
Speaker 1: grant an amnesty to those who had been exiled by
Speaker 1: the Lexvaria, hoping no doubt to gain more by the
Speaker 1: adherents who would return to Rome than he would lose
Speaker 1: by the return of men like Varius himself. He had
Speaker 1: opposed such an amnesty before, but on such a point
Speaker 1: he might have easily changed his views, especially if a
Speaker 1: strong cry was being raised by the friends of the exiles.
Speaker 1: He had a personal feud with the Julian family because
Speaker 1: he had opposed Caesar's illegal candidature for the consulship. That
Speaker 1: having fortified himself by such alliances, he proceeded to carry
Speaker 1: out the main design of Drusus, namely the complete enfranchisement
Speaker 1: of the Italians. This perhaps would be especially distasteful to
Speaker 1: the Julie as superseding the Lex Julia and the Lex
Speaker 1: Plotia Papiria, which to them no doubt seemed ample and
Speaker 1: more than ample concessions. Sulpicious, on the other hand, in
Speaker 1: the minority of the Senate which sided with him, saw
Speaker 1: that under the cover of clemency, a grievous wrong was
Speaker 1: being done. For not only were the Italians who had
Speaker 1: submitted since the terms of the Lex Plaudia took effect
Speaker 1: without the franchise, but from the fact of their rebellion
Speaker 1: they had lost their old privileges as allied states. Even
Speaker 1: those who had benefited by these concessions had benefited only
Speaker 1: in name. As they voted in new tribes, their votes
Speaker 1: were valueless and often would not be recorded at all,
Speaker 1: for a majority on most questions would be assured long
Speaker 1: before it came to their turn to vote. Two statesmen
Speaker 1: imbued with the views of Drusus, such a distribution of
Speaker 1: the franchise must have seemed impolitic trickery, and like Drusus,
Speaker 1: Sulpicious resorted to questionable means in order to gain the
Speaker 1: end on which he had set his heart. Rome was
Speaker 1: thus broken up into two camps, not as of yore,
Speaker 1: broadly marked off by palpable distinctions of rank, property, or privilege,
Speaker 1: but each containing adherents of all sorts and conditions. Though
Speaker 1: in the Senate the opponents of Sulpicius had the majority,
Speaker 1: when Sulpicius proposed to enroll the Italians in the Old Tribes,
Speaker 1: the consuls proclaimed astacium, or suspension of all public business
Speaker 1: for some religious observances. It is said by some modern
Speaker 1: writers that the object of Sulpicious in proposing to enroll
Speaker 1: the Italians in the Old Tribes was to secure the
Speaker 1: election of Marius to the command against Mithridatees. It is certain, indeed,
Speaker 1: that Marius longed for it. Daily he was seen in
Speaker 1: the campus Marcius exercising with the young men, and, though
Speaker 1: old and fat, showing himself nimble in arms and active
Speaker 1: on horseback, conduct which excited some men's good humored sympathy,
Speaker 1: but shocked others, who thought he had much better go
Speaker 1: to Bayi for the baths there, and that such an
Speaker 1: exhibition was contemptible. In one of his years, Sulpicius may
Speaker 1: have thought Marius quite fit for the command, and was
Speaker 1: warranted in thinking so by the events of the social war.
Speaker 1: But there is no more ground for supposing that the
Speaker 1: election of Marius was his primary object than for considering
Speaker 1: Plutarch's diatribe a fair estimate of his character. He was
Speaker 1: the friend and successor of Drusus, and his alliance with
Speaker 1: Marius was a means to the end, which, in common
Speaker 1: with Druces, he had in view, and not the end itself.
Speaker 1: This consideration is essential to a true understanding of the
Speaker 1: politics of the time, and just makes the difference whether
Speaker 1: Sulpicius was a petty minded adventurer or deliberately following in
Speaker 1: the lines laid down for him by a succession of statesmen.
Speaker 1: To the maneuver of the consul. He replied with a
Speaker 1: violent protest that it was illegal. Rome was being paraded
Speaker 1: by his partisans, three thousand armed men, and there was
Speaker 1: a tumult in which the lives of the consuls were
Speaker 1: in danger. One pompeious Rufus escaped, but his son was killed.
Speaker 1: The other Sullah annulled the g justicium, but is said
Speaker 1: to have got off with his life only because Marius
Speaker 1: generously gave him shelter in his own house. In these occurrences,
Speaker 1: it is impossible not to see that the consuls were
Speaker 1: the first to act unfairly. Sulpicius had been intending to
Speaker 1: bring forward his laws in the regular fashion. They thwarted
Speaker 1: him by a trick. Whether he, in anger gave the
Speaker 1: signal for violence, or whether, as is quite as likely,
Speaker 1: his Italian partisans did not wait for his bidding, the
Speaker 1: blame of the tumult lay at the door of the
Speaker 1: other side. In such cases, he is not guiltiest who
Speaker 1: strikes the first blow, but he who has made blows inevitable.
Speaker 1: The laws of Sulpicius were carried, Sulah fled to the army,
Speaker 1: And perhaps it was only now that Sulpicius, knowing or
Speaker 1: thinking that he knew that Sellah would march on Rome,
Speaker 1: carried a resolution in the popular Assembly for making Marius
Speaker 1: commander in the east. Two tribunes were accordingly sent to
Speaker 1: the camp at Nola to take the army from Sellah.
Speaker 1: His soldiers immediately slew them and burning for the booty
Speaker 1: of Asia, and attached to their fortunate leader. They, when,
Speaker 1: without venturing to hint at the means by which he
Speaker 1: could avenge it, he complained of the wrong done to him,
Speaker 1: glamorously called on him to lead them to Rome. All
Speaker 1: his officers except one choist door left him, but he
Speaker 1: set out with six legions and was joined by Pompeius.
Speaker 1: On the way, two priters met him and forbade his advance.
Speaker 1: They escaped with their lives, but the soldiers broke their
Speaker 1: foscuse and tore off their senatorial robes. A second and
Speaker 1: a third time the Senate sent to ask his intentions
Speaker 1: to release Rome from her tyrants was the grim reply.
Speaker 1: Then he vouchsafed an offer that the Senate, Marius and
Speaker 1: Sulpicious should meet him in the campus marshes to come
Speaker 1: to terms. If this meant that he would come with
Speaker 1: his army at his back, it was an absurd proposal.
Speaker 1: If it meant that he would come alone, it was
Speaker 1: a falsehood. In either case, it was a device to
Speaker 1: fritter away time. For all the while that he was
Speaker 1: bandying meaningless messages, he continued his onward marks he had sacrificed,
Speaker 1: and the soothsayer Posthumius, when he saw the entrails, had
Speaker 1: stretched out his hands to him and offered to be
Speaker 1: kept in chains for punishment after the battle if it
Speaker 1: was not a victory. He too, had himself seen a
Speaker 1: vision of good Omen Bologna or another goddess had he
Speaker 1: dreamed put a thunderbolt in his hands, and, naming his
Speaker 1: enemies one by one, bidden him strike them, and they
Speaker 1: were consumed to ashes. Again, envoys came from the Senate
Speaker 1: forbidding him to come within five miles of Rome. Perhaps
Speaker 1: they still felt as secure in the immemorial freedom of
Speaker 1: the city from military rule as the English parliament did
Speaker 1: before Cromwell's coupd'etat. Again he amused them, and no doubt himself,
Speaker 1: also with a falsehood and professing compliance, followed close upon
Speaker 1: their heels. With one Lesion he occupied the Chilian gate,
Speaker 1: with another under Pompeius, the Colleen Gate, with a third
Speaker 1: the pan Sublikius, while a fourth was posted outside as
Speaker 1: a reserve. Thus, for the first time a consul commanded
Speaker 1: an army in the city, and soldiers were masters of Rome.
Speaker 1: Marius and Sulpicius met them on the Escolne, and, pouring
Speaker 1: down tiles from the housetops, had first beat them back,
Speaker 1: but Sullah, waving a burning torch, bade his men shoot
Speaker 1: fiery arrows at the houses and drove the Marians from
Speaker 1: the Escoline Forum. Then he sent for the legion in reserve,
Speaker 1: and ordered a detachment to go round by the Siburah
Speaker 1: and take the enemy in the rear. In Vain, Marius
Speaker 1: made another stand at the temple of Tellus. In Vain,
Speaker 1: he offered liberty to any slaves that would join him.
Speaker 1: He was beaten and fled from the city. Thus Sullah,
Speaker 1: having by injustice provoked disorder, quelled it by the sword
Speaker 1: and began the civil war. So Ppecius, Marius, and ten
Speaker 1: others were proscribed, and Sullah is said to have still
Speaker 1: further stimulated the pursuit of Marius by setting a price
Speaker 1: on his head. Sulpicius was killed at Laurentum, and according
Speaker 1: to Wileus Petterculus, Sollah fixed up the eloquent orator's head
Speaker 1: at the Rostra, a thing not unlikely to have been
Speaker 1: done by a man to whose nature such grim irony
Speaker 1: was thoroughly congenial. He evinced it on this occasion in
Speaker 1: another way, which may have suggested to Victor Ugo his
Speaker 1: episode of Lantanac and the Gunner. He gave the slave
Speaker 1: who betrayed Sulpicius his freedom, and then had him hurled
Speaker 1: from the Tarpeian rock. After this he set to work
Speaker 1: to restore such order as would enable him to hasten
Speaker 1: to the east. Various explanations have been offered to account
Speaker 1: for his moderation at this conjuncture, and for his leaving
Speaker 1: Italy precisely when his enemies were again gathering for an attack,
Speaker 1: But the true one has never yet perhaps been suggested.
Speaker 1: Who was it that had made him supreme at Rome?
Speaker 1: The army? What had been the bribe which had won
Speaker 1: it over a campaign in Asia? Under the fortune at Sullah.
Speaker 1: Without that army he was powerless, may he was a
Speaker 1: dead man. Therefore, it was absolutely necessary to execute his
Speaker 1: pledge to the army, which would have no keen desire
Speaker 1: to encounter its countrymen in Italy. No doubt he coveted
Speaker 1: the glory and spoil of the Asiatic command, But it
Speaker 1: is absurd to suppose that he would have quitted Italy
Speaker 1: now of his own free will. He had no choice
Speaker 1: in the matter. He was bound hand and foot by
Speaker 1: his promises to the soldiers, and all that he could
Speaker 1: do was by plausible moderation to win as many friends,
Speaker 1: conciliate as many foes as possible, throw on Sinna, whom
Speaker 1: he could not hope to keep quiet the guilt of perjury,
Speaker 1: and trust to fortune for the rest. This is a
Speaker 1: probable and consistent view of what now took place at Rome,
Speaker 1: and every other account makes out Sulah to have been
Speaker 1: either inconsistent, which he never was, for he was always
Speaker 1: uniformly selfish or patriotic, which he never was. If patriotism
Speaker 1: consists in sacrificing private to public considerations, or indifferent, which
Speaker 1: he was in principle but never in practice, unless where
Speaker 1: his own interests were not threatened and only the sufferings
Speaker 1: of others involved. His first measure was to annul the
Speaker 1: Sulpician laws. Secondly, to relieve the debtors, some colonies were
Speaker 1: established and a law was passed about interest, the terms
Speaker 1: of which we do not know. Thirdly, the Senate, thinned
Speaker 1: by the social war in Navarian law was recruited by
Speaker 1: three hundred optimates. Fourthly, because Sulpicious had resisted the proclamation
Speaker 1: of a giustiqi, that device by which the Senate had virtually,
Speaker 1: though not legally, retained in its own hands the power
Speaker 1: of discussing any measure before it was submitted to the people. Therefore,
Speaker 1: for the future, no measure was to be submitted to
Speaker 1: the people till it had been previously discussed by the Senate.
Speaker 1: In other words, the Senate was now confirmed by law
Speaker 1: in a privilege which it had hitherto only exercised by
Speaker 1: the employment of a fiction. Fifthly, the votes were to
Speaker 1: be taken not in the Committee a Tributa, but in
Speaker 1: the Committee of Centuries. Sixthly, the five classes were no
Speaker 1: longer to have an equal voice, but the first class was,
Speaker 1: as in the Serbian constitution, to have nearly half the votes.
Speaker 1: As the first class consisted of those who had an
Speaker 1: estate of one hundred thousand sasterces. This ordinance changed the
Speaker 1: democracy into a democracy, transferring the power from the people
Speaker 1: generally to the wealthier classes. But considering how voting had
Speaker 1: been manipulated of late, it was perhaps a measure due
Speaker 1: to the Senate quite as much as to Sullah. On
Speaker 1: the whole, he legislated as little as he could and
Speaker 1: proscribed as few as he could, but he tried to
Speaker 1: get two of his partisans, Servius and Nonius, elected consuls
Speaker 1: for the year eighty seven. Instead of them, however, Lucius
Speaker 1: Cornelius Sinna, a determined leader of the Papulares, was elected,
Speaker 1: and though Nius Octavius, his colleague, was one of the optimates.
Speaker 1: He was not Sullah's creature. In another quarter, his arrangements
Speaker 1: were thwarted even more unpleasantly. He had got a decree
Speaker 1: framed by the people, giving the army of the North
Speaker 1: to his friend Quintus Pompeius Rufus, and recalling Nius Pompeius Strabo,
Speaker 1: but the latter procured the assassination of the former, and
Speaker 1: remained at the head of the army. Still Sullah showed
Speaker 1: no resentment. A tribune named Virguineus was threatening to prosecute him,
Speaker 1: but he contented himself with making Sinna ascend the capital
Speaker 1: with a stone in his hand and throwing it down
Speaker 1: before a number of spectators, solemnly swear to observe the
Speaker 1: new constitution. Then, leaving Metellusensamnium and Appius Claudius at Nola,
Speaker 1: he hurried on to Coppua, and, embarking at Brundusium, felt
Speaker 1: no doubt that if he must pay his debt to
Speaker 1: the army before the army would commit fresh treasons for him.
Speaker 1: It was not unpleasant now to be forced away from
Speaker 1: the wasp's nest, which he had stirred up round him
Speaker 1: at home, and so making a virtue of necessity, he
Speaker 1: sailed with a light heart from the chance of assassination
Speaker 1: at Rome to fame and fortune in the east end
Speaker 1: of Section eleven.