Pre-100 B.C.
 To understand the political climate Caesar was
born into, one most understand the figures that
dominated Rome during his early life
 Two figures dominated Rome at this time:
Lucius Cornelius Sulla and Gaius Marius
Marius

Gaius Marius was born in 157 B.C. A “novus homo,” he frequently butted heads with
patricians during his young life

Military success helped his reputation and in 119 B.C., he was voted tribune of the plebs

During his time in Senate, he fought for land reform and greater land-distribution for the
masses

In 115 B.C., he was sent to govern Hispania, upon his return, he married a patrician,
Julia (Caesar’s aunt)

In 107 B.C., he successfully won his first race for consul and by 100 B.C., he was
heading into his 6th consulship

In 100 B.C., he successfully beat back an invasion of Cimbri and Teutones (defeating
them so badly that they would not threaten Rome for another 2 generations), the Senate
bestowed upon him the honor of being called the “third founder of Rome.”
Sulla

Lucius Cornelius Sulla was born into the patrician clan Cornelia in 138 B.C.

In his early life, he received an excellent patrician education

In 107 B.C., serving under Marius in the Jugurthine War, he persuaded King
Bocchus I of Mauretania to surrender Jugurtha of Numidia to the Romans

The publicity of the event catapulted Sulla’s political career
100 B.C.
 Marius’s 6th consulship in 100 B.C. would prove to be
disastrous
 Tribune of the Plebs, Saturninus, brought forth an ambitious
bill regarding distribution of conquered land for veterans
 Part of this bill included an oath given by all Senators that
they would not protest the future of this bill or else they
would face exile
 The plebs despised this bill and Marius, who was once
known as a “man of the people,” dropped in popularity
Retirement

The next year, when Saturninus wished to have an associate elected to consul,
he hired thugs to attack the rival candidate

The Senate declared Senatus Consultum Ultimum and Marius swept into the
forum with soldiers to restore peace

Marius made an effort to save Saturninus, but he was stoned to death

The entire handling of the event isolated Marius from both nobles and
common-folk

He left Italy for the East in 98 B.C., negotiating peace with Mithridates VI of
Pontus

He was elected an Augur in 96 B.C., returning to Rome with a better
reputation than he had left it
The age-old rivalry
 In the following years, the rivalry between the Optimates
(Patricians) and Populares (Plebs) intensified
 A deeply personal rivalry developed between Sulla (an Optimate)
and Marius (a Populares), they would become known as the
leaders of their respective groups
 Direct war was avoided, however, when the War of the Allies
broke out in 90 B.C.
The War of the Allies
 Sparked by the assassination of Marcus Livius Drusus in 91 B.C.,
Italian cities doted throughout rebelled
 Roman citizenship was a privilege, to not have it meant a
complete lack of personal liberty and respect
 The war was disastrous for the Romans, whose armies were
severely beaten in almost every battle
 Marius, after several disappointing battles, retired from the war
 Sulla, however, became a victorious general and he was granted
consulship in 88 B.C.
The first march on Rome
 Tribune of the Plebs Sulpicius, in an effort to end the War of
Allies, suggested a series of bills that would grant citizenship and
representation to the rebelling Italians
 Sulpicius, an ally of Marius, also suggested taking Sulla’s
command and giving it to Marius
 Sulla was enraged by such suggestions, and, being an Optimate,
hated the idea of so many Italians being granted citizenship
 Sulla decided to march on Rome and take back the Senate
 Marius, however, was able to escape and hid in a colony in North
Africa were his veterans resided
Back-and-forth
 Upon his return, Sulla outlawed Sulpicius’ laws, rejecting any
suggestions for complete Italian citizenship
 He departed from Rome to battle Mithridates, who was
slaughtering Romans through out the East
 Cinna, an ally of Marius, was elected consul the next year and
reinstated all of Sulpicius’ reforms
 Wishing to keep Sulla out of Rome when he returned from war,
Cinna invited Marius to return
 Flocked by his veterans and old troops, Marius marched on Rome
Marius is back
 Maddened by bloodthirst, Marius went on a rampage around
Rome, allowing his soldiers to kill any Sullans they came across
 He displayed hundreds of heads in the Forums
 Marius was elected to his 7th consulship
 Marius died only 17 days into his consulship, dying in 86 B.C.
 Cinna, during this time, ironed out the citizenship bill and every
Italian tribe was granted full citizenship and representaiton
Civil War
 Sulla, victorious from war with Mithridates, returned to Italy only to
find Marian troops blocking the roads back to Rome
 Sulla made quick-work of Cinna and Carbo (the two consuls who
were Marians)
 Marius’s son, the remaining commander, committed suicide when
Praeneste, the last Marian bastion, fell
 It did not take until 80 B.C. for the Marians to fully be dislodged from
Italy
 Now in full control of the Republic, Sulla declared himself dictator
rei publicae constituendae (dictator for reorganizing the government)
Sulla’s reforms
 Now in control, Sulla set about fixing the flaws that
had led to war between him and Marius
 He passed a treason law, kept Cinna’s citizenship
reform, and he created criminal courts throughout Italy
to handle all major crimes
 His reforms were widely regarded as what preserved
the Republic for another 50 years
Sulla: Bloodthirsty
Dictator?
 Most Roman historians, despite recognizing what he did to save
the Republic, would write of Sulla as a terrible dictator
 Sulla introduced Proscription lists, which sought revenge for all
those who had fought against Sulla
 Young Julius Caesar, being related to both Marius and Cinna, was
on one of these proscription lists, he was forced to flee Rome
 In his memoirs, Sulla wrote that he regretted sparing Caesar, as he
had possessed “dangerous political ambition.” He is quoted as
telling some of his comrades, “In this Caesar there are many
Mariuses.”
The end of Sulla
 In 81 B.C., Sulla stepped down from his dictatorship
and retired to his villa near Puteoli to write his
memoire
 He died in 78 B.C.
 His state funeral was the largest funeral procession ever
recorded in Rome (until Augustus’s funeral in 14 A.D.)
The Republic post-Sulla
 Sulla’s retirement marked a return to normal
governance (dual consulship rule)
 While Sulla’s proscription list had been incredibly
damaging, with so few political opponents left, the
Senate ran relatively smoothly
Alliance?
 In an election marked by widespread corruption,
Caesar won consulship in 59 B.C.
 He created an alliance among himself, Crassus, and
Pompey, known as the First Triumvirate
 The alliance was officially marked by the marriage of
Caesar’s daughter Julia to Pompey
The First Triumvirate
 The Triumvirate was doomed to fail from the start
 Other than cooperative support for a land redistribution law
for the poor, Pompey (an Optimate) and Caesar (who
viewed himself as a populares) often fought
 Crassus, who had been a buffer between the two, died
during a rebellion in Syria and the disdain between Pompey
and Caesar intensified
 Caesar, having massive debt, finished his consulship and set
off to Gaul
Civil War Again
 In 50 B.C., the Senate, headed by Pompey, ordered
Caesar to return to Rome
 In 49 B.C., he passed the Rubicon river and marched
on Rome (sound familiar???)
 Forces led by Pompey fled Rome, Caesar declared
himself dictator
 What followed was a bloody civil war, ending with
Pompey’s death in 48 B.C.
Caesar as dictator
 Caesar pardoned all who had rebelled against him
during the war
 He then instituted a series of ambitious reforms that
settled civil unrest and appealed greatly to the masses
 Not all was well: Caesar was assassinated in the senate
and despite his assassins’ wishes, the Republic was
finished
Works Cited
 Forumromanum. FORUM ROMANUM, n.d. Web. 19 Sept.
2012.
<http://www.forumromanum.org/history/morey20.html>.
 Heritage History. Heritage-History, n.d. Web. 19 Sept. 2012.
<http://www.heritagehistory.com/www/heritage.php?Dir=wars&FileName=war
s_sullacivil.php>.
 Janus Quirinus. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Sept. 2012.
<http://janusquirinus.org/essays/Apollo/Background/MS
1.html>.