12/8/2023 0 Comments Who killed julius![]() It is possible, however, that Marius never ran for the quaestorship at all, jumping directly to plebeian tribune. He may have stood for local office as a means of gaining support back home, and lost to a local competitor. Next, Marius possibly ran for the quaestorship after losing an election for local office in Arpinum. After election, he likely served Quintus Caecilius Metellus Balearicus on the Balearic Islands, helping him win a triumph. He was elected on the basis of his accomplishments, even though he was not known by sight to the electors, as one of the twenty-four special military tribunes. It would seem that even at this early stage of his military career, Marius had ambitions for a political career in Rome. According to Plutarch, during a conversation after dinner, when the conversation turned to generals and someone asked Scipio Aemilianus where the Roman people would find a worthy successor to him, the younger Scipio gently tapped on Marius's shoulder, saying "Perhaps this is the man". While serving with the army at Numantia, his military aptitude brought him to the attention of Scipio Aemilianus. It is unclear whether or not Marius was already present and serving in Numantia with the previous commander when Aemilianus arrived. In 134 BC, Marius joined the personal legion of Scipio Aemilianus as an officer for the expedition to Numantia. In fact, his family's resources were definitely large enough to support not just one member of the family in Roman politics, but two: Marius's younger brother, Marcus Marius, also entered Roman public life. While many of the problems he faced during his early career in Rome show the difficulties that faced a "new man" ( novus homo) in being accepted into the stratified upper echelons of Roman society, Marius – even as a young man – was not poor or even middle-class he was most assuredly born into inherited wealth, gained most likely from large land holdings. Although Plutarch claims that Marius's father was a labourer, this is almost certainly false since Marius had connections with the nobility in Rome, he ran for local office in Arpinum, and he had marriage relations with the local nobility in Arpinum, all of which when taken together indicate that he was born into a locally important family of equestrian status. Only in 188 BC, thirty years before his birth, did the town receive full citizenship. The town had been conquered by the Romans in the late 4th century BC and was initially given Roman citizenship without voting rights ( civitas sine suffragio). ![]() 157 BC, a small village near the town of Arpinum in south-east Latium. Modern scholarship rejects several putative reforms of Roman armies previously attributed to him: a shift from the militia levies of the middle Republic to the professional soldiery of the late Republic supposed improved the pilum, a javelin and changes to the logistical structure of the Roman army. Marius returned to Italy during the War of Octavius, seized Rome, and began a bloody reign of terror in the city which culminated in him being elected consul a seventh time and then dying at the beginning of his consulship, in 86 BC. ![]() He then became embroiled in a conflict with the Roman general Sulla which resulted in him being exiled to Africa in 88 BC. The Republic fell into crisis with the outbreak of the Social War in 91 BC, in which Marius fought with limited success. However, Marius suffered political setbacks during his sixth consulship in 100 BC and afterwards entered a period of semi-retirement from public life. Marius was consul every year from 104–100 BC, and he defeated the Teutones at Aqua Sextiae and the Cimbri at Vercellae. By 105 BC Rome faced an invasion by the Cimbri and Teutones, and the comitia centuriata elected Marius consul for a second time to face this new threat. ![]() Marius attained his first consulship in 107 BC and became the commander of Roman forces in Numidia, where he brought an end to the Jugurthine War. On his return from Spain he married Julia, the aunt of Julius Caesar. ![]() Barely elected praetor in 115 BC, he next became the governor of Further Spain where he campaigned against bandits. He won election as tribune of the plebs in 119 BC and passed a law limiting aristocratic interference in elections. Rising from a well-off provincial Italian family in Arpinum, Marius acquired his initial military experience serving with Scipio Aemilianus at the Siege of Numantia in 134 BC. Victor of the Cimbric and Jugurthine wars, he held the office of consul an unprecedented seven times. 157 BC – 13 January 86 BC) was a Roman general and statesman. ![]()
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