Section ten of the Grochy Marius and Sola by A. H. Beasley. This librovox recording is in the public domain. Read by Pamelinagami, Chapter eight the Social War in a previous chapter, the relations now existing between Rome and her dependents have been described for two centuries. The Italians had remained faithful to Rome through repeated temptations and even through the fiery trial
of Hannibal's victorious occupation. But the loyalty, which no external or sudden shock could snap, had been slowly eaten away by corrosives which the arrogance or negligence of the government supplied. It is clear from the episode of Drusus that there was as wide a breach between Italian capitalists and cultivators as there had been between Roman occupiers and the first
clamorers for agrarian laws. So at the outbreak of the war, Umbria and Etruria, whence Philippus had summoned his supporters, because the farmer class had been annihilated and large landowners held the soil, remained faithful to Rome. But where the farmer class still flourished, as among the Marsi, the Marusini, and the adjacent districts discontent had been gathering volume for many years.
No doubt the demoralization of the metropolis contributed to this result, And as intercourse with Rome became more and more common, familiarity with the vices of their masters would breed indignation in the minds of the hardier dependents, who they would ask themselves, were these scouri these Philippi men fit only to murder patriots and sell their country and themselves for gold,
that they should lord it over Italians? Why should a Roman soldier have the right of appeal to a civil tribunal and an Italian soldier be at the mercy of martial law? Why should two Italians for every one Roman be forced to fight Rome's battles? Why should insolent young Romans and the fine ladies of the metropolis in sold Italian magistrates and murder Italians of humbler rank. This was
the reward of their long fidelity. If here and their estatesman was willing to yield them the franchise, the flower of the aristocracy, the Skyvalaye the Crossi expelled them by an alien act from Rome. They had tried all parties, and by all been disappointed. For Roman factions were united on one point, and one only, in obstinate refusal to give Italians justice. The two glorious brothers had been slain because they pitied their wrongs, So had Scipio, so had
the fearless Saturninus. And now their last friend, this second Scipio, Drusus, had been struck down by the same cowardly hands. Surely it was time to act for themselves and avenge their benefactors. They were more numerous, they were heartier than their tyrants, and if not so well organized, still by their union with Drusus, they were in some sort welded together. And now or never was the time to strike. For the
friends of Drusus were marked men. Let them remain passive, and either individual Italians would perish by the dagger which had slain Drusus, or individual communities by the sentence of the Senate which had exterminated for Gelli. The revolt broke out at Ascalum. Various towns were exchanging hostages to secure mutual fidelity. Gaius Servilius, the Roman priter here, daring this was going on at Ascalum, went there and sharply censured the people in the theater. He and his escort were
torn to pieces, the gates were shut. Every Roman in the town was slain, and the Marci Polygni, Marosini Frentani was tini picuenttini Hirpini. The people of Pompeii and Venusia, the Iapies, the Lucani and the Samnites, and all the people from the Lyris to the Adriatic flew to arms. And though here and there a town like Pinna of the Westini, or a partisan like Minutius Maggius of Iclonum remained loyal to Rome, all the center and south of
Italy were soon in insurrection. Perhaps at Pinna, the large landowners or capitalists were supreme, as in Umbria and Itituria, which sided with Rome, as also did most of the Latin towns, the Greek towns of Neapolis, Regium, and most of Campania, where Coppua became an important Roman post during the war. The insurgents, emboldened by the swift spread of the rebellion, sent to demand the franchise as the price of submission. But the old dogged spirit which extremity of
danger had ever aroused at Rome, was not dead. The offer was sternly rejected, and the Equitaise turned furiously on the Optimus, or the Italianizing section of the Optimis, to whose folly they felt that the war was due. With war, the hope of their gains was gone. And enraged at this, they took advantage of the outbreak to repay the Senate for its complicity in the attempt of Drusus to deprive them of the judicia under a law of Varius, who is said by Cicero to have been the assassin of
Drusus and Metellus. Italian sympathizers were brought to trial and either convicted and banished or overawed into silence. Among the accused was Scourus. But now, as ever, that shifty man emerged triumphant from his intrigues. He aped the defense of Scipio, and retired not only safe, but with the dignity so well studied that but for his antecedents, it might have seemed sincere a Spaniard accused him, he said, and Scourus,
chief of the Senate, denied the accusation. Whether of the twain should the Romans believe for such prosecutions, there was indeed some excuse, for the prospect was threatening Mithridates might at any moment stop the supplies from Asia. The soldiers of the enemy were men who had fought in Roman armies and been trained in Roman discipline. They were led by able captains and were more numerous than the forces opposed to them. And yet the war must be a
war of detachment, where numbers were all important. It was no time for hesitation about purging out all traders or waverers. But the courts that tried other cases were closed for the time. The distributions of grain were curtailed, the walls were put in order, arms were prepared as fast as possible. A fleet was collected from the free cities of Greece and Asia. Minor levies were raised from the citizens from
Africa and from Gaul. Lastly, in view of the inevitably scattered form which the fighting would take, each consul was to have five lieutenants. Lupus was to command in the northern district from Picenum to Campania. Among the generals who acted under him were the father of Pompeius, Magnus and Marius Somnium Campania, and the southern district fell to Lucius Julius Caesar, and among the five officers who went with him were also two men of mark Publius Licinius Crassus
and Sullah. We shall see how by an exhaustive process, the Romans, after a series of defeats, were at last driven to employ as generals in chief the two rivals, who were now subordinates and were thus carefully kept aloof
the confederates. On their part, were equally energetic. They had chosen as their capital Corfinium on the river Atyrnus Pescara, because of its central position with reference to the insurrection, and soon made it evident that the Roman franchise was no longer the limit to their aspirations, but that they aimed at the conquest of Rome herself. They called their capital Etalica. In it, they built a form and fortified
its walls. They issued a new coinage. They chose two consuls twelve prits, and a senate of five hundred, and gave the franchise to every community in arms on their side. They mustered an army of one hundred thousand men and intrusted the command against Lupus in the north and west to Pompeidius Silo, with six lieutenants under him. The command against Caesar in the south and east was given to
a noted sam knight named Gaius Papius Mutalus. It is easier to get a general idea of the war than of its details, though the latter are not without interest. The results of the first year were, in spite of some victories, most unfavorable to Rome. The insurgents were encouraged. The insurrection had spread to Umbria and Etruria, and the Romans had at one time almost despaired, But in council
they retrieved what they had lost in the camp. A most politic concession of the franchise checked all further disaffection. In the very nick of time. The revolt in Umbria and Etruria was speedily suppressed, and at the close of the second year of the war BC eighty nine, the
insurrection itself was virtually at an end. For though the Sulpacian revolution at Rome prevented its absolute extinction, and some embers of it still lingered for five years more, and though Roman forces were still required after eighty nine BC among the Sabines in Samnium, in Lucania and at Nola,
the war as a war ended in that year. Consequently, we may divide it into two periods, each well defined and each consisting of a year, the first in which the Confederate cause triumphed and Marius lost credit, the second in which the cause of Rome triumphed and Sullah enhanced his reputation and became the foremost man at Rome. The war began, as was natural, with an attempt to take Ascalum, but the townsmen manning the walls with the old men passed.
Serves surprised Nius Pompeius by a sally and defeated him. Subsequently, he was again defeated at Faleria and driven into Firmum, a Latin colony which held out for Rome. There he stayed till Servius Sulpicius came to his help. On the approach of Sulpicius, he sallied out the enemy, taken in front and rear were routed, and Pompeius began the siege of Ascalum. It was not taken till the next year,
eighty nine, and only after a desperate battle before its walls. Judicilius, who had come to relieve the town of which he was a native, though the day was lost, forced his way inside the walls and held out for several months longer. Finally, when it was impossible to protract the defense, he had a pile of wood made and a table placed on it, at which he feasted with friends. Then taking poison, he
had the pile fired. When the Romans got in, they took fearful vengeance, slaying all the officers and men of position, expelling the rest of the inhabitants, and confiscating their property. Such was the fate of the ringleaders of the rebellion. As Ascalum was the first object of Roman vengeance, so the confederates directed their first efforts against the towns in their neighborhood which refused to join them. See Lo assailed
Alba and Moodalus. Isernia. The consul Caesar, sending ahead Marcellus and Crasses into Somnium and Lucania, followed in person as soon as he could, but he was beaten by Vetti Scato in Samnium with the loss of two thousand men. Vanaphram thereupon revolted, and though one account says that Sulla relieved Isernia, it was at best only a partial or a temporary relief, for it capitulated before the close of the year. How the siege of Alba ended we do
not know. Defeat after defeat was now announced at Rome, preparin A lost four thousand men, and most of his other soldiers threw away their arms on the battlefield. For this, Lupus deprived him of his command and attached his troops to those of Marius. Crassus was beaten in Leucania and shut up in Grumentum, which was besieged and taken. A pleasant story is told about some slaves of this town.
They had deserted to the Confederates, and when the town was taken, made straight for the house where they had lived, and dragged their mistress away, telling people they were going to have their revenge on her at last, and so they saved her. While the troops of Crassus were cooped up in Grumentum, Moutalus descended into Campania and obtained possession of Nola by treason. Two thousand soldiers also went over to him. The officers remained loyal and were starved to death.
Staby Eyes, Salernum, Pumpede, Herculaneum, and probably Nusaria were taken in quick succession, and with his armies follen by deserters and recruits from the neighborhood. Mudalus laid siege to Acharai. Caesar hastened to relieve it, but Canusium and Venusia had joined the insurgents, and in Venusia Occinus, son of Jagurtha, had been kept prisoner by the Romans. Mudalus now put royal robes on him, and the Numidians in Caesar's army when they saw him deserted in troops, so that Caesar
was forced to send the whole corps home. But out of this misfortune came the first gleam of success which had as yet shown on the Roman arms. Mudalus ventured to attack Caesar's camp, but was driven back, and in the retreat the Roman cavalry cut down six thousand of
his men. Though Marius Ignatius soon afterwards defeated Caesar, this victory, in some sort disas painted the gloom of the capitol, and while the two armies settled again into their old position at Acharai, the garb of mourning was laid aside at Rome for the first time since the war began. Lupus and Marius meanwhile had marched against the Marcie. Marius in accordance with his old tactics against the Kimbri, advised
Lupus not to hazard a battle. But Lupus thought that Marius wanted to get the consulship next year and reserved for himself the honors of the war, so he hastened to fight, and, throwing two bridges over the Tolanis, crossed by one himself, leaving Marius to cross by the other. As soon as the consul had reached the opposite bank, an ambuscade set by Vettius Scato attacked him and slew him and eight thousand of his men, their bodies floating
down the river. Told Marius what had happened. Like the good soldier that he was, he promptly crossed and seized the enemy camp. This disaster happened on June eleventh BC ninety and caused great consternation in Rome, but at Rome small merit was now discerned in any success gained by the veteran general and Kpeo, who had opposed Drusus and was therefore a favorite with the Equitaise, was made joint
commander in the north. It was a foolish choice, the prudence of Marius, and a victory over the polygny gained by Sulpicius were neutralized by the new general's rashness. Pompitius Silo, who must have been a thoroughly gallant man, came in person to the Roman camp, bringing two young slaves whom he passed off as his own children and offered as hostages. For the sincerity of the offer he made, which was
to place his camp in Kitpio's hands. Kypio went with him, and Pompitius, running up a hill to look out, as he said, for the enemy, gave a signal to men whom he had placed in ambush. Kaypio and many of his men were slain, and at last Marius was sole commander. He advanced steadily but warily into Marcian territory. Cilo tauntingly told him to come down and fight if he was a great general. Nay replied, Marius, if you are a great general, do you make me at length? He did fight,
and as he always did, won the day. In another battle, the Marsinian leader and six thousand of the marci were slain, but Solah was at that time co operating with Marius, having apparently when the Romans evacuated, most of Campania marched north to form a junction with him, and beside his star, that of Marius always paled. Marius had shrunk back from following the enemy into a vineyard, Solah on the other side of it cut them off. Not that Mario was
always overcautious. Once in this war he said to his men, I don't know which are the greatest cowards. You were the enemy, for they dare not face your backs, nor you theirs. But everything he now did was distrusted at Rome. And while some men disparaged his successes and said that he was grown old and clumsy, others were more afraid of him than of the enemy, with whom indeed there was some reason to think that he had too good
an understanding. For once, when his army and se Loos were near each other, both generals and men conversed, cursing the war, and with mutual embraces, adjuring each other to desist from it. If the story be true, it is a sufficient reason for the Senate's conduct, inexplicable except by political reasons, in not employing Marius at all in the
following year. It was probably at the close of this year that the revolt of the Umbrians and Etruscans took place, and that Plotius defeated the Umbrians and Porscha's Cato the Etruscans. On a general review of this piecemeal campaign, it is plain that the Romans had been worsted. On the main scene of the war Campania, they had been decisively defeated, and the country was in the enemy's power. In Pequanum
and the Marcian territory the balance was more even. But Lupus and Chypio had been slain, Properna and Pompeius had been defeated, and on the whole the Confederates had carried off the honors of the war. Now Umbria was an insurrection, Mithridatees was astir in Asia, and there were symptoms of revolt in Transalpine Gaul. A selfish intriguer like Marius might very well have thought of throwing in his lot with the Italians, for theirs seemed to be the winning side.
But on honester Men, such considerations produced quite another effect. The party of Drusus took heart again and appealed to the results of the war as a proof of his patriotic foresight and of the moderation of his councils. They got the administration of the Varian law into their own hands and turned it against its authors, Varius himself being exiled. The consul Caesar had personal reasons for being disquieted with
the war. If the story of Erosius be true that when he asked for a triumph for his victory at Acharai, the senate sent him a mourning robe as a sign of what they thought of his request. In any case, he was the author of that Lex Julia, which really terminated the social war. There are different accounts given of this law. According to Gellias, it enfranchised Alatium, by which he must mean to include all the Latin colonies. According to Cicero, it enfranchised all Italy except ciss Alpine Gaul.
According to Appian, it enfranchised all the Italians still faithful. In any case, those enfranchised were not to be enrolled in the old tribes, lest they should swamp them by their votes, but in eight new ones, which were to vote only after the others. The Lex Julia was immediately followed by the Lex Plautia Papiria, framed by the tribunes Marcus Ploudius, Sylvanus and Caius Papirius Carbo. This law seems to have been meant to supplement the other. The Lex
Julia rewarded the Italians who had remained faithful. The Lex Plaudia Papiria held out the olive branch to the Italians who had rebelled. It enfranchised any citizen of an allied town who at the date of the law was dwelling in Italy and made a declaration to the pritor within sixty days. In the same year, and in connection no doubt with these measures, the Us Latii was conferred on a number of towns of the po by which every magistrate in his town might, if he chose, claim the franchise.
Some of the free Allies of Rome did not look upon the Lex Julia, as Boone, Heraclia and Neopolis hesitated to accept it, the latter having special privileges such as exemption from service by land, which it valued above the franchise. Probably these towns in Reegia made a special bargain, and while accepting the franchise, retained their own language and institutions.
The general result of the legislation was this all Italy and all Latin colonies in Cicalpine Gaul, together with all allied communities in sicial Pine Gaul south of the Po received the franchise. All the other Sicalpine towns north of the Poe received the us latte. A general amnesty was in fact offered, and though the provisions as to the
new tribes were unsatisfactory, its effect was soon aparent. The consuls for eighty nine were Lucius Porcius Cato, who took command of the army in the Marian district, and Nius Pompeius, who retained the command of Picinum. Caesar was succeeded in
Campania by Sullah. Flushed with hope, the Confederates opened the campaign by dispatching fifteen thousand men across the Apennines to join the Etruscan insurgents, but Pompeius intercepted and slew five thousand of them and dispersed the rest, who, even if they had reached Etruria, would have found that they had come on a bootless Errand he followed up this success
by blow after blow. One of his lieutenants, Sulpicius, crushed the Marusini at Teat another, Quintus Metellus Piso subdued the Marci. Pompeius in person fought a great battle before ascalim As before related and captured the town, and in the following year the Polygnia and Vestini submitted to him. In the southeast of Italy, Cosconius, the priter burnt Selapia in Apulia,
received the submission of Canai and besieged Canusium. Marius Ignatius came to its aid, but though he at first drove back Cosconius to Canai, he or his successor was defeated and slain in another fight, and Cosconius became master of all Apulia and the Iapigian Peninsula, which he laid waste with fire and sword. While the Roman supremacy was thus re established all along the east coast, Sulla in Campania was equally triumphant. He recovered Stabiae in April, and his
lieutenant Titus Didius, took Herculaneum in June. Didius, however, lost his life in the assault. Sola next besieged Pompeii, defeated Cluentius, who came to its aid again defeated him before Pompeii and Nola, and the third time at the gates of Nola where Cluuentius was slain. About this time, Aula's Postumius Albinus, while in charge of the fleet, was murdered by his own men, recruits, probably whom he was bringing from Rome
to Sullah's army. Sullah pardoned the mutineers, saying that he knew they would wipe out their crime by their bravery, and they did so in the fights with Cluentius. By such politic clemency and never varying good fortune, Sullah bound the army to his own interests, leaving Nola behind him. He crossed the Herpinian frontier and marched on Iclonum. The townsmen, who were expecting a Leucanian reinforcement that day, asked for
time to deliberate. Sulla gave them an hour and occupied the hour in heaping vinosiers round the wooden walls, not choosing to be burnt. The townsmen surrendered and Sullah sacked the place. He then marched northwards into Samnium. The mountain passes were held by Mudalus, who hemmed in Sullah near Isernia. Sulla pretended to treat for peace, and when the enemy were off their guard, marched away in the night, leaving a trumpeter to sound all the watches as if the
army were still in position. He seems to have defeated Mudalus after this, and leaving Isernia behind as he had left Nola. Finally, before going home to sue for the consulship of eighty eight, b C stormed Bovianum. He had managed the campaign in a bold and able way, where lest daring generalship might have failed. As the insurrection was thus being stamped out on either coast, Bovianum had become the capital of the insurgents instead of Corfinium. Now Bovianum
was taken and Isernia became its center. The occupation of the Hirpinian territory cut off the sam Nights from the south of Italy, where the Leucanians and Brudians remained in arms. Except for some trifling operations which Pompeius had to carry out in order to complete the pacification of his district, all that was now left for the commanders of eighty eight was to crush the rebels in these two isolated divisions,
and the war would be at an end. The rebels indeed prepared for a desperate resistance five generals were appointed, Pompeidius Scillo the Marcian at their head, and by enrolling slaves and calling out fresh levies, the Samnites mustered an army of fifty thousand men. Once more almost single handed, they prepared to strive with their old enemy for the sovereignty of Italy. The gallant Selos signalized his appointment by
recovering Bovianum, but he was soon afterwards slain. He is said to have been defeated in a great battle by Mamercus Emilius, and to have fallen in it. Appian says that Mattelus defeated him in Iopigia, Erosius that Sulpicius defeated him in Apulia. However that may be with him, the last gleam of hope for the sam Night cause fades away. They made it his set a treaty with Mithridates, but long before that king could have reached Italy. If he had been able to make the attempt, there would have
been no allies to support him. In Leucania, Aulus Gabinius, made rash by some successes, assaulted the confederate camp, but was repulsed and slain Lamponius, the Leucanian general, remained master of the country, and attempted to take Regium with the view of crossing over to Sicily and renewing the rebellion there,
but the attempt failed. Nola, however, still held out in Campania, and now there occurred a revolution at Rome, which postponed the final subjugation of the insurgents till after the Battle of the Colleen Gate. For convenience and clearness, the part taken by them in this revolution may be here summarized as Consul was besieging Nola when he was recalled to Rome by the Sulpacian revolution and his election to the command against Mithridates. A Samnite army had come to relieve it,
but had been defeated by Sullah. Three Roman corps still remained to keep the sam Knights in check and besiege Nola under Claudius, Metellus and Plotius. It was to Nola that Sine came and seduced a large portion of the besiegers to follow him to Rome. Upon this, the insurgents suddenly found themselves instead of hunted desperadoes, courted as allies
by two parties. The Senate again offered the terms of the Lex Plaudia Papiria to all in arms, and some accepted them, but the Nolans, when Metellus was recalled and the Long Siege was then raised in eighty seven b C, marched out and burnt Abella. The sam knights demanded as the price of their assistance that the prisoners, spoils and deserters should be restored, and that they and the Romans
who had joined them should receive the franchise. The Senate refused, and the Samnites at once joined Sinna and Marius, who were pledged not only to give the franchise but also to enroll all the new voters in the new tribes, a measure which was ratified by the Senate in the year of Cinna's last consulship eighty four BC. On Sullah's return to Italy, they, with the Lucanians, who had meanwhile been practically independent, were the most eager supporters of Marius's son.
In eighty two, Pontius of Talasia, at the head of a Samnite force with the desperate hardihood inspired by centuries of hatred, marched straight on Rome, and the city was saved only by Sullah's victory at the Colleen Gate. Three days after the battle, Sulla massacred all his prisoners. He knew that death alone could disarm such implacable Foesnight name, he said, with his cold ferocity, must be erased from
the earth, or Rome could never rest. The sam Knights evacuated Nola in the year eighty b C. And then their last great leader, Gaius Papius Moodalus, having fled in disguise to his wife at Taynum, was disowned by her and slew himself. Solah carried his threats into effect. He captured Isernia and spread a desolation all around from which the country has never recovered to this day. Then, and not till then, the stubborn resistance of the most relentless
foes of Rome was finally suppressed. End of Section ten.