Rome's Most Dangerous Enemy Was Not the Barbarians, but the Man Who Beat Them
Marius drove off the Teutones and Cimbri by winning five consecutive consulships, but trampled Rome's constitutional tradition underfoot; Sulla rose by the same path and eventually turned his sword on Rome itself.
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Rome's chaos was proof of its freedom
In 105 BC Rome had no marble temples or amphitheatre, only tottering apartment blocks, shacks and a brown haze; a Greek envoy saw it as a third-world city. But the Roman response was that the city's mess was precisely the mark of freedom — only a king could impose urban planning, while the great men of the Republic were too jealous of one another to let anyone build a showy monument. This brick chaos would only become marble under Augustus, and the hosts liken Augustus to Napoleon III, calling Napoleon III "a man who wanted to be Augustus".
— Tom HollandOn triumph day, the whole city was in panic
Marius held his triumph on 1 January 104 BC: chariots, the triumphal robe, Jugurtha paraded in chains — the high point of his life. But even as he rode through the streets taking the cheers, Rome was filled with panic and even despair — because north of the Alps, the Teutones and Cimbri were migrating toward the borders of the Roman world. The hosts compare this migration to the White Walkers in Game of Thrones: internal political squabbles mean nothing before them, and they brought their women and children, with the women fighting alongside the men.
— Tom HollandArausio was a worse disaster than Cannae, and more forgotten
In 105 BC the Romans suffered a devastating defeat at Arausio (modern Orange, France), with losses said to exceed 100,000 — more than at Cannae. The hosts disagree here: one questions whether the numbers were invented, the other holds that "it was obviously a massive defeat, and the numbers may not be invented." The catastrophe triggered a citizen panic in Rome known as the "terror kimbricus," a term Romans thereafter used for the feeling of an entire city seized by fear. Even Marius's old enemies in the Senate admitted that only one man was up to this crisis.
— Tom HollandFive consecutive consulships: constitutional tradition gave way to survival
Marius had already been consul in 107 BC, and was elected again in 104 BC just three years later, which in itself violated or at least gravely breached tradition. From 104 to 101 BC, through the war against the Cimbri, he served as consul continuously — five consulships in all counting the earlier one, utterly unprecedented. The hosts draw an analogy with Roosevelt winning four elections in a row in the 1930s and 40s. On the day of his triumph Marius walked straight into a Senate meeting still wearing his triumphal robe; though he apologised and changed, it was a reminder to everyone that he had already won one war, and now they needed him to win a second.
— Tom HollandCimbrian women killed their husbands and children behind the wagon laager
On 30 July 101 BC, Marius annihilated the Cimbri near Vercellae in northern Italy. The Cimbri, as was their custom, drew up their baggage wagons behind the line, and so blocked their own retreat. Plutarch records that the women, dressed in black, first killed their own husbands, brothers and fathers, then strangled their children with their hands and threw them under the wheels or the hooves of the cattle, and finally cut their own throats. The hosts remark that this "is not how Danish women behave today." Roman sources give figures of 140,000 killed and 60,000 captured; the hosts think these may be exaggerated but that it was clearly a monumental victory.
— Tom HollandMarius granted citizenship on his own authority, and the Senate could only swallow it
After the battle, Marius impulsively granted Roman citizenship to two cohorts of Italian allied (Sochi) infantry, about a thousand men. This was completely illegal — he had no authority to do it — and caused enormous controversy in Rome, because Romans prized the exclusivity of citizenship extremely highly. But the Senate swallowed it, because they could not afford to cross the hero of the hour. Another signal: after the barbarian invasion ended, Marius ran for consul again and won — a sixth consulship, matching a record reached in the distant past by only one man. The hosts note that for a "new man" with no consular ancestry, one consulship was already a great thing; Marius was now joint record-holder.
— Tom HollandSulla and Marius were the same kind of man
Sulla came from an old aristocratic family, but his father died bankrupt and left him relatively poor. Plutarch records that in his youth he lived in a modest dwelling in a run-down part of the city and moved in demi-monde circles — prostitutes, drag queens and the worst stand-up comedians — and the hosts say he remained loyal to such people all his life. According to Plutarch, both his stepmother and Rome's most famous courtesan fell for him and left him most of their fortunes in their wills, and this inheritance allowed him, at nearly 30, to begin the political career most of his contemporaries started in their teens. He and Marius were both late starters, both desperately eager to escape relative poverty, both brilliantly talented and ferociously ambitious.
— Tom HollandSulla was elected consul, and Marius became a washed-up fat man
Sulla commanded the western front in the Social War, taking Campanian rebel strongholds including Pompeii, storming the Samnite mountain passes, capturing the Samnite capital in a three-hour bloody assault, and finally besieging Nola. He returned to Rome for the consular election and won easily, becoming Rome's foremost general and receiving from his soldiers a special decoration awarded only for saving an army in peril. Meanwhile the 68-year-old Marius was widely mocked as fat and old; he gave up his command, pleaded illness and hid in a villa eating, and looked like a man of the past. Sulla took office as consul on 1 January 88 BC — his sweetest moment.
— Tom HollandSulla was stripped of his command, and Roman civil war was one step away
Sulla had just been formally confirmed to lead the expedition against Mithridates when Marius, working with the tribune Sulpicius, pushed a resolution through the popular assembly transferring the command to Marius. Sulla was in camp at Nola when one of Marius's staff officers rode up bringing not only the news but also the demand to take over all six of Sulla's legions. This was a devastating blow to Sulla, robbing him not only of his dream of victory over Mithridates but ending his career in the most humiliating way possible. The hosts say one of the greatest confrontations in classical history was now set, and Rome's own fate would depend on this death-struggle between Marius and Sulla.
— Tom HollandIn their own words · checked verbatim
But the Roman response to this is to say that the chaos of their city is the index of its liberty.
Tom Holland4:02
And they call it the terror kimbricus. And that phrase ever afterwards is applied by the Romans to a kind of mood of civic panic.
Tom Holland16:31
No one in Rome like someone who is too much of a winner. That's the whole ethos of the Republic.
Tom Holland29:51
the damage that's been done to his prestige is such that only a triumphant Eastern war can possibly repair it
Tom Holland1:14:03
this staff officer has ridden into Sulla's camp not just to give Sulla this news but to take command of Sulla's legions all six of them
Tom Holland1:15:08
the stage is set for one of the great confrontations in all classical history it is the death match between Marius and Sulla and on this match the future of Rome itself will turn
Tom Holland1:16:11
Figures
| Italian allies granted citizenship by Marius | two infantry cohorts, about a thousand men | 27:49 |
| Number of Marius's consulships | six | 28:50 |
| Sulla's age when he ran for consul | 47 | 39:18 |
| Customary minimum age for the consulship | 40 | 39:18 |
| Marius's age during the Social War | 68 | 1:02:34 |
| Date Sulla took office as consul | 1 January 88 BC | 1:02:34 |
| Legions Sulla had when the command was taken over | six | 1:15:08 |
Glossary
- novus homo / new man
- A Roman political term for someone who reached the highest office without consular ancestry.
- terror kimbricus / Cimbric panic
- The term Romans used for the feeling of an entire city seized by fear, originating in the Cimbrian invasion.
- publicani / tax farmers
- Roman private companies that contracted for provincial tax collection and extorted the locals.
- latifundia / great estates
- Large agricultural estates worked by slaves throughout Italy.
- Sochi / Italian allies
- Rome's Italian allies, who bore military service but held no citizenship.
- Felix / the Lucky
- The title Sulla gave himself, meaning both lucky and favoured by Venus.
How to listen
Listeners interested in the political mechanics of the late Roman Republic, especially those who want to see how Marius and Sulla pushed constitutional tradition step by step to the brink of civil war.
The literary description of Rome's cityscape at the start and the Amazon ad in the middle can be skipped.