702. Roman Civil War: The Barbarian Invasion (Part 2)

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Availability, speed, and coverage varies. See mintmobile.com. This episode is supported by Anthropic, the team behind Claude. Now, history's biggest leaps started as hard questions that people didn't want asked. Yeah, there's a classic example of that at the end of the 15th century. And the hard question in particular was, what is out there beyond the Atlantic Ocean to the west? And as you will know, the man who found the answer to that question was the explorer Christopher Columbus. And he realizes, or rather everybody else realizes, that there is a vast continent out there. And it is, of course, the Americas. So, you know, Anthropic knows the importance of questions. And it's why Anthropic is founded on one hard question above all. How can we ensure that the AI revolution, really goes well for ordinary people? So they asked over 100,000 people. And what came back wasn't just fear. There was hope as well. People wanted to know, will cancer ever be cured? Can kids have a better future? It turns out that there is hope in hard questions. Ask yours at claude.ai slash restishistory. And keep thinking. Even citizens found their city confusing. The only way to negotiate it was to memorize notable landmarks. A fig tree, perhaps, or a market's colonnade. Or best of all, a temple large enough to loom above the maze of narrow streets. Fortunately, Rome was a devout city and temples abounded. The Romans' reverence for the past meant that ancient structures were hardly, ever demolished. Not even when the open spaces in which they might once have stood had long since vanished under brick. Temples loomed over slums or meat markets. They shentered veiled statues whose very identities might have been forgotten. And yet no one ever thought to demolish them. These fragments of an archaic past preserved in stone, fossils from the earliest days of the city, provided the Romans with the desperately needed sense of bareness. But the Romans would never forget. No one ever thought to demolish them. The Romans would never forget. But they never forgot. metropolis of the mediterranean world and listeners may be wondering which great writer which master of the english language constructed those sentences was it edward gibbon was it dan brown well dear listeners it was our very own tom holland in his book rubicon the book that catapulted him to greatness so tom rome 105 bc biggest city in the mediterranean it's not yet the mega city that it will become under the emperor augustus 100 years later it's probably about 400 500 000 people max but to visitors as your wonderful prose conveyed it is overwhelming isn't it rather like your prose actually i think for visitors it is it it's experienced as a kind of monstrous city um it's crowded it's confusing it's completely chaotic it has this terrible haze of brown smog which hangs over it and which can be seen you know many many miles before you actually see the city itself and then you arrive in the city and it's crammed with teetering jerry-built apartment blocks um insulae they were called islands they were called the streets below and which are notorious as death traps and if there's a fire and you are on the top stories i mean that's it you're burnt to a cinder and everywhere there are kind of shanties sprouting up so if there's a fire the um the shanties will immediately emerge in the the space that's been left and they're spreading out through the gates along the roads that lead into rome and there is also an incredible lack of the kind of monumental architecture that most people i imagine when they think of ancient rome would be in their mind's eye rome in this period is not the rome of gladiator there are no amphitheaters there are no palaces there's very little gleaming marble and so greek ambassadors who are used to exactly that kind of cityscape things that are elegant that are planned that are spacious that are centrally organized when they come to rome they think this is an absolute dump i suppose it's like someone from new york going to a third world city something like that yeah they think it's backward they think it's ramshackle they think it's disorganized but the roman response to this is to say that the chaos of their city is the index of its liberty that kings can impose urban plans on cities because they are autocrats but because rome is a republic and its great men are much too jealous of one another to allow any of them to build kind of pompous imposing monuments this means that it's chaotic brick-fronted cityscape is an expression of the fact that the romans are a free people and it's telling that it's only under the rule of augustus the first of the caesars the first of the autocrats yeah that it will start its transformation into a city from brick into marble he's the napoleon the third of roman history so we're napoleon third who transforms paris well i think i think napoleon the third is surely the would-be augustus yeah correct because also napoleon the third was an absolutely ludicrous man whereas augustus was arguably the greatest politician who ever lived anyway that's by the by so rome 105 bc one thing obsesses the city more than anything else and that of course is politics because we ended last time with the great political drama of marius effectively stabbing his uh patron metellus in the back but marius you ended last time by saying how worried marius was about his own lieutenant sulla and we will come on to this but just give us a sense so it's a great kind of theater isn't it it's a theater for political show it's a great stage yes you know that's the why romans don't feel that they you know they need to have a kind of cultural cringe towards the greeks because greeks are all ruled by monarchs or indeed by rome but the romans are a free people and it is their right to elect their own magistrates and so the city is constantly bearing witness to this everywhere you go there is graffiti if people don't like it they don't like it they don't like it they don't like it then they may you know they may literally piss on them wow so you know if there are kind of statues of them they'll they will they will go and express their content for them in the most literal manner there's a there's a hint for people if they have strong views about britain's politicians i suppose they don't tend to have statues but there might be alternative ways in which they could do that yeah um and we said in the previous episode how marius while he's in africa his agents are busy promoting his name i mean this is the for which they're doing it they're going around writing graffiti pissing on his rivals all of that and so i guess rome stands supreme as the you know the great theater of ambitions and dreams there's nowhere like it anywhere else in the world this is where you have to be if you want to shape politics and as a citizen of rome you have the opportunity to do that either by running as a candidate or even if you're you know the very poorest of the poor you have a vote your opinion matters right so although rome is a republic there is one man in 105 bc who stands head and shoulders above all his rivals who in a sense is the princeps the the top man of the city and this is gaius marius the the protagonist of our first episode and we tracked his early career in that episode so he's an out-of-towner he's burly he's uncultured but he's a natural politician he's a brilliant soldier and in 108 he'd been elected um consul so the top magistrate in the republic because the the voters and the senate were fed up with a war that had been dragging on in numidia in north africa what's now algeria and they wanted it sorted out. Marius had been the guy that they had said, go and sort this out. It is amazing that Marius had ever got the nod because he is what the Romans called a novice homo, a man without any consular pedigree. These things really matter to the voters. If you're a novice homo and you get elected, it's a massive, massive deal. It's a huge tribute to his reputation because it essentially marks him out as the go-to person if there is some massive military crisis. Yeah. So he has come back to Rome late 105 and he came back with Jugurtha of earlobes fame, the bloke whose earrings were ripped off at the end of the last episode, the defeated enemy. Who grins horribly as he's being chucked into a dungeon. Right. Are all the baths as cold as this or whatever great banter, mad banter Jugurtha came out with as he was on his way to his demise. But more importantly, Marius has come back to Rome with his number two. So he's a man who really first featured at the end of the last episode. And this is Lucius Cornelius Sulla. It's the man with whom Marius in all the history books is always bracketed. And you described him last time, golden haired, patrician, daring, swashbuckling, all of this. And Sulla has made his name during, I mean, he's really made his name, hasn't he, in the campaign against Jugurtha in a way that Marius finds his boss finds a little bit unsettling. Yeah, because Jugurtha had fled to the neighboring king. And so it required a mission of great daring to get him out from there. And Sulla had gone in. I mean, he might easily have been killed, but he is very brave and he's very diplomatically skilled. And he manages to extract Jugurtha and bring him back for his horrible death in a dungeon in Rome. And Sulla is enormously proud of this. The Romans are not people who approve of modesty. And so he has had a signet ring made, which illustrates the process by which Jugurtha is being handed over by the king who he'd taken refuge with. And this infuriates Marius. And we will be hearing more about Sulla in due course in this episode. But for now, it's all about Marius. Because on the 1st of January, 104 BC, as we described at the end of our last episode, Marius celebrates this great triumph. through Rome, in which he's able to display Jugurtha, display his treasure. All his legions who'd fought with him on that campaign are cheering him. It's great. I mean, you couldn't want for anything more if you're a Roman general. It's absolutely brilliant. And he rides in this chariot. He's arrayed in triumphal robes. I think the idea that you have a slave who stands behind you and says, remember, you're mortal, it's not 100% validated. But you can absolutely see why that story emerges. There is. a sense that this is the greatest kind of experience that any Roman can have. However, even as Marius is riding through the streets of Rome and being cheered by the watching crowds, there is a mood of panic, maybe even desperation in the city. Because Jugurtha may have been defeated. The dignity of the Roman name may have been upheld in Africa. But to the north, beyond the Alps, there is a much more terrifying threat than some African king massing on the frontiers of Rome's empire. And again, we mentioned this in the previous episode. It's an immense migration of Germans, the Teutons and the Cimbri, from Jutland to the frontiers of the Roman world. So it's almost a kind of proto-Viking invasion. Yeah. In the last episode, to please people who online like to count how often we refer to either the Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones, I compared them with the White Walkers, the people who in the Game of Thrones TV series you see right at the beginning. They're massing all the time. You know, all the internal politics of Westeros is nothing compared with the existential apocalyptic threat that these blokes represent. And actually, I'm going to congratulate myself on my own comparison. I think it's an absolutely superb comparison. Yeah. Because, I mean, these people, the Teutons and the Cimbri, are the ones who are the most They're massive. They're terrifying. They look weird. They are an existential threat. They're reputed to be cannibals. Right. This is Plutarch on them. He said they were impervious to cold because they've been brought up in ice-bound countries full of forests. I mean, Tom, the parallels are stacking up. You're absolutely right. And also, I think, isn't this also the case with the White Walkers? The Teutons and the Cimbri are accompanied by women and children. Yeah, because some of them are women and children. Yeah. In fact, actually, in Game of Thrones, the children are the most frightening. There's always something terrifying about a murderous, sinister child. And frankly, if you've ever met a German child, you know, it's the same story. Well, they're Danes, really, aren't they? Yeah, they're the worst. And the women also are very frightening because they're said to fight alongside the men. Of course. And it's an entire people on the move. So there are tens of thousands of them, according to the Roman sources. I mean, we don't know how accurate they are, but basically, there are loads and loads of them. And they are experienced by the Romans less as an army than as some kind of force of nature. You know, a great flood, a tide, a tsunami, whatever you want to reach for. You know, the news had been brought to them that this monstrous tide of people is advancing towards you. And so they sent an army under a consul into a region called Noricum, which is basically Austria today, in 113 BC. And the consul had set an ambush for these barbarians, and the barbarians had rumbled. And had outsmarted the consul and given him a serious mauling. And so he'd withdrawn. And he had assumed that the barbarians would pursue him and invade Italy. In fact, they don't. They swing westwards into Gaul, which is a big relief to the Romans. But I think it's also a little bit unsettling because it's clear that the Cimbrian and the Teutons are unlike any enemy that they've come up against before. There's no predicting what they'll do. When you're fighting Carthaginians or Greeks, or even Gauls, there's a sense in which the Romans understand what makes these people tick. But with these barbarians from the far north, and again, this is maybe the kind of White Walker comparison, the Romans don't understand what they want. They don't understand what's going to motivate them. They don't understand how they're going to behave. And so that means it's very difficult, I think, for the Romans to devise a strategy to cope with this onslaught. And this becomes manifest in a succession of events. And so it's very difficult, I think, for the Romans to devise a strategy to cope with this onslaught. And so it's very difficult, I think, for the Romans to And it's a culminating disaster in the Roman attempts to stop the barbarians. It happens outside Arausio, which is the town in southern Gaul, which gives its name to Orange. So ultimately to the Orange Order. I mean, that's an amazing thought. And in this battle, the Romans, it's said, lose over 100,000 men, which is more than they lose in Cannae. Is that plausible, really, that they lost that many? I mean, these figures are all made up, aren't they, really? But I don't think they're made up. It's clearly a massive defeat. And yet it's barely remembered. And you think how much it's written about Cannae and the impact it had on the Romans. At the time, it must have just seemed overwhelming. It must have seemed a disaster on par with that. And when the news of it is brought to Rome, there is this terrible mood of panic. And they call it the terror cimbricus. And that phrase ever afterwards is applied by the Romans to a kind of mood of civic panic, you know, the kind of the mood of terror that can sweep an entire city. Right. And everyone, even Marius's old enemies in the Senate, agree that basically faced with this crisis, there is only one man for the job. Obviously. I mean, this is Marius. So Aratia was 105. Then in 104, Marius has been elected as one of the two consuls, hasn't he, for the year. So this is his second consulship already. You said. Remember, Plutarch predicted, well, Plutarch reported the prophecy that he would get seven. And you said he'd be a big stretch for him to get even one. You were wrong, Tom. He's now got two. To justify myself, we also said in the previous episode that it is essentially, it's either illegal or massively frowned upon for someone who's had a consulship then to have a second consulship. Yeah, you did. You did say that. And if you do have a second consulship, then at the very least, it should be at a kind of decent distance. From the original one. But Marius, you know, he'd be consulate 107. This is only three. years later. So that, I think, is the measure of the state of absolute panic that everyone in Rome is feeling, that they haven't really got any choice. Constitutional proprieties don't really count when your city is facing an existential threat. And so it is that as Marius is riding through the streets of Rome in his triumphal robes, on his chariot, enjoying his triumph, you've got to wonder if that story was true, if the nest full of seven eaglets fell into his arms and it did indeed prophesy that he was going to have seven consulships. I mean, is he thinking about that? Maybe. It'd be nice to think so. Yeah. Although there is still tension, isn't there? I mean, he is still a self-made man. He is still an outsider. There must be people in Rome from the old elite who are just like, really, this guy? Yeah, for sure. And Marius, on the day of his triumph, the day that he also takes up his second consulship, he makes a massive power play because he goes straight to the meeting of the Senate wearing his triumphal robes, which is very much not the done thing. And he apologises for it and goes and changes. But you have to think, he's reminding everybody in the Senate that he is the guy who has already won one war and that they're depending on to win a second one. So it causes indignation. But I think Marius probably felt it was worth the indignation. The Senate doesn't give him sole command. So he's one of two consuls. So Marius' enemies can feel, well, at least his power is not completely preponderant. He still has a colleague at the top. But I think it is a measure of the emergency and of Marius' reputation as Rome's only plausible saviour that throughout this war against the Cimbri that's going to be fought, and it stretches from 104 BC to 101. He's going to hold consecutive consulships. So that's four consulships on top of his previous one. So that's five consulships. And just to emphasise, this is something completely unprecedented. So this is a little by Franklin D. Roosevelt, winning four elections in the 1930s and 1940s. It's unprecedented. It violates not the letter of the constitution, but the spirit of it, tradition. But people see it as a reasonable reaction to times of existential threat, unprecedented in their history. And that's the analogy, I suppose. That's the measure, I think, of the threat that Rome feels that it is facing. And also the degree to which Marius is really the one person they feel can sort this out. Now, Marius, it has to be said, is not a flamboyant general. He's not Alexander the Great. He's not even Julius Caesar. He is a guy who is basically all about digging ditches and latrines and routine. That's very much what the Romans in military terms are about. Isn't that like what the Scipios had been like, though? Had they not been like dogged, resolute, managerial, all of that? That is the essence of the Roman military approach. Every night they will build a camp. And so Marius goes very much with the grain of this tradition. He bases himself in the provincia, the future Provence, Southern Gaul. And he concentrates on building up Rome's battlefield effectiveness, which essentially means focusing on getting his men practiced with spades as much as with arms. He wants to toughen them up. He wants lots of forced marches, carrying heavy boulders, lots of digging trenches, all of that kind of thing. But also imposing discipline, imposing battlefield techniques, all of this kind of stuff. It's often been said that this constitutes a military revolution, what Marius puts his men through in this period. A transformation in how Rome fights wars. And this is now a very contested topic. And people who are interested in this matter, and I think it's a matter of interest, not just for those who are interested in military history, but for the whole sweep of Roman history. It's a really live, fascinating topic. We have a bonus this week with Brett Devereaux. Oh, brilliant. Who has very stimulating opinions on the whole question. So don't miss that. I love this subject and I love Brett Devereaux. And I shall be tuning in. Great. I mean, I'm a member of the Restless History Club. Of course. What if people aren't? How would they listen to it? They could go to therestlesshistory.com and sign up there. Oh my gosh. What a lovely organic moment that was in the podcast. I know, so unscripted. Magnificent. Anyway, right. Back to the narrative. Yeah. So whether Marius is instituting a revolution or whether he is just doing tried and tested Roman techniques doesn't matter. He is whipping the Romans into shape. And by 102, he feels ready at last to go on the offensive. Not least because by this point, the Teutons and the Cimbri, who previously had been traveling in one great kind of amorphous mass, have now gone their own separate ways. Oh, that is a schoolboy error from the Teutons and the Cimbri. Madness. Yeah. Listen, they're just barbarians. They don't know better. Crazy. Insane. I have no time for that. Okay. But the Teutons, who are Marius' first target, they still outnumber Marius' army three to one. And also, they've beaten the Romans nonstop. They don't think there's a problem. And what follows is the kind of classic contrast between Roman discipline and barbarian kind of courage and headstrong charging and all that kind of stuff that anyone who's got into the Romans in their childhood, they're not going to be able to do. They're not going to be able to do that. It's like the opening scene of Gladiator. That's what this is, isn't it? Yes, it absolutely is. I mean, this is basically the kind of contrast that was seared into me when I was obsessed by the Romans when I was about eight. So Marius, he approaches the Teutons, and then he builds a big camp. All that digging comes in, and he holds it as basically an impregnable position. And he refuses to answer. And again, this is very Gladiator. One of the Teutons comes forward and issues a challenge personally to Marius. And Marius' response is an excellent one. If you want death, find a rope, make a noose, and hang yourself. Russell Crowe was born to say that line. He really was. Yeah, he was. They missed a trick there. So the Teutons hang around issuing these insults. Marius doesn't answer. The Teutons get fed up. They move on, looting, plundering as they go. Yeah. Marius upsticks, shadows them, building camps every night so they can't be attacked. And then on the banks of the Rhône, he surprises a huge force of a collection of German allies who were traveling with the Teutons and wipes them out. And then four days later, on a plane near a city called Acquiescextiae, which is Aix-en-Provence today, he encircles the Teutons. So he does a kind of can-eye. Completely wipes them out. They are utterly slaughtered. And so many corpses are left strewn on the battlefield that for years afterwards, the local vintners, it is said, enjoyed the most superlative of vintages. A lovely Provençal rosé with a hint, just a hint. A little hint of flesh. A rotting Teuton. Delicious. A little hint of the German corpse. When I drink my fine French wines. Wow. Delicious. This is the rest is history wine tasting tour that everyone really needed. So the Teutons are now gone and basically been turned into fertilizer for grapes. But this still leaves the Cimbri in the field. Yeah. And the Romans will not meet with the Cimbri until the following year. So 101 on the 30th of July. And on that day, they too meet. With complete annihilation at the hands of Rome's greatest general. And the battle takes place outside a city called Baccheli in Northern Italy. And it's a complete victory for Marius. So the Cimbri are broken. They retreat. They have drawn up all their wagons in their rear as was always their practice. And that means that they can't escape and they run into the wagons. And there, according to Plutarch, they were killed by their own women who were assembled on the line of the wagons. And to quote Plutarch, clad in black, the women killed their own husbands, brothers, fathers. Then they strangled their little children with their own hands and flung them down under the wheels of the wagons or the hooves of the animals. And finally, the women cut their own throats. It's an extreme reaction. Not entirely the kind of behavior of Danish women today, I would say. Not at all. Times have changed. So that's the Cimbri gone. And the Roman authors inevitably give absolutely massive, massive casualty figures, you know, kind of 140,000 killed, 60,000 prisoners taken. I mean, we don't probably exaggerate it, but clearly it's a massive, monumental victory. And the barbarian invasion is over. Marius has saved Rome. He saved Italy. He's the hero of the hour. And the person, Dominic, who brings the news of the victory to Rome, do you want to reveal who that is? I do. Listeners, brace yourselves. It's none other than Gaius Julius Caesar. Now, if you're thinking, that's Julius Caesar, you're wrong. It's actually his father. And only a fool would think it was Julius Caesar himself. Isn't that right? that would be mad only a total idiot would get his the father and son muddled up and thank god we're not at home to idiots on the rest is history no it is on this podcast right so uh julius caesar not the julius caesar but a julius caesar his dad brings the news back to rome and i mean people won't understand why we're laughing but who cares i think they'll probably guess and marius is the hero of the hour and actually there are two interesting indications of this aren't there tom and would you like to talk people through them right so the first may seem a little bit obscure but it it um bear it in mind because it's going to have um it's an indicator of things that come so in the wake of the battle um marius has obviously fought it not just with roman legions but with armies of italian allies the socchi and at the end of the battle marius had very impulsively granted citizenship to two cohorts of the socchi of these italian allies so about a thousand men in total and this was completely illegal he had no right to do this right and it was very controversial back in rome because obviously the romans guard their citizenship very jealously but the senate suck it up they realize they can't really go against the hero of the hour the other indication of just what a hero marius is he's had these five consulships and four of these have been because he has been in charge of the war against them and he's had these five consulships and four of these wars against the barbarian invaders but now that the barbarian invaders have gone marius runs for the consulship again and is elected again so this is a sixth consulship and only one man back way back in the mists of time had achieved this so marius is now the equal record holder and just to emphasize you know it's a big enough feat for a novice homo a man from you know who has no pedigree to get one consulship marius is now the joint record holder and he's been in charge of the six consulships stupefying but to be fair he deserves it is he not the goat at this point of roman history he's he jugurtha stuff in spain seeing off the white walkers i mean he's got an unbelievable record of success and if any man in roman history deserves six consulships surely it's gaius marius well uh you might say that but obviously in a society like rome's which is far from it and it's not a society like rome's which is far from it and it's not a society like founded on relentless competition between alpha males the fact that one particular alpha male has done stunningly well for himself isn't necessarily greeted with overwhelming joy and approbation by other alpha males so the very scale of marius success kind of stores up trouble for him no one in rome like someone who is too much of a winner that's the whole eastern ethos of the republic and there's a class element to this isn't there i mean marius by definition i suppose because of his background because of his plain style and you're sleeping on the ground in a military blanket or whatever he is your classic popularist isn't he he's the man who appeals to the people you know he's the champion of ordinary working people isn't that marius's shtick that is very much his shtick yeah and by definition therefore that means that conservatives the patrician types they're going to see him as an as somebody who is not one of them and they're going to look for somebody they're going to look for a champion maris is much too tall a poppy so they want to nurture and you know grow other poppies that can yeah kind of measure up to him and the one that they go for is a guy called quintus lutetius catulus and he had been maris's colleague as consul in 102 bc so that's the year in which they had um defeated the teutons and he is everything that marius isn't so he's a very old school aristocrat he's enjoyed a very expensive education he has amazing connections he's so not marius that to to to be enthusiastic for him is kind of almost pointedly to do marius down now catulus initially had made a bit of a hash of things so in the campaign against the kimberry it was his failure to hold defensive positions along the line between gaul and italy that had enabled the kimberry to win the war and he was able to win the war and he was able to win the to break through the defenses and advance into northern italy um but he'd redeemed himself he'd joined forces with marius they'd won the great victory together catulus hadn't you know i mean he's not a great general but he'd fought with dogged competence and the romans i guess they love a bit of dogged competence they don't hold you know they they they see that as a mark in catulus's favor yeah and so catulus had been awarded a triumph alongside marius but he's an obviously catulus is resentful of the fact that marius is really the one getting all the plaudits getting all the cheers and so the rivalry between them over the years that follows is kind of baked in so marius for instance he builds a temple um to celebrate the favor that had been shown him by the gods and catulus does exactly the same and so it carries on and this no it's nothing unusual this is this is how people tend to behave in the roman republic the great men do tend to dislike each other to be rivals of one another but catulus isn't really a i mean he's not a serious threat to marius is he i mean you the way you've described his record he's a plodder yeah right he's a mediocrity yeah i don't i i don't think marius really feels threatened by him there is however one man who i think does live a bit rent free in his head and this is another aristocrat a former lieutenant of his a soldier a politician of formidable a we've mentioned him before this is lucius cornelius suller and i think it's time now we've mentioned him several times already in the series to have a bit of a closer look at him the glamour boy of roman politics right i mean he really is he has the glamour that marius perhaps doesn't quite have he's sophisticated he is patrician um he is blue-blooded he's cool he's ruthless he's cunning all of these things but but there are but there are similarities as well there's a lot of similarities there's a lot of similarities as well as differences right yeah there completely are so um both of them are brilliant soldiers both of them have a real talent for politics both of them are incredibly ambitious and both of them i think have been very driven to escape what by the standards of senatorial politics is a degree of relative poverty so although marius his his background is kind of the regional aristocracy the out-of-town aristocracy his parents are not wealthy compared to the great you know senatorial figures of rome yeah and suller even though he comes from an ancient patrician family his background also has been relatively poverty stricken so his father had died essentially bankrupt and so left suller very very hard up and this means that throughout his youth suller had found his means humiliatingly disproportionate to his ambitions to his expectations right you know it's like someone i guess who's been given a very expensive education and then the father goes bankrupt you have to go and get a job in burger king or something it's that kind of does that does that happen to people with expect i mean do they end up working burger king i had a friend who who did experience that well it's the classic thing of the person in them living in the kind of massive country house who can't heat it because daddy spends all the money on hawkers i think it's worse than that because i think it's worse than that because the person who's living in the kind of massive country house if we can trust plutarch and that is quite a big if but he he reports traditions that suller is hanging out in very kind of seedy lodgings um in rough areas of town he doesn't seem to have had um you know the equivalent of a stately home and he is hanging out with kind of the demi-monde with bohemians right and these include prostitutes drag queens and the very worst of the bad guys the worst stand-up comedians oh no my artists people of that ilk plutarch is appalled by this one of the few things you can say is touching about suller that he's very loyal to them throughout his life loves a drag queen and a stand-up comic he literally does love a drag queen as we will see he's he's very keen on stand-up comics and drag queens and indeed prostitutes god almighty we've said how he's a very good looking man he has this kind of this this hair that's so golden that it's almost red which is very striking in rome he has kind of blue eyes actually a bit like a cimbrian so again very striking and he's again if we can trust plutarch he seems to have operated as a bit of a gigolo um both his stepmother rather sinisterly and rome's most famous courtesan are said to have become obsessed by him and in their wills both these women leave most of their property to suller so if we can trust these stories suller has essentially been pimping himself out he is being beat by the estates of the women who've fallen for him and it is these estates that then kind of in his late 20s early 30s enables him to embark on the political career that his contemporaries and peers would have begun in their late teens right so he's a late starter so he's 30 and suddenly he is able to dream of big things but in a way as much as marius suller feels that he is struggling against impediments that had held him back early in his career i think and i think those are points of resemblance between them and maybe explains why both of them appear so so driven in their respective careers. They're both in a way late developers, aren't they? I mean, Marius was, what was he, not even 40 when he really appears in the history books. And Sulla is 30 by the time he's got all this money and can launch his career. And he, I mean, he's utterly ruthless, isn't he, Sulla? I mean, this is one of his defining characteristics. He will do absolutely whatever is necessary to get ahead. Yeah. So this is why he is very content to be Marius' lieutenant. He profits from it, first in Africa, and then he serves with Marius against the barbarians in the north, the Teutons and the Cimbri. But he's also happy in due course when he has to, to turn on Marius as Marius had turned on Metellus, his patron. So we mentioned this ring and how it niggles Marius. He hates this ring, kind of showing Sulla getting Jugurtha. In the war against the Cimbri, Sulla begins serving with Marius, and then he switches and joins the staff of Catulus. And by doing that, he's not just broadening his range of military experience, he's also identifying himself with the conservative interest in the Senate, because that is the kind of the alignment that Catulus represents. And that is, of course, the faction most opposed to Marius. And so I think Sulla is definitely making a statement with that, that he, you know, he served his apprenticeship, and now he's, he's moving on, he's leaving Marius behind. So in the 90s, in the wake of the defeat of the Teutons and the Cimbri, Sulla, I mean, he does well enough. He, you know, he gets a magistracy here, a magistracy there. He goes on a diplomatic mission. He's the first Roman to establish relations with the Parthians in the Far East, this kind of Iranian power. But he doesn't make a tremendous name for himself. And the consulship remains out of his reach. And the problem is that Sulla lacks what Marius had enjoyed, namely the chance to do spectacularly well in a, in a glorious war. But Sulla doesn't despair about this. He, he's ambitious, but he's also very patient. And even though he's a tremendous cynic, I mean, kind of balefully so, he is simultaneously very superstitious. And Sulla absolutely believes himself to be the favourite of Venus. The goddess of love, the goddess of fortune, the goddess who grants to those who are her particular favourites, sex appeal, which Sulla has, and good fortune, which Sulla is convinced is going to be his in due course. So by 91 BC, Sulla is 47. The minimum age by convention that you can run for the consulship is 40. So he's seven years over that threshold. And I reckon by Sulla's own high standards, you know, he has to reckon that that's a bit of a failure, he should have got the consulship by this point. But he remains confident that everything's going to be fine, that he is going to get a consulship in due course, that he is going to become one of the great men of not just in contemporary Roman politics, but in the entire sweep of Roman history, and that he is indeed what the Romans called Felix, which means both fortunate and favoured by Venus. And he is not wrong, because in due course, he is going to get his chance with absolutely seismic consequences for the Roman Republic. And he will be getting that chance after the break. Right now, all of Mint's plans are $15 per month, even. Availability, speed and coverage varied. See MintMobile.com. This episode is brought to you by the Gates Foundation. We have touched on the fall of the Roman Empire a few times on this show, haven't we? But what our listeners may not know is that among the causes that historians talk about, it's not just barbarian invasions. There's also talk of a disease which people call Roman fever, which I believe we know now as malaria. For thousands of years, humanity was defensive, against it. But thankfully, we live in a time of incredible ingenuity, and American scientists and partners around the world are fighting back with support from the Gates Foundation. Yes, so they're creating a new generation of bed nets that kill up to 90% of mosquitoes. That leads to a 50% drop in malaria, saving lives, and protecting vulnerable communities. The Gates Foundation, partners of human potential. Search gatesfoundation.org slash mosquito to learn more. This episode is brought to you by Amazon. Tom, throughout history, change has often been driven by businesses and institutions that end up having a massive impact on society as a whole. And there's probably no better example than the Ford Motor Company. Henry Ford and his managers revolutionized production through their pioneering assembly lines, and they influenced factories and working practices. Another example of a business driving technological and social change is Amazon, which is increasing the number of its electric vehicles used for deliveries in Europe to over 10,000 by the end of this year, 2026. Now, on top of that, over 50% of Amazon deliveries now come with less packaging, or sometimes no added packaging at all. It helps to avoid and, if necessary, waste. And it makes recycling at home that much easier. Find out more at amazon.co.uk slash sustainability. Welcome back, everybody, to The Rest is History. The year is 91 BC. And as you look out, what you can see is the Bay of Naples, the epitome of Roman chic and wealth and luxury. The city of Naples is a place of luxury and pleasure. Naples, of course, Tom, Neapolis, a former Greek colony. But for the Romans, it's become the great sort of tourist destination, hasn't it? It's the place where they go to get a little taste of Greece. Yeah, so you've got these kind of ancient streets basking in the sun, and you can go there and debate with philosophers and have doctors consult you and have affairs with kind of witty, well-read courtesans and all of the things that you would get in Greece. And so unsurprisingly, throughout the 90s, as all this wealth is flooding into Rome and the aristocracy are getting richer and richer, the entire coastline of the bay has become incredibly fashionable, kind of the Saint-Tropez or whatever of ancient Rome. And luxury villas are starting to sprout up along its length. So Marius is one of the super-rich who's commissioned a villa. Typically, he's had it kind of structured to look like a Roman military encampment stuck out on a promontory. God, he never changes, does he? You've got spas. We love a spa. We love a spa on the rest of history. You've got marinas. You've got yachts. You've got oyster beds. So these have been developed by a local entrepreneur called Sergius Arata. Absolutely floods the market with very high-end oysters. And then Arata goes one better and invents the heated swimming pool. Wow. Naples is a place called Puteoli. This is a one-time Greek port that, unlike Naples, has been completely flattened, rebuilt, and expanded, complete with these enormous concrete moles because the volcanic ash from Mount Vesuvius, which looms over the Bay of Naples, enables the Romans to make concrete that can be used underwater. This enables this huge port to be built. The significance of Puteoli for the Romans is that it's a deep-water port. It's basically the only deep-water port they have on the Roman side of Italy that can provide the capital with all these kinds of goods that are starting to flood in across the Mediterranean from all the various parts of the Mediterranean world that Rome now controls. So you've got grain. Rome is a city perhaps of half a million people. They need to be fed. Paul: You've got slaves to fuel Roman enterprises, in particular, what are called the latifundia, which are these vast, enormous agricultural estates which are spreading across Italy and have to be worked by slave labor. Gold and silver, of course. The irony is that what Peru was to 16th century Spain, Spain is the first century BC Rome. So there are all these enormous complex of mines in Spain, tens of thousands of slaves being worked to death, and there's a lot of money being spent. Paul: You've got slaves to fuel Roman enterprises, in particular, what are called the latifundia, which are these vast, enormous agricultural estates which are spreading across Italy and have to be worked by slaves to fuel Roman enterprises, in particular, what are called the latifundia, which are these enormous complex of mines in Spain, tens of thousands of slaves being worked to death in this kind of great landscape pocked with tunnels and quarries. I mean, just hell on earth, fumes so heavy that the chemicals burn the skin. It said that birds, if they fly over the mines, just drop dead. To this day, if you get a core of ice from the poles, you can see the chemical trace elements of all the smelting that was going on in this period. It was a vast industrial scale. Of course, from the Eastern Mediterranean, we talked about this in the previous episode, how the Romans take over this province that they call Asia, the Western seaboard of what's now Turkey. You get these incredible luxuries, sculptures, spices, paintings, exotic plants, celebrity chefs, sex manuals, all these kinds of things. They're coming to Puteoli and then being taken on to Rome. So presumably as a result of all this, Naples and the surrounding areas, so Campania, and indeed cities like Pompeii, which is just along the coast, these places must be becoming enormously rich. Yeah. And these at this point are not Roman. So they are absolutely benefiting as well. And I would say that's a good thing. The whole of the Bay of Naples and Campania, which is the region that the Bay of Naples is set in, it's becoming probably the single richest area in the world with the exception of Rome. You're having massive inflows of wealth and goods. And if you're an Italian and you belong to the elite and you can speak Latin and you have good business contacts, then the opportunities for making yourself rich, particularly if you have businesses that reach overseas, are the same as those that any Roman merchant has. The opportunities are absolutely enormous. And there is this one particular honeypot, which is the province of Asia, what had previously been the kingdom of Pergamum and which had been left to the Roman people by its last king in his will back in 133 BC. And it's become a province. The Romans call it Asia. And for several generations now, Roman and Italian business interests have been bleeding this province. Absolutely white. And the most profitable enterprise of all is to set up private companies that can then operate the taxation system and extort taxes out of the wretched locals. And the name of these cartels is Publicani. And it's Publicani because they are operating for the benefit of the Roman public. But there is nothing public-spirited about them at all. And their scam is basically not just to extort the official tribute that is owed to Rome, but also to strong-arm the provincials into essentially paying for the privilege of being fleeced. They have their own private gangs of heavies. And it's absolutely terrible for the poor provincials. And the Italian merchant class has its nose at least as much in this particular trough as the Roman business class does. And so to the people of Asia who feel, this is a plague, Romans and Italians, they see them all as Romeoi, as Romans. They don't really distinguish between them. And so I think for Italian businessmen, if they're overseas, it's great. They share all the privileges and advantages of Roman citizenship. They can get just as rich as the Romans. So what's the problem? Well, the problem is that when they come home, they find that they are in Italy still very much, second-class citizens. And so I think the more successful they are, paradoxically, riding on the Roman coattails, the more they come to resent the Romans. The more they come to feel that the Romans are not cutting them the slack that is their due as people who properly should be Roman citizens themselves. So the discontent of these Italians who've made a lot of money in Pergamum, this has been growing and growing and growing for a series of reasons, right? They have to do military service. Yeah. And that falls disproportionately on them. They don't get all the benefits of Roman citizenship when they come home. So they don't get the vote. They don't get the same legal standing. They don't get all of this. The case of Marius is a really good example of the disparity of opportunities. So if you're a Roman, as Marius is, you can win six consulships if you're from Arpinum. But if you're from Pompeii, you can't win a single consulship, right? You can't win a single Roman office. Because you don't have the vote. Well, you described how Marius had enfranchised a thousand Italians after he'd beaten the White Walkers. And I guess if he can do that just randomly, why can't you enfranchise all of them? I mean, that is a reasonable question that these Italians are asking. Yeah. And obviously the Romans don't want to make this concession because to them being Roman is special and they want to guard the exclusivity of Roman status. Some of the Romans do. So there are statesmen in Rome who think, actually, if, you know, the Italians have a point, and if we make them Roman citizens, then think how much manpower we'll have. They can see that it promises Rome a kind of absolute military preponderance if they do give the Italians the full Roman citizenship. And the guy who takes the lead in pushing this argument is a tribune called Marcus Livius Drusus. And fun fact, Livia, the wife of the Emperor Augustus, so anyone who's seen Lyclaudius will remember her. She is this guy's adoptive granddaughter. So there are family links everywhere in Roman history. Anyway, this guy Drusus, in 91, he brings forward a bill to give the Italian allies full Roman citizenship. And to his opponents, this is an existential moment because just as there are very good reasons for allowing the Italians to have citizenship, so also are there very good reasons not to allow them. Because the anxiety of the conservatives, the anxieties of Drusus' opponents, is that Rome is a city-state. It has these very ancient institutions. And the question they are asking is, is it a city-state? Is it a city-state? Is it a city-state? Is it a city-state? Is it a city-state? Is it a city-state? Is it a city-state? Is it a city-state? Is it a city-state? The question they are asking is, how are these institutions, how is the civic infrastructure of our city going to cope with the sudden enrollment of millions of new citizens throughout the length and breadth of Italy? I mean, both sides obviously have really good arguments on their side. And so unsurprisingly, the whole city comes to be gripped by the tension of this debate, which has kind of flared up suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere. And as it had done back in the previously, so now the argument turns violent. So amid riots, amid violent demonstrations, Drusus' legislation is defeated. And then a few days later, while Drusus himself is sitting in the portico of his villa, he is surprised by an assassin and murdered. And the news of this murder is greeted across Italy with a great explosion of anger. And this anger will culminate in them turning to open warfare. And this war will be called by historians in English, the social war. Worst name for a war ever. It sounds like it's been organized by the local golf club or something. But this is a very, very brutal conflict. And actually for the Romans, one of the most dangerous wars that they ever fight, because essentially everything that the Romans have created risks being brought down by it. Now, the Italians have been knitted into the fabric of, of their empire. Without the Italians, they could never have achieved what they've achieved. And now the Italians have turned on them. This is a massively fateful conflict for them. Right. So it's an existential threat for the Romans and it begins in the East, doesn't it? There's an uprising. The murder of Drusus, a massive scandal. There's an uprising in Asculum. It's in the East of Italy. All the Romans in the city are murdered. They're massacred. The wives of the Italians who died in the war are murdered. They're massacred. They're massacred. They're massacred. They're what's now modern-day Marce in Italy. But it doesn't take long for the flames of rebellion to spread across the Apennines and reach Campania, so the Bay of Naples, this great gilded golden place. So Pompeii joins the rebellion, and inland there's a city called Nola. Again, like Pompeii, not Roman. This gets captured by the Italian rebels and transformed into a kind of bristling stronghold of the revolt. But actually, I mentioned the Apennines. That is the real focus of the rebellion. That's the real focus of the uprising because, of course, it's mountainous, and so it's much more difficult for the Romans to reach than the flat-level plains. The particular focus of the rebellion is a region called Samnium, which lies directly to the east of Campania. Very, very mountainous, very poor, trickle-down economics from Rome's empire has not reached the Samnites. The Samnites are pretty remarkable people, aren't they? The Romans regard them as backward, which I think is very cruel cultural snobbery. So to give people a sense of the Samnites' interesting traditions, they like witchcraft, they wear rings of iron around their necks, and they shave their pubic hair, not just privately, but am I not right in saying they shave their pubic hair in public? And the Romans, for some unfathomable reason, find this revolting. Yeah, mad from the Romans. One thing the Romans do like about the Samnites is their armour, which is very fancy and beautiful. Okay. And in fact, in due course, Samnite armour will be the armour armor that is worn by one of the particular kinds of gladiator which i think is both a mark of respect and of contempt because you're basically putting the samnites to fight for you for your entertainment in an arena but just to say i mean the samnites are a very proud people a proud rugged people they're a proud genitally smooth people mountain people yeah um who who centuries before had you know they had fought a great war that went on for many decades against the romans they'd only been defeated with great difficulty and i think they have not forgotten their ancient glory even though centuries have passed since that happened and they you know they dust down their armor they dust down their uh their swords they uh they have a nice quick shave and then they're off to create havoc down in the plains and the romans are taken completely by surprise and it's a it's it's rather as though i think the sense of shock they feel it's as though i don't know you're in god or ming or tunbridge wells tunbridge wells and suddenly you're being attacked by jacobites or something i was it's just so unexpected it's like these soldiers have risen from a past that you thought was completely dead and buried yeah that's a hell of a twist and there is the inevitable bad start roman wars always seem to begin with a a bad start so there are various defeats there is a a consul is slain um but the romans do still have immense reserves of manpower even though they've lost all the italians and they do have three top generals and one of these three top generals of course is marius who is now in his 60s and by this point he has become i think it's fair to say a man of size and his critics say that this is what comes of having a luxury villa on the bay of naples inevitably however despite his bulk he's still you know he's he's still got it he's still got his talent for winning battles uh and actually he had been serving as a a deputy to the consul who got killed and marius had been down river uh and he saw corpses starting to float by him realized what had happened and he went around the back of the the italians and captured their fort um and uh this was a kind of um consolation victory that cheered everybody up and kept marius's name on the lips of the romans but he's not the top general so at number two there is the guy who's the chief landowner in piscinum on the east flank of italy where the uprising had begun and this is naus pompeius strabo and he's widely mistrusted in rome partly because he has a very shady character he's always stabbing people in the back and partly because he has a squint oh no which in latin is strabo that's what it means and the romans tend to view people with squints as being untrustworthy so strabo is seen as a person who is a dangerous character however he is very effective and he catches the rebels in piscinum in a pincer attack and he then moves to asculum you know the the birthplace of this revolt and he puts it under siege um and it looks like it's going to fall so this is very good so he's number two in the hit parade but number one the the breakout roman star in the social war is lucius cornelius sulla and he is the guy who is operating on the western flank of italy just as uh strabo is operating on the eastern half and this means that sulla has responsibility for prosecuting the war in campania the bay of naples and samnium right he advances it across campania capturing all the rebel holds strongholds including pompeii and if you go to pompeii today and you look at the walls you can see the marks left on those walls by his artillery by the stones fired by his catapults captures uh pompeii he then invades samnium he ambushes the samnite army in a mountain pass and then he storms the samnite capital in uh in the middle of the war and he's the one who's the one who's the one who's an incredible incredibly brutal three-hour assault and by this point there is only one rebel held stronghold left in campania and this is the city of nola which we mentioned had been captured early on in the conflict and turned into the kind of the great center of um rebel resistance and so sulla moves up to its walls with his six legions that he's by this point got and he puts it under siege and um you know he's looking to finish off the revolt in in campania in his in the theater of war for which he has responsibility he himself however he doesn't stay there he heads back to rome and this is a bit like marius coming back from africa to rome because sulla has his eye on the ultimate prize he thinks i've made this tremendous name for myself i'm now rome's top general this is my opportunity at last to get the consulship and so he's going back to rome to stand in those consular elections and does he get it he does he wins it very easily and the fact that he wins the consulship is manifestation of the fact that he is now seen by the roman people as a person who has put all his peers including marius in the shade he is a very very significant player now in roman politics so he is celebrated as a master of tactics of strategy of siege warfare of ambushes of diplomacy he's been given this special award by his men which is only ever given to a general who has saved his army from a position of extreme danger so it's evident that his men think he's fantastic too meanwhile marius the solace delight is being widely mocked for being fat and old he's 68 so he's basically decrepit harsh um and he had you know we said that he was he was out in the field but he's given up he's fallen ill he's gone to his villa and he's just sitting there eating oh marius and he seems yesterday's man god and so for sulla when he becomes consul on the 1st of january 88 bc it's an incredibly sweet moment and it's made all the sweeter by the fact that his consulship promises him the opportunity to win even more victories even greater glory and even juicier prize and this is because while the romans have been busy slogging it out in this way they've been busy slogging it out in this way they've been busy slogging it out in this way they've been busy slogging it out in this way they've been busy slogging it out in this way they've been fighting the sochi fighting the italian allies another disastrous war has broken out this time on the eastern most flank of the roman empire in asia in that hapless province that has been bled white by roman and italian businessmen but of course a really important place for the romans right because it represents wealth east eastern mediterranean richer than the west so this i mean it's actually been provoked by the romans themselves is it not so this i mean it's actually been provoked by the romans themselves is it not completely yes so the guy responsible he's a man called completely yes so the guy responsible he's a man called manius aquilius manius aquilius manius aquilius and he's a very close associate of marius and he's a very close associate of marius and he's a very close associate of marius and this may or may not be a coincidence and this may or may not be a coincidence and this may or may not be a coincidence he had served marius as a legate he had served marius as a legate he had served marius as a legate and as his consular colleague against and as his consular colleague against and as his consular colleague against the kimbry the kimbry the kimbry say the year that they defeat the kimbry say the year that they defeat the kimbry say the year that they defeat the kimbry and in 90 he had been sent to asia and in 90 he had been sent to asia and in 90 he had been sent to asia as part of an official commission charged as part of an official commission charged as part of an official commission charged by the senate to sort out kind of by the senate to sort out kind of by the senate to sort out kind of various border disputes that had um that various border disputes that had um that various border disputes that had um that were kind of rumbling between rival were kind of rumbling between rival were kind of rumbling between rival kings um in what is now northern turkey kings um in what is now northern turkey kings um in what is now northern turkey and there was one kingdom in particular that that that roman businessmen had been casting kind roman businessmen had been casting kind roman businessmen had been casting kind of greedy eyes on for of greedy eyes on for of greedy eyes on for quite a while and this is a place called quite a while and this is a place called quite a while and this is a place called pontus on the the coast of the black sea pontus on the the coast of the black sea pontus on the the coast of the black sea and aquilius with what turns out to be and aquilius with what turns out to be and aquilius with what turns out to be completely fatal complacency completely fatal complacency completely fatal complacency had sponsored an invasion of pontus by had sponsored an invasion of pontus by had sponsored an invasion of pontus by a kind of a kind of a kind of client roman king and why he had done client roman king and why he had done client roman king and why he had done this this this is a bit of a mystery because he's doing is a bit of a mystery because he's doing is a bit of a mystery because he's doing this while the social war is this while the social war is this while the social war is is raging so you'd think the romans had is raging so you'd think the romans had is raging so you'd think the romans had their hands full enough their hands full enough their hands full enough maybe he does it because he's been maybe he does it because he's been maybe he does it because he's been bribed by the the business interests bribed by the the business interests bribed by the the business interests yeah um or maybe he's trying to provoke yeah um or maybe he's trying to provoke a war that marius can then take command a war that marius can then take command a war that marius can then take command of so maybe he's of so maybe he's of so maybe he's doing it to serve his old boss i mean doing it to serve his old boss i mean doing it to serve his old boss i mean both or neither may be possible we both or neither may be possible we both or neither may be possible we can't be sure can't be sure can't be sure but either way i mean it turns out to but either way i mean it turns out to but either way i mean it turns out to be a really foolish thing to have done be a really foolish thing to have done be a really foolish thing to have done because rome is fighting this desperate because rome is fighting this desperate because rome is fighting this desperate war back in italy and the king of pontus war back in italy and the king of pontus war back in italy and the king of pontus turns out to be much more formidable turns out to be much more formidable turns out to be much more formidable than aquilius had anticipated and the than aquilius had anticipated and the than aquilius had anticipated and the king of pontus is a guy called king of pontus is a guy called king of pontus is a guy called mithridates and he's very bold very mithridates and he's very bold very mithridates and he's very bold very cunning and as it turns out incredibly cunning and as it turns out incredibly cunning and as it turns out incredibly vindictive and he very easily swats vindictive and he very easily swats vindictive and he very easily swats aside the invasion of his kingdom and aside the invasion of his kingdom and aside the invasion of his kingdom and then he takes an astonishing step then he takes an astonishing step then he takes an astonishing step which is to invade the province of asia which is to invade the province of asia which is to invade the province of asia i mean a jaw-dropping step i mean a jaw-dropping step i mean a jaw-dropping step and it's jaw-dropping because and it's jaw-dropping because and it's jaw-dropping because for over a century now for over a century now for over a century now no king in the eastern mediterranean has no king in the eastern mediterranean has no king in the eastern mediterranean has dared to provoke a war with rome dared to provoke a war with rome dared to provoke a war with rome yeah they know what follows they know yeah they know what follows they know yeah they know what follows they know that it you know it's it's absolute that it you know it's it's absolute that it you know it's it's absolute curtains if you do that but mithridates curtains if you do that but mithridates curtains if you do that but mithridates have done it and so people may be have done it and so people may be have done it and so people may be wondering well why has he taken this wondering well why has he taken this wondering well why has he taken this bold step it's partly because he's been bold step it's partly because he's been bold step it's partly because he's been preparing for it you know for a very preparing for it you know for a very preparing for it you know for a very very long time he's massively very long time he's massively beefed up his offensive capabilities beefed up his offensive capabilities beefed up his offensive capabilities he has he has he has an army that is well actually it's an army that is well actually it's an army that is well actually it's literally shiny new because you know his literally shiny new because you know his literally shiny new because you know his elite troops all have kind of beautiful elite troops all have kind of beautiful elite troops all have kind of beautiful jewelry on their armor and their swords jewelry on their armor and their swords jewelry on their armor and their swords are embossed with gold so it creates a are embossed with gold so it creates a are embossed with gold so it creates a tremendous spectacle but also tremendous spectacle but also tremendous spectacle but also mithridates he's he's a very cunning mithridates he's he's a very cunning mithridates he's he's a very cunning man and even while he likes flamboyant man and even while he likes flamboyant man and even while he likes flamboyant soldiers he likes a spot of espionage soldiers he likes a spot of espionage soldiers he likes a spot of espionage himself yeah he's got good intelligence himself yeah he's got good intelligence himself yeah he's got good intelligence he'd personally gone undercover in Asia. And he talked to the Greek communities there. And he'd realized just how much the locals loathed the Romans, how desperate they were to see the Romans, the back of the Romans, and also how weak Rome's defenses are. And he thinks, actually, maybe Rome's empire in Asia is a bit of a straw tiger. If I invade, maybe I can pull it off. And so he takes the plunge. And he's not wrong, because everything goes brilliantly for him. In a matter of weeks, Roman power in Asia completely collapses. Aquilius flees to the island of Mytilene, just off the Aegean coast. And Mithridates himself arrives with his army on the shoreline of the Aegean. So unbelievable. Rome has lost the province of Asia to an oriental king. Unbelievable humiliation. And yet the real. Rejection back home is quite complicated, isn't it? So for the business class who've invested in Asia, or who have dealings with Asia, this is obviously an absolute disaster, because a lot of them are bankrupted. And for the Italians, let's call them, so the people who are fighting against the Romans, they relied on these business links to fund their war, didn't they? So this is a massive shock. But the interesting thing, I think it's so interesting that the Romans actually think, well, this is going to be an absolute. This is going to be an absolute walkover, because Easterners, Orientals, are completely, you know, given over to luxury sex manuals and celebrity chefs. They fight like women. This is because they're so rich. So basically, their wealth will cripple them, and we'll be able to defeat them, and then we'll be able to take all their money. Yeah, so absolutely brilliant. It's a massive win for us. And so all the leading men in Rome, all the nobiles, they want a piece of the action. But the man who is in pole position because he's consul is Sulla. And sure enough, shortly after he's become. He's become consul. So early in 88 BC, he is officially confirmed as the man who is going to lead the expedition against Mithridates. And he couldn't be happier. And so he heads back to Nola to continue the siege there, a very, very happy man. His plan is he will capture Nola, he will serve his term as consul, and then he will fulfill the commission by leading his men eastwards to attack Mithridates, win tremendous glory for himself, and just as importantly, become fabulously rich. However, he has reckoned without his old commander and bitterest rival, Marius, who feels that the command in the war against Mithridates should properly be his. And remember, we floated the possibility that Aquilius had actually started this war with Mithridates with the aim of giving Marius the chance to do this. We don't know whether that's true, but it is certainly the case that in the early weeks of Sulla's consulship, Marius is absolutely on manoeuvres. So we mentioned how he has become slightly overweight. He starts to go out onto the campus marshes, the great kind of open space outside Rome where people go and do their exercises. And he starts doing gym work, very public workouts, running, riding, weapon training, and crowds start turning up to watch him, this great veteran working off his fat, into muscle, cheering him on. And simultaneously, Marius starts building a political alliance to try and undermine Sulla and have the command against Mithridates transferred from Sulla to himself, to Marius. And the key ally that Marius gets is a guy called Salpicius. And Salpicius is a tribune who is very committed to the idea that all the Italians should be given the citizenship. And Salpicius is the last way to end the war. And by this point, actually, he has a lot of support in this opinion. Lots of Romans have come to this conclusion, and they're starting to give Italians who haven't rebelled or Italians who are laying down their arms the chance to become full Roman citizens. But Salpicius wants to push this very far. Sulla, he's not tremendously enthusiastic about this. He's always dragging his heels on the question of whether the Italians should be given the full citizenship. And so too does Sulla's colleague as consul, a guy called Pompeius Rufus. And so they, both of them had pledged to back Salpicius' policy. But then once they're in power, they go back on it. And Salpicius feels that he has been betrayed and is absolutely irate about it. And so this is why Salpicius decides that he will back Marius' command, because Marius in return says, well, I will back your move to see all the Italians enfranchised. The other thing that Salpicius can give Marius is that he's incredibly popular out on the streets of Rome. He's very good at whipping up a mob. And so this is the deal. Marius and Salpicius agree terms. Marius will get the command. Salpicius will get Marius' backing for the Italians all getting the vote. And so it is that a fateful political drama is set in train. So first thing that happens, Salpicius reintroduces his bill. So he reintroduces his bill and it's the same time his supporters take to the streets. There's rioting in the city, isn't there? It's all kicking off. Sulla is at his camp outside Nola and he gets news and he comes rushing back and he has this meeting with Pompeius Rufus, who is the consular colleague. And Salpicius, I mean, this is an amazing thing. Salpicius hears the news that Sulla is having this meeting in secret and he sends a gang of thugs to break it up. And Tom, what happens next? Well, in the resulting confrontation, the son of Pompeius Rufus, the consul, is murdered. Rufus himself barely escapes with his life. And Sulla, I mean, this is such a humiliation, is forced to take refuge in Marius' house. So massive embarrassment. But it's not the end of Sulla's humiliations because before he's allowed to return to Nola, he has to acquiesce in Salpicius' legislation, this bill that he'd previously blocked, and he has to agree that his consular of his consulship. And so Sulla has to agree to all this. He has no choice. Otherwise, you know, he's going to get beaten up. And so he heads back to Nola, painfully conscious of this great chasm that has been revealed between the show of his power and the reality of it. However, he does have one thing that can console him, and that is that he has this command against Mithridates. It's brilliant. And this is now, you know, the key thing that he has. It's the key to all his future prospects, because the damage that's been done to his prestige is such that only a triumphant Eastern war can possibly repair it. So everything for Sulla is dependent on his going off to beat Mithridates and winning a glorious victory. And then Dominic, he's in his camp outside Nola, and a messenger arrives from Rome. And he is one of Marius' staff officers, and he brings news of a plebiscite. And this is a bill that had been proposed by Salpicius. It had been ratified by the people and passed into law. And by terms of this plebiscite, Sulla is demoted from his command against Mithridates. He has it removed from him. And the person who gets the command in Sulla's place, inevitably, is Marius. And 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. And for Sulla, this is stunning, devastating news, because it threatens not just to deprive him of his dreams of a great victory over Mithridates, but essentially to terminate his career in the most humiliating circumstances. And so the question that now hangs in the air, what is Sulla going to do? Well, ladies and gentlemen, there is only one way to find out. 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. Now, if you're a member of the Restis History Club, you can find out what happens next straight away by listening to the next episode. If you're not a member of the Restis History Club, I urge you, I implore you to go to therestishistory.com and sign up, and you'll be able to listen to the rest of this series. You'll be able to join our own Battle Hard and Legion, and you'll be able to find out what happens next in the struggle for the destiny of Rome itself. So go to therestishistory.com and your life will be absolutely improved in every conceivable way. So on that bombshell, Tom, thank you very much. This is thrilling stuff. We will see you next time. Goodbye. Bye-bye. For adults with Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis symptoms, every choice matters. 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