Marcus Marius (quaestor)
Encyclopedia
Marcus Marius was a quaestor
of the Roman Republic
in 76 BC and proquaestor under Quintus Sertorius
's government in exile
in Spain
. Marius was sent by Sertorius to Mithradates of Pontus
as an advisor and military commander in the Third Mithridatic War
. He is named as or more likely confused with a Varius in Appian
.
No connection has been established between this Marius and Gaius Marius
or the other contemporary Marii
of Arpinum. M. Marius is supposed to have arrived in Spain in the company of Perperna, but no further association is recorded with the man who was the prime instigator of Sertorius's assassination a few years later. Given that Marcus Marius was among the senators
who fled Sulla, his politics are not likely to have been antithetical to those of the better-known Marian populares
. A passage in Orosius implies, but does not directly state, that he was on the list of the proscribed. He was certainly a fugas (φυγάς), a fugitive or exile, in keeping with the "peculiar legal situation" of Sertorius's men, some of whom were proscripti, and others of whom were hostes publici, "public enemies." In both cases, their lives and property were forfeit, and their sons and grandsons lost the rights of citizenship
, but the proscribed in addition had bounties
on their heads.
in the form of 3,000 talents (72 million sesterces) and a fleet of 40 ships; in return, he asked that Sertorius recognize his claims in Anatolia
. Sertorius reserved in his own name Rome's claim to Asia, already organized as a province
and acquired — he insisted — legitimately, but he asserted no rights over Bithynia
, Paphlagonia
, Cappadocia
, and Galatia
; these, he said, "had nothing to do with the Romans."
Marius went East with troops. Bearing the fasces and axes
, he entered at least two Asian cities and granted them and a number of others independent status and tax exemptions on behalf of the Sertorian government; in effect, he assumed possession of Asia with proconsul
ar powers. His authority was held pro praetore, that is, under the auspices of Sertorius and without holding his own imperium
. Plutarch
calls him a stratêgos
(στρατηγός), "general," rather than a praetor
.
In Plutarch's view, the province welcomed the new regime, because it had been oppressed by Rome's tax collectors and contractors (publican
i) and by the "rapacity and insolence" of the soldiers stationed there. Marius's policy is consistent with that of Sertorius in cultivating the goodwill of the provincials under his government.
Mithradates permitted Marius to assert Roman primacy as agreed. The treaty with the Pontic king was concluded in the summer of 74, in anticipation of what would become the Third Mithridatic War
in the spring of 73.
Sertorius and M. Marius were hardly the only Romans who preferred an alliance to a war with Mithradates. Two former officers of the notorious Fimbria
, Lucius Magius and Lucius Fannius, joined the Pontic king, and both Appuleius Decianus and the senator Attidius
were fixtures of the Pontic court of some longevity. None of these men was a political moderate, and all had strong ties to vehement or even extremist populares
.
With the alliance between Pontus and Roman Hispania
, Sulla's second civil war
thus continued in the East and merged into the Third Mithridatic War. In late 75 BC, Nicomedes IV of Bithynia
died, leaving his kingdom to Rome as a bequest
. Sertorius probably made his arrangements before that time, or at least before he was aware that the death had created a new Roman province in Anatolia. Its first Roman governor
was Marcus Aurelius Cotta
, the consul of 74. The other consul of that year, Lucius Licinius Lucullus
, managed to jettison his originally assigned province of Cisalpine Gaul
and acquire a more ambitious playing field: the provinces of Cilicia
and eventually Asia, along with the chief command of the war against Mithradates.
Lucullus landed in Anatolia during the fall of 74. Mithradates saw his opportunity, and invaded Cappadocia and Bithynia. During this period, Marcus Marius served as advisor and co-commander to the Pontic king. At Chalcedon
, a maritime town of Bithynia, they marched and sailed against Cotta, who rushed into battle before Lucullus could join him, prematurely savoring a triumph
he didn't want to share. Cotta was instead crushed and forced to withdraw within the town. Marius held joint command with Mithradates' general Eumachos at Chalcedon and in Phrygia
.
Lucullus was camped somewhere along the Sangarius river in Bithynia when he received news of Cotta's defeat. His soldiers urged him to leave Cotta to his own folly and march on undefended Pontus
with its rich potential for loot. Lucullus preferred to concentrate on Mithridates himself, and headed toward Chalcedon. Marius blocked and confronted him. They faced off at Otroea near Nicaea (present-day Iznik
). Although Lucullus commanded 30,000 infantry and 2,500 horse, he was daunted by the size of the opposing army and reluctant to engage. The arrival of an omen, as reported by Plutarch, was thus fortuitous:
No battle occurred. For Marius, delay posed a logistical problem. He had only a few days of supplies for his troops. Lucullus learned of the shortage through prisoner interrogations and decided to wait him out. Marius was forced to move on without the fight he had sought, but the delay allowed Mithradates to leave Chalcedon and set out for Cyzicus
.
Mithradates' motive for this siege has sometimes been construed as retribution for the aid given by Cyzicus to the Romans at Chalcedon, but was also a strategic decision. Cyzicus was weakened from losing a significant number of troops at Chalcedon, and its capture would provide him with an abundant and much-needed food supply, as well as access to an excellent harbor and major inland routes. After taking up a position, he divided his forces for a three-prong invasion of the interior. His general Eumachus headed to Phrygia, where he advanced into Pisidia
and Isauria
. Metrophanes and the Roman renegade Lucius Fannius penetrated as far as northeast Lydia
. Lucius Magius remained with Mithradates and appears from this point to have begun misleading him, perhaps because he had heard what may have been still only a rumor of Sertorius's death.
According to some reconstructions of events, it was at this time that Marius assumed the governorship of the Roman province of Asia, where he gained immediate control of Parium
and Lampsacus
, rejoining the Pontic forces only later in the siege; this is not entirely clear in the ancient sources, which may be recounting operations he conducted earlier upon arrival.
Despite the size of Mithradates' forces and his awe-inspiring siegecraft, he failed to take Cyzicus and its rich stores. Lucullus blocked inland supply routes. The multitudinous Pontic troops were weakened and reduced by famine and plague, and finally Mithradates was compelled to retreat by ship. He placed 30,000 ground troops under the command of Marius and Hermaios. They enabled the king to escape, but lost 11,000 men at the Aesepus
(present-day Gönen) and Granicus
(Biga) rivers.
Marius then took to the sea. Along with Alexandros the Paphlagonian and Dionysios Eunuchos ("the Eunuch
"), he was placed in joint command of 50 ships and 10,000 handpicked men, among them, in the words of Mommsen
, "the flower of the Roman emigrants." Their intention seems to have been to sail east into the Aegean
, but Lucullus mounted an attack against them. He captured a detachment of 13 ships between the island of Tenedos
and the mainland harbor of the Achaeans
. The main Pontic force, however, had drawn their ships to shore at a site difficult of approach, the small island of Neae between Lemnos
and Scyros; Lucullus then sent infantry by land across Neae to their rear, killing many and forcing the rest back to sea. Lucullus sunk or captured 32 ships of the royal fleet provided by Mithradates and additional transport vessels. Dionysios committed suicide, but Alexandros was captured and held for display in Lucullus's anticipated triumph
. Among the dead were a number of men who had been on Sulla's proscription lists. Marius at first escaped, possibly from a sinking ship, since he was later found ashore taking refuge in a cave.
Like Sertorius himself, Marius at some point had lost an eye; when Lucullus gave the order to track down enemy survivors, he specified that no one-eyed men should be killed, so that he could personally oversee the renegade's death: "Lucullus wished Marius to die under the most shameful insults." Orosius reports that he atoned for his rebellious spirit with penalties he earned.
's historical novel about Mithradates, The Last King: Rome's Greatest Enemy (2004). He is depicted as maintaining a rugged and arrogant ideal of Republican manliness
: "I eat like a soldier, I march like a soldier, and by the gods I fight like a soldier — a Roman soldier." Ford imagines that this Marius was a nephew of the seven-time consul — a grandnephew would be more likely, since the consul's nephew Marcus Marius
, known by his cognomen
Gratidianus, died in the proscriptions — and that his presence at the Pontic court was meant to draw the support of popularist
sympathizers supposed to have been among Lucullus's forces from the legions
who had served under Fimbria. Ford's fictional description of Marius's execution recalls the dismemberment of Gratidianus: "he had Marius mounted on a crosstree in that barbaric exercise the Romans call crucifixion
and then lopped off his hands, feet, nose, and ears, pruning him like a fig tree in winter. It was a deliberately brutal message, and its effect was not lost, for it caused most of the other exiled Romans fighting for Pontus to scatter in discouragement."
Quaestor
A Quaestor was a type of public official in the "Cursus honorum" system who supervised financial affairs. In the Roman Republic a quaestor was an elected official whereas, with the autocratic government of the Roman Empire, quaestors were simply appointed....
of the Roman Republic
Roman Republic
The Roman Republic was the period of the ancient Roman civilization where the government operated as a republic. It began with the overthrow of the Roman monarchy, traditionally dated around 508 BC, and its replacement by a government headed by two consuls, elected annually by the citizens and...
in 76 BC and proquaestor under Quintus Sertorius
Quintus Sertorius
Quintus Sertorius was a Roman statesman and general, born in Nursia, in Sabine territory. His brilliance as a military commander was shown most clearly in his battles against Rome for control of Hispania...
's government in exile
Government in exile
A government in exile is a political group that claims to be a country's legitimate government, but for various reasons is unable to exercise its legal power, and instead resides in a foreign country. Governments in exile usually operate under the assumption that they will one day return to their...
in Spain
Hispania Citerior
During the Roman Republic, Hispania Citerior was a region of Hispania roughly occupying the northeastern coast and the Ebro Valley of what is now Spain. Hispania Ulterior was located west of Hispania Citerior—that is, farther away from Rome.-External links:*...
. Marius was sent by Sertorius to Mithradates of Pontus
Mithridates VI of Pontus
Mithridates VI or Mithradates VI Mithradates , from Old Persian Mithradatha, "gift of Mithra"; 134 BC – 63 BC, also known as Mithradates the Great and Eupator Dionysius, was king of Pontus and Armenia Minor in northern Anatolia from about 120 BC to 63 BC...
as an advisor and military commander in the Third Mithridatic War
Third Mithridatic War
The Third Mithridatic War was the last and longest of three Mithridatic Wars fought between Mithridates VI of Pontus and his allies and the Roman Republic...
. He is named as or more likely confused with a Varius in Appian
Appian
Appian of Alexandria was a Roman historian of Greek ethnicity who flourished during the reigns of Trajan, Hadrian, and Antoninus Pius.He was born ca. 95 in Alexandria. He tells us that, after having filled the chief offices in the province of Egypt, he went to Rome ca. 120, where he practised as...
.
Family and political connections
- See also: Maria (gens)Maria (gens)The gens Maria was a plebeian family at Rome. Its most celebrated member was Gaius Marius, one of the greatest generals of antiquity, and seven times consul.-Origin of the gens:...
.
No connection has been established between this Marius and Gaius Marius
Gaius Marius
Gaius Marius was a Roman general and statesman. He was elected consul an unprecedented seven times during his career. He was also noted for his dramatic reforms of Roman armies, authorizing recruitment of landless citizens, eliminating the manipular military formations, and reorganizing the...
or the other contemporary Marii
Maria (gens)
The gens Maria was a plebeian family at Rome. Its most celebrated member was Gaius Marius, one of the greatest generals of antiquity, and seven times consul.-Origin of the gens:...
of Arpinum. M. Marius is supposed to have arrived in Spain in the company of Perperna, but no further association is recorded with the man who was the prime instigator of Sertorius's assassination a few years later. Given that Marcus Marius was among the senators
Roman Senate
The Senate of the Roman Republic was a political institution in the ancient Roman Republic, however, it was not an elected body, but one whose members were appointed by the consuls, and later by the censors. After a magistrate served his term in office, it usually was followed with automatic...
who fled Sulla, his politics are not likely to have been antithetical to those of the better-known Marian populares
Populares
Populares were aristocratic leaders in the late Roman Republic who relied on the people's assemblies and tribunate to acquire political power. They are regarded in modern scholarship as in opposition to the optimates, who are identified with the conservative interests of a senatorial elite...
. A passage in Orosius implies, but does not directly state, that he was on the list of the proscribed. He was certainly a fugas (φυγάς), a fugitive or exile, in keeping with the "peculiar legal situation" of Sertorius's men, some of whom were proscripti, and others of whom were hostes publici, "public enemies." In both cases, their lives and property were forfeit, and their sons and grandsons lost the rights of citizenship
Roman citizenship
Citizenship in ancient Rome was a privileged political and legal status afforded to certain free-born individuals with respect to laws, property, and governance....
, but the proscribed in addition had bounties
Bounty (reward)
A bounty is a payment or reward often offered by a group as an incentive for the accomplishment of a task by someone usually not associated with the group. Bounties are most commonly issued for the capture or retrieval of a person or object. They are typically in the form of money...
on their heads.
Mission to the East
Sertorius sent Marcus Marius as a military advisor and his representative to Mithradates during the protracted negotiations between the two over an alliance. By 75 BC, Mithradates offered to recognize Sertorius as head of the Roman state, and sent aidAid
In international relations, aid is a voluntary transfer of resources from one country to another, given at least partly with the objective of benefiting the recipient country....
in the form of 3,000 talents (72 million sesterces) and a fleet of 40 ships; in return, he asked that Sertorius recognize his claims in Anatolia
Anatolia
Anatolia is a geographic and historical term denoting the westernmost protrusion of Asia, comprising the majority of the Republic of Turkey...
. Sertorius reserved in his own name Rome's claim to Asia, already organized as a province
Roman province
In Ancient Rome, a province was the basic, and, until the Tetrarchy , largest territorial and administrative unit of the empire's territorial possessions outside of Italy...
and acquired — he insisted — legitimately, but he asserted no rights over Bithynia
Bithynia
Bithynia was an ancient region, kingdom and Roman province in the northwest of Asia Minor, adjoining the Propontis, the Thracian Bosporus and the Euxine .-Description:...
, Paphlagonia
Paphlagonia
Paphlagonia was an ancient area on the Black Sea coast of north central Anatolia, situated between Bithynia to the west and Pontus to the east, and separated from Phrygia by a prolongation to the east of the Bithynian Olympus...
, Cappadocia
Cappadocia
Cappadocia is a historical region in Central Anatolia, largely in Nevşehir Province.In the time of Herodotus, the Cappadocians were reported as occupying the whole region from Mount Taurus to the vicinity of the Euxine...
, and Galatia
Galatia
Ancient Galatia was an area in the highlands of central Anatolia in modern Turkey. Galatia was named for the immigrant Gauls from Thrace , who settled here and became its ruling caste in the 3rd century BC, following the Gallic invasion of the Balkans in 279 BC. It has been called the "Gallia" of...
; these, he said, "had nothing to do with the Romans."
Marius went East with troops. Bearing the fasces and axes
Fasces
Fasces are a bundle of wooden sticks with an axe blade emerging from the center, which is an image that traditionally symbolizes summary power and jurisdiction, and/or "strength through unity"...
, he entered at least two Asian cities and granted them and a number of others independent status and tax exemptions on behalf of the Sertorian government; in effect, he assumed possession of Asia with proconsul
Proconsul
A proconsul was a governor of a province in the Roman Republic appointed for one year by the senate. In modern usage, the title has been used for a person from one country ruling another country or bluntly interfering in another country's internal affairs.-Ancient Rome:In the Roman Republic, a...
ar powers. His authority was held pro praetore, that is, under the auspices of Sertorius and without holding his own imperium
Imperium
Imperium is a Latin word which, in a broad sense, translates roughly as 'power to command'. In ancient Rome, different kinds of power or authority were distinguished by different terms. Imperium, referred to the sovereignty of the state over the individual...
. Plutarch
Plutarch
Plutarch then named, on his becoming a Roman citizen, Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus , c. 46 – 120 AD, was a Greek historian, biographer, essayist, and Middle Platonist known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia...
calls him a stratêgos
Strategos
Strategos, plural strategoi, is used in Greek to mean "general". In the Hellenistic and Byzantine Empires the term was also used to describe a military governor...
(στρατηγός), "general," rather than a praetor
Praetor
Praetor was a title granted by the government of Ancient Rome to men acting in one of two official capacities: the commander of an army, usually in the field, or the named commander before mustering the army; and an elected magistratus assigned varied duties...
.
In Plutarch's view, the province welcomed the new regime, because it had been oppressed by Rome's tax collectors and contractors (publican
Publican
In antiquity, publicans were public contractors, in which role they often supplied the Roman legions and military, managed the collection of port duties, and oversaw public building projects...
i) and by the "rapacity and insolence" of the soldiers stationed there. Marius's policy is consistent with that of Sertorius in cultivating the goodwill of the provincials under his government.
Mithradates permitted Marius to assert Roman primacy as agreed. The treaty with the Pontic king was concluded in the summer of 74, in anticipation of what would become the Third Mithridatic War
Third Mithridatic War
The Third Mithridatic War was the last and longest of three Mithridatic Wars fought between Mithridates VI of Pontus and his allies and the Roman Republic...
in the spring of 73.
Sertorius and M. Marius were hardly the only Romans who preferred an alliance to a war with Mithradates. Two former officers of the notorious Fimbria
Gaius Flavius Fimbria
Gaius Flavius Fimbria was a Roman politician and a violent partisan of Gaius Marius. He fought in the First Mithridatic War.-Partisan of Marius:...
, Lucius Magius and Lucius Fannius, joined the Pontic king, and both Appuleius Decianus and the senator Attidius
Attidius (senator)
Attidius , possibly to be identified with Marcus Atilius Bulbus, was a senator of the Roman Republic. Sometime in the early 70s BC, he was convicted of a crime, probably maiestas, and exiled. Attidius found refuge in the court of Mithridates VI of Pontus, and the two men were friends for many years...
were fixtures of the Pontic court of some longevity. None of these men was a political moderate, and all had strong ties to vehement or even extremist populares
Populares
Populares were aristocratic leaders in the late Roman Republic who relied on the people's assemblies and tribunate to acquire political power. They are regarded in modern scholarship as in opposition to the optimates, who are identified with the conservative interests of a senatorial elite...
.
Military command and death
- See also: Battle of Chalcedon (74 BC)Battle of Chalcedon (74 BC)The Battle of Chalcedon was a naval battle in 74 BC during the Third Mithridatic War. It ended in Pontian victory.After resuming the war, consul Marcus Aurelius Cotta took Roman fleet into the Bosphorus...
With the alliance between Pontus and Roman Hispania
Hispania
Another theory holds that the name derives from Ezpanna, the Basque word for "border" or "edge", thus meaning the farthest area or place. Isidore of Sevilla considered Hispania derived from Hispalis....
, Sulla's second civil war
Sulla's second civil war
Sulla's second civil war was one of a series of civil wars of ancient Rome. It was fought between Lucius Cornelius Sulla and Gaius Marius the younger in 82 BC.-Prelude:...
thus continued in the East and merged into the Third Mithridatic War. In late 75 BC, Nicomedes IV of Bithynia
Nicomedes IV of Bithynia
Nicomedes IV Philopator, was the king of Bithynia, from c. 94 BC to 74 BC. He was the first son and successor of the Monarchs Nicomedes III of Bithynia and Nysa and had a sister called Nysa....
died, leaving his kingdom to Rome as a bequest
Bequest
A bequest is the act of giving property by will. Strictly, "bequest" is used of personal property, and "devise" of real property. In legal terminology, "bequeath" is a verb form meaning "to make a bequest."...
. Sertorius probably made his arrangements before that time, or at least before he was aware that the death had created a new Roman province in Anatolia. Its first Roman governor
Roman governor
A Roman governor was an official either elected or appointed to be the chief administrator of Roman law throughout one or more of the many provinces constituting the Roman Empire...
was Marcus Aurelius Cotta
Marcus Aurelius Cotta (consul 74 BC)
Marcus Aurelius Cotta was a Roman politician and general who was consul in 74 BC and was one of the early Roman commanders who fought in the Third Mithridatic War.-Biography:...
, the consul of 74. The other consul of that year, Lucius Licinius Lucullus
Lucullus
Lucius Licinius Lucullus , was an optimate politician of the late Roman Republic, closely connected with Sulla Felix...
, managed to jettison his originally assigned province of Cisalpine Gaul
Cisalpine Gaul
Cisalpine Gaul, in Latin: Gallia Cisalpina or Citerior, also called Gallia Togata, was a Roman province until 41 BC when it was merged into Roman Italy.It bore the name Gallia, because the great body of its inhabitants, after the expulsion of the Etruscans, consisted of Gauls or Celts...
and acquire a more ambitious playing field: the provinces of Cilicia
Cilicia
In antiquity, Cilicia was the south coastal region of Asia Minor, south of the central Anatolian plateau. It existed as a political entity from Hittite times into the Byzantine empire...
and eventually Asia, along with the chief command of the war against Mithradates.
Lucullus landed in Anatolia during the fall of 74. Mithradates saw his opportunity, and invaded Cappadocia and Bithynia. During this period, Marcus Marius served as advisor and co-commander to the Pontic king. At Chalcedon
Chalcedon
Chalcedon , sometimes transliterated as Chalkedon) was an ancient maritime town of Bithynia, in Asia Minor, almost directly opposite Byzantium, south of Scutari . It is now a district of the city of Istanbul named Kadıköy...
, a maritime town of Bithynia, they marched and sailed against Cotta, who rushed into battle before Lucullus could join him, prematurely savoring a triumph
Roman triumph
The Roman triumph was a civil ceremony and religious rite of ancient Rome, held to publicly celebrate and sanctify the military achievement of an army commander who had won great military successes, or originally and traditionally, one who had successfully completed a foreign war. In Republican...
he didn't want to share. Cotta was instead crushed and forced to withdraw within the town. Marius held joint command with Mithradates' general Eumachos at Chalcedon and in Phrygia
Phrygia
In antiquity, Phrygia was a kingdom in the west central part of Anatolia, in what is now modern-day Turkey. The Phrygians initially lived in the southern Balkans; according to Herodotus, under the name of Bryges , changing it to Phruges after their final migration to Anatolia, via the...
.
Lucullus was camped somewhere along the Sangarius river in Bithynia when he received news of Cotta's defeat. His soldiers urged him to leave Cotta to his own folly and march on undefended Pontus
Pontus
Pontus or Pontos is a historical Greek designation for a region on the southern coast of the Black Sea, located in modern-day northeastern Turkey. The name was applied to the coastal region in antiquity by the Greeks who colonized the area, and derived from the Greek name of the Black Sea: Πόντος...
with its rich potential for loot. Lucullus preferred to concentrate on Mithridates himself, and headed toward Chalcedon. Marius blocked and confronted him. They faced off at Otroea near Nicaea (present-day Iznik
Iznik
İznik is a city in Turkey which is primarily known as the site of the First and Second Councils of Nicaea, the first and seventh Ecumenical councils in the early history of the Church, the Nicene Creed, and as the capital city of the Empire of Nicaea...
). Although Lucullus commanded 30,000 infantry and 2,500 horse, he was daunted by the size of the opposing army and reluctant to engage. The arrival of an omen, as reported by Plutarch, was thus fortuitous:
No battle occurred. For Marius, delay posed a logistical problem. He had only a few days of supplies for his troops. Lucullus learned of the shortage through prisoner interrogations and decided to wait him out. Marius was forced to move on without the fight he had sought, but the delay allowed Mithradates to leave Chalcedon and set out for Cyzicus
Cyzicus
Cyzicus was an ancient town of Mysia in Anatolia in the current Balıkesir Province of Turkey. It was located on the shoreward side of the present Kapıdağ Peninsula , a tombolo which is said to have originally been an island in the Sea of Marmara only to be connected to the mainland in historic...
.
Mithradates' motive for this siege has sometimes been construed as retribution for the aid given by Cyzicus to the Romans at Chalcedon, but was also a strategic decision. Cyzicus was weakened from losing a significant number of troops at Chalcedon, and its capture would provide him with an abundant and much-needed food supply, as well as access to an excellent harbor and major inland routes. After taking up a position, he divided his forces for a three-prong invasion of the interior. His general Eumachus headed to Phrygia, where he advanced into Pisidia
Pisidia
Pisidia was a region of ancient Asia Minor located north of Lycia, and bordering Caria, Lydia, Phrygia and Pamphylia. It corresponds roughly to the modern-day province of Antalya in Turkey...
and Isauria
Isauria
Isauria , in ancient geography, is a rugged isolated district in the interior of South Asia Minor, of very different extent at different periods, but generally covering what is now the district of Bozkır and its surroundings in the Konya province of Turkey, or the core of the Taurus Mountains. In...
. Metrophanes and the Roman renegade Lucius Fannius penetrated as far as northeast Lydia
Lydia
Lydia was an Iron Age kingdom of western Asia Minor located generally east of ancient Ionia in the modern Turkish provinces of Manisa and inland İzmir. Its population spoke an Anatolian language known as Lydian....
. Lucius Magius remained with Mithradates and appears from this point to have begun misleading him, perhaps because he had heard what may have been still only a rumor of Sertorius's death.
According to some reconstructions of events, it was at this time that Marius assumed the governorship of the Roman province of Asia, where he gained immediate control of Parium
Parium
Parium was a Greek city of Adrasteia in Mysia on the Hellespont. It became a Roman Catholic titular see, suffragan of Cyzicus in the Roman province of Hellespontus.-History:...
and Lampsacus
Lampsacus
Lampsacus was an ancient Greek city strategically located on the eastern side of the Hellespont in the northern Troad. An inhabitant of Lampsacus was called a Lampsacene. The name has been transmitted in the nearby modern town of Lapseki.-Ancient history:...
, rejoining the Pontic forces only later in the siege; this is not entirely clear in the ancient sources, which may be recounting operations he conducted earlier upon arrival.
Despite the size of Mithradates' forces and his awe-inspiring siegecraft, he failed to take Cyzicus and its rich stores. Lucullus blocked inland supply routes. The multitudinous Pontic troops were weakened and reduced by famine and plague, and finally Mithradates was compelled to retreat by ship. He placed 30,000 ground troops under the command of Marius and Hermaios. They enabled the king to escape, but lost 11,000 men at the Aesepus
Aesepus
In Greek mythology, Aesepus may refer to:*The son of the naiad Abarbarea and Bucolion. His twin brother was Pedasus; the pair appears briefly in the Iliad, Book VI...
(present-day Gönen) and Granicus
Granicus
The Biga River is a small river or large creek in Çanakkale Province in northwestern Turkey. The river begins at the base of Mount Ida and trends generally northeasterly to the Sea of Marmara. It is located approximately 50 km to the east of the Dardanelles. It flows past the towns of Çan...
(Biga) rivers.
Marius then took to the sea. Along with Alexandros the Paphlagonian and Dionysios Eunuchos ("the Eunuch
Eunuch
A eunuch is a person born male most commonly castrated, typically early enough in his life for this change to have major hormonal consequences...
"), he was placed in joint command of 50 ships and 10,000 handpicked men, among them, in the words of Mommsen
Theodor Mommsen
Christian Matthias Theodor Mommsen was a German classical scholar, historian, jurist, journalist, politician, archaeologist, and writer generally regarded as the greatest classicist of the 19th century. His work regarding Roman history is still of fundamental importance for contemporary research...
, "the flower of the Roman emigrants." Their intention seems to have been to sail east into the Aegean
Aegean Sea
The Aegean Sea[p] is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea located between the southern Balkan and Anatolian peninsulas, i.e., between the mainlands of Greece and Turkey. In the north, it is connected to the Marmara Sea and Black Sea by the Dardanelles and Bosporus...
, but Lucullus mounted an attack against them. He captured a detachment of 13 ships between the island of Tenedos
Tenedos
Tenedos or Bozcaada or Bozdja-Ada is a small island in the Aegean Sea, part of the Bozcaada district of Çanakkale province in Turkey. , Tenedos has a population of about 2,354. The main industries are tourism, wine production and fishing...
and the mainland harbor of the Achaeans
Achaean League
The Achaean League was a Hellenistic era confederation of Greek city states on the northern and central Peloponnese, which existed between 280 BC and 146 BC...
. The main Pontic force, however, had drawn their ships to shore at a site difficult of approach, the small island of Neae between Lemnos
Lemnos
Lemnos is an island of Greece in the northern part of the Aegean Sea. Administratively the island forms a separate municipality within the Lemnos peripheral unit, which is part of the North Aegean Periphery. The principal town of the island and seat of the municipality is Myrina...
and Scyros; Lucullus then sent infantry by land across Neae to their rear, killing many and forcing the rest back to sea. Lucullus sunk or captured 32 ships of the royal fleet provided by Mithradates and additional transport vessels. Dionysios committed suicide, but Alexandros was captured and held for display in Lucullus's anticipated triumph
Roman triumph
The Roman triumph was a civil ceremony and religious rite of ancient Rome, held to publicly celebrate and sanctify the military achievement of an army commander who had won great military successes, or originally and traditionally, one who had successfully completed a foreign war. In Republican...
. Among the dead were a number of men who had been on Sulla's proscription lists. Marius at first escaped, possibly from a sinking ship, since he was later found ashore taking refuge in a cave.
Like Sertorius himself, Marius at some point had lost an eye; when Lucullus gave the order to track down enemy survivors, he specified that no one-eyed men should be killed, so that he could personally oversee the renegade's death: "Lucullus wished Marius to die under the most shameful insults." Orosius reports that he atoned for his rebellious spirit with penalties he earned.
In fiction
Marcus Marius is a character in Michael Curtis FordMichael Curtis Ford
Michael Curtis Ford is an American historical novelist, writing novels about Ancient Rome and Ancient Greece. He has worked variously as a laborer, a ski patrolman, a musician, a consultant, a banker, a Latin teacher, and a translator. He holds degrees in Economics and Linguistics and lives in...
's historical novel about Mithradates, The Last King: Rome's Greatest Enemy (2004). He is depicted as maintaining a rugged and arrogant ideal of Republican manliness
Virtus (virtue)
Virtus was a specific virtue in Ancient Rome. It carries connotations of valor, manliness, excellence, courage, character, and worth, perceived as masculine strengths...
: "I eat like a soldier, I march like a soldier, and by the gods I fight like a soldier — a Roman soldier." Ford imagines that this Marius was a nephew of the seven-time consul — a grandnephew would be more likely, since the consul's nephew Marcus Marius
Marcus Marius Gratidianus
Marcus Marius Gratidianus was a praetor and a partisan of the popularist faction led by his uncle Gaius Marius during the Roman Republican civil wars of the 80s...
, known by his cognomen
Cognomen
The cognomen nōmen "name") was the third name of a citizen of Ancient Rome, under Roman naming conventions. The cognomen started as a nickname, but lost that purpose when it became hereditary. Hereditary cognomina were used to augment the second name in order to identify a particular branch within...
Gratidianus, died in the proscriptions — and that his presence at the Pontic court was meant to draw the support of popularist
Populares
Populares were aristocratic leaders in the late Roman Republic who relied on the people's assemblies and tribunate to acquire political power. They are regarded in modern scholarship as in opposition to the optimates, who are identified with the conservative interests of a senatorial elite...
sympathizers supposed to have been among Lucullus's forces from the legions
Roman legion
A Roman legion normally indicates the basic ancient Roman army unit recruited specifically from Roman citizens. The organization of legions varied greatly over time but they were typically composed of perhaps 5,000 soldiers, divided into maniples and later into "cohorts"...
who had served under Fimbria. Ford's fictional description of Marius's execution recalls the dismemberment of Gratidianus: "he had Marius mounted on a crosstree in that barbaric exercise the Romans call crucifixion
Crucifixion
Crucifixion is an ancient method of painful execution in which the condemned person is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross and left to hang until dead...
and then lopped off his hands, feet, nose, and ears, pruning him like a fig tree in winter. It was a deliberately brutal message, and its effect was not lost, for it caused most of the other exiled Romans fighting for Pontus to scatter in discouragement."
Ancient sources
- Livy 91 fr. 22.70 W-M (= Loeb vol. 14, p. 194)
- Plutarch, Life of Lucullus 8.5, 12.5, and Life of Sertorius 23–24
- Appian, Mithridatic Wars 68, 76, 77, under the name Varius (Οὐάριος) instead of Marius
- Memnon, 28–29
- Orosius, 6.2 (Latin)
19th-century histories
The following 19th-century historians present narrative reconstructions of strategy and military operations at Chalcedon and Cyzicus:- Long, George. Decline of the Roman Republic. London, 1869, vol. 3, p. 9ff. online.
- Mommsen, TheodorMommsenMommsen is a surname, and may refer to one of a family of German historians, see Mommsen family:* Theodor Mommsen , great classical scholar, and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature* Tycho Mommsen...
. The History of Rome. vol. 4, p. 326ff. online.
Selected bibliography
- Keaveney, Arthur. Lucullus: A Life. Routledge, 1992. See especially Keaveney's narrative of Chalcedon and Cyzicus in limited preview and Appendix 2: "When did the Third Mithridatic War begin?"
- Konrad, Christoph F. Plutarch's Sertorius: A Historical Commentary. University of North Carolina Press, 1994. Limited preview online.
- Konrad, Christoph F. "From the Gracchi to the First Civil War (133–70)." In A Companion to the Roman Republic. Wiley-Blackwell, 2007, 2010.
- McGing, B.C. The Foreign Policy of Mithridates VI Eupator, King of Pontus. Brill, 1986. Limited preview online.
Further reading
- E. Gabba, Republican Rome: The Armies and the Allies (1976) 120 ff for analysis of Sertorius's policy toward Mithradates. Limited preview online.