The Storm Before the Storm полностью

After Caepio joined the campaign, the Marsic leader Silo boldly approached the Roman camp and requested an audience. Silo told Caepio the war was hopeless and he was ready to defect back to the Romans. As a show of good faith he offered to personally lead Caepio to the location of the Marsic army. He also presented two babies he claimed were his children and bid them to Roman custody. Caepio and a small party followed Silo to reconnoiter the spot. But as soon as they were a suitable distance removed from the Roman camp, Silo’s men jumped Caepio in the darkness and killed him. The fate of the babies remains unknown.⁵⁰

After assassinating Caepio, Silo tried to goad Marius into a fight just as the Teutones had taunted him at Aquae Sextiae. Silo said, “If you are a great general, Marius, come down and fight it out with us.” But as always, Marius was smart and did not take the bait. He said, “If you are a great general, force me to fight it out with you against my will.” Marius would later be accused of timidity in his old age, but from the arc of his career, we know Marius wouldn’t be caught dead fighting a battle not of his own making. Gaius Marius was never considered a brilliant general in the mold of Alexander, Hannibal, or Scipio Africanus, but he was so careful in his preparations and so steady in executing his plans that he won wars no one else could win. Near the end of the year he did it again—Marius scored Rome’s first victory against the Marsi.⁵¹

Meanwhile out in Asculum, where this had all started, the proconsul Sextus Caesar maneuvered his way toward the city. His principal legate was a rising novus homo who was attached to the command because his family estates were principally held in the region: Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo. Rendered in English as Pompey Strabo, he was the father and precursor of Pompey the Great, though at the moment his son was just a teenager preparing for his first campaign. Eventually the legions began a siege of Asculum, but over the winter Sextus Caesar himself succumbed to a camp illness and died. His legate Pompey Strabo was suddenly in charge.⁵²

All these defeats and deaths of commanders came as troubling news back in Rome. As the year 90 proceeded, “many were the slaughters, sieges, and sacking of towns on both sides, during this war, victory hovering sometimes here and sometimes there… giving no assurance to either party which of them she favored.” With casualties running high, the Senate passed a decree that all war dead would be buried where they fell rather than be brought back to Rome. They hoped to avoid scaring potential new conscripts. This was no time to discourage enlistment.⁵³

HAVING NOW PROVOKED the Italians to war, the Senate suddenly woke up to the fact that they were about to lose control of the whole peninsula. The question of Italian citizenship had been floating around for fifty years, and was rejected every time it arose. But with the mortal necessity of making sure no other Italians went into revolt, the Romans finally relented. The Italians could have their citizenship.

After the consul Lucius Caesar returned to Rome to oversee the elections for the next year, he carried a bill through the Assembly: the Lex Julia. The Lex Julia offered full Roman citizenship to any Italian who had not yet taken up arms. The newly enrolled would enjoy the rights of full citizens, including protection from arbitrary abuse and the ability to vote in the Assembly. But even though it was pitched as full citizenship, the Senate could not resist a subtle catch. The entire population of Italy would be lumped into ten new tribes who would always vote last in the Assembly. With voting only proceeding until a majority of tribes agreed, the final tribes were rarely called on to vote. The Senate was willing to enfranchise the Italians, but not to let them take over the Republic. But that was for a later debate—for now the word spread that the Romans had caved and it was civitas for everyone.⁵⁴