Both the Senate and the plebs urbana were threatened by Sulpicius’s proposal. Old noble patrons, working merchants, and common artisans alike could see the Roman voice in government was about to be diminished and wanted the Italians kept separate, “so that they might not, by being mingled with the old citizens, vote them down in the elections by force of numbers.” Having surrendered the issue of citizenship, the Romans built a new line at suffrage. Sulpicius’s proposal led to clashes in the streets between angry plebs urbana and the Anti-Senate.24
With these riots breaking out, Sulla was at his camp at Nola. As soon as he heard the news, he hurried back to Rome. When he reached the Forum, Sulla and his colleague Pompeius staged a dramatic intervention. Tribunician vetoes not being what they once were, they decided to see how Sulpicius liked a taste of full consular authority. Standing on the rostra of the Temple of Castor and Pollux, Sulla and Pompeius used their religious authority to declare a
Sulla found the closest safe haven near at hand: Marius’s house at the foot of the Palatine Hill. What was said between the two men is unknown, but Marius must have told Sulla the only way he was getting out of this alive was to rescind the feriae and allow the vote on Sulpicius’s laws to proceed. Left with no other choice, Sulla agreed. It would be the last time they were in the same room together.26
Emerging from his consultation with Marius, Sulla remounted the rostra and withdrew the holiday decree, allowing public business to return to normal. Then he departed the Forum. Cleared of these distractions, Sulpicius convened the Assembly and carried his bills on Italian suffrage. Then he tossed in the surprise kicker, something no one was expecting. He convinced the Assembly to withdraw Sulla’s appointment to the eastern command and transfer it to Marius. Already on his way back to the army, Sulla had no idea he had just lost his job.27
THE SIX LEGIONS Sulla led during the Social War were still camped outside Nola. This army had been fighting under Sulla for a year, and he had earned their devoted loyalty. Sulla always had an easygoing rapport with common soldiers. Though he had the unmistakable air of an arrogant aristocrat, he never shirked his duty or let his men down. And now that he had been elected consul, he was about to lead them east to pacify some wayward king on the far side of the Aegean. Fighting a civil war in your own backyard is neither fun nor profitable, but conquering a rich eastern kingdom sounded mighty fine indeed. So as the soldiers sat around Nola waiting for Sulla to come back, they dreamed of the campaign to come.28
When Sulla returned a few days later he likely did not ride with his usual resplendent vigor. He was still consul, and still slated to run the eastern war, but he had been embarrassed in the head-to-head confrontation with Sulpicius and Marius. He had been forced by violence to humiliate himself and withdraw his own decree. Sulla’s agitation turned to fury when a messenger arrived bearing the incredible news: The Assembly had stripped Sulla of the eastern command. Gaius Marius would now lead the expedition.29
The shock of the revelation cannot be understated. Old Marius’s pathetic pursuit of the command was well known. His calisthenics out on the Campus Martius were a joke, not a prelude to getting the job. Especially not after Sulla had won the consulship
