The First Man in Rome (124 page)

"Who did this?" asked Sulla.

The answer came from a dozen men: "Gaius Servilius Glaucia."

Sulla blew through his nose. "Himself?"

Everyone nodded.

"Does anyone know where he went from here?"

This time the answers conflicted, but Sulla finally established that Glaucia and his gang had raced toward the Sanqualis Gate onto the Quirinal; since Gaius Claudius had been one of them, it seemed likely they were heading for his house on the Alta Semita.

Marius hadn't moved, hadn't lifted his head from his silent contemplation of Gaius Memmius. Gently Sulla touched him on the arm; he stirred then, wiping the tears from his face with a fold of toga because he didn't want to betray his left hand's clumsiness by hunting for his handkerchief.

"On the field of war, this is natural. On the Field of Mars beneath the walls of Rome, it is an abomination!" he shouted, turning to face the men crowding around.

Other senior senators were arriving, among them Marcus Aemilius Scaurus Princeps Senatus, who took one swift look at Marius's tear-streaked face, then down at the ground, and caught his breath.

"Memmius!
Gaius Memmius?"
he asked incredulously.

"Yes, Gaius Memmius," said Sulla. "Murdered in person by Glaucia, all the witnesses say."

Marius was weeping again, but made no attempt to conceal the fact as he looked at Scaurus. "Princeps Senatus," he said, "I am convoking the Senate in the temple of Bellona immediately. Do you concur?"

"I do," said Scaurus.

Some lictors were straggling up, their charge the senior consul having outdistanced them by several hundred paces despite his stroke.

"Lucius Cornelius, take my lictors, find the heralds, cancel the presentation of the candidates, send the
flamen Martialis
to the temple of Venus Libitina to bring the sacred axes of the
fasces
to us in Bellona, and summon the Senate," said Marius. "I will go on ahead with Marcus Aemilius."

"This has been," said Scaurus, "an absolutely horrible year. In fact, in spite of all our recent vicissitudes, I don't recall a year so horrible since the last year of Gaius Gracchus's life."

Marius's tears had dried. "Then we're overdue for it, I suppose," he said.

"Let us hope at least there will be no worse violence done than the murder of Memmius."

But Scaurus's hope proved vain, though at first it seemed reasonable. The Senate met in the temple of Bellona and discussed the murder of Memmius; sufficient of its members had been eyewitnesses to make the guilt of Glaucia manifest.

"However," said Marius firmly, "Gaius Servilius must be tried for his crime. No Roman citizen can be condemned without trial unless he declares war on Rome, and that is not an issue here today."

"I'm afraid it is, Gaius Marius," said Sulla, hurrying in.

Everyone stared at him. No one spoke.

"Lucius Appuleius and a group of men including the quaestor Gaius Saufeius have taken over the Forum Romanum," announced Sulla. "They've displayed Lucius Equitius to the rabble, and Lucius Appuleius has announced that he intends to supplant the Senate and the First and Second Classes with a rule of the People administered by himself. They haven't yet hailed him as King of Rome, but it's being said already in every street and marketplace between here and the Forum—which means it's being said everywhere."

"May I speak, Gaius Marius?" asked the Leader of the House.

"Speak, Princeps Senatus."

"Our city is in crisis," Scaurus said, low-voiced yet clear-voiced, "just as it was during the last days of Gaius Gracchus. At that time, when Marcus Fulvius and Gaius Gracchus seized upon violence as the only means of attaining their desperate ends, a debate took place within the House—did Rome need a dictator to deal with a crisis so urgent, yet so short-lived? The rest is history. The House declined to appoint a dictator. Instead, it passed what might be called its ultimate decree—the
Senatus Consultum de republica defendenda.
By this decree the House empowered its consuls and magistrates to defend the sovereignty of the State in any way they considered necessary, and immunized them in advance from prosecution and the tribunician veto."

He paused to look about him with immense seriousness. "I suggest, Conscript Fathers, that we deal with our present crisis in the same way—by a
Senatus Consultum de republica defendenda."

"I will see a Division," said Marius. "All those in favor will pass to my left, all those against to my right." And moved to his left first of them all.

No one moved to the right; the House passed its second
Senatus Consultum de republica defendenda
unanimously, which it had not done the first time.

"Gaius Marius," said Scaurus, "I am empowered by the members of this House to instruct you as Rome's senior consul to defend the sovereignty of our State in any way you deem fit or necessary. Furthermore, I hereby declare on behalf of this House that you are not subject to the tribunician veto, and that nothing you do or order done shall be held against you for future action in a court of law. Provided that they act under your instructions, this commission together with its indemnity is extended to the junior consul, Lucius Valerius Flaccus, and all the praetors. But you, Gaius Marius, are also empowered to choose deputies from among the members of this House who do not sit as consuls or praetors, and provided these deputies act under your instructions, this commission together with its indemnity is also extended to them." Thinking of Metellus Numidicus's face were he present to see Gaius Marius virtually made dictator by none other than Scaurus Princeps Senatus, Scaurus shot Marius a wicked look, but managed to keep his grin on the inside. He filled his lungs with air, and bellowed, "Long live Rome!"

"Oh, my stars!" said Publius Rutilius Rufus.

But Marius had no time or patience with the wits of the House, who would, he thought, wittify while Rome burned around them. Voice crisp yet calm, he proceeded to depute Lucius Cornelius Sulla to act as his second-in-command, ordered the store of weapons in the basement of the temple of Bellona to be broken out and distributed to those who lacked personal arms and armor, and told those who did own arms and armor to go home and get it while they could still move freely through the streets.

Sulla concentrated upon his young bloods, sending them flying in all directions, Caepio Junior and Metellus Piglet the most eager of all. Incredulity was giving way to an outrage almost too great for mere anger; that a senator of Rome would attempt to seize rabble-fueled power in order to set himself up as a king was anathema. Political differences were forgotten, mere factions dissolved; ultra-conservatives lined up shoulder to shoulder with the most progressive Marians, all with their faces set obdurately against the wolfshead in the Forum Romanum.

Even as he organized his little army and those awaiting arms and armor from their houses bustled mouthing imprecations here and there, Sulla remembered her; not Dalmatica, but Aurelia. He sent four lictors on the double to her insula with a message to her to bar herself in, and a message to Lucius Decumius to make sure neither he nor his tavernload of operators were in the Forum Romanum for the next few days. Knowing Lucius Decumius, they wouldn't be in the Forum anyway; while the rest of Rome's rabble were rampaging up and down the Forum making noise and beating up innocent passers-by, the territory they normally patrolled was delightfully open to a raid or two, and no doubt that had been Lucius Decumius's choice. Even so, a message couldn't hurt, and Aurelia's safety he cared about.

Two hours later everything and everyone was ready. Outside the temple of Bellona was the big open courtyard always known as Enemy Territory. Halfway down the temple steps was a square stone pillar about four feet high. When a just and rightful war was declared upon a foreign enemy—and were there any other kinds of wars?—a special fetial priest was called upon to hurl a spear from the steps of the temple over the exact top of the ancient stone pillar into the earth of Enemy Territory. No one knew how or why the ritual had started, but it was a part of tradition, and so it was still observed. But today there was no foreign enemy upon whom to declare war, just a senatorial decree to obey; so no fetial priest hurled a spear, and Enemy Territory was filled with Romans of the First and Second Classes.

The whole gathering—perhaps a thousand strong—was now girt for war, chests and backs encased in cuirasses, a few sporting greaves upon their shins, most also clad in leather undersuits flapping fringed
pteryges
as kilts and sleeves, and all wearing crested helmets. No one carried a spear; all were armed with the good Roman short-sword and dagger, and old-fashioned pre-Marian oval shields five feet high.

Gaius Marius stepped to the front of the Bellona podium and spoke to his little army. "Remember that we are Romans and we are entering the city of Rome," he said gravely. "We will step across the
pomerium.
For that reason I will not call the marines of Marcus Antonius to arms. We ourselves can deal with this, we do not need a professional army. I am adamantly set against any more violence than is absolutely necessary, and I warn all of you most solemnly—the young among you particularly—that no blade is to be raised against a man with no blade. Take clubs and billets upon your shields, and use the flats of your swords only. Where possible, wrest a wooden weapon from one of the crowd, sheath your sword, and use wood. There will be no heaps of dead and dying in the heart of Rome! That would break the Republic's good luck, and then the Republic would be no more. All we have to do today is avert violence, not make it.

"You are my troops," he went on sternly, "but few among you have served under me in any army until this one. So take heed of this, my only warning. Those who disobey my orders or the orders of my legates will be killed. This is not an occasion for factions. Today there are no types of Romans. Just Romans. There are many among you who have no love for the Head Count and Rome's other lowly. But I say to you—and mark me well!—that a Head Count Roman is a Roman, and his life is as sacred and protected by the law as my life is, or your lives are.
There will be no bloodbath!
If I see so much as the start of one, I will be down there with my sword raised against those raising swords—and under the conditions of the Senate's decree, your heirs cannot exact retribution of any kind from me should I kill you! You will take your orders from only two men—from me, and from Lucius Cornelius Sulla here. Not from any other curule magistrate empowered under this decree. I want no attack unless I call for it or Lucius Cornelius calls for it. We do this thing as gently as we can. Understood?"

Catulus Caesar tugged his forelock in mock obsequiousness. "We hear and obey, Gaius Marius. I have served under you before—I know you mean what you say."

"Good!" said Marius cordially, ignoring the sarcasm. He turned to his junior consul. "Lucius Valerius, take fifty men and go to the Quirinal. If Gaius Servilius Glaucia is at the house of Gaius Claudius, arrest him. If he refuses to come out, you and your men will remain on guard without attempting to get inside. And keep me informed."

It was early afternoon when Gaius Marius led his' little army out of Enemy Territory and into the city through the Carmentalis Gate. Coming from the Velabrum, they appeared out of the alleyway which led between the temple of Castor and the Basilica Sempronia, and took the crowd in the lower Forum completely by surprise. Armed with whatever they could lay their hands upon—cudgels, clubs, billets, knives, axes, picks, pitchforks—Saturninus's men had swelled to perhaps four thousand in number; but compared to the competent thousand who marched tightly packed into the Forum and formed up in front of the Basilica Sempronia, they were a paltry gang. One look at the breastplates, helmets, and swords of the newcomers was enough to send almost half of them running headlong up the Argiletum and the eastern side of the Forum toward the anonymity of the Esquiline and the safety of home ground.

"Lucius Appuleius, give this up!" roared Marius, in the forefront of his force with Sulla beside him.

Atop the rostra with Saufeius, Labienus, Equitius, and some ten others, Saturninus stared at Marius slack-jawed; then he threw back his head and laughed; meant to sound confident and defiant, it came out hollow.

"Your orders, Gaius Marius?" Sulla asked.

"We take them in a charge," said Marius. "Very sudden, very hard. No swords drawn, just shields to the front. I never thought they'd be such a motley lot, Lucius Cornelius! They'll break easily."

Sulla and Marius went round their little army and readied it, shields swung to the front, a line of men two hundred long, and five men deep.

And then: "Charge!" shrieked Gaius Marius.

The maneuver was immediately effective. A solid wall of shields carried at a run hit the rabble like an enormous wave of water. Men and makeshift weapons flew everywhere and not a retaliatory blow was struck; then before Saturninus's men could organize themselves better, the wall of shields crashed into them again, and again.

Saturninus and his companions came down from the rostra to join the fray, brandishing naked swords. To no effect. Though they had started out thirsting for real blood, Marius's cohort was now enjoying the novelty of this battering-ram approach, and had got into a rhythm which kept cannoning into the disordered rabble, pushing its men up like stones into a heap, drawing off to form the wall again, cannoning again. A few of the rabble were trampled underfoot, but nothing like a battle developed; it was a debacle instead.

Only a short time elapsed before Saturninus's entire force was fleeing the field; the great occupation of the Forum Romanum was over, and almost bloodlessly. Saturninus, Labienus, Saufeius, Equitius, a dozen Romans, and some thirty armed slaves ran up the Clivus Capitolinus to barricade themselves inside the temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus, calling upon the Great God to give them succor and send that gigantic crowd back into the Forum.

"Blood will flow now!" screamed Saturninus from the podium of the temple atop the Capitol, his words clearly audible to Marius and his men. "I will make you kill Romans before I am done, Gaius Marius! I will see this temple polluted with the blood of Romans!''