Burton K Wheeler
Moderator
That Momentous Year: 91 B.C.
91 B.C.: Tribune Livius Drusus revives the proposal to extend Roman citizenship to Italian socii.** Due to the demand for tribal cohorts both to guard Rome’s expanded borders and to check the threat of military takeover by the permanent cohorts (the ratio is intended to be 3 to 1, which will not change for some time), the proposal passes almost with little opposition. The socii tribes hold the same legal status and duties as the old Roman tribes, though do not [yet] receive Senate membership alongside Roman nobiles.**
Coastal Macedonia rebels, and numerous Thracians come south to assist in invading Roman Greece. The Pontic general Archelaus is in command of the rebels, who have taken the last of Mithridates’ gold in a desperate gambit. Forces intended to assist Marius in Trebizond are instead rushed to Achaea under Lucius Cornelius Cinna and Lucius Cornelius Sulla. Sulla’s forces annihilate the Macedonians and Thracians at the ancient battleground of Thermopylae and advance north to punish the Macedonians, while Caesar spends the remainder of the year pacifying rebellious regions in Achaea.
With no troops available to assist his damaged legions, Marius is stuck in a hard position. To the surprise of nearly all in Rome, he releases the reserve cohorts from duty, who constitute over half of his legions, as well as four Italian cohorts whose time has expired but whose intended replacements are in Macedon, consolidating both permanent cohorts of Italian citizens with his auxiliaries. The Iberians and Lycian allies are sent north to his aid by the Carthaginian Magius, whose actions against the Cilicians have been largely successful. Marius meets Mithridates outside of Sinope, and in a battle which will be studied by tacticians for generations, the battle-hardened Romans destroys Mithridates’ army, which has been weakened by the defection of many mercenaries due to bankruptcy. Sinope is razed and all adult males killed, but Mithridates manages to escape to the Bosporan kingdom (some say dressed as a woman). Marius calls on his trusted ally Magius, whose fleet rounds Asia Minor and sails for the Bosporus. The Carthaginian marines do night even have to fight, as the Bosporan Monarch [??????] hands over Mithridates. As the fleet returns him to Trebizond and the rough justice of Marius, the “Terror of Asia” disappears overboard one night, never to trouble history again.
Cinna remains in Achaea, while Sulla and his forces march across Asia to join Marius. The Roman Senate orders Marius to return and celebrate a triumph, but he sends a letter back saying he will remain in Asia until the Armenians and Syrians have been punished for their role in the war. This creates a crisis in Rome. Marius’ allies say that command should not be changed in wartime, but the conservative party, fearing that Marius’ defiance for the rule of law combined with his army of loyal followers could precipitate an unprecedented crisis, demands that he return to Rome or be labeled a traitor. Finally a compromise is reached. Marius is given the special title of Imperator of the East, with proconsular imperium and a mission of “destroying those who would destroy Rome”, and Cinna is named Proconsul of Asia, with the Herculean task of reorganizing the shattered and mostly depopulated provinces of Asia, Bithynia^, Pontus^, Lycia^, and Cappadocia^. The more expansionist leadership in the city speaks passionately of absorbing Armenia, Syria, and Parthia, some even referring to Marius as “Another Alexander.” The conservatives point out that Alexander ended his life as an Oriental despot, and mutter darkly about the open-ended nature of the “Oriental Imperium” and spin dark scenarios of Marius returning to Rome with his army, which they correctly point out contains only permanent cohorts and auxiliaries loyal only to him; not the citizens on their compulsory service which have checked military dictatorship thus far. The “Imperial” faction laughs these scenarios aside. Anything which gains new land for Rome cannot be bad, though vast tracts of Asia Minor lie open for settlement now, and parts of Achaea and Macedonia have been emptied due to their rebellion.
Cinna begins his reconstruction efforts from Halicarnassus, leaving Marius in de facto control of Pontus and Cappadocia. Marius establishes Colonus Marium in eastern Cappadocia, guarding the approaches to Armenia. From this new base, he begins a massive reconstruction of his army. He starts by releasing the last citizen troops in his service, those with time left being placed under Cinna’s command and those who are done being resettled in coastal Asia. Troops from his permanent cohorts who have completed their individual 10 years of service are resettled, mostly in Trebizond. The permanent cohorts are augmented on an individual basis by members of the auxiliary cohorts who have particularly distinguished themselves in battle, with the promise of citizenship and land at the end of the campaign. The families of the Teutones, Cimbri, and Helvetii who have always provided Marius his most loyal cohorts are allowed to right to settle in the area around Colonus Marium itself, and many more of these tribesmen form new cohorts out of loyalty to the man who defeated their fathers. Marius reinforces the relatively small Roman force under his command by calling on Mithridates’ erstwhile satellites in Colchis and the Bosporan Kingdom to provide troops or face his wrath, Cinna provides many more semi-willing cohorts from the devastated Asia Minor as well as rebellious Greece and Macedon, and Magius, Admiral/governor of Lycia sends 10,000 Lycian volunteers and two cohorts of elite Carthaginian mercenaries. Using the wealth he plundered from the Pontic heartland, Marius builds his new city and pays mercenaries, being careful not to send gold or cause trouble in Rome to risk the personal empire he has built. Nevertheless, many young Romans of the Imperial party flock to help Marius with gold, arms, and mercenaries from throughout the Republic. With an extensive treasure horde at his new city, widespread support back home, and virtually unassailable by the normal checks and balances of the Republic, old Gaius Marius has every reason to feel confident. He plans to set out in the spring with his composite, hardly Roman army of 120,000.
But on the other side of the mountains, a powerful foe waits. Tigranes has not been idle knowing that his relentless enemy is still at large, and Mithridates of Parthia is for once, focused firmly to the West…
*The earlier Mithridatic war checks the threat of a Social War. Besides, OTL political factions have been butterflied away in favor of a strongly expansionist conservative party. Marius is the last hope of the old Populares.
**Yes, this will change, very soon.
^New provinces, which (except for Lycia) have been added because most of their nobility was either killed by Mithridates or sided with him. The situation in Roman Asia is by no means fixed, though.
91 B.C.: Tribune Livius Drusus revives the proposal to extend Roman citizenship to Italian socii.** Due to the demand for tribal cohorts both to guard Rome’s expanded borders and to check the threat of military takeover by the permanent cohorts (the ratio is intended to be 3 to 1, which will not change for some time), the proposal passes almost with little opposition. The socii tribes hold the same legal status and duties as the old Roman tribes, though do not [yet] receive Senate membership alongside Roman nobiles.**
Coastal Macedonia rebels, and numerous Thracians come south to assist in invading Roman Greece. The Pontic general Archelaus is in command of the rebels, who have taken the last of Mithridates’ gold in a desperate gambit. Forces intended to assist Marius in Trebizond are instead rushed to Achaea under Lucius Cornelius Cinna and Lucius Cornelius Sulla. Sulla’s forces annihilate the Macedonians and Thracians at the ancient battleground of Thermopylae and advance north to punish the Macedonians, while Caesar spends the remainder of the year pacifying rebellious regions in Achaea.
With no troops available to assist his damaged legions, Marius is stuck in a hard position. To the surprise of nearly all in Rome, he releases the reserve cohorts from duty, who constitute over half of his legions, as well as four Italian cohorts whose time has expired but whose intended replacements are in Macedon, consolidating both permanent cohorts of Italian citizens with his auxiliaries. The Iberians and Lycian allies are sent north to his aid by the Carthaginian Magius, whose actions against the Cilicians have been largely successful. Marius meets Mithridates outside of Sinope, and in a battle which will be studied by tacticians for generations, the battle-hardened Romans destroys Mithridates’ army, which has been weakened by the defection of many mercenaries due to bankruptcy. Sinope is razed and all adult males killed, but Mithridates manages to escape to the Bosporan kingdom (some say dressed as a woman). Marius calls on his trusted ally Magius, whose fleet rounds Asia Minor and sails for the Bosporus. The Carthaginian marines do night even have to fight, as the Bosporan Monarch [??????] hands over Mithridates. As the fleet returns him to Trebizond and the rough justice of Marius, the “Terror of Asia” disappears overboard one night, never to trouble history again.
Cinna remains in Achaea, while Sulla and his forces march across Asia to join Marius. The Roman Senate orders Marius to return and celebrate a triumph, but he sends a letter back saying he will remain in Asia until the Armenians and Syrians have been punished for their role in the war. This creates a crisis in Rome. Marius’ allies say that command should not be changed in wartime, but the conservative party, fearing that Marius’ defiance for the rule of law combined with his army of loyal followers could precipitate an unprecedented crisis, demands that he return to Rome or be labeled a traitor. Finally a compromise is reached. Marius is given the special title of Imperator of the East, with proconsular imperium and a mission of “destroying those who would destroy Rome”, and Cinna is named Proconsul of Asia, with the Herculean task of reorganizing the shattered and mostly depopulated provinces of Asia, Bithynia^, Pontus^, Lycia^, and Cappadocia^. The more expansionist leadership in the city speaks passionately of absorbing Armenia, Syria, and Parthia, some even referring to Marius as “Another Alexander.” The conservatives point out that Alexander ended his life as an Oriental despot, and mutter darkly about the open-ended nature of the “Oriental Imperium” and spin dark scenarios of Marius returning to Rome with his army, which they correctly point out contains only permanent cohorts and auxiliaries loyal only to him; not the citizens on their compulsory service which have checked military dictatorship thus far. The “Imperial” faction laughs these scenarios aside. Anything which gains new land for Rome cannot be bad, though vast tracts of Asia Minor lie open for settlement now, and parts of Achaea and Macedonia have been emptied due to their rebellion.
Cinna begins his reconstruction efforts from Halicarnassus, leaving Marius in de facto control of Pontus and Cappadocia. Marius establishes Colonus Marium in eastern Cappadocia, guarding the approaches to Armenia. From this new base, he begins a massive reconstruction of his army. He starts by releasing the last citizen troops in his service, those with time left being placed under Cinna’s command and those who are done being resettled in coastal Asia. Troops from his permanent cohorts who have completed their individual 10 years of service are resettled, mostly in Trebizond. The permanent cohorts are augmented on an individual basis by members of the auxiliary cohorts who have particularly distinguished themselves in battle, with the promise of citizenship and land at the end of the campaign. The families of the Teutones, Cimbri, and Helvetii who have always provided Marius his most loyal cohorts are allowed to right to settle in the area around Colonus Marium itself, and many more of these tribesmen form new cohorts out of loyalty to the man who defeated their fathers. Marius reinforces the relatively small Roman force under his command by calling on Mithridates’ erstwhile satellites in Colchis and the Bosporan Kingdom to provide troops or face his wrath, Cinna provides many more semi-willing cohorts from the devastated Asia Minor as well as rebellious Greece and Macedon, and Magius, Admiral/governor of Lycia sends 10,000 Lycian volunteers and two cohorts of elite Carthaginian mercenaries. Using the wealth he plundered from the Pontic heartland, Marius builds his new city and pays mercenaries, being careful not to send gold or cause trouble in Rome to risk the personal empire he has built. Nevertheless, many young Romans of the Imperial party flock to help Marius with gold, arms, and mercenaries from throughout the Republic. With an extensive treasure horde at his new city, widespread support back home, and virtually unassailable by the normal checks and balances of the Republic, old Gaius Marius has every reason to feel confident. He plans to set out in the spring with his composite, hardly Roman army of 120,000.
But on the other side of the mountains, a powerful foe waits. Tigranes has not been idle knowing that his relentless enemy is still at large, and Mithridates of Parthia is for once, focused firmly to the West…
*The earlier Mithridatic war checks the threat of a Social War. Besides, OTL political factions have been butterflied away in favor of a strongly expansionist conservative party. Marius is the last hope of the old Populares.
**Yes, this will change, very soon.
^New provinces, which (except for Lycia) have been added because most of their nobility was either killed by Mithridates or sided with him. The situation in Roman Asia is by no means fixed, though.
