122-95 BC: Decline in Senatorial Leadership
and the career of Gaius Marius

Gaius Sempronius Gracchus
Junonia, colony near Carthage
Equestrian juries; publicani
Social War (90-88 BC)
Marcus Livius Drusus, plebeian tribune in 122
Lucius Opimius, consul in 122
Senatus Consultum Ultimum (SCU): "ultimate decree of the Senate" in 121
Populares ("supporters of the people") and Optimates ("the best men")
Results of the Gracchan program:

• Opportunities for small farmers and colonists
• Alleviation of unemployment
• Hostility among the Italians exacerbated
• Equestrians self-conscious as a political force
• Populus self-conscious of political powers
• Power of the Tribunate revealed
• Can a magistrate (consul L. Opimius) protect the people by putting citizens to death without a trial (contra the lex provocationis, in force since the beginning of the res publica)? If the citizens raise arms and become enemies (hostes), do they lose the rights of citizens? What about those then arrested and disarmed? Trial of Opimius --> ACQUITTAL!
• auctoritas of Senate vindicated, but weakness of Senate revealed
• Yet, agrarian laws remained in force
• Ultimately, Gracchi presented a challenge to Rome's mos maiorum without the creation of an alternative - no legitimate democratic body could provide separate leadership
• Precipitation of Roman revolution

Tense times in Rome ca. 115-110: 32 senators removed from Senate, stage censored; two Vestal Virgins tried for unchastity and condemned; Sibylline books demanded live burial of two Greeks, two Gauls (not since Hannibal); massive city fire in 111
From 146 (province of Africa), Numidia under Micipsa (son of Masinissa) flourished economically in trade relationship with Rome
Jugurtha of Numidia; Adherbal of Numidia
Siege of Cirta in N. Africa by Jugurtha in 113
Rome declares war on Jugurtha in 111; truce; Jugurtha visits Rome (had served Sc. Aemilianus in Numantia in 133, and bribed many influential Romans
110-104: Rome prosecutes the war in N. Africa. Primary objective: capture Jugurtha
Gaius Marius, novus homo ("new man") and popularis from Arpinum SE of Rome, served under Sc. Aemilianus at Numantia in 133, tribune 119, praetor 115, deputy (legatus) of Quintus Caecilius Metellus Numidicus (the "Caecilii Metelli": powerful Senatorial faction); political marriage in 111 to Julia, sister of Gaius Caesar (father of Julius Caesar, born in 100 BC)
Marius' 1st consulship: 107; People appoint him to succeed Metellus over wishes of Senate; his quaestor = Lucius Cornelius Sulla (optimates) remains in Italy to raise cavalry. Raises troops among the proletarii contrary to law
Marius defeats Jugurtha by direct assaults on cities; Bocchus, father-in-law of Jugurtha, fights alongside Jugurtha and then betrays him to Sulla. Jugurtha dies in the State Prison in Rome (the Tullianum) in 104
Gallia Narbonensis (Gaul from Italy to Spain)
104: Battle of Arausio on the Rhone north of Massilia (80,000 Romans lost, Italy threatened with invasion)
Marius' next consulships

• 104
• 103
• 102
• 101
• 100