The Beginnings of Rome

The agrarian reforms of the two Gracchi had little permanent effect. Even in the lifetime of Gaius the clause in his brother's law rendering the new holdings inalienable was repealed, and the process of absorption recommenced. In 118 a stop was put to fur ther allotment of occupied lands, and finally, in III, the whole po sition of the agrarian question was altered by a law which con verted all land still held in occupation into private land. The old controversy as to the proper use of the lands of the com munity was closed by this act of alienation. The controversy in future turns, not on the right of the poor citizens to the State lands, but on the expediency of purchasing other lands for dis tribution at the cost of the treasury.

But, though the agrarian reform failed, the political conflict it had provoked continued, and the lines on which it was waged were in the main those laid down by Gaius Gracchus. The sovereign ty of the assembly continued to be the watchword of the popular party, and a free use of the tribunician powers of interference and of legislation remained the most effective means of accomplish ing their aims.

Marius, 118-100.

Ten years after the death of Gaius the populares once more summoned up courage to challenge the su premacy of the senate; but it was on a question of foreign admin istration that the conflict was renewed. The course of affairs in the client state of Numidia since Micipsa's death in 118 had been such as to discredit a stronger government than that of the senate. In defiance of Roman authority, and relying on the influence of his own well-spent gold, Jugurtha had murdered both his legiti mate rivals, Hiempsal and Adherbal, and made himself master of Numidia. The declaration of war wrung from the senate (r r2) by popular indignation had been followed by the corruption of a consul (I i 1) and the crushing defeat of the proconsul Albinus. On the news of this crowning disgrace the storm burst, and on the proposal of the tribunes a commission of enquiry into the con duct of the war was appointed. But the popular leaders did not stop here. Q. Caecilius Metellus, who as consul (ro9) had suc ceeded to the command in Numidia, was an able soldier but a rigid aristocrat ; and they now resolved to improve their success by entrusting the command instead to a genuine son of the peo ple. Their choice fell on Gaius Marius (see MARms), an expe rienced officer and administrator, but a man of humble birth, wholly illiterate, and one who, though no politician, was by temperament and training a hater of the polished and effemi nate nobles who filled the senate. He was triumphantly elected, and, in spite of a decree of the senate continuing Metellus as proconsul, he was entrusted by a vote of the assembly with the charge of the war against Jugurtha (q.v.).

Jugurtha was vanquished ; and Marius, who had been a second time elected consul in his absence, arrived at Rome in Jan. bringing the captive prince with him in chains. But further tri umphs awaited the popular hero. The Cimbri and Teutones were at the gates of. Italy; they had four times defeated the sena torial generals, and Marius was called upon to save Rome from a second invasion of the barbarians. After two years of suspense the victory at Aquae Sextiae (r02), followed by that on the Raudine plain (I or), put an end to the danger by the annihila tion of the invading hordes; and Marius, now consul for the fifth time, returned to Rome in triumph. There the popular party welcomed him as a leader with all the prestige of a successful general. Once more, however, they were destined to a brief suc cess followed by disastrous defeat. Marius became for the sixth time consul; of the two popular leaders Glaucia became praetor and Saturninus tribune. But Marius and his allies were not states men of the stamp of the Gracchi ; and the laws proposed by Saturninus had evidently no serious aim in view other than that of harassing the senate. His corn law merely reduced the price fixed in 123 for the monthly dole of corn, and the main point of his agrarian law lay in the clause appended to it requiring all senators to swear to observe its provisions'. The laws were car ried, but the triumph of the popular leaders was short-lived. Their period of office was drawing to a close. At the elections fresh rioting took place, and Marius as consul was called upon by the senate to protect State against his own partisans. Saturninus and Glaucia surrendered, but while the senate was discussing their fate they were surrounded and murdered by their opponents.

The popular party had been worsted once more in their strug gle with the senate, but none the less their alliance with Marius, and the position in which their votes placed him, marked an epoch in the history of the revolution. The transference of the political leadership to a consul who was nothing if not a soldier was at once a confession of the insufficiency of the purely civil authority of the tribunate and a dangerous encouragement of mil itary interference in political controversies. The consequences were already foreshadowed by the special provisions made by Saturninus for Marius's veterans, and in the active part taken by them in the passing of his laws. Indirectly, too, Marius, though no politician, played an important part in this new departure. His military reforms at once democratized the army and attached it more closely to its leader for the time being. He swept away 'For the leges Appzdeiae, see SATURNINUS, L. APPULEIUS, and author ities there quoted.