January 13th, 86 BC. Rome has a seventh-time consul dying in office. The chair is still there. The man who sat in it seven times is not. His name is Gaius Marius — new man from Arpinum, savior against the north, author of a recruiting change later generations will treat as destiny.
He is not born into the club. He serves at Numantia, marries a Julia, takes the Jugurthine command off Metellus by popular politics, and then beats the Teutones at Aquae Sextiae and the Cimbri at Vercellae. Six consulships in a row, then a seventh soaked in blood.
The army reform is the political fact that outlives him. Enlist the landless and the oath runs to the general who can pay and settle them, not to a Senate that will not. Later packaging will give him mules, eagles, and a tidy “Marian reform.” The film keeps institution and folklore in separate drawers.
Then Saturninus, the Social War, the fight with Sulla over Mithridates, the marsh at Minturnae — labeled as tradition — the return with Cinna, and the deaths of 87. Sulla is the student. Caesar is the nephew by marriage who will finish the thought.
Chapters
The spine of the film
- 00The empty chair, 86 BC
- 01Novus homo from Arpinum
- 02Jugurtha
- 03What the army reform actually was
- 04Aquae Sextiae
- 05Vercellae
- 06Saturninus
- 07The fight with Sulla
- 08Return and the seventh consulship
- 09What he leaves
Further reading
Start here
- Plutarch, Life of Marius
- Sallust, Jugurtha
- Richard Evans; modern treatments of the late-Republican army
Stills
From the production package
Maps
Atlas plates
Schematic maps drawn for the documentary. Political fills and routes are interpretive.
