From the Gracchi to Nero: A History of Rome from 133 B.C. to A.D. 68 (56 page)

19 GLAUCIA’S JUDICIARY LAW. This law (
a
) established a legal system known as
comperendinatio
by which a trial was divided into two separate parts, (
b
) extended prosecution to accessories to a crime, and, in view of Cicero’s strong statement that Glaucia ‘equestrem ordinem beneficio legis devinxerat’ (
Brut.
62. 224), it (
c
) re-established equestrian juries. The date of the law is not now usually thought to be 111 (Mommsen’s date), but rather some time after Caepio’s bill either in 104 or 101, with a slight balance in favour of 104. On the whole question see Balsdon,
op. cit.
, n. 18. See also below, n. 23. [p. 44]

20 TOLOSA INQUIRY. Details are obscure: see J. Lengle,
Hermes
, 1931, 302 ff.; Gruen,
Rom. Pol.
, 162 ff. For other trials of 104, see Gruen, 171 ff. and
TAPA
, 1964, 99 ff. [p. 46]

21 QUAESTORS AND COMMANDERS. On the legal and conventional ties that bound quaestors and their commanding officers see L. A. Thompson,
Historia
, 1962, 339 ff. [p. 46]

22 CAEPIO’S TRIAL. This is sometimes dated as late as 95, but Licinianus (p. 21 Bonn) implies that it preceded that of Mallius which was in 103 (or 101). For arguments which place Norbanus’ tribunate in 103 see Broughton,
MRR
, i, 565–6. Norbanus himself was prosecuted in 95 for his share in these disturbances on a charge of
minuta maiestas
under Saturninus’ law, but was acquitted (see ch. IV, n. 2). In 103 or soon afterwards Scaurus tried to secure the conviction for extortion of C. Memmius, the popular leader of 111, and of Flavius Fimbria, consul with Marius in 104, but both were acquitted by (presumably) equestrian juries. [p. 46]

23 LEX APULLEIA DE MAIESTATE. A fragment of a Roman law has been found at Bantia in S. Italy (see Riccobono,
FIRA
, p. 82; Warmington,
ROL
, iv, 294). This has been identified with Saturninus’
lex de maiestate
by Stuart Jones (
JRS
, 1926, 171) and others. G. Tibiletti (
Athenaeum
, 1953) argues that there is nothing to connect it especially with Saturninus and that it is a
lex repetundarum
and probably is part of the
lex Servilia Glauciae
. E. J. Yarnold (
AJP
, 1957, 163 ff.) argues that it was part of Gaius Gracchus’ law which forbade the passing of a capital sentence on a citizen
iniussu populi
(see p. 32).
Maiestas
is the subject of a book by R. A. Bauman.
The Crimen Maiestatis in the Roman Republic and Augustan Principate
(1967, but on this see P. Garnsey,
JRS
, 1969, 283 ff.). [p. 46]

24 LEX FRUMENTARIA. In
Ad Herennium
I. 12, 21, our only source for this bill, ‘semis’ should perhaps be read for ‘semissibus’ (i.e. the price would be 63-Jan
asses
, not
of an
as
, per
modius
, as suggested by H. Last (
CAH
, IX, 165), who also gives reasons for placing the measure in 103 rather than 100. If, however, the measure is put in 100 (cf. Broughton,
MRR
, i, 578), the cheaper price will be the more probable, since Saturninus was then in greater need of popular support. Two quaestors, Piso (L. Calpurnius Piso, praetor 90?) and Q. Caepio (praetor 91?), struck coins bearing the head of Saturn and two figures on a bench, together with a corn-ear and the inscription AD FRV EMV (‘for
the purchase of corn’). See Crawford,
RRC.
, 33 ff., who dates them to 100 (rather than 99 as H. Mattingly,
Cl. Rev.
, 1969, 267 ff.; contra A. R. Hands,
Cl. Rev.
, 1972, 12 f.) and believes (p. 73) that Saturninus’ bill was passed and that the Senate thought better of opposition and ordered the quaestors to strike money to finance it. [p. 46]

25 THE PSEUDO-GRACCHUS. A certain Equitius claimed to be a son of Ti. Gracchus until unmasked by Sempronia; thereafter he was used as a tool by Saturninus until he was killed on the first day of his tribunate of 99. [p. 47]

26 RECRUITMENT OF CAPITECENSI. This is suggested by two passages of Polybius (VI, 23, 15; 39, 15) which imply that many of the
assidui
(the men in the five classes) could no longer equip themselves properly when entering the army, and also by a speech of Ti. Gracchus (Plut.
Ti. Gr.
9). This view may be held even by those who are not persuaded by the theory advanced by E. Gabba (
Athenaeum
, 1949, 173 ff.; 1952, 161 ff.: =
Republican Rome, the Army and the Allies
(1976), 1 ff.) that many
proletarii
had been introduced into the legions by means of reducing the minimum monetary qualification for service; he believes that the census figures included only
assidui
and not
proletarii
, and he explains the rise in the figures between 131 and 125 B.C. by some 75,000 men as the result of a recent reduction of this minimum figure. He also examines Marius’
dilectus
of 107 and suggests that many of his volunteers came from the country plebs, the
agrestes
who supported his consular candidature (Sallust,
Ing.
73, 6). See R. E. Smith,
Service in the Post-Marian Army
(1958). Since many of Marius’ African veterans were settled on allotments in Africa (cf. n. 31), his northern army will have comprised Rutilius’ forces together with further volunteers. In this way he will have increased the number of men dependent on him: his
clientela
was growing. See P. A. Brunt, ‘The Army and land in the Roman Revolution’,
JRS
, 1962, 69 ff. On the army in general see R. E. Smith,
op. cit. supra
, J. Harmand,
L’armée et le soldat à Rome de 107 à 50 avant notre ère
(1967), E. H. Erdmann,
Die Rolle des Heeres in der Zeit von Marius bis Caesar
(1971) and E. Gabba,
RR Army
. On this theme compare also
Problèmes de la guerre à Rome
, edited by J. P. Brisson (1969). [p. 47]

27 THE PILUM. See T. F. Carney,
Cl. Qu.
, 1955, 203 ff. [p. 48]

28 MILITARY TRIBUNES. J. Suolahti (
The Junior Officers of the Roman Army in the Republican Period
(1955)) has shown how the social status of the military tribunes declined in the second century: the office tended to be ignored by older distinguished senatorial families and to be filled more by equestrian country families. At the same time Marius’ tactical reforms enhanced the importance of the centurions. This, together with the increasing proletarianization of the army, gradually led to the development of a new military caste, bound more closely to the army commanders. The full significance of these developments became clear only after the Social War. Cf. also R. E. Smith,
op. cit.
, n. 26, especially ch. v, T. F. Carney,
Bibliography of C. Marius
. 32 f. [p. 28]

29 FOSSA MARIANA. Traces of this have been found by underwater exploration. See P. Diôle,
4000 Years under the Sea
(Eng. Trans., 1954), ch. 5. [p. 49]

30 AQUAE SEXTIAE AND VERCELLAE. Despite Plutarch’s long account of Aquae Sextiae (
Marius,
18–21) details are obscure. No reliance can be placed in the casualty figures (which Orosius put at nearly half a million); they may have numbered some 70,000– 100,000 captured and killed. On the strategy of the Germans see F. Miltner,
Klio
, 1940, 289 ff., but E. Badian believes (
Historia
, 1962, 217 = Seager,
Crisis
, 23) that Miltner has exaggerated the ability and cohesion of the barbarians in postulating an organized three-pronged attack. On the invasions see E. Demougeot,
Latomus
, 1978, 910 ff. On the campaign of Catulus in 102 see R. G. Lewis,
Hermes
, 1974, 90 ff. On Aquae Sextiae see A. Donnadieu,
Rev. Étud. Anc.
, 1954, 281 ff. On the strategy in 101 see E. Sadée,
Klio
, 1940, 225 ff.; on Sulla’s part, Sadée,
Rhein Mus.
, 1939, 43 ff. On the battle
of Vercellae see T. F. Carney,
Athenaeum
, 1958, 229 ff. For the view of J. Zennari (
I Vercelli dei Celti
, 1956) that
vercellae
was a Celtic word and meant a metal-mining area, and that the battle of Vercellae was fought near Ferrara, see E. T. Salmon,
Phoenix
, 1958, p. 85. [p. 49]

31 ALLOTMENTS AND COLONIES. The sources for these measures are inadequate and obscure in detail. For the Gallic allotments see Appian,
BC
, I, 29; for the colonies in Sicily and Greece see
de vir. illustr
. 73 (these may have been intended for the veterans of Aquillius and Didius, whose campaigns against the Sicilian slaves and against the Scordisci were just ending; see E. Badian,
For. Cl.
, 204 f.); for Corsica, which cannot be dated with certainty to 100, Pliny,
N.H.
3, 6, 80; for Cercina, see the
elogium
quoted below. For Africa there is epigraphic evidence: the
cognomen
Mariana appears in the third century A.D. in the titles of two settlements, Thibaris and Uchi Maius (
ILS
, 6790; 1334), while a more recently discovered inscription proclaims Marius as the
conditor coloniae
of Thuburnica (
Comptes rend.
, 1950, 332; though Thuburnica may not technically have been a
colonia
, the reference is clearly to Marius as the originator of the settlement there). The commissioners included C. Iulius Caesar Strabo (attested in an inscription:
Inscr. Ital.
13. 3. 6) and the elder Iulius Caesar who established colonists on Cercina (
ibid.
13. 3. 7). The proposal for allotments in Africa is dated by
de vir. ill.
73 to 103 B.C., but the African colonies are usually assigned to 100; E. Gabba (
Athenaeum
, 1951, 12 ff.) would assign them also to 103 because he believes that only Saturninus’ legislation of 100 was repealed. On Roman colonization in N. Africa from the time of Gracchus, to that of Augustus, see L. Teutsch,
Das Städtewesen in Nordafrika
(1962). – Cicero (
pro Balbo
, 48) records that Marius was given the right to grant Roman citizenship to three men in each colony (if the reading ‘ternos’ is correct): this implies that the colonists were allies, not Romans, and that they had the Latin right. – Eporedia (Ivrea) south of Aosta in the foothills of the Alps received a colony (probably Roman) in 100 (Velleius, 1. 15. 5). There is nothing to prove that this was part of Saturninus’ legislation; it may rather have been a senatorial move, either political in purpose, to compensate for the later cancellation of Saturninus’ legislation, or strategic, designed to secure a second overland route to Gallia Narbonensis, or in connexion with the goldmines of Victimulae: on this see U. Ewins,
Papers Brit. Sch. Rome
, 1952, 70 ff., and for surviving traces of the land distribution (centuriation) see P. Fraccaro,
Opuscula, III
(1957), 93 ff. See also E. Badian,
For. Cl.
, 204 ff. P. A. Brunt has minimized the importance of the Italian settlements in Africa (
Italian Manpower 225 BC
–A.D.
14
(1971), 577 ff.) and of Marius’ support for allied enfranchisement (
JRS
, 1965, 106 f.). For a rejection of these interpretations see E. Badian ‘Roman politics and the Italians, 133–91 B.C.’,
Dialoghi di Archeologia
, IV–V (1970–71), 402 ff. [p. 50]

32 THE PIRATE LAW. For the text see Riccobono,
FIRA
, i, 121 ff.; for a translation of part of this interesting document see Lewis and Rheinhold,
Rn. Civ.
i, 325 f. For the more sinister interpretation see J. Carcopino,
Mélanges, Glotz
, i, 119 ff. A second copy of what is almost certainly this same law has been found at Cnidus in south-west Asia Minor: for text and discussion see M. Hassall
et al.
,
JRS
, 1974, 195 ff.; cf. J. L. Ferrary,
Mélanges d’arch.
, 1977, 619 ff. [p. 50]

33 METELLUS. Cf. E. S. Gruen, ‘The Exile of Metellus Numidicus’,
Latomus
, 1965, 576 ff. [p. 51]

34 SATURNINUS’ LEGISLATION. The legislation of 100 was later ignored, but was it repealed, as argued by E. Gabba (
Athenaeum
, 1951, 13 f.)? E. Badian (
Historia
, 1962, 219 = Seager,
Crisis
, 25) has revived the objections of A. Passerini (
Athenaeum
, 1934, 348 f.) and argues that Cicero
de leg
. 2. 14 and
pro Balbo
48 show that it was not annulled by the Senate. A. W. Lintott,
Violence in Republican Rome
(1968), 152 ff., also argues that
Saturninus’ legislation, passed
per vim
, was not openly declared invalid: its execution was either abandoned or limited. – For the view that Marius was out-manoeuvred by Scaurus who was the master hand behind the suppression of Saturninus, see T. F. Carney,
Marius
, 43 f. For Marius’ wealth, see Carney, p. 40. For the view that the decline in political support for Marius, after the suppression of Saturninus, was gradual, see E. Badian,
For. Cl.
, 210 ff. [p. 51]