Bellum Octavianum
War of Octavius | |||||||
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Part of the crisis of the Roman Republic | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Cinnans | Octavius and Senate | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
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Strength | |||||||
Modern estimate: up to 120,000 men | Modern estimate: 60,000 men |
The Bellum Octavianum (Latin for "War of Octavius") was a Roman republican civil war fought in 87 BC between the two consuls of that year, Gnaeus Octavius and Lucius Cornelius Cinna. Cinna was victorious by late 87 BC.
Hostilities broke out after Octavius opposed Cinna's attempts to distribute the Italian citizens enfranchised after the
Marius captured and sacked Ostia, cutting off Rome from supplies, and Cinna went on to besiege the city. Cinna's lieutenants Quintus Sertorius and Papirius Carbo fought inconclusively against Octavius and Strabo near the Janiculum. After Strabo died of natural causes, his troops defected to Cinna, forcing the consul Octavius to sue for peace. Cinna and Marius entered Rome. They killed a number of their opponents and arraigned others in manipulated trials. Octavius was killed; Merula committed suicide; Catulus, a personal enemy, was put on trial but killed himself before conviction. Cinna and Marius had themselves elected consuls; their faction dominated Italy until Sulla's civil war in 83 BC.
Background
The main question in Roman politics of the year 88 BC was how the new citizens – the Italians who had accepted Roman citizenship in place due to the
The consuls of the year 88 BC were
In response, Sulla induced his troops at
Sulpicus' laws were invalidated on the basis that they were passed by force, restoring Sulla to the command against Mithridates and annulling the distribution of new citizens among the thirty-five existing tribes. After passing some other reforms, Sulla left the city for Capua after conducting elections. His broad unpopularity,[10] however, was keenly felt when his candidates were all rejected at those elections, which chose Gnaeus Octavius and Lucius Cornelius Cinna as consuls-designate. Sulla forced the two men to uphold his laws by oath;[5] this proved an ineffective restraint.[11]
Outbreak
When Sulla's unprecedented consulship ended, Octavius and Cinna were inaugurated consuls.[12] By this time, Cinna had induced a plebeian tribune to prosecute Sulla and prevent him from leaving Italy. This failed as Sulla ignored the tribune's demands that he return to Rome and was regardless immune from prosecution due to his proconsular imperium;[13] he departed rapidly for the war on Mithridates.[14] Cinna also renewed calls for the new Italian citizens to be distributed among the existing thirty-five tribes.[15]
Along with a Cinnan bill to recall those exiled by Sulla, this brought him into conflict with Octavius. Octavius secured a majority of the tribunes to veto Cinna's distribution and recall bills, which started a riot attacking the tribunes and itself may have triggered a senatus consultum ultimum. After an incident between the two consuls' supporters turned violent – Octavius' supporters allegedly massacred some of the new citizens marching with Cinna – Cinna left the city to raise an army joined by a majority of the plebeian tribunes and Quintus Sertorius.[16]
When Cinna departed the city, the Senate declared him to have abdicated his consulship and to be
Cinna, meanwhile, reached Nola: Sulla had left troops there to continue the siege. Bribing the officers and troops to let him make an address, he then made an appeal to them where he threw down his consular regalia and addressed the men as citizens.[20] Calling on them as citizens to vindicate his election and arguing that not to do so would create a tyrannical senatorial oligarchy who would be able to rule without reference to the people, the soldiers lifted Cinna back to his curule seat and restored his symbols of consular office. The army's officers then administered an oath of loyalty to Cinna.[21]
While Cinna continued to raise soldiers around the countryside in the south, Octavius and Merula fortified the city and began to raise troops in the north and
Siege of Rome
Cinna's plan was to divide this forces into three. His force would encamp near the Colline Gate, one force under Sertorious would encamp up the
Pompey Strabo, unable to reach an agreement with Cinna and Marius, fought Sertorius near the Janiculum, while the Senate sought to raise more men by offering citizenship for all Italians who had surrendered. This appeal raised only sixteen cohorts, far fewer than expected. The Senate then instructed the proconsul Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius (previously praetor in 90 BC)[24] to make peace with the Samnites he was fighting if possible with honour and relieve the city. The Samnites pushed for extremely generous terms which Metellus rejected; Cinna, in separate negotiations, instead gave in to all their demands, securing their support.[23] Octavius won a victory over Cinna at the Janiculum, but Pompey Strabo prevented Octavius from following up on his success,[25] withdrawing his troops under Octavius' command.[26]
After plague struck Octavius and Pompey Strabo's armies, killing Pompey Strabo and thousands of their men,
Merula, protesting that he had never wanted the consulship, abdicated on his own accord and the Senate sent envoys to address Cinna on his consular tribunal. Asked to forswear killing on entrance to the city, Cinna refused but indicated that he would not cause anyone's death while Marius stood silently beside him. The two men were invited to enter the city but Marius refused and cited his exile. Cinna's first action after entering the city was to bring legislation overturning all of Sulla's exiles; Marius then entered the city. Octavius, refusing to flee the city, was then killed on his curule chair set up in the Janiculum; his head was then cut off and displayed on the forum.[31]
Aftermath
After his victory, Cinna sought to punish those who had acted contrary to law.[32] Marius, however, pursued his personal and political enemies. Among them were Gaius and Lucius Julius Caesar, Publius Licinius Crassus and his son, along with the orator Marcus Antonius. The killings were not broad across the political class and likely reflected Marius' personal grudges; nor were the victims then linked to Sulla.[31] There is no evidence that the purge targeted the victim's families.[33] Merula and Quintus Lutatius Catulus committed suicide prior to convictions at trial.[34] Sulla himself was also declared hostis; his laws were annulled and properties were confiscated, leading to his family fleeing the city for Greece.[35]
While later sources – including Dio, Velleius, Livy, Diodorus, and Plutarch – claim that Cinna and Marius butchered and ravaged their way through the city for five days,[36][37] these claims are likely Sullan propaganda filtered through Sulla's memoirs. Cicero, more contemporaneous and speaking to men who lived during the Cinnan regime, indicates that Cinna and Marius targeted only political enemies and did not threaten all of Rome's inhabitants or otherwise sack the city.[38]
At the end of the year, Cinna and Marius presented themselves before the
The Cinnan regime started provisions for a census, which was conducted in 86 BC by Lucius Marcius Philippus and Marcus Perperna. They registered, however, only some 463,000 citizens, which meant most of the new citizens could not have yet been registered into tribes. For all his rhetoric at the start of the year 87 BC, Cinna and his allies seemed very willing to continue the existing state of affairs and made no efforts to complete a full registration.[42] The threat of Sulla in the east remained when the Roman army sent to replace him in command fell into disarray after its general, Lucius Valerius Flaccus, was assassinated by his quaestor.[43] Cinna met his end at the hands of mutinous troops when seeking to pass into Epirus to confront Sulla in 84 BC.[44] Sulla then returned to Italy in the spring of 83 BC at the head of Mithridatic veterans, triggering a new civil war.[45]
References
Citations
- ^ Brunt 1971, p. 440.
- ^ a b Morstein-Marx 2011, p. 263.
- ^ Morstein-Marx 2011, p. 263, noting also that Sulpicius may have not had the cognomen Rufus.
- ^ Broughton 1952, p. 39.
- ^ a b Eckert 2022.
- ^ Morstein-Marx 2011, p. 263. "Scholars sometimes cites as a precedent the transfer to the Numidian command to Marius in 107... in 88, however, [a] sitting consul was deprived of the major command already entrusted to him to the advantage of a privatus who held no official position whatsoever".
- ^ Morstein-Marx 2011, p. 264.
- ^ Seager 1994, p. 170.
- ^ Seager 1994, p. 171.
- ^ Katz 1976, p. 328. "This march aroused hostility to Sulla among all classes".
- ^ Keaveney 2005, p. 61; Seager 1994, p. 173.
- ^ Broughton 1952, p. 45, in the order Octavius and Cinna.
- ^ Keaveney 2005, p. 62.
- ^ Seager 1994, pp. 173–74.
- ^ Seager 1994, p. 174, noting that, according to Appian, a substantial bribe was needed to secure Cinna's cooperation..
- ^ Morstein-Marx 2011, p. 265; Seager 1994, p. 174.
- Sybilline oracles..
- ^ Seager 1994, pp. 174–75.
- ^ Seager 1994, p. 175 believes the assembly elected Merula; Morstein-Marx 2011, p. 266 believes the Senate acted alone.
- ^ a b Seager 1994, p. 175.
- ^ Morstein-Marx 2011, pp. 267, 269.
- ^ Seager 1994, pp. 175–76.
- ^ a b Seager 1994, p. 176.
- ^ Broughton 1952, p. 42.
- ^ Seager 1994, pp. 176–77.
- ^ Katz 1976, p. 332.
- ^ Katz 1976, p. 333. "The loss of this most capable commander... [and] the manpower of the defence, was fatal to the cause of the regime".
- ^ Katz 1976, p. 334.
- ^ Katz 1976, p. 335.
- ^ Seager 1994, p. 177.
- ^ a b Seager 1994, p. 178.
- ^ a b Badian 2012.
- ^ Lovano 2002, p. 49.
- ^ Seager 1994, p. 178; Alexander 1990, p. 60 (Trials 115–16).
- ^ Seager 1994, pp. 178–79.
- ^ Lovano 2002, p. 46 n. 72, citing Dio. 35.102; Vell. Pat. 2.22; Liv. Per. 80; Plut. Mar. 43.5–9.
- ^ Smith 2017, p. 36.
- ^ Lovano 2002, p. 46.
- ^ Seager 1994, p. 179; Smith 2017, pp. 44–49.
- ^ Seager 1994, p. 179.
- ^ Broughton 1952, pp. 53–60.
- ^ Seager 1994, p. 180.
- ^ Seager 1994, p. 181.
- ^ Seager 1994, p. 184; Broughton 1952, p. 60.
- ^ Seager 1994, p. 187.
Sources
- Alexander, Michael (1990). Trials in the late Roman republic, 149 BC to 50 BC. Phoenix. Vol. 26. University of Toronto Press. ISBN 0-8020-5787-X.
- Broughton, Thomas Robert Shannon (1952). The magistrates of the Roman republic. Vol. 2. New York: American Philological Association.
- ISBN 0-19-814283-8.
- Badian, Ernst (2012). "Cornelius Cinna (1), Lucius". In Hornblower, Simon; et al. (eds.). Oxford classical dictionary (4th ed.). Oxford University Press. OCLC 959667246.
- Eckert, Alexandra (2022). "Cornelius Sulla Felix, Lucius". Oxford classical dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. .
- Katz, Barry R (1976). "The siege of Rome in 87 BC". doi:10.1086/366291.
- Keaveney, Arthur (2005) [First ed. 1982]. Sulla: the last republican (2nd ed.). London: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-33660-0.
- Lovano, Michael (2002). The age of Cinna: crucible of late republican Rome. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag. ISBN 978-3-515-07948-8.
- Morstein-Marx, Robert (2011). "Consular appeals to the army in 88 and 87". In Beck; et al. (eds.). Consuls and res publica. Cambridge University Press. pp. 259–78. ISBN 978-1-107-00154-1.
- Seager, Robin (1994). "Sulla". In Crook, John; et al. (eds.). The last age of the Roman Republic, 146–43 BC. Cambridge Ancient History. Vol. 9 (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 165–207. OCLC 121060.
- Smith, Timothy (2017). In foro solitudo: Roman elections and the time of Cinna (PDF) (MA). Victoria University of Wellington.