Gnaeus Mallius Maximus
Gnaeus Mallius Maximus was a Roman politician and general.
A
Mallius lost his sons in the battle and after his return to Rome he was impeached for the loss of his army. The prosecution was led by Saturninus, who was able to secure a conviction which drove Mallius into exile,[3] placing Mallius under an aquae et ignis interdictio by a rogatio; that is, like Cicero later, he was "denied water and fire", a formulaic expression of banishment (see Law of majestas).[4] The proconsul Quintus Servilius Caepio, blamed by all the ancient historians for the defeat,[5] was also exiled.[3]
The defeat at Arausio created fear in Rome for the safety of the Italian peninsula and the continuation of the Republic. The Assembly then took the unprecedented and then-illegal step of electing, in absentia, Gaius Marius, then proconsul in Africa prosecuting the Jugurthine War, to a second consulship in three years to deal with the threat.[6]
References
- ISBN 978-1-5417-2403-7.
- ^ a b Duncan 2017, p. 126.
- ^ a b Duncan 2017, p. 138.
- ^ Gordon P. Kelly, A History of Exile in the Roman Republic (Cambridge University Press, 2006), p. 175.
- ^ Duncan 2017, p. 125.
- ^ Duncan 2017, p. 127.