Speaking of Marius, Marius Yo from Johnny's office is now mentioned, but unfortunately it is not the handsome Ha who is introduced this time, but Gaius Marius, a crazy uncle at the end of the Roman Republic. That is.
By the way, Mr. Ha is from Germany, and Marius is basically a Latin name, so he may be a descendant of the Romans.
Born as a commoner, he has made numerous military achievements
Most of the Romans I have introduced so far are from aristocrats and belong to the Claudius and Corneus families, but this Marius is a genuine commoner and not born in Rome.
He was born in the land of Alpino, which is reasonably close to Rome, and from some time he was active as a soldier in Rome.
Marius was 23 years old at the time of the Third Punic War, and was born in 157 BC, a person of the same age as the Gracchi brothers.
Marius didn't seem to be interested in social justice, social contribution, or helping the bears at all, but in the end he was able to do what the Gracchi brothers wanted to do.
Marius was elected a tribune two years after Gaius Grassus died, and after that he tried to get a key position in Rome, but he continued to fail, and it can be said that he was a disappointing person until he reached 40.
His turning point was his marriage to a Julia gens woman, and Marius, who was backed by this, will be promoted.
By the way, this woman of the Julius family, who was the aunt of the famous Julius Caesar, later became the political foundation of Caesar.
Two years after getting married, Marius finally succeeded in being elected to Praetor, an important Roman position.
When it comes to Praetor, he will be appointed Governor-General of Spain in the next city as Propraetor, an experienced person.
Five years later, when King Jugurtha of Numidia rebelled against Rome, he was put on the African Campaign as an adjutant to Consul Metelus, but the deal between Metelus and Marius seemed to be quite bad.
Marius returned to Rome once to become a commander, and became a consul after the election. Marius is 50 years old at this time. It can be said that he is a military commander for a long time.
The Senate dismisses Metelus and appoints Marius as the commander of the Jugurthine War, but Metelus seems to have been a small person, and the soldier who harassed Marius and commanded him was led by his adjutant, Longinus. Longinus also went to conquer Gallia with his soldiers.
Marius, who has lost his soldiers, will embark on a reform called the military reform of later Marius.
The specific contents were as follows.
- The country provides armor.
- The government also pays the salaries of those engaged in combat.
- The service period is 25 years.
- After retirement, give the soldiers land. In addition, the commander will provide a pension.
- Remove the traditional restrictions on the army that a commander can command (one commander can command up to two corps).
These contents are the same as the reforms that the Gracchi brothers were trying to carry out, and they actually implemented them.
As many historians point out, the Gracchi brothers failed in trying to do it in the position of a tribune, and Marius succeeded in doing it in the position of a consul.
Position is important for reform. Or it may have been great that Marius reformed only the military system and did not reform the land.
The reforms of Marius were especially welcomed by the fallen homegrown farmers, and many volunteers were also available to Marius.
This reform was successful and continued after winning the Jugurthine War Cimbrian War But it was very effective.
At this time, Rome was full of enemies on all sides, and was particularly troubled by the Germanic people who invaded from the north. Marius' term as a consul had already expired, but the private assembly decided to continue to elect Marius as a consul.
The Germanic people have invaded Rome in units of about 100,000, but Marius won with less than one-third of that force. After successfully destroying the Germanic Cimbri and Teutons, Rome was in a whirlpool of joy.
Roman citizens praised Marius as the founder of a third party after Romulus and Camillus.
Marius has been a consul for five consecutive years before this victory, which is the only exception in Roman history.
Franklin Roosevelt later named the only three American presidents in history, but it's an exceptional event at the same level.
Marius has a particularly high level of support from the commoners, calling the Marius faction the commoners (populare), and has come into fierce conflict with the optimates led by his biggest rival, Sulla.
The conflict between the two factions can be said to be the originator of the republican government, and a similar structure can be seen in the conflict between the Republican Party and the Democratic Party in modern America.
The difference from modern America would be that these factions fought with force.
When Marius takes office for the sixth time, Saturninus, who can be said to be an adjutant, begins to do whatever he wants with his authority. When the Senate couldn't see it and issued the final notice of the Senate, Saturninus was an armed uprising, and Marius set out to suppress it himself without being on his side. He once left politics in the form of taking responsibility.
Old man's runaway
Marius would not have left a stigma for posterity if he had retired obediently at this point.
The hero who saved Rome takes responsibility for his confidant failure and retires.
So far, it's not that bad.
However, Marius goes into runaway mode completely from here.
Rome will enter into a war with the Alliance City, which has maintained an alliance for over 200 years. Unlike previous enemies, this was an opponent who was familiar with Roman tactics, so the war was likely to become bogged down.
If so, Mitridates, the king of Pontus in what is now Turkey, took advantage of the turmoil and attempted a rebellion against Rome.
The Senate gave Roman citizenship to the cities of the Alliance early on, and when the Social War ended, Sulla was the commander and decided to send him to Pontus.
Marius takes the opportunity of his biggest rival, Sulla, to coup with a person named Sullakinius, kills several senators of the sectarian faction, threatens Sulla and forcibly supports the Sullakinius bill. To request.
The bill allowed the transfer of military power to Marius, but Sulla escaped from Rome after seeing a chance, and because he was in control of his army, he marched to the capital Rome to attack Marius. gone.
Marius was also surprised at this. Rome is an inviolable land, and no Roman invaded Rome in Rome's nearly 700-year history.
Marius, who was completely off guard, escaped, Sullakinius was executed by Sulla, and Marius was finally captured in the land of North Africa.
Sulla immediately tries to execute Marius, but none of them try to execute Marius, who was said to be the third founder of Rome, and he left for Asia Minor as it was. It ends up.
He must have felt the need to get Mitridates to work as soon as Sulla.
Sulla left the rest to Cornelius Kinna of the Cornelius family, but this person turned over to Marius.
Marius, who became free, was indignant and sent not only the sectarians but also the Senators, citizens, and merchants called Equity who were on the side of Sulla to the blood festival.
It is said that there were 50 senators such as Lucius Julius, Pompey, and the father of Grassus, who are his brothers-in-law, and 1000 people were purged.
Whether it was for a show or a strong resentment, Marius succeeded in taking control of the private assembly and the Senate, which exposed these executed persons and took office for the seventh time.
And a few days later, he suddenly died of illness.
Marius's death seems to be entirely due to illness, and he is said to have told Kinna what happened after his death.
He is 70 years old. The man, said to be the third founder of Rome, fell asleep forever.
Personal evaluation of Gaius Marius
He is a helpless man.
It can be said that he is the worst consul in the long history of Rome.
Or maybe it's the worst tyrant in Rome.
He personally thinks it's worse than Nero or Caligula.
Of course these guys are mostly ...
The people of the Roman Republic were all people who had done their best for the nation.
The heroes of the Punic Wars, Scipio, Maximus, and Camillus.
Romulus is rude to line up Marius with Camillus anyway, and Marius is just a tyrant.
However, it can be said that it is a merit that the military reform of Marian changed the Rome drastically and made Julius Caesar play an active role later.
It may be said that the Roman version of Mao Zedong was a hero who made a mistake when he was young.
Old soldiers never die, just leave
As with Japanese parliamentarians, nothing is as scary as gerontocracy.
Isn't it better to give parliamentarians and politicians an age qualification of up to 60 years old?