The opportunity for the rise to power of Gaius Marius (157-86 BC) was the war of succession that took place in the kingdom of Numidia, a subject of Rome. This kingdom had been ruled for a long time by King Masinisa (c. 240-149), who had helped Scipio in the battle of Zama.
The sons of the late king, called Aderdal and Hiempsal, were supported by Italic merchants and equestrians. But his cousin Jugurtha skillfully corrupted the Roman Senators and showed more energy than the princely sons of Masinissa. Thus, Cirta took the capital in 112 BC, killing Aderbal and several hundred Italics, a fact that the Romans could not help punishing.
The Jugurtha War (111-105 BC)
The war that resulted from these events had little importance for Rome from the military point of view, but great from the political point of view, since it made the incompetence of the Roman Senate more evident.
Mario, then a Military Tribune, secured the support of the Equestrian Order and managed to be elected Consul in 107 BC, despite the fact that he was a "new man" (homo nouus).
Later, he had himself entrusted with the direction of the war in Africa by a special mandate of the Assembly of the Plebs, an act without precedent in the history of Rome. And although he managed to seize the situation in a single battle, he was harassed by a series of guerrillas until his Quaestor, L. Cornelius Sulla (138-78 BC) was secretly sent to Mauritania to ask King Boceo to stop to support Jugurtha. And finally Jugurtha fell into the hands of Sulla, with which a part of the territory of Numidia became a Roman province.
The war against the Cimbri and Teutons (113-101 B.C.)
The Cimbri and Teutons, peoples from northern Europe, entered central Europe and defeated the Roman army in the battles of Noreia (113 BC) and Arausio (105 BC). in Gaul.
Panic seized Rome, which feared a new invasion like the Celtic. Mario, elected consul for the second time (104 BC) reformed the army, making it professional, and faced them in two battles:In Aquae Sextiae (102 BC) he defeated the Teutones and in Vercellae, in the Po Valley ( 101 BC) defeated the Cimbri, restoring Rome's lost tranquility.
The problems in Rome (100-91 B.C.)
After the war, Mario was elected Consul again in the year 100 and with him were chosen characters as radical as G. Servilio Glaucia as Praetor and Saturnino as tribune of the plebs. In the same year, a colonization program drawn up by the Tribune of the Plebs, L. Apuleio Saturnino, with the support of Mario, failed due to the opposition of the optimates, after which a popular protest rebellion broke out that was repressed by the Senate and the Knights.
The Italic problem (91-89 B.C.)
The Roman refusal to face problems, both external and internal, caused two great ones that allowed the rise of another great political personality of the Republican era:Sila .
The first was the War of the Italian Allies (socii ), which since the time of Tiberius Gracchus reiterated their petitions, among others, for full Roman citizenship (optimo iure ).
In 91 BC, Livio Drusus the Younger, in his capacity as Tribune of the Plebs, tried to grant them full citizenship (optimo iure ), colonies were founded and the Courts were reorganized, but he was assassinated (90 BC). The Italics then rebelled and formed an independent Confederation, with its capital in Corfinio, which was given the new name of Itálica, electing its own Senate of 500 members and minting its own currency.
The Papiria Plant Law (89 BC)
Rome granted full citizenship, with the Papiria Plant Law (89 B.C.) first to the allies who had not rebelled and then to all, as long as they submitted, but despite this a broad campaign was necessary to subdue the highlanders of central Italy who refused to surrender.
The First Mithridates war (90-85 b.c.)
The second war we referred to above was that of Mithridates, King of Pontus.
Attitude of Mithridates
During the previous years Sulla had demonstrated his political ability and was appointed Consul (88 BC). and it was then that the news reached Rome that Mithridates VI Eupator (120-63 BC), king of Pontus, had invaded territories outside his kingdom, penetrating the eastern part of Greece, inciting the Greeks to revolt against Rome , taking advantage of the existing discontent there due to the politics of the Roman Senators and the local oligarchs.
The evesofEphesus
During these disturbances and in a single day some 80,000 Italics were killed in Asia Minor (eve of Ephesus ), joining the rebellion against Rome to the very city of Athens.
The command of the war
The command of this war against the king of Pontus, confronted Sila, who had been entrusted by the Senate with the direction of the war, dismissed by the Roman people from the command of the war, and Mario, eager to increase his military glory, whom the people and the Populares had handed over the command taken from Sulla.
Silla's March on Rome
Instead of obeying the order to stop the war, Sulla appealed to the army and marched on Rome, being the first general to introduce an army into the capital. Most of his officers of senatorial rank deserted him, but his soldiers followed him and Marius and his supporters had to flee for their lives.
Sila marches to the East
Sila carried out some minor reforms in the city and left the city, marching towards the East.
Mario's reaction and death
When Sulla clears the field in Rome, Mario and his supporters, like Cinna, unleash a campaign of terror against the Optimates . . Mano died in 86 BC, during his 7th consulship.
The end of the first war of Mithridates. Chaeronea and Orchomenos. Peace of Dardanus
Meanwhile, in the East, Sulla took and sacked Athens, defeating Mithridates' army at Chaeronea (86 BC) and Orchomenos (85 BC), concluding the war with a compromise peace, the Peace of Dardanus (84 BC), instead to finish off the king of Pontus definitively.
For this peace, Rome annexed the conquered territories, until then, appropriated the fleet and received an indemnity of 20,000 talents for the war fund.
Shortly after Sulla returned to Rome, where he then had himself appointed Dictator, the government of Silas.