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Mommsen's history of Rome.
Say what you will about him, the man had style.
I finally found a Roman to cheer for! I was cheering Sulla against Mithradates, and I didn't even notice until I was well into the following chapter. So here goes Sulla...
Jugurthine War
He goes as a hostage to Jugurtha's father-in-law, Bocchus, who's still trying to decide which side he can betray for the greatest benefit to himself. Sulla convinces him to betray his son-in-law by handing said son-in-law over to Sulla, rather than the reverse.
Social War
Is an awesome general. Is named imperator. Saves everybody's asses. Gets awarded a grass crown (woot! finally understand the title of Colleen McCullough's book) by acclamation of the soldiers. Apparently the grass crown is made out of grass and plants and stuff growing on the actual battlefield. That is just beyond awesome.
Consul
He's busy besieging Nola when Sulpicius appoints Marius to replace him, with the intent of sending Marius rather than Sulla to the east to fight the Mithradatic war. Rather than go along with his recall, Sulla gets his army to follow him back to Rome, occupies the city with it, and seizes power. Marius has to flee and has many adventures.
The Mithridatic War
1. "The government would have required three armies, to keep down the revolution in Rome, to crush completely the insurrection in Italy, and to wage war in Asia; it had but one, that of Sulla; for the northern army was, under the untrustworthy Gnaeus Strabo, simply an additional embarrassment. Sulla had to choose which of these three tasks he would undertake; he decided, as we have seen, for the Asiatic war. It was no trifling matter—we should perhaps say, it was a great act of patriotism—that in this conflict between the general interest of his country and the special interest of his party the former retained the ascendency; and that Sulla, in spite of the dangers which his removal from Italy involved for his constitution and his party, landed in the spring of 667 on the coast of Epirus."
2. A year later, Sulla has succeeded in occupying Piraeus, out of the whole east. Hmmm.
3. Then the battle at Chaeronea, at which he crushes Archelaus.
4. Flaccus, the rather useless leader of another Roman army in Asia Minor, thinks about challenging Sulla, but Sulla's more popular with the soldiers.
5. Flaccus withdraws, and Sulla lets him.
6. Sulla wins the battle of Orchomenus...with style. "[The] Roman infantry...began to waver and give way: the danger was so urgent, that Sulla seized a standard and advancing with his adjutants and orderlies against the enemy called out with a loud voice to the soldiers that, if they should be asked at home where they had abandoned their general, they might reply—at Orchomenus."
7. Mithridates' tyrannical policies make him unpopular in Asia Minor.
8. Fimbria leads a mutiny against Flaccus, who is killed.
9. Fimbria has some successes against Mithridates.
10. Mithridates agrees to negotiate with Sulla, but does not accept the terms, saying that Fimbria is offering better terms. Sulla is offended at being placed on the same footing with Fimbria and decides that he needs to go to Asia, to deal with Fimbria.
11. Archelaus pressures Mithridates into agreeing to the terms, but Sulla continues his march to Asia.
12. Fimbria orders his men to attack Sulla, but not only do they refuse, they start defecting to Sulla. Fimbria fell on his own sword in the temple of Asclepius
Return to Italy
Meanwhile, Sulla has been deposed back home, hence Flaccus. Marius has a reign of terror, and Cinna has a sort of useless tyranny going on. After his victories in the east, Sulla lets them know he's coming home, and in the interests of a reconciliation, they offer him safe-conduct.
Sulla replied that "he did not desire security to be provided for himself, but proposed to bring it to those who were at home."
So he comes back to Italy and marches all over the place defeating Cinna. Everyone defects to him left and right. "The Roman comitia outlawed all the senators that should be found in Sulla's camp. Sulla was silent; he probably thought that they were pronouncing sentence beforehand on themselves."
Sulla then gets himself appointed dictator for an indefinite period of time. He has his reign of terror exterminating the Marian opposition, and then he sets about making reforms. Not staggering reforms, but setting things in order (this is a restoration of the oligarchic party, not a revolution).
He increased the power and numbers of the senate (especially after wiping out a significant portion of the senators), decreased the power of the magistrates, decreased the power of the non-senatorial equites (esp. with reference to the juries), and extended burgess rights without reorganizing the census or the comitia, making the comitia even more useless than before.
Then he retired and went back to living a life of wine, women, and song, meddling occasionally in politics as he saw fit.
Obviously, even having left academia, I've yet to get over the idea that I need to read long works of dense academic prose and take notes!
Say what you will about him, the man had style.
I finally found a Roman to cheer for! I was cheering Sulla against Mithradates, and I didn't even notice until I was well into the following chapter. So here goes Sulla...
Jugurthine War
He goes as a hostage to Jugurtha's father-in-law, Bocchus, who's still trying to decide which side he can betray for the greatest benefit to himself. Sulla convinces him to betray his son-in-law by handing said son-in-law over to Sulla, rather than the reverse.
Social War
Is an awesome general. Is named imperator. Saves everybody's asses. Gets awarded a grass crown (woot! finally understand the title of Colleen McCullough's book) by acclamation of the soldiers. Apparently the grass crown is made out of grass and plants and stuff growing on the actual battlefield. That is just beyond awesome.
Consul
He's busy besieging Nola when Sulpicius appoints Marius to replace him, with the intent of sending Marius rather than Sulla to the east to fight the Mithradatic war. Rather than go along with his recall, Sulla gets his army to follow him back to Rome, occupies the city with it, and seizes power. Marius has to flee and has many adventures.
The Mithridatic War
1. "The government would have required three armies, to keep down the revolution in Rome, to crush completely the insurrection in Italy, and to wage war in Asia; it had but one, that of Sulla; for the northern army was, under the untrustworthy Gnaeus Strabo, simply an additional embarrassment. Sulla had to choose which of these three tasks he would undertake; he decided, as we have seen, for the Asiatic war. It was no trifling matter—we should perhaps say, it was a great act of patriotism—that in this conflict between the general interest of his country and the special interest of his party the former retained the ascendency; and that Sulla, in spite of the dangers which his removal from Italy involved for his constitution and his party, landed in the spring of 667 on the coast of Epirus."
2. A year later, Sulla has succeeded in occupying Piraeus, out of the whole east. Hmmm.
3. Then the battle at Chaeronea, at which he crushes Archelaus.
4. Flaccus, the rather useless leader of another Roman army in Asia Minor, thinks about challenging Sulla, but Sulla's more popular with the soldiers.
5. Flaccus withdraws, and Sulla lets him.
6. Sulla wins the battle of Orchomenus...with style. "[The] Roman infantry...began to waver and give way: the danger was so urgent, that Sulla seized a standard and advancing with his adjutants and orderlies against the enemy called out with a loud voice to the soldiers that, if they should be asked at home where they had abandoned their general, they might reply—at Orchomenus."
7. Mithridates' tyrannical policies make him unpopular in Asia Minor.
8. Fimbria leads a mutiny against Flaccus, who is killed.
9. Fimbria has some successes against Mithridates.
10. Mithridates agrees to negotiate with Sulla, but does not accept the terms, saying that Fimbria is offering better terms. Sulla is offended at being placed on the same footing with Fimbria and decides that he needs to go to Asia, to deal with Fimbria.
11. Archelaus pressures Mithridates into agreeing to the terms, but Sulla continues his march to Asia.
12. Fimbria orders his men to attack Sulla, but not only do they refuse, they start defecting to Sulla. Fimbria fell on his own sword in the temple of Asclepius
Return to Italy
Meanwhile, Sulla has been deposed back home, hence Flaccus. Marius has a reign of terror, and Cinna has a sort of useless tyranny going on. After his victories in the east, Sulla lets them know he's coming home, and in the interests of a reconciliation, they offer him safe-conduct.
Sulla replied that "he did not desire security to be provided for himself, but proposed to bring it to those who were at home."
So he comes back to Italy and marches all over the place defeating Cinna. Everyone defects to him left and right. "The Roman comitia outlawed all the senators that should be found in Sulla's camp. Sulla was silent; he probably thought that they were pronouncing sentence beforehand on themselves."
Sulla then gets himself appointed dictator for an indefinite period of time. He has his reign of terror exterminating the Marian opposition, and then he sets about making reforms. Not staggering reforms, but setting things in order (this is a restoration of the oligarchic party, not a revolution).
He increased the power and numbers of the senate (especially after wiping out a significant portion of the senators), decreased the power of the magistrates, decreased the power of the non-senatorial equites (esp. with reference to the juries), and extended burgess rights without reorganizing the census or the comitia, making the comitia even more useless than before.
Then he retired and went back to living a life of wine, women, and song, meddling occasionally in politics as he saw fit.
Obviously, even having left academia, I've yet to get over the idea that I need to read long works of dense academic prose and take notes!
