After a brutal winter, fighting commenced between the two opposing forces in the spring fighting season. The Battle for the Asio River (modern name, Esino) was the first battle of the season, taking place on the banks of the river. Fighting was bloody with the Optimate infantry advancing and successfully breaking the Populares infantry who were obliged to fall back. As this was happening, the Optimate cavalry commanded by Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus attacked the retreating Populares forces inflicting heavy casualties.
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Syme (1939), 114–120. In September, the leading Optimate orator Marcus Tullius Cicero began to attack Antony in a series of speeches portraying him as a threat to the Republican order.Chisholm (1981), 26.Rowell (1962), 30.
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Due to the influence of a guest-friend of Nicomedes, Julius Caesar, then a young man, and an impassioned speech by the deceased king's sister, Nysa before the Senate, the gift was accepted. Rome was divided into two parties, the populares, party of the "people," and the optimates, party of the "best." The guest-friendship had been offered to Caesar, a popular, to save his life by keeping him from Rome during a proscription (a kind of witch-hunt) by Sulla, an optimate in power. Forever after Caesar had to endure scurrilous optimate slander about his relationship to Nicomedes, but Bithynia became a favored project of the populares.
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Though initially an optimate, Curio became a popularis soon after marrying Fulvia, and continued many of Clodius' popularist policies.Welch,188. He soon became important to Gaius Julius Caesar and Clodian supporters.Welch, 189. In 50 BC, the year after he married Fulvia, Curio won election as a tribune.
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Eventually they complied.Cassius Dio, Roman History, 38.7.1 During Metellus Celer’s praetorship, Titus Labienus indicted an old backbench Optimate senator, Gaius Rabirius, for the murder of Lucius Appuleius Saturninus thirty-six years earlier. Saturninus had been opposed by the consuls of the time at the direction of the senate.
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Later Hiempsal lost his crown for several years. The populares being led by Marius and Cinna, allies of Cinna deposed Hiempsal favor of "a Numidian pretender named Iarbus". But Cinna was killed, and a shift in the Roman struggle favored the optimate Sulla, who emerged victorious in November of 82.
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These also included his wife and children, as well as those of the Optimate party who had not been killed. With his political enemies having taken power in Rome, Sulla realized that the money and reinforcements he believed were coming to bolster his forces were no longer something to be counted on.
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The Battle of Sacriporto also called the Battle of Scariportus took place in April of 82 BC during Sulla's Second Civil War. The battle pitted the Optimates under the command of Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix against the Populares forces commanded by Gaius Marius the Younger. The battle resulted in a decisive Optimate victory.
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Rufus had been killed in a mutiny. Knowing he could not win, Sulla did not run. He did control who did win, making it possible for them to perform their duties or preventing them. His choices were Gnaeus Octavius (consul 87 BC), an optimate (although he disliked Sulla) and Lucius Cornelius Cinna, a popular.
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The Battle of Fidentia was a battle that took place in September of 82 BC at Fidentia during the context of Sulla's Second Civil War. The battle pitted the Optimates under the command of Marcus Terentius Varro Lucullus against the Populares forces commanded by Lucius Quincius. The battle resulted in a decisive Optimate victory.
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The Battle of Faventia was a battle that took place in September of 82 BC at Faventia during the context of Sulla's Second Civil War. The battle pitted the Optimates under the command of Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius against the Populares forces commanded by Gaius Norbanus Balbus. The battle resulted in an Optimate victory.
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Nero had served as a quaestor to Julius Caesar in 48 BC, commanding his fleet in the Alexandrian War. Having achieved victory over the Egyptian navy, he was rewarded with a priesthood. Julius Caesar had sent Nero to create Roman colonies in Gaul and in other provinces. Despite his service with Julius Caesar, Nero was an Optimate at heart.
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Sulla, however, patiently bided his time. Soon Sulla's camp was to fill with refugees from Rome, fleeing the massacres of Marius and Cinna. These also included his wife and children, as well as those of the optimate faction who had not been killed. Athens by now was starving, and grain was at famine levels in price.
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Cato 'Uticensis', a praetor in 54 and a political leader of Caesar's optimate opponents. was at Utica with Juba I. Cato was widely admired, but also widely mocked.Cato's posthumous title 'Uticensis' refers to the Punic city of Utica, where he died. This Cato was a descendant of the famous Cato the Elder (234–149, Consul 195).
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Lucullan describes things related to or created by people named Lucullus, most notably Lucullus (Lucius Licinius Lucullus, 118 BC–57/56 BC), Optimate politician of the late Roman Republic, consul (74 BC) and a general in the Third Mithridatic War. Due to the amount of treasure he returned to Rome, "Lucullan" is sometimes used as an adjective to signify lavishness.
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He could not join Lucullus, as he had been disinherited by Sulla and was not on good terms with Sulla's best friend, either. He would not be neglected. He was an optimate, a powerful friend of the Senate in his own right, and was still in command of the three legions Sulla had given to him. The Senate asked him to disband them.
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The Battle of the Asio River took place in March of 82 BC during the context of Sulla's Second Civil War. The battle pitted the Optimates under the command of Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius and Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus against the Populares forces commanded by Gaius Carrinas. This battle marked the start of this phase in the civil war and resulted in an Optimate victory.
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Holland, pgs. 316-317 So in March 49 BC, while he marched to Hispania, he sent thirty-one cohorts (the optimate army that surrendered and switched sides to him at CorfiniumJohn Leach, Pompey the Great, p.183) to Africa under the command of Gaius Scribonius Curio to deal with the Pompeian forces there. Prior to Curio's departure, this force was supplemented by an additional legion and 1,000 Gallic cavalry.
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At the beginning of September, the Optimate general, Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius sent Marcus Terentius Varro Lucullus (younger brother of Lucius Licinius Lucullus) at the head of two Legions to open up a second front against the Populares at Placentia. Metellus remained at Faventia with four Legions and waited for and defeated an army commanded by Gaius Norbanus Balbus who marched from Gaul at the Battle of Faventia.Mommsen, Historia de Roma, vol. 3, p. 347.
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Gaius Carrinas (died 82 BC) was a Roman politician and general. Carrinas, as a leading member of the Marian party, fought in the civil war against Lucius Cornelius Sulla. He is perhaps best known for commanding Populares forces at the Battle of the Asio River and the Battle of the Colline Gate where he was captured and executed by Optimate forces. In 83 BC, Carrinas commanded with little success troops against the then young Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus.
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Moreover, it would give Caesar popularity and power. Even though no optimate spoke against it, no one expressed approval. The law would distribute public and private land to all citizens instead of just Pompey's veterans and would do so without any expense for the city or any loss for the optimates. It would be financed with the proceeds from Pompey's war booty and the new tributes and taxes in the east Pompey established with his victories in the Third Mithridatic War.
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78 He was also a Monetalis from 82 BC to 80 BC.Broughton III, pgs. 40-41 During this entire period, he was shown to be one of Sulla's best subordinates. An optimate and traditionalist he was a natural supporter of the Senate's prerogatives, he had no other objective apart from fighting the populism of Marius and Cinna, and did not participate in the atrocious violence during the reign of the dictatorship of Sulla. Finally in 80 BC, he was appointed consul alongside Sulla.
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The senate was also attacked on the ground that it did not have the right to condemn any citizens without a trial before the people.Cassius Dio, Roman History, 37.42 Caesar, who was a praetor, proposed that Catullus, a prominent optimate, be relieved from restoring the temple of Jupiter and that the job be given to Pompey. Metellus Nepos proposed a law to recall Pompey to Italy to restore order. Pompey was away commanding the final phase of the Third Mithridatic War (73–63 BC) in the east.
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Mommsen, too, recognized and reported "Caesar the rake, Caesar the conspirator, and Caesar the groundbreaker for later centuries of absolutism."Saunder & Collins, "Introduction" 1–17, at 8, to their short edition of Mommsen, A History of Rome (New Haven CN: Meridian 1957). Some moderns follow the optimate view that it was a nefarious role that Caesar played in the fall of the Republic, whose ruling array of institutions had not yet outlived their usefulness.Cf., Erich S. Gruen, The Last Generation of the Roman Republic (University of California 1974, 1995) at 498–507.
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Bust of Caesar from the Naples National Archaeological Museum. In 63 a tribune, Titus Labienus, prosecuted the elderly optimate senator Gaius Rabirius for the killing, 37 years previously, of the populist tribune Lucius Appuleius Saturninus, who had been declared a public enemy by the Senate after a candidate for the consulship had been murdered during an election. Caesar was one of the two judges, and Suetonius says he had bribed Labienus to bring the prosecution.Suetonius, Julius 12 The charge was the archaic offence of perduellio, a form of treason, the punishment for which was crucifixion.
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Cabra was the site of an aqueduct in length, which was constructed by Marco Cornelio Novano Bebio Balbo, the provincial flamen and Roman prefect of the college of engineers of Igabrum (a later name for Licabrum). At the source of the river Cabra, there is a reproduction of a plaque dedicated to this aqueduct. On 17 March, 45 BC, the Battle of Munda took place near Igabrum. This was the last battle of the Second Civil War of the Republic of Rome between Julius Caesar and the Optimate supporters of Pompey.
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Nepos was strongly opposed by Cato the Younger, who in that year was a plebeian tribune and a staunch optimate. The dispute came close to violence; Nepos had armed some of his men. According to Plutarch, the senate announced the intention to issue a final decree to remove Nepos from his office but Cato opposed it.Plutarch, Parallel Lives, The life of Cato the younger, 27–29.1–2 Nepos went to Asia to inform Pompey about the events, even though, as a plebeian tribune, he had no right to be absent from the city.
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Tensions between Populares and Optimates had increased with the Catiline conspiracy (63 BC) against the consulship of Marcus Tullius Cicero (an Optimate) during which Cicero, supported by a final decree (senatus consultum ultimum) of the Senate, had some of the conspirators executed without trial. There were demonstrations against these summary executions and this display of arbitrary senatorial power. There were two attempts to counter senatorial dominance which failed, but they were popular. The proponents were Quintus Caecilius Metellus Nepos Iunior, a plebeian tribune; and Julius Caesar, who at the time was a praetor.
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The Battle of Sena Gálica was a battle that took place in April or May of 82 BC during the context of Sulla's Second Civil War in the area around present day Senigallia. The battle pitted the Optimates under the command of Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, legatus of Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix against the Populares forces commanded by Gaius Marcius Censorinus who was in turn the legatus of Gnaeus Papirius Carbo. The battle resulted in a decisive Optimate victory. Immediately following the battle, the town was subjected to a brutal sacking by Sulla's victorious forces.
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A wealthy novus homo and populares, Marius was the first Roman general to enlist proletari (landless citizens) into his army; as a politician he was chosen Consul an unprecedented seven times (107, 104–100, 86), but his career ended badly. On the opposing side politically, the optimate Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix, later Consul (88, 80), and Dictator (82–79), had served as quaestor under Marius in Numidia. In 106 Sulla had persuaded Bocchus I of Mauritania to hand over Jurgurtha, which ended the war. This conflict was later (c.
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Titus Labienus commanded the Optimate force and had his 8,000 Numidian cavalry and 1,600 Gallic and Germanic cavalry deploy in unusually close and dense formations for cavalry. The deployment accomplished its goal of misleading Caesar, who believed them to be close-order infantry. Caesar therefore deployed his army in a single extended line to prevent envelopment, with his small force of 150 archers up front and the 400 cavalry on the wings. In a surprising move, Labienus then extended his cavalry on both flanks to envelop Caesar, bringing up his Numidian light infantry in the center.
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Cicero Denounces Catiline, 400x400px Cicero, seizing the opportunity offered by optimate fear of reform, was elected consul for the year 63 BC;John Leach, Pompey the Great, p.106. he was elected with the support of every unit of the centuriate assembly, rival members of the post-Sullan establishment, and the leaders of municipalities throughout post–Social War Italy. His co-consul for the year, Gaius Antonius Hybrida, played a minor role. He began his consular year by opposing a land bill proposed by a plebeian tribune which would have appointed commissioners with semi-permanent authority over land reform.
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Several years later, a new power had emerged in Asia. In 88 BC, a Roman army was sent to put down that power, king Mithridates VI of Pontus, but was defeated. Over the objections of the former Consul Gaius Marius, the Consul for the year, Lucius Cornelius Sulla was ordered by the senate to assume command of the war against Mithridates.Holland, 64 Marius, a member of the democratic ("populare") party, had a Tribune revoke Sulla's command of the war against Mithridates,Holland, 66 so Sulla, a member of the aristocratic ("optimate") party, brought his army back to Italy and marched on Rome.
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He granted pardons to all Roman nobles living in the East who had supported the Optimate cause, except for Caesar's assassins. Ruling from Ephesus, Antony consolidated Rome's hegemony in the East, receiving envoys from Rome's client kingdoms and intervening in their dynastic affairs, extracting enormous financial "gifts" from them in the process. Though King Deiotarus of Galatia supported Brutus and Cassius following Caesar's assassination, Antony allowed him to retain his position. He also confirmed Ariarathes X as king of Cappadocia after the execution of his brother Ariobarzanes III of Cappadocia by Cassius before the Battle of Philippi.
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The Social War was, in part, caused by the continued rebuttal of those who sought to extend Roman citizenship to the Socii and to address various injustices inherent in the Roman system. The Gracchi, Tiberius and Gaius, were successively killed by optimate supporters who sought to maintain the status quo. The assassination of Marcus Livius Drusus the Younger, whose reforms were intended not only to strengthen the position of the Senate but also to grant Roman Citizenship to the allies, greatly angered the Socii. In consequence, most allied against Rome, leading to the outbreak of the Social War.
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The Battle of Mount Tifata was fought in 83 BC as part of the First Roman Civil War. It was fought in the foothills of Mount Tifata, a spur of the Apennines, close to the River Vulturnus, and is alternatively known as the Battle of Casilinum. The location of the battle suggests that Sulla was moving on Capua. The Optimate forces were led by Lucius Cornelius Sulla and his officer Quintus Caecilius Metellus, while the Populares were led by Gaius Norbanus. The battle started when Sulla “immediately attacked” Norbanus, even though Velleius claims Norbanus attacked Sulla.
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The proposal was strongly opposed by Cato the Younger, who was a staunch optimate. The dispute came close to violence, and Metellus Nepos armed some of his men. According to Plutarch, the senate announced the intention to issue a final decree to remove Nepos from his office but Cato the Younger opposed it, but he does not mention whether the decree was enforced or not.Plutarch, Parallel Lives, The life of Cato the Younger, 27-29.1-2 Metellus Nepos went to Asia to inform Pompey about the events, even though, as a plebeian tribune, he had no right to be absent from the city.
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Quintus Caecilius Metellus Creticus Silanus, born Iunius Silanus was adopted by Quintus Caecilius Metellus, a descendant of the optimate Quintus Caecilius Metellus Creticus and the natural son of Marcus Junius Silanus. He was a Consul in AD 7 and governor of Syria from AD 13 to 17. Silanus was socially connected with the then-heir to the Roman principate Germanicus; his daughter at one time was betrothed to Germanicus' son Nero.Tacitus, The Annals 2.43 Towards the end of his governorship Vonones seized the throne of Armenia, but Vonones was unpopular with the neighbouring Parthian Empire and war threatened.
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111Cary, M., in CAH 9, p. 456 3) The bill was a bribery scheme to provide profits for the merchants and a new tax source for the publicani (these were private tax collectors, the republican state tendered this collection to private tax collectors who used their position to line their pockets and for extortion);Afzelius, A., Ackerverteilungsgesets des P. Servilius Rullus, Classica et Medievalia 3, 1940, pp. 222-3 4) The bill was never meant to be passed and served to show up Circero in this true colours, as an optimate- lover, rather than consul in favour of the people and to heighten the conflict between the plebeians and the senate.
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The Province (basically what is now Tunisia and coastal regions to the east) became the scene of military campaigns directed by well known Romans during the last decades of the Republic. Gaius Marius celebrated his triumph as a result of successfully finishing Rome's war against Jugurtha, the Numidian king. A wealthy novus homo and populares, Marius was the first Roman general to enlist in his army proletari (landless citizens); he was chosen Consul an unprecedented seven times (107, 104–100, 86). The optimate Lucius Cornelius Sulla, later Consul (88, 80), and Dictator (82–79), had served as quaestor under the military command of Marius in Numidia.
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Populares politicians had been proposing this kind land of reform since the introduction of the agrarian law of Tiberius Gracchus in 133 BC, which had led to his murder. Attempts to introduce such agrarian laws since then were defeated by the optimates. Thus, the opposition to the bill sponsored by Pompey came within this wider historical context of optimate resistance to reform as well as the optimates being suspicious of Pompey. A crucial element in the defeat of the bill sponsored by Pompey was the fact what the optimates had a strong consul in Quintus Caecilius Metellus Celer who vehemently and successfully resisted its enactment, while the consul sponsored by Pompey, Lucius Afranius, was ineffective.
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V. Sumner, Cicero, Pompeius, and Rullus, Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association, Vol. 97 (1966), p. 573 Thus, it cannot be ruled out that Crassus, Pompey and Caesar might have been willing to cooperate on a specific policy issue on which they agreed, as they had done in 70 BC. Moreover, Caesar had supported the Manilian law of 66 BC, which gave Pompey the command of the final phase of the Third Mithridatic War and, in 63 BC, as noted above, he proposed a motion to recall Pompey to Rome to restore order in the wake of the Catalinarian Conspiracy. Therefore, Caesar was willing to support Pompey because, although the latter was not a popularis, he was not an optimate either, making him a potential ally.
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Marius, finding himself overshadowed by his colleagues and compromised by their excesses, thought seriously of breaking with them, and Saturninus and Glaucia saw that their only hope of safety lay in their retention of office. At the elections for 99, held probably in late summer–autumn 100, Saturninus was elected tribune for the third time for the year beginning December 10 100, and Glaucia, although at the time praetor and therefore not eligible until after the lapse of 2 years, was a candidate for the consulship. Marcus Antonius Orator was elected without opposition; the other Optimate candidate, Gaius Memmius, who seemed to have the better chance of success, was beaten to death by the hired agents of Saturninus and Glaucia, while the voting was actually going on. This produced a complete revulsion of public feeling.
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He was saved through the efforts of his relatives, many of whom were Sulla's supporters, but Sulla noted in his memoirs that he regretted sparing Caesar's life, because of the young man's notorious ambition. The historian Suetonius records that when agreeing to spare Caesar, Sulla warned those who were pleading his case that he would become a danger to them in the future, saying: "In this Caesar there are many Mariuses."Suetonius, The Life of Julius Caesar, 1 Plutarch, The Life of Caesar , 1 Sulla, who opposed the Gracchian popularis reforms, was an optimate; though his coming to the side of the traditional Senate originally could be described as more reactionary when dealing with the Tribunate and legislative bodies, while more visionary when reforming the court system, governorships and membership of the Senate.Abbott, 104 As such, he sought to strengthen the aristocracy, and thus the Senate.
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