Colleen McCullough - 1. First Man in Rome

On the last day of November a message came from Gaius Marius, convening a meeting of the Senate for the next day in the Curia Hostilia. For once the current turmoil in the Forum Romanum couldn't keep the Conscript Fathers away, so agog were they to see what Gaius Marius was like. The House was packed and everyone came earlier than the dawn did on the Kalends of December to be sure they beat him, speculations flying as they waited. He walked in last of the entire body, as tall, as broad-shouldered, as proud as he had ever been, nothing in his gait to suggest the cripple, his left hand curled normally around the folds of his purple-bordered toga. Ah, but it was there for all the world to see upon his poor face, its old beetling self on the right side, a mournful travesty on the left. Marcus Aemilius Scaurus Princeps Senatus put his hands together and began to applaud, the first clap echoing about the ancient hall's naked rafters and bouncing off the ruddy bellies of the terracotta tiles which formed both ceiling and roof. One by one the Conscript Fathers joined in, so that by the time Marius reached his curule chair the whole House was thundering at him. He didn't smile; to smile was to accentuate the clownlike asymmetry of his face so unbearably that every time he did it, whoever watched grew moist in the eyes, from Julia to Sulla. Instead, he simply stood by his ivory seat, nodding and bowing regally until the ovation died away. Scaurus got up, smiling broadly. "Gaius Marius, how good it is to see you! The House has been as dull as a rainy day these last months. As Leader of the House, it is my pleasure to welcome you home." "I thank you, Princeps Senatus Conscript Fathers my fellow magistrates," Marius said, his voice clear, not one slurred word. In spite of his resolve, a slight smile lifted the right side of his mouth upward, though the left corner stayed dismally slumped. "If it is a pleasure for you to welcome me home, it cannot be one tenth the pleasure it is to me to be home! As you can see, I have been ill." He drew a long breath everyone could hear; and hear the sadness in its quaver halfway through. "And though my illness is past, I bear its scars. Before I call this House to order and we get down to business which seems sorely in need of our attention, I wish to make a statement. I will not be seeking re-election as consul for two reasons. The first, that the emergency which faced the State and resulted in my being allowed the unprecedented honor of so many consecutive consulships is now conclusively, finally, positively over. The second, that I do not consider my health would enable me to perform my duties properly. The responsibility I must bear for the present chaos here in Rome is manifest. If I had been here in Rome, the senior consul's presence would have helped. That is why there is a senior consul. I do not accuse Lucius Valerius or Marcus Aemilius or any other official of this body. The senior consul must lead. I have not been able to lead. And that has taught me that I cannot seek re-election. Let the office of senior consul pass to a man in good health." No one replied. No one moved. If his twisted face had indicated this was in the wind, the degree of stunned shock every last one of them now felt was proof of the ascendancy he had gained over them during the past five years. A Senate without Gaius Marius in the consul's chair? Impossible! Even Scaurus Princeps Senatus and Catulus Caesar sat shocked. Then came a voice from the back tier behind Scaurus. "Guh-guh-good!" said Metellus Piglet. "Now my fuh-fuh-father can cuh-cuh-cuh-come home." "I thank you for the compliment, young Metellus," Marius said, looking directly up at him. "You infer that it is only I who keeps your father in his exile on Rhodes. But such is not the case, you know. It is the law of the land keeps Quintus Caecilius Metellus Numidicus in exile. And I strictly charge each and every member of this august body to remember that! There will be no decrees or plebiscites or laws upset because I am not consul!" "Young fool!" muttered Scaurus to Catulus Caesar. "If he hadn't said that, we could quietly have brought Quintus Caecilius back early next year. Now he won't be allowed to come. I really think it's time young Metellus was presented with an extra name." "What?" asked Catulus Caesar. "Puh-Puh-Puh-Pius!" said Scaurus savagely. "Metellus Pius the pious son, ever striving to bring his tata home! And stuh-stuh-stuffing it up!" It was extraordinary to see how quickly the House got down to business now that Gaius Marius was in the consul's chair, extraordinary too to feel a sense of wellbeing permeating the members of the House, as if suddenly the crowds outside couldn't matter the way they had until Gaius Marius reappeared. Informed of the change in venue for the presentation of the curule candidates, Marius simply nodded consent, then curtly ordered Saturninus to call the Plebeian Assembly together and elect some magistrates; until this was out of the way, no other magistrates could be elected. After which, Marius turned to face Gaius Servilius Glaucia, sitting in the urban praetor's chair just behind and to his left. "I hear a rumor, Gaius Servilius," he said to Glaucia, "that you intend to seek the consulship on the grounds of invalidities you have allegedly found in the lex Villia. Please do not. The lex Villia annalis unequivocally says that a man must wait two years between the end of his praetorship and the beginning of any consulship." "Look at who's talking!" gasped Glaucia, staggered to find opposition in the one senatorial corner where he had thought to find support. "How can you stand there so brazenly, Gaius Marius, accusing me of thinking of breaking the lex Villia when you've broken it in fact for the last five years in a row? If the lex Villia is valid, then it unequivocally states that no man who has been consul may seek a second consulship until ten years have elapsed!" "I did not seek the consulship beyond that once, Gaius Servilius," said Marius levelly. "It was bestowed upon me and three times in absentia! because of the Germans. When a state of emergency exists, all sorts of customs even laws! come tumbling down. But when the danger is finally over, whatever extraordinary measures were taken must cease." "Ha ha ha!" said Metellus Piglet from the back row, this being an interjection in perfect accord with his speech impediment. "Peace has come, Conscript Fathers," said Marius as if no one had spoken, "therefore we return to normal business and normal government. Gaius Servilius, the law forbids you to stand for the consulship. And as the presiding officer of the elections, I will not allow your candidacy. Please take this as fair warning. Give up the notion gracefully, for it does not become you. Rome needs lawmakers of your undeniable talent. For you cannot make the laws if you break the laws." "I told you so!" said Saturninus audibly. "He can't stop me, and nor can anyone else," said Glaucia, loudly enough for the whole House to hear him. "He'll stop you," said Saturninus. "As for you, Lucius Appuleius," Marius said, turning now to look at the tribunes' bench, "I hear a rumor that you intend to seek a third term as a tribune of the plebs. Now that is not against the law. Therefore I cannot stop you. But I can ask you to give up the notion. Do not give our meaning of the word 'demagogue' a new interpretation. What you have been doing during the past few months is not customary political practice for a member of the Senate of Rome. With our immense body of laws and our formidable talent for making the cogs and gears of government work in the interests of Rome as we know it, there is no necessity to exploit the political gullibility of the lowly. They are innocents who should not be corrupted. It is our duty to look after them, not to use them to further our own political ends." "Are you finished?" asked Saturninus. "Quite finished, Lucius Appuleius." And the way Marius said it, it had many meanings.