Colleen McCullough - 1. First Man in Rome

4

Wrote Publius Rutilius Rufus to Gaius Marius in June before the news of the capture of Jugurtha and the end of the war in Africa had reached Rome:

We have had a very uneasy winter, and a rather panic-stricken spring. The Germans are definitely on the move, and south at that, into our province along the river Rhodanus. We had been getting urgent letters from our Gallic allies the Aedui since before the end of last year, saying that their unwanted guests the Germans were going to move on. And then in April came the first of the Aeduan deputations to tell us that the Germans had cleaned out the Aeduan and Ambarric granaries, and were loading up their wagons. However, they had given out their destination as Spain, and those in the Senate who think it wiser to play down the threat of the Germans were quick to spread the news. Luckily Scaurus is not of their number, nor is Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus. So pretty soon after Gnaeus Mallius and I began our consulship, there was a strong faction urging that a new army be recruited for any emergency, and Gnaeus Mallius was directed to assemble six new legions.

Rutilius Rufus found himself stiffening as if to ward off a Marian tirade, and smiled ruefully.

Yes, I know, I know! Hold on to your temper, Gaius Marius, and let me put my case before you start jumping up and down upon my poor head and I do not mean that lump of bone and flesh on top of my neck! It should by rights have been me directed to recruit and command this new army; I am well aware of it. I am the senior consul, I have had a long and highly successful military career, and am currently even enjoying some degree of fame because my manual of military practice has been published at last. Whereas my junior colleague, Gnaeus Mallius, is almost completely untried. Well, it's all your fault! My association with you is general knowledge, and your enemies in the House would sooner, I think, that Rome perish under a flood tide of Germans than gratify you and yours in any way. So Metellus Numidicus Piggle-wiggle got up and made a magnificent speech to the effect that I was far too old to lead an army, and that my undeniable talents could be better used if I remained in Rome to govern. They followed him like sheep the leader who betrays them to the slaughter, and passed all the necessary decrees. Why did I not fight them? I hear you ask. Oh, Gaius Marius, I am not you! I just do not have that streak of destructive hatred for them that you have, nor do I have your phenomenal energy. So I contented myself with insisting that Gnaeus Mallius be provided with some truly able and experienced senior legates. And at least this has been done. He has Marcus Aurelius Scaurus to back him up yes, I did say Aurelius, not Aemilius. All he shares in common with our esteemed Leader of the House is a cognomen. However, I suspect that his military ability is considerably better than the famous Scaurus's. At least, for Rome's sake and Gnaeus Mallius's sake, I hope so! And, all told, Gnaeus Mallius has done fairly well. He elected to recruit among the Head Count, and could point to your African army as proof of the Head Count's effectiveness. By the end of April, when the news came that the Germans would be heading south into our Roman province, Gnaeus Mallius had six legions enlisted, all of Roman or Latin Head Count. But then the delegation arrived from the Aedui, and for the first time the House had definite estimates of the actual number of Germans involved in the migration. We discovered, for instance, that the Germans who killed Lucius Cassius in Aquitania we knew they numbered about a quarter of a million were only about a third of the total number, if that. So according to the Aedui, something like eight hundred thousand German warriors, women, and children are at present traveling toward the Gallic coast of the Middle Sea. It mazes the mind, does it not? The House gave Gnaeus Mallius the authority to recruit four more legions, bringing his force up to a total of ten legions plus five thousand cavalry. And by this, the news of the Germans was out all over Italy, try though the House did to calm everyone down. We are very, very worried, especially because we have not so far actually won one engagement against the Germans. From the time of Carbo, our history has been defeat. And there are those, especially among the ordinary people, who are now saying that our famous adage that six good Roman legions can beat a quarter of a million undisciplined barbarians is so much merda. I tell you, Gaius Marius, the whole of Italy is afraid! And I, for one, do not blame Italy. I imagine because of the general dread, several of our Italian Allies reversed their policy of recent years, and have voluntarily contributed troops to Gnaeus Mallius's army. The Samnites have sent a legion of light-armed infantry, and the Marsi have sent a wonderful legion of standard Roman-style infantry. There is also a composite auxiliary legion from Umbria, Etruria, and Picenum. So, as you may imagine, our fellow Conscript Fathers are like the cat which got to the fish very smug and self-satisfied. Of the four extra legions, three are being paid for and kept up by the Italian Allies. That is all positive. But there is an opposite side, of course. We have a frightful shortage of centurions, which means that none of the newly enlisted Head Count troops have undergone a proper training program, and the one legion of Head Count men in the last four legions just put together is almost totally unprepared. His legate Aurelius suggested that Gnaeus Mallius split the experienced centurions up evenly among his seven Head Count legions, and that means no more than 40 percent of the centurions in any one legion have undergone anything like battle conditions. Military tribunes are well and good, but I do not need to tell you that it is the centurions who hold the centuries and cohorts together. Quite frankly, I fear for the result. Gnaeus Mallius is not a bad sort of fellow, but I do not think him capable of waging war against the Germans. This opinion Gnaeus Mallius himself reinforced, when he got up in the House at the end of May and said that he couldn't ensure every man in his force would know what to do on a battlefield! There are always men who don't know what to do on a battlefield, but you don't get up in the House and say so! And what did the House do? It sent orders to Quintus Caepio in Narbo to transfer himself and his army across to the Rhodanus immediately, and join up with Gnaeus Mallius's army when it reaches the Rhodanus. For once the House didn't procrastinate the message went off by mounted courier, and got from Rome to Narbo in less than two weeks. Nor did Quintus Servilius procrastinate in answering! We got his answer yesterday. And what an answer it was. Naturally the senatorial orders had said that Quintus Caepio would subordinate himself and his troops to the imperium of the year's consul. All perfectly normal and aboveboard. Last year's consul may have a proconsular imperium, but in any joint enterprise, the consul of the year takes the senior command. Oh, Gaius Marius, that did not sit well with Quintus Caepio! Did the House honestly think that he a patrician Servilius directly descended from Gaius Servilius Ahala, the savior of Rome would act as the subordinate of an upstart New Man without a single face in an ancestral cupboard, a man who had only reached the consulship because no one of better origins had stood for election? There were consuls and there were consuls, said Quintus Caepio. Yes, I swear to you that he really did say all this! In his year the field of candidates had been respectable, but in this present year the best Rome could do was a broken-down old minor noble (me) and a presumptuous parvenu with more money than taste (Gnaeus Mallius). So, Quintus Caepio's letter ended, he would certainly march at once for the Rhodanus but by the time he got there, he expected to find a senatorial courier waiting for him with the news that he would be the supreme commander in this joint venture. With Gnaeus Mallius working as his subordinate, he was sure, said Quintus Caepio, that all would go superbly.