Marcus Marius was a quaestor of the Roman Republic in 76 BCT.R.S. Broughton, The Magistrates of the Roman Republic (American Philological Association, 1952), vol. 2, p. 93. and proquaestor under Quintus Sertorius's government in exile in Spain. Marius was sent by Sertorius to Mithradates of Pontus as an advisor and military commander in the Third Mithridatic War. He is named as or more likely confused with a Varius in Appian.Christoph F. Konrad, Plutarch's Sertorius: A Historical Commentary, (University of North Carolina Press, 1994), p. 200. Plutarch, Memnon, and Orosius call him Marius in contexts that indicate the same man is meant.
Family and political connections No connection has been established between this Marius and Gaius Marius or the other contemporary Marii of Arpinum. M. Marius is supposed to have arrived in Spain in the company of Perperna, but no further association is recorded with the man who was the prime instigator of Sertorius's assassination a few years later. Given that Marcus Marius was among the senators who fled Sulla, his politics are not likely to have been antithetical to those of the better-known Marian populares. A passage in OrosiusOrosius 6.2.21–22. implies, but does not directly state, that he was on the list of the proscribed.Konrad, Plutarch's Sertorius, p. 182, says that he "can be safely counted among the proscribed." He was certainly a fugas (φυγάς), a fugitive or exile, in keeping with the "peculiar legal situation" of Sertorius's men, some of whom were proscripti, and others of whom were hostes publici, "public enemies." In both cases, their lives and property were forfeit, and their sons and grandsons lost the rights of citizenship, but the proscribed in addition had bounties on their heads.Konrad, Plutarch's Sertorius, p. 182.
Mission to the East
Sertorius sent Marcus Marius as a military advisor and his representative to Mithradates during the protracted negotiations between the two over an alliance. By 75 BC, Mithradates offered to recognize Sertorius as head of the Roman state,B.C. McGing in The Foreign Policy of Mithridates VI Eupator, King of Pontus (Brill, 1986), notes that "it is not completely clear whether Mithridates treated with Sertorius as a government in exile, or as a rebel. … Plutarch's story, however, of Marius taking precedence over Eupator in Asia, does seem to indicate that the king treated Sertorius in something like the same way that Sertorius treated himself — as the leader of a government in exile" (p. 142). and sent aid in the form of 3,000 talents (72 million sesterces) and a fleet of 40 ships;The timing of the fleet's departure for Spain is not altogether clear in the ancient sources, and reconstructions by modern scholars place it variously: before Marius went East, shortly after his arrival, or after Mithradates broke off his siege at Cyzicus. Konrad argues that the fleet was sent after Marius's arrival and probably arrived in Spain sometime between summer 75 and spring 74. in return, he asked that Sertorius recognize his claims in Anatolia. Sertorius reserved in his own name Rome's claim to Asia, already organized as a province and acquired — he insisted — legitimately, but he asserted no rights over Bithynia, Paphlagonia, Cappadocia, and Galatia; these, he said, "had nothing to do with the Romans."Appian, Mithridatic Wars 68: mêden prosêkonta Rômaiois; Plutarch, Life of Sertorius 23–24.
Marius went East with troops. Bearing the fasces and axes, he entered at least two Asian cities and granted them and a number of others independent status and tax exemptions on behalf of the Sertorian government; in effect, he assumed possession of Asia with proconsular powers. His authority was held pro praetore, that is, under the auspices of Sertorius and without holding his own imperium. Plutarch calls him a stratêgos (στρατηγός), "general," rather than a praetor.Konrad, Plutarch's Sertorius, pp. 187 and 201–202.
In Plutarch's view, the province welcomed the new regime, because it had been oppressed by Rome's tax collectors and contractors (publicani) and by the "rapacity and insolence" of the soldiers stationed there. Marius's policy is consistent with that of Sertorius in cultivating the goodwill of the provincials under his government.Plutarch, Sertorius 24; Konrad, Plutarch's Sertorius, p. 202.
Mithradates permitted Marius to assert Roman primacy as agreed. The treaty with the Pontic king was concluded in the summer of 74, in anticipation of what would become the Third Mithridatic War in the spring of 73.The start date of the Third Mithridatic War has been a vexed scholarly question divided into camps advocating the spring either of 74 or of 73; see McGing, Foreign Policy of Mithridates, pp. 138–139.
Sertorius and M. Marius were not the only Romans who preferred an alliance to a war with Mithradates. Two former officers of the notorious Fimbria, Lucius Magius and Lucius Fannius, joined the Pontic king,On the politics of Magius and Fannius, see Emilio Gabba, Republican Rome, The Army, and the Allies (University of California Press, 1976), p. 113 online. A Publius Magius was tribune of the plebs in 87 BC with M. Marius Gratidianus. and both Appuleius DecianusBobbio Scholiast 95 (Stangl). Appian is misleading, or the text has been misread, when he calls Magius and Fannius "Sertorians"; see Konrad, Plutarch's Sertorius, pp. 191–192. and the senator AttidiusAppian, Mithridatic Wars 90; this long friendship, however, ended with Attidius's execution in a conspiracy. were fixtures of some longevity at the Pontic court.McGing, The Foreign Policy of Mithridates, p. 145. None of these men was a political moderate, and all had strong ties to vehement or even extremist populares.Gabba, Republican Rome, the Army, and the Allies, places Magius in particular among the "extremists" (p. 59). See also Konrad, Plutarch's Sertorius, p. 198.
Military command and death
With the alliance between Pontus and Roman Hispania, Sulla's civil war thus continued in the East and merged into the Third Mithridatic War.C.F. Konrad, "From the Gracchi to the First Civil War (133–70)," in A Companion to the Roman Republic (Wiley-Blackwell, 2007, 2010), p. 185 online. In late 75 BC, Nicomedes IV of Bithynia died, leaving his kingdom to Rome as a bequest. Sertorius probably made his arrangements before that time, or at least before he was aware that the death had created a new Roman province in Anatolia. Its first Roman governor was Marcus Aurelius Cotta, the consul of 74. The other consul of that year, Lucius Licinius Lucullus, managed to jettison his originally assigned province of Cisalpine Gaul and acquire a more ambitious playing field: the provinces of Cilicia and eventually Asia, along with the chief command of the war against Mithradates.Konrad, Companion, p. 185.
Lucullus landed in Anatolia during the fall of 74. Mithradates saw his opportunity, and invaded Cappadocia and Bithynia. During this period, Marcus Marius served as advisor and co-commander to the Pontic king. At Chalcedon, a maritime town of Bithynia, they marched and sailed against Cotta, who rushed into battle before Lucullus could join him, prematurely savoring a triumph he didn't want to share. Cotta was instead crushed and forced to withdraw within the town.Arthur Keaveney, Lucullus: A Life (Routledge, 1992), p. 77. Marius held joint command with Mithradates' general Eumachos at Chalcedon and in Phrygia.Konrad, Companion, p. 185. The ancient sources on Marius's military role include Plutarch, Lucullus 8.5 and 12.2–5; Memnon, Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker (Felix Jacoby) 434 F (1.28.3) = Memnon 28–29; Appian, Mithridatic Wars 68, 76, 77; Orosius 6.2; and Cicero, Pro Murena 33 (where he is not named).
Lucullus was camped somewhere along the Sangarius river in Bithynia when he received news of Cotta's defeat. His soldiers urged him to leave Cotta to his own folly and march on undefended Pontus with its rich potential for loot. Lucullus preferred to concentrate on Mithridates himself, and headed toward Chalcedon. Marius blocked and confronted him. They faced off at Otroea near Nicaea (present-day Iznik).Keaveney, Lucullus, p. 77. Although Lucullus commanded 30,000 infantry and 2,500 horse, he was daunted by the size of the opposing army and reluctant to engage. The arrival of an omen, as reported by Plutarch, was thus fortuitous:Plutarch, Lucullus 8.
No battle occurred. For Marius, delay posed a logistical problem. He had only a few days of supplies for his troops. Lucullus learned of the shortage through prisoner interrogations and decided to wait him out. Marius was forced to move on without the fight he had sought, but the delay allowed Mithradates to leave Chalcedon and set out for Cyzicus.
Mithradates' motive for this siege has sometimes been construed as retribution for the aid given by Cyzicus to the Romans at Chalcedon, but was also a strategic decision. Cyzicus was weakened from losing a significant number of troops at Chalcedon, and its capture would provide him with an abundant and much-needed food supply, as well as access to an excellent harbor and major inland routes.Keaveney, Lucullus, p. 78. After taking up a position, he divided his forces for a three-prong invasion of the interior. His general Eumachus headed to Phrygia, where he advanced into Pisidia and Isauria. Metrophanes and the Roman renegade Lucius Fannius penetrated as far as northeast Lydia. Lucius Magius remained with Mithradates and appears from this point to have begun misleading him, perhaps because he had heard what may have been still only a rumor of Sertorius's death.
According to some reconstructions of events, it was at this time that Marius assumed the governorship of the Roman province of Asia, where he gained immediate control of Parium and Lampsacus, rejoining the Pontic forces only later in the siege; this is not entirely clear in the ancient sources, which may be recounting operations he conducted earlier upon arrival.This sequence of events is presented by Keaveney, Lucullus, pp. 78–79 and 83, who regards Marius's governorship as unsuccessful, contra Plutarch; Keaveney has Mithradates sending ships to Sertorius only at this point, which likely would mean they arrived only after his assassination.
Despite the size of Mithradates' forces and his awe-inspiringPlutarch, Lucullus 10. siegecraft, he failed to take Cyzicus and its rich stores. Lucullus blocked inland supply routes. The multitudinous Pontic troops were weakened and reduced by famine and plague, and finally Mithradates was compelled to retreat by ship. He placed 30,000 ground troops under the command of Marius and Hermaios.Memnon 28. They enabled the king to escape, but lost 11,000 men at the Aesepus (present-day Gönen) and Granicus (Biga) rivers.Keaveney, Lucullus p. 84.