Gaius Marius

Reading notes

• Ad Atticum 12.49 §2 by that Marius whom I had written about

  Cicero refers to the seven-times consul Gaius Marius (157--86 BC), the subject of his own youthful poem entitled Marius. The petitioner was invoking that famous Marius as part of his claimed pedigree.

• Ad M. Brutum 1.5 §3 Gaius Marius, while he was in Cappadocia, was made an augur under the Lex Domitia

  The Lex Domitia de sacerdotiis (103 BC), proposed by Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus, transferred election of priests from co-optation by the colleges to popular vote in the tribal assembly; Marius's election while absent in Asia Minor established that physical absence was no bar.

• On Divination §2.136 I, of Marius bidding me

  Cicero's own dream during his exile, in which Marius (the great general and fellow Arpinate) ordered him conducted with the laurelled fasces to a monument -- read as foretelling his recall.

• On the Ends of Good and Evil §2.105 Gaius Marius could call upon

  Gaius Marius (157-86 BC), the seven-times consul who, when driven into exile and hiding in the marshes of Minturnae, was sustained by the memory of his triumphs. Cicero allows that recalling such honorable past deeds rightly comforts the wise.

• On Duties §3.79 Gaius Marius

  Gaius Marius (157-86 BC), seven times consul. As legate to Metellus in the Jugurthine War he won the consulship by slandering his own commander before the people - Cicero's example of betraying good faith for advancement.

• On His Return: To the Citizens §7 C. Marius

  C. Marius, seven times consul and Cicero's fellow-townsman of Arpinum, who fled the Sullan proscriptions in 88 BC and returned by force of arms. Cicero invokes him as the third consular exile-and-return before himself, but distances his own peaceful, lawful recall from Marius's armed one.

• For Publius Sulla §23 this our own Gaius Marius

  C. Marius (157--86 BC), seven times consul and saviour of Rome from the Cimbri and Teutones, was, like Cicero, a novus homo from Arpinum. He is Cicero's prime example of a great man whom envy could not brand a foreigner.

• Tusculan Disputations §2.35 When Gaius Marius had his varicose veins cut

  Gaius Marius (c. 157-86 BC), the great general and seven-time consul, who reportedly endured surgery on his varicose veins without being tied down and without crying out. Cicero's stock Roman example of bearing pain like a man; cf. 2.53.

• Tusculan Disputations §5.56 Gaius Marius, when he shared the glory of the Cimbric victory with his colleague Catulus

  Marius and Q. Lutatius Catulus jointly won the victory over the Cimbri at Vercellae (101 BC). Cicero contrasts this honorable shared triumph with Marius's later cruelty in ordering Catulus's death during the civil war.