Gaius Marius (Pseudo-Marius)

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Gaius Marius , called False Marius or Pseudo-Marius († April 44 BC ) was a fraudster who pretended to be a grandson of the famous seven-time Roman consul Gaius Marius . He was executed on the orders of Mark Antony .

Life

According to the Roman historian Titus Livius, the false Marius came from the lowest of backgrounds. According to Valerius Maximus, he practiced the profession of ophthalmologist. According to the historian Appian , his real name was Amatius , while Valerius Maximus calls him Herophilus . The ancient historian Friedrich Münzer believes it is possible that the fake Marius was a former slave who, as a doctor, was named after a well-known representative of his profession, namely around 300 BC. In Alexandria working anatomist Herophilos of Chalcedon was named and also added the name of his former master.

When the dictator Gaius Iulius Caesar in 45 BC BC fought the remaining Pompeians on the Iberian Peninsula, the false Marius appeared for the first time in Italy and claimed to be the son of Gaius Marius the Younger and thus the grandson of the Germanic conqueror of the same name as well as the grandson of the important orator Lucius Licinius Crassus on his mother's side . Therefore he is related to Caesar, since his aunt Julia was the wife of the elder Marius. He was popular with the common people and was elected patron of several veteran settlements and municipal towns, which took away his alleged relatives with Marius. With the request for support he took in May 45 BC BC also made contact with the speaker Marcus Tullius Cicero , who however brushed him off with the remark that he should turn to his relative and now sovereign Caesar.

The fake Marius even approached the dictator's actual relatives and found recognition from some female family members, but not from Atia , the mother of Gaius Octavius ​​(and later Emperor Augustus ) , who was only 18 years old at the time . He had traveled to the Spanish theater of war, later sent on to Rome and thus returned before his great-uncle Caesar. On the Ianiculum he came across the political adventurer, accompanied by numerous followers, who also demanded recognition from him. But Octavian acted cautiously and referred to Caesar, who, as head of the family, had the final judgment. Even after Caesar's return to Italy, the alleged Marius still attracted large crowds from whom he was worshiped. He was then born in the autumn of 45 BC. Sent into exile on the dictator's orders.

Hardly had Caesar fallen victim to an assassination attempt on the Ides of March ( March 15, 44 BC), when the deceiver returned to Rome and again secured a large crowd of supporters from the city folk. Cicero mentions his reappearance in three letters written in mid-April. Since the fake Marius was related to the killed dictator due to his alleged family tree, he now played his avenger. With his violent followers, he posed a threat to the Caesar murderers, especially to the main conspirators Gaius Cassius Longinus and Marcus Junius Brutus . At the place of the dictator's cremation he had an altar erected and Caesar worshiped as the new god. Thereupon, by order of the consul Marcus Antonius, who took action against the misuse of Caesar's memory, he was arrested around mid-April 44 BC Seized and strangled without trial. The senators expressly agreed to this procedure because the threat to the Caesar murderers was over. The supporters of the executed charlatan were angry, however, banded together and demanded that the authorities continue to offer sacrifices for Caesar on the altar erected by the false Marius. But they were driven out by Antony's troops. Some statues of the dictator had previously been torn from their pedestals and destroyed in various shops, and these shops now wanted to burn down the violent followers of the false Marius, which in turn was prevented by the consul's armed men. Several people were killed in the uproar. Of the arrested arsonists, those from the slavery had to suffer death on the cross , while the free were overthrown from the Tarpei rock . So Antony suppressed the rebellion in an extremely bloody way and made himself hated by many members of the lower classes.

literature

Remarks

  1. ↑ Livy, periochae 116.
  2. ↑ Valerius Maximus 9:15, 1.
  3. ^ Appian, Civil Wars 3, 2; afterwards correction of the manuscripts of the Livy epitome ( periochae 116) and insertion of the name Gaius Amatius .
  4. ^ Friedrich Münzer: Marius 16). In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume XIV, 2, Stuttgart 1930, column 1816.
  5. ^ Appian, Civil Wars 3, 2; Valerius Maximus 9:15, 1; Cicero , Epistulae ad Atticum 12, 49, 1 and 14, 8, 1; inaccurate Livius ( periochae 116) and Nikolaos of Damascus ( Life of Augustus 14, 32): son of the elder Gaius Marius.
  6. ↑ Cicero, Epistulae ad Atticum 12, 49, 1.
  7. ↑ Nikolaos of Damascus, Leben des Augustus 14, 32f.
  8. ↑ Valerius Maximus 9:15, 1.
  9. ↑ Cicero, Epistulae ad Atticum 14, 6, 1; 14, 7, 1; 14, 8, 1.
  10. ↑ A very detailed presentation is provided by Appian, Bürgerriege 3, 2ff .; see. also Livius, periochae 116; Valerius Maximus 9:15, 1; Cicero, First Filipino Speech 5.
personal data
SURNAME Marius, Gaius
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wrong Marius; Pseudo-Marius; Amatius
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Deceiver who pretended to be the grandson of Gaius Marius
DATE OF BIRTH 1st century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH April 44 BC Chr.