Marcus Marius (General)

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Marcus Marius (* 2nd century BC; † 72 BC ) was a politician and general of the Roman Republic , who militarily stood up for the anti-Roman king Mithridates VI. committed by Pontus and after a lost naval battle against Lucius Licinius Lucullus was executed on his orders .

Life

Marcus Marius came from the plebeian gens Maria , but his family relationships with other witnessed members of this sex, such as the multiple consul Gaius Marius , are unknown. He was a senator and probably no later than 82 BC. Chr. Quaestor . Probably around 77/76 BC He fled Rome and went, possibly in the wake of the former praetor Marcus Perperna , to Spain, where he joined Quintus Sertorius , who fought against the regime brought to power by Sulla in Rome. Marius now served Sertorius as an officer and recruited in early 76 BC. In the Celtiberian tribes of the Arevacians and Pelendon soldiers and drove up supplies.

75 BC BC Lucius Fannius and Lucius Magius came to the Iberian Peninsula to form an alliance between Sertorius and Mithridates VI. to negotiate. Sertorius agreed and sent Marcus Marius as his representative to the Pontic king. Marius was to serve this as military advisor and military leader, but also to take over the administration of the province of Asia in the name of the counter-government of the Popularen , whose head in Spain was Sertorius. Therefore Marius moved with the Fasces into the cities of Asia, while Mithridates strode behind him and so contented himself with the second rank. Marius gave some cities freedom, others he granted tax exemption. According to Plutarch , the new government of Marius was welcomed by the provincials of Asia, as they had previously been oppressed by Roman tax collectors and greedy soldiers.

In the initial phase of the Third Mithridatic War , which Rome against Mithridates VI. fought, Marius was one of those generals of the king who probably died in the spring of 73 BC. Participated in the Battle of Chalcedon , in which Mithridates Marcus Aurelius beat Cotta and then included him in Chalcedon. When Lucius Licinius Lucullus approached Cotta's relief, on the way near Otryai in Bithynia he encountered a contingent of Pontic troops led by Marius and, due to their numerical superiority, probably wanted to avoid a battle, which in any case - allegedly because of a meteorite impact interpreted as a bad omen - did not take place . Marius soon suffered from a lack of food, which is why the informed Lucullus delayed the fight so that Marius finally had to return to the coast, where he united with Mithridates.

When the Pontic king was forced to stop his efforts to conquer Cyzicus , Marius was given the task of escorting the 30,000-man land army to Lampsakos together with Hermaios , but Lucullus caused him great losses on the way when crossing the rivers Aisepos and Granikos . Probably early 72 BC. BC Marius was to lead 10,000 soldiers with the paphlagonier Alexander and the eunuch Dionysius on a fleet of 50 ships into the Aegean Sea to accommodate the ships returning from Crete and after Sertorius' death also from the Iberian Peninsula. However, Lucullus was initially able to intercept 13 enemy Penteren at Tenedos . Then Marius and his main fleet had to face a sea battle against Lucullus near Lemnos , which he lost; 32 of his warships and a number of cargo ships were sunk. Together with Alexander and Dionysios, Marius managed to escape to an uninhabited island, where he hid in a cave. The very next day he fell into the hands of his opponents and was executed on Lucullus' orders because as a senator he could not be listed in the triumph as Alexander, for whom this fate was intended. Dionysius put an end to his life with poison. Like Sertorius, Marius had previously lost an eye.

literature

Remarks

  1. ↑ Marcus Marius is incorrectly referred to by Appian ( Mithridatius 68 and a.) As Marcus Varius ( Greek  Μάρκος Οὐάριος ); but all other sources confirm that his name was Marcus Marius .
  2. ↑ Plutarch , Sertorius 24, 2; Appian, Mithridatius 77.
  3. ^ Titus Livius , Ab urbe condita , Book 91, Fragment 22 ed. Weissenborn.
  4. ↑ Plutarch, Sertorius 24, 2ff .; Plutarch, Lucullus 8, 5 and 12, 5; Orosius 6, 2, 12; Appian, Mithridatius 68 and 70.
  5. ↑ Orosius 6, 2, 13.
  6. ↑ Plutarch, Lucullus 8, 5ff.
  7. ↑ Memnon of Herakleia , fragment 40, 3.
  8. ↑ Orosius 6, 2, 20; Appian, Mithridatius 76; Plutarch, Lucullus 11, 8; Memnon 40, 5th
  9. ^ Appian, Mithridatius 76.
  10. ↑ Plutarch, Lucullus 12: 2; Appian, Mithridatius 77; Memnon 42, 2.
  11. ↑ Orosius 6, 2, 21f .; Plutarch, Lucullus 12, 5; Appian, Mithridatius 77; Memnon 42, 2.
personal data
SURNAME Marius, Marcus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Roman general and politician
DATE OF BIRTH 2nd century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH 72 BC Chr.