Cataclysm 90 BC: The Forgotten War that Almost Destroyed Rome

by Philip Matyszak

Worn out by the exertions and stress of the previous year, Marius died within the first month of his latest consulship. He had managed to demonstrate the point that he had indeed been totally unfit for the command of the Mithridatic War which had sparked off this latest crisis, but by then few of Sulla’s supporters were alive in Rome to tell Cinna ‘I told you so’. Exactly how many perished in this bout of bloodletting is unknown, for the historians of the time are more concerned with rhetorical expressions of outrage than with supplying an exact body-count. It is, however, very clear that the occupation of the city by the army of Marius and Cinna was an altogether grimmer business than the occupation by Sulla had been. Within months Rome had gone from a city ruled by law and constitution to a city under mob rule, followed by army occupation under Sulla, followed by siege and conquest by Marius and Cinna and a subsequent reign of terror. Not just the people of the city, but Romans across the empire must have asked themselves how this could have come about.