As mentioned last time, after a hundred years of conquest in the 2nd and 3rd centuries BC, the Roman Republic gradually expanded from a small city-state on the Italian coast to a giant around the Mediterranean, and its volunteer legions, originally composed of self-cultivators as the main soldiers, were gradually unable to meet the needs of long-term battles in overseas provinces far from Italy, which had become very evident in the Lusitanian War, and it was only because of the efforts of the famous general Scipio the Younger that Rome temporarily survived this crisis.
The Brothers of Gracchus, grandson of Scipio the Great who defeated Hannibal, tried to solve the problem economically, but were assassinated and killed by the aristocrats, and the consequence of this incident was that Rome faced a dilemma in the Juguda War. A Roman ally during the Punic War and grandson of the Numidian king Massinissa, In 119 BC Djoguda and his brother fought over the succession to the kingdom, and although Djuguda was victorious, the Romans forcibly decided to divide the kingdom in two and rule them separately, and Djoguda declared war on the Romans in 112 BC.
Djouda in the American drama Rome: The Rise and Fall of Empires
At the beginning of the war, the two sides were victorious and defeated, because Juguda used the advantages of his cavalry to carry out guerrilla warfare, coupled with the Roman noble generals secretly accepting bribes from Juguda and secretly releasing water, and the low morale of the low-level generals because they had gained nothing in poor Numidia (present-day Algeria, North Africa), resulting in the war lasting six years without progress. The Roman plebeians were so dissatisfied with this that they forcibly convened a citizens' assembly and elected Major, a knight-turned-knight, to be consul to command the Djoguda War.
Malleus in the American drama Rome: The Rise and Fall of Empires
The first episode of the 2008 American history documentary Rome: Rise and Fall of an Empire mentions Malleus and briefly explains a few minutes of the Juguda War, but unfortunately the Numidian infantry in the film are all Dressed as Turkic-style Arab infantry wearing robes, machetes and round shields, but in fact, Numidian infantry generally fight with spears, heavy infantry and Roman armor, light infantry and cavalry are generally wrapped in a few rags. Appears to be unclothed.
Painting: Numidian light and heavy infantry and cavalry
Turkic-Arab Numidian infantry in the American drama Rome: The Rise and Fall of Empires
Malleus carried out a series of reforms to the Roman military system, the most important of which was to change the original volunteer system to a conscription system, any Roman citizen, regardless of whether he had property or not, could enter the legion, and the service period was extended to 16 years, and the army provided equipment and weapons uniformly, and paid on time, which was convenient for material supply and conducive to long-term training and combat. Relying on such a professional army, Malleus quickly defeated Anduguda and captured him alive.
During the battle against Djoguda, Malleus' vice-admiral was Sulla, a run-down nobleman in his early 30s, and since Djoguda was eventually captured by Sulla, this incident created a little gap between the two, of course, at this time the two did not have time to break up, because at this time there was another major crisis in Rome, and in 105 BC, the 120,000 troops (80,000 Romans & 40,000 allies) commanded by the consuls Capio and Maximus were completely annihilated by the Sinburi at the Battle of Araucio!
Cabo in the American drama Rome: The Rise and Fall of Empire
The Simburi were a Germanic tribe that originally inhabited the Jutland peninsula of northern Europe, and around 120 BC about 300,000 Simburi began to move south, reaching the northern foothills of the Alpine Mountains (present-day Austria) in 113 BC, clashing with the local Gaulish tribes that were dependent on the Romans. The Roman consul Cabo led his troops to mediate, originally the two sides had already negotiated, Cabo wanted to take the opportunity to sneak attack the Cimbri, but was killed by the other side, and finally only Cabo and a few other people broke through and escaped.
The Cimbri realized that the Romans were not so strong, so they crossed the Arpeg Mountains into northern Italy, and defeated the Romans in the Battle of Budigala in 107 BC, killing 6,000 and taking 4,000 prisoners. Realizing that they had encountered a fierce enemy, the Romans had to piece together the above-mentioned 120,000-strong army, but due to the discord between Kepio and Maximus, they actually quarreled in front of the two sides, and the Cimbri people immediately seized the fighter plane and attacked the whole army, annihilating the largest Roman army since the founding of the city.
Painting: Simburi Warrior
The first episode of the 2008 American history documentary Rome: Rise and Fall of an Empire, which tells the story of the Sinbree War and calls it the first barbarian war, is probably intended to take care of Thera's emotions, introducing a clip of Cabo sneaking up on the Simburis, but not the battle of Araucio.
The Sinburi in the American drama Rome: The Rise and Fall of empires
Rome lost almost two-thirds of its male population under several blows from the Cimbri, but fortunately, just after the End of the Chocolate War, the great hero Malleus and his little friend Sulla were recruited to take full command of the Roman army. At this time, fortunately, the Cimbri had once developed into Spain after the great victory, but they were repelled by the locals, and by the time they re-entered northern Italy, it was three years later, by which time Malleus had already trained a powerful Roman army.
Malleus established a fortress-like stronghold in the lower Rhône River, a must for the Simburis, and in 102 BC, the Simburis appeared near the fortress and launched a senseless assault. Seeing that the camp had been unable to be attacked for a long time, the Simburi people continued to advance around the camp, and Malleus immediately led his troops out of the camp to pursue. The Simburi felt the need to knock off this tail and chose to engage Malleus at Aquia Sektiya.
The Battle of Aquia Sektia, a brief map of the Romans' battle layout
Malleus deployed his troops on a high ground and waited for the Sinburi to attack after the fortifications were set up. The Cimbri people did indeed succeed in the plan, the strong attack for a long time still did not progress, Malleus waited for the opportunity to arrive, sent a 300-man elite army through the forest to attack the cimbri people's rear, at once they fell into chaos, and then the Roman army attacked in full line, killing more than 90,000 people in total and taking more than 20,000 prisoners.
In 102 BC, Malleus was inaugurated as consul in Rome
At the same time as Malleus achieved the victory of Aquia Sektia, another simburi defeated the forces of the Roman consul Caratus and prepared to spend the winter in the Po River Valley, waiting for the arrival of several other Germans. When Malleus, who was holding the inauguration ceremony of the consul in Rome, learned of this, he quickly led his troops to meet Karatus and launched an attack without the Simburi people being completely defenseless, killing more than 140,000 people and taking more than 60,000 prisoners, so that the 300,000 Simburi who invaded northern Italy had all been solved.
1834 Alexander Decan oil painting "Malleus defeats the Sinburi"
Although militarily successful, Malleus was politically incompetent, and during his tenure as consul, the aristocratic and plebeian factions clashed fiercely in the streets of Rome, and at the request of the senate, which was dominated by the aristocracy, he was forced to leave school and go into seclusion. A few years after Malleus's resignation, Rome encountered a new military crisis, and within the country, the city-states of southern Italy launched a collective rebellion to gain citizenship, and in Asia Minor, the kingdoms of Armenia and Pontus attempted to attack the Roman protectorates in the country.
Sulla, who had previously been shrouded in Malleus' aura, finally ushered in the first day, and the Senate urgently appointed him to solve this series of military crises. Sulla did have a few brushes, first quickly repelling the Armenians, and then enwei forced a parallel landing on the southern Italian city-states (agreeing to their Roman citizenship).
Sulla of the old dragon clock in Julius Caesar
Taking advantage of the Efforts of the Romans to put down the rebellion in southern Italy, King Mithridates VI of Pontus not only captured Asia Minor, but also invaded Greece and mobilized a part of the Greeks against Rome. The plebeian faction in Rome also lost no time in a revolt, supported by the former consul Malleus. Faced with the dilemma of two-front warfare, Sulla naturally chose to first pacify Rome, and Malleus and others had no experience in the hands of the army, and were soon forced to flee to North Africa.
Map of the confrontation between the Kingdom of Pontus (purple) and Rome
In 87 BC, Sulla returned to Greece with an army of 30,000, and soon recovered the rebellious Greek city-states, and defeated the combined Forces of Pontus and Greece in the two battles of Caronia and Olhometa. At this time, while Sulla was busy with the Greek wars, Malleus returned to Rome with his old army of North Africa and regained control of Rome with the consul Qinna. Not long after the success of this seizure of power, Malleus died of illness.
Qinna then slaughtered in Rome, and Sulla's friends who remained in Rome were executed and their property confiscated. He also sent an army under Frakas' command to Asia Minor to demand that Sulla surrender command in the name of unifying command of the Eastern Front. However, Flacas was soon assassinated in a mutiny, and Sula took the opportunity to take an active role and persuaded the mutineers to give him command of the army. After hastily making peace with Mithridates VI, in 84 BC Sulla again returned to Italy with an army of 40,000.
Painting: Qinna and Malleus dominate in Rome
Qinna was forced to hastily recruit an army to resist, and died unexpectedly in a mutiny. Some young officers from aristocratic backgrounds, including Pompey and Crassus, also came to join Sulla, which increased its momentum. Malleus's son, The Younger, hastily assembled an army of men equal to Sulla's, but its combat effectiveness was clearly far apart, so it was easily defeated by Sulla. In 82 BC, Sulla returned to the city of Rome and made himself dictator for life, followed by a frenzied revenge on the plebeians.
In "Julius Caesar", Sula led the troops to level Rome, and Pompey was "promoted" by the director to be Sula's deputy general
As Chinna did, Sulla massacred Qinna's friends and party members and confiscated their property. Qinna's son-in-law, 18-year-old Julius Caesar, also fell into the hands of Sulla, who asked him to divorce Qinna's daughter, but Caesar refused. Admiring Caesar's courage, Sulla sent him to the East to participate in the work of eliminating local pirates.
In Julius Caesar, Sulla interrogates Caesar
With the support of an army loyal to him, Sulla was almost the king of Rome at this time, no one could impeach him, he could kill whomever he wanted, and the Senate was just a rubber stamp to him. But Sulla did not take that step in the end, and after three years as a supreme lifelong dictator, Sulla voluntarily resigned, declared herself "an ordinary citizen", and returned power to the Senate.
The four-hour-long 2002 American film "Julius Caesar" begins with a valuable account of Sula's attempts to raise The Level of Rome and interrogate Caesar, but the director of the film seems intent on elevating Pompey's image, blaming Caesar's release and Sula's sudden death on Pompey's "inadvertent" small actions.
In Julius Caesar, Sula dies of a sudden heart attack while bathing
Shortly after Sulla retired, she died of illness in his country house that night after writing his will, and Sulla's old men held a grand memorial parade for him in the city of Rome. Although Sulla returned power to the Senate before his death, the implication of his and Malleus' actions was that the professional Roman army had gradually become the general's private soldier, helping them to reach the pinnacle of inviolable power and crushing all opponents.