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Pax Romana - Endgame Scenario — Upheavals of the Late Republic, 146-50 BC Please Note: This is a two-part Pax Romana scenario article — in this issue, Endgame: Upheavals of the Late Republic, 146-50 BC, and in the next issue Spartacus and the Foes of Rome, 88-55 BC. These two scenarios allow two, three or fourgarners to play out the many struggles of the late Roman Republic. The History (by Game-Turn): Turn VII (146-125 BC) In 146 BC Rome completed the destruction of two of her great- est foes. After a brutal siege, Scipio Aemil- ianus sacked Carthage, razed the city, salted its fields and cursed the site. Meanwhile, in Greece, Lucius Mummius was sacking Corinth, the last Greek city resisting Roman rule. Rome's former rivals in the East, the Seleucid and Ptolemaic Empires, had decayed to the point impotence. Nonetheless, all these victories did not lead to peace and stability — just the opposite. Rome continued fighting barbarian tribes, especially in Hispania (155- 133 BC),Thrace (135 BC) and Dalmatia (129 BC). More ominously, the city-state repub- lican government of Rome began to sputter and strain under the demands of managing an empire. Amongst the proconsuls governing far flung provinces, corruption and oppression became the norm. Another byproduct of Rome's many victorious wars was a massive influx of slaves. The first of the great slave revolts, or Servile Wars, engulfed Sicily (135- 132 BC). The killing of the reformer Tiberias Gracchus by a mob in the forum (133 BC) was the precursor to the civil wars that would follow. When Attalus III of Pergamum died (133 BC), he bequeathed his kingdom to Rome to avoid civil war. However, as the Romans moved into Ionia, a major rebellion erupted under Aristonicus. Once the Pergamene and slave uprisings were suppressed, a brief calm prevailed, but it was only the lull before the next storm. Turn VIII (125-100 BC) A series of campaigns against the Gallic tribes were fought (125-121 BC), leading to the forma- tion of the province of Narbonensis. Gaius Gracchus, the brother of Tiberias, was killed along with 3,000 of his supporters during more factional strife (121 BC). Another series of campaigns were fought against the Dacians, Scordisi and Maedi along the Dalmatian and Macedonian frontiers (118-107 BC). Against this backdrop of external threat and internal unrest, the greatest crisis since the Punic wars erupted. Furst, two large German tribes, the Cimbri and Teutones, began a migration to By Dan Fournie the south. The tribes collided with Roman frontier forces in Illyria (113 BC), crushing a Roman army before heading west to Gaul and Hispania. The Germans defeated a string of Roman commanders along the way. At about the same time, war broke out with a former ally, Jugurtha of Numidia (112-105). Quintus Caecilius Metellus took command in Africa after a series of setbacks. With him went an ambitious officer named Gaius Marius. When the war against Jugurtha could not be quickly won, Marius returned to Rome and won his first consulship, taking over the command from his mentor. When the Cimbri again turned against the Romans in Gaul, the legions proved inadequate. At the Battle of Arausio on the Rhone River, the Cimbri and Teutones annihilated two Roman armies, slaying 80,000 men (105 BC). It was Rome's greatest defeat since Cannae. The road into Italy was open. The senate turned to Gaius Marius, just back from defeating Jugurtha, to face the Germans. Manpower shortages forced Rome to call on her allied client kings for troops. Nicomedes, the King of Bythinia, complained that he could not furnish soldiers because the rapacious Roman tax farmers had enslaved too many of his subjects. In response, the senate issued a decree that all enslaved subjects of allied kingdoms should be emancipated. The governor of Sicily began to implement this directive and freed 800 slaves before the local land owners pressured him to cease. However, the unfulfilled expectation of manumission led to a second great slave revolt in Sicily (104-100 BC). Meanwhile, Marius reformed the Roman army and re-instilled discipline in its ranks. His new `marian' legions finally crushed the Teutones invaders at Aqua Sextae (102 BC) and annihilated the Cimbri at Vercellae (101 BC). Marius served five straight consulships and emerged as the leading strongman, overshadowing all other Romans. Turn IX (100-75 BC) Rome enjoyed a brief respite before the next series of catas- trophes brought the Republic to the brink of destruction. Campaigns continued in Asia Minor, the Danube region, Gaul and Hispania, gradually expanding Roman terri- tory. Then disaster struck close to home. The reformer Livius Drusus moved to enact laws granting citizenship to many of Rome Ital- ian allies. These long suffering communities provided much of the manpower for Rome's armies, yet were denied full political equal- ity. When Drusus was assassinated (91 BC), rebellion broke out all across Italy. This was the gravest threat to Rome since Hannibal crossed the Alps. Marius, Pompeius Strabo (father of Pompey the Great) and Lucius Cornelius Sulla all held key commands in the `Social War' but Sulla emerged as the most successful. Brutal fighting raged across much of Italy for the next four years, and the Italian rebels only ceased resistance when Rome finally granted them the coveted citizen- ship. As war raged in Italy, Mithradates VI of Pontus seized the opportunity to strike at the Roman province of Asia (Ionia) in Asia Minor (88 BC), defeating the local command- ers and slaughtering 80,000 Romans and Roman sympathizers. Mithradates had spent the last couple decades forging an empire around the Black (Euxine) Sea. The local populace, suffering from Roman oppression and voracious tax collectors, rose up in support of the invader. Next, Mithradates sent his top lieutenant, Archelaus, across the Aegean into Greece. Archelaus was able to seize Athens, where the citizenry supported him against the Roman garrison. A second force, with the bulk of the Pontic fleet was dispatched against Rhodes. Back in Rome, Sulla exploited the popularity he won during the Social War to gain the consulship, and the command against Mithradates (88 BC). While he was prepar- ing his army to cross over to Greece, Marius, leading the faction known as the `populares,' forced the senate to grant him the command against Pontus, and to order Sulla stripped of his army. This began the first Roman civil war, as Sulla, now the head of the `optimates' faction, marched with six legions against Rome (88 BC). Legions were not allowed within Rome's city limits, so Marius had only an armed mob backed by gladiators. He was quickly driven from the city in exile to Africa. Sulla purged the populares, enacted legisla- tion to protect optimates' interests, and then resumed his campaign against Mithradates. Meanwhile the Dacians and their Dardani, Maedi and Scordisi allies overran Macedonia and Thrace and sacked Delphi (87-84 BC). Sulla struck at Athens, which endured a long siege (87-86 BC) before it fell. Archelaus was able to withdraw most of his forces by sea, but Sulla defeated him at Chaeronea (86 BC) and Orchomenos (85 BC). Sulla drove the Pontic forces from Greece, and reclaimed the prov- ince of Asia (Ionia). However, Sulla could not finish Mithradates off, as the populares under Marius, Cinna and Sertorius had seized Rome soon after he departed (87 BC).The populares
