#sullarius

One by one the remaining 15 people of Saturninus’ would-be revolutionists were paraded in front of Gaius Marius in a ironic caricature of a triumph. Saturninus, walking in front, was the only one who not only kept his head high, but also actively looked at Marius. The consul shook his head slightly and Saturninus glared at his former ally. No, said the half of Marius’ face that was still alive, no I will not help you. The last man in the procession was Lucius Equitius, who looked a lot less like the Gracchi now that he wasn’t standing on the rostra. Stripped of the only power he had ever demonstrated, Equitius was now little more than a trickster who had overused his only stunt. 

“Well!” exclaimed Marius loudly and startled the men around him. Stretching out his arms as if to embrace the men before him, Marius heaved a huge theatralic sigh. “Whatever shall I do with you?” he asked, then turned around on his heels to face Scaurus Princeps Senatus who was standing on his left side. “What shall we do with them?” he asked again but a little more quietly this time. Scaurus took his time, watching the party of young aristocrats that had gathered around the young Metellus and Caepio. “Looking at these young fools over there, I say we must keep Saturninus and his friends somewhere safe, but also secure. No harm must come to them before they were given proper trials as they are still Romans, but we must also make sure that it’s impossible for the crowd to return and free them.” Scaurus massaged his temples and suddenly looked very old.  “Saturninus is not even the problem. Imagine the uproar as soon as some foolish woman starts wailing about Lucius Equitius, it’s a tragedy.” 

Marius contemplated this, while Sulla shifted nervously from one foot to the other. “Lucius Cornelius, please tell us what’s on your mind. Your making me giddy with your unrest” said Marius not unkindly. Suddenly in the center of attention, Sulla looked at the two men with uncertainty. “I was merely listing to your conversation about where to put our dear friends over there and I might have a solution.” “Then spit it out!” demanded Scaurus who a less patient man than Marius and also did not know Sulla quite as well. “We put them into the Curia Hostilia” said Sulla and Scaurus froze in shock. After a moment, Marius burst out laughing, earning him anxious looks from Saturninus and his allies and an amused one from Sulla. “Brilliant!” cried Marius, flinging one arm around Sulla’s shoulders and squeezing him only a little too tightly. “Brilliant?” echoed Scaurus and looked at them both in disbelief. “You want to keep these..these”- he gestured widely in Saturninus’ general direction-”in the Senate House?” Releasing Sulla, Marius again focused his attention on the Princeps Senatus. “Well, so far you have offered me no alternatives. What do you want? Do you want to keep them in our houses? By all means, if you want to spend a few days with Saturninus, I’ll take Equitius. That should be great fun.” Scaurus grumbled, but knew that he was defeated. He heaved a huge sigh, but his green eyes were alive with something like mirth. 

“Fine, then the Curia Hostilia it will be.” Marius nodded solemnly. “I will leave the honor to tell our fellow senators of our decision to you, Princeps Senatus” said Marius not without some amusement. “Oh, curse you, Gaius Marius.” Scaurus shook his head, but Marius and Sulla could clearly see that he was enjoying the prospect of breaking the news to the likes of Catulus Caesar. 

Now standing alone Marius turned around to face Sulla. “It is a good idea, Lucius Cornelius, and yet I can’t shake off the feeling that you’re planning something.” Sulla gave Marius a half smile, then looked very directly at the young Metellus and his group of aristocrats. Marius watched him with something like admiration. “I think I understand” said Marius quietly, then ruffled Sullas hair. “But by all means be careful, Lucius Cornelius. I would hate to see you get convicted for treason.” Sulla took a pause from rearranging his hair and looked at Marius for a long moment. “I promise I’ll be careful. Which is why I won’t tell you exactly what I plan, just to be safe.” Marius nodded, feeling an odd sensation rising in his chest. Wordlessly he reached out and grabbed Sullas shoulders. This time Sulla gave him a real smile before shaking him off. 

The morning of the day of the inaugural meeting of the Plebeian Assembly was cool with a light blue sky. Gaius Marius woke up a little earlier than usual and went calmly through his morning routine. When Julia asked him how he expected the day to go, he gave her one of his now sad lopsided smiles.  “I think the day will go very differently than what we all expect.” Julia looked at him oddly, then again demonstrated that she knew him very well.   “So, you count on Lucius Cornelius to come up with a solution?” Unwilling to give himself away and betray what he thought he knew about Sulla’s plan, Marius merely shrugged.  “He is an inventive fellow. If he doesn’t come up with something, nobody will.” “Not even you?” asked Julia softly.  “Oh, I could think of a way, that’s for sure. But Sulla is a true fox. His kind of intelligence is different than mine.” When Julia motioned for him to explain himself further, Marius could not put his feelings into words.  “I really don’t know, Julia. It is as if he can see ways I would not even think of.” “Yet you trust him?” “I do.” Julia smiled warmly. “Good.”

When Marius and the other leading senators got to the Curia Hostilia they could only watch as the same bunch of young aristocrats that Marius had noticed before was descending ladders down from the roof of the senate building. When the last one of the group had reached the ground, they just stood there a little defiantly with no one trying to escape. Without exchanging more than a few looks, the senators understood what had happened.

“What shall we do with them?” asked Sulla who had appeared at Marius’ side seemingly from thin air. Marius jumped a little, but quickly regained his composure.  “You’re asking the wrong question, Lucius Cornelius. The right question is: What can we do with them?” 

Scaurus made a helpless gesture, seemingly despairing of the situation. “Our problem has changed, Gaius Marius. As far as I can see, these fools saved us the trouble of trying Saturninus and Lucius Equitius in a public court. But now we have to come up with a suitable strategy to deal with our sorry group over there.” Marius shook his head slowly, his eyes searching Sulla’s and asking a silent question. Sulla gave him a short wink. “Well, Princeps Senatus, we have two options, I would say. Either we declare a general amnesty or we bring these young men to court for murder.” Scaurus hissed. “To do so would destroy a whole generation of us. No, Gaius Marius, amnesty it must be. Give them a speech on how wrong what they did was and then send them home.” “I’m sorry but giving speeches is way beyond my simple Italian self. No, I think I will leave this honor to you, Princeps Senatus” said Marius and tried very hard not to laugh. “Curse you, you plebeian tyrant!” hissed Scaurus and shot both Marius and Sulla one last angry look before he went over to the group of young Romans. Marius sighed. “Well, that was that. Now, let’s make sure that our assassins did their work right. You and me will go inside, Lucius Cornelius. The rest stays here.” ordered Marius showing the exact streak of autocracy that Scaurus had just criticized. 

Together Marius and Sulla made their way to the Senate House and Marius unlocked the door. Inside lay a battlefield. The bodies of the would-be revolutionists were scattered all over the room. Where the roof had been striped of its tiles rays of sunshine illuminated the dance of dust giving the building an eerie atmosphere. The Senate House contained no furniture, no places where someone could hide from projectiles. In their desperation the victims inside had fled to the very edges of the room, but to no avail. Where they did not hit a target, the tiles had crashed on the floor, sending sharp pieces in all directions. Marius spotted Lucius Equitius leaning against a wall, a splinter of tile in his throat. Saturninus himself had not even be given the time to seek shelter; his body lay lifeless almost in the middle of the room. With a deep sigh Marius bend down to close his eyes, but the eyeballs were so full of dust that the lids would not move. Marius sighed again and looked back at Sulla. “They were Roman citizens” said Marius slowly. “They were traitors” answered Sulla and placed himself next to Marius. The Great Man gave his trusty legate a terrible lopsided smile.  “You are right, of course. Thank you, Lucius Cornelius.” 

Sulla gave his best impression of confusion. “I have no idea what you are talking about, Gaius Marius.” “No” said Marius. “You don’t.” Once again Marius surveyed the room. “Well, it looks like we don’t have any survivors to deal with. Only time will tell how the people will react to this. But my instinct tells me that the crowd will not return.” “I agree” said Sulla and kept his eyes on Saturninus. And because he did not look at Marius, it came as a total surprise when Marius suddenly pulled him closer by his shoulders and kissed him. Sulla felt the world close in on him, leaving him only with Gaius Marius and the dead Saturninus. Completely out of his depth Sulla pulled back a little and looked into Marius’ dark eyes. Only now did he notice that his arms had wrapped themselves around Marius’ neck. 

“Why did you-” began Sulla quietly but Marius interrupted him. “Do you really want to talk right now?” “Right” breathed Sulla and closed the distance between them again. He felt like a completely different person, as if he was watching himself from a distance. Nothing and everything suddenly made sense. He thought of all the august senators waiting outside, of the Piglet who would probably die of shock if he saw him like this and he thought of the bodies littering the room. Sulla did not close his eyes but continued to stare at Saturninus’ open unseeing eyes over Marius’ shoulder. 

When they finally separated it seemed as if an eternity had passed. Sulla’s breath was shallow as he looked up at Marius. The general found his composure. “They are all dead” he said slowly. “Let’s tell that to our friends outside.” Sulla cleared his throat. “Yes, let’s do that.” 

Later they were sitting in Marius’ study, two glasses of unwatered wine between them on the table. “So” began Sulla cautiously. “Why did you do it?” Marius looked up at him as if he had been deep in thought. He tried to keep a calm expression but his eyebrows betrayed him. “Why did I do what?” he asked weakly. Sulla shot him an exasperated look then turned around to make sure that the door was locked. “Why did you kiss me?” A pause. Marius studied Sulla’s face as if he could read the answer there. Then he shrugged helplessly. “I’m not sure.” “Haven’t you once told me that you didn’t fancy me?” “Fancy you” huffed Marius then shook his head. “No, what I told you was that I’m not inclined towards men.”  “I am a man” said Sulla.  “I realize that.” 

“So?” Marius looked at him and Sulla tried to decipher the movements of his eyebrows but this time whatever Marius communicated was lost in translation.  “I’m thinking, give me a moment” said Marius slowly and Sulla leaned back in his chair trying to appear relaxed.  “I’m really not into men. I’ve never been in all my life. With you it’s something different.”  “In what way?”  Marius made direct eye contact and Sulla readied himself for whatever was to come now. 

“You and I are the only people in Rome who could destroy this city if we chose to.” A strange feeling settled in Sulla’s stomach. “What do you mean?” he asked even though he could guess the answer. He needed to hear it.  Marius smiled one of his sad lopsided smiles.  “You are the only person who is my equal. And that’s why…” Marius visibly fought with himself, then accepted his fate. “That’s why I fancy you, if you want to phrase it like that.” 

This is ridiculous, thought Sulla but he was not laughing. This is madness, thought Sulla but he felt more awake than in a long time. 

“I see” he managed to say while he tried grasp the absurdness of the situation. Here he was, Lucius Cornelius Sulla, getting told by Gaius Marius, six times consul of Rome, that what? That he loved him? Was it really that? Marius took a sip of his wine, then looked at Sulla. “Well then” began Marius slowly, “why did you do it?” Sulla was lost in thought and answered with confusion clear on his face. “Why did I do what?” Marius smiled warmly. “Why did you kiss me back?” 

Sulla stared at him and tried to recall the scene that was oddly blurry in his memory. “Did I?” “Oh yes. What kind of person do you think I am? I would not have done it, if I had been under the impression that you were unwilling.”  “So I appeared willing?”  “You did. Weren’t you?”  Now Marius had the audacity to sound worried. Sulla tried to gather his wits.  “No, no. Don’t worry. I...I was willing, if you want to say it like that..”  “Good.”