Caius Marius

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Caius Marius (1831), a tragedy by Richard Penn Smith. [Arch Street Theatre (Philadelphia), in repertory.] The rapid rise to power of the low‐born Roman general Caius Marius ( Edwin Forrest) irks the patrician Sylla ( Robert C. Maywood) and Metellus ( Thomas Archer), both of whom had helped him but now perceive him as a rabble‐rouser and an ingrate. A battle for control ensues, couched in terms of a class struggle. At one point, when mobs endanger Sylla, Caius Marius offers him the sanctuary of his home. In the end, however, after Caius has slain Metellus and Sylla's army is at Rome's gates, Caius's beloved and loving slave girl, Martha ( Mrs. Sharpe), prevents Caius's humiliating defeat by joining him in drinking a cup of poisoned wine. A subplot details the doomed love of Caius Marius's son, Granius (Mr. Smith), for Metellus's daughter, Metella ( Mrs. Rowbotham). Many contemporary critics felt this blank‐verse tragedy was Smith's best play, but the public was unresponsive, so after a few additional performances in New York, Boston, and possibly elsewhere, Forrest dropped the piece. It was apparently not revived until 1858, when F. B. Conway headed the cast at Philadelphia's Walnut Street Theatre in two performances mounted as a memorial to Smith. The text was lost for nearly a century. Rediscovered, it was published in 1968.

Caius Marius , c.157 BC-86 BC, Roman general. A plebeian, he became tribune (119 BC) and praetor (115 BC) and was seven times consul. He served under Scipio Africanus Minor at Numantia and under Quintus Metellus against Jugurtha. Later, when he was commander of Roman forces against Jugurtha, he hastened the end of the war by a bold attack against the Numidians. In 102 BC he defeated the Teutones at Aix, and the next year he bested the Cimbri at Vercelli. Rivalry with Sulla over the command against Mithradates VI of Pontus turned into civil war; Sulla won, and Marius fled Rome. When Sulla went off to fight, Marius, now allied with the consul Cinna, returned and slaughtered (88 BC) his opponents. Marius was a great general, whose military reforms resulted in a professional soldiery with political influence, but he was also capable of great treachery in furthering his own ambitions.

Bibliography: See biography by T. F. Canney (2d. ed. 1970).