Editing Gaius Marius (section)

===Sixth consulship===
[[File:Marius_Chiaramonti_Inv1488.jpg|thumb|1st century BC marble bust, the so-called "Marius"]]
During the year of Marius's sixth consulship (100&nbsp;BC), Lucius Appuleius Saturninus was tribune of the plebs for the second time and advocated reforms like those earlier put forth by the [[Gracchi]]. Saturninus, after assassinating one of his political opponents to the tribunate,{{Sfn|Duncan|2017|p=152}} pushed for bills that would drive Marius's former commanding officer Metellus Numidicus into exile,{{Sfn|Duncan|2017|pp=152, 155}} lower the price of wheat distributed by the state,{{Sfn|Duncan|2017|p=153}} and give colonial lands to the veterans of Marius's recent war.{{Sfn|Duncan|2017|p=154}} Saturninus's bill gave lands to all veterans of the Cimbric wars, including those of Italian allies, which was resented by some of the ''plebs urbana''.{{Sfnm|Lintott|1994|1p=99|Duncan|2017|2p=154}}

Marius worked with Saturninus and Saturninus's ally Glaucia to pass the land bill and banish Metellus Numidicus,{{efn|Metellus Numidicus refused to swear an oath required in the ''lex agraria''; Saturninus attempted to have him removed from the senate but was vetoed by his tribunician colleagues. He brought a proposal to exile Metellus; Metellus went into exile before the proposal passed. {{harvnb|Lintott|1994|p=100}} }} but then distanced himself from them and their more radical policies.{{sfn|Duncan|2017|p=155}} Around the start of the annual campaign season for the consulship, Marius attempted to disqualify Glaucia from standing for consul.{{sfn|Evans|1995|p=153}} Because other candidates would lower the chances of Glaucia's victory, Saturninus and Glaucia had an opponent – [[Gaius Memmius (proconsul of Macedonia)|Gaius Memmius]] – killed during the consular elections for 99&nbsp;BC.{{Sfn|Duncan|2017|p=156}}{{sfn|Lintott|1994|p=101}} The elections then were delayed.{{sfn|Evans|1995|p=154}} The Senate responded to Saturninus's attempt, to by violence force through Glaucia's candidacy over Marius's disqualification, by issuing a ''[[senatus consultum ultimum]]'', and – for the first time – ordered the magistrates to take whatever actions they felt necessary to end unrest generated by other Roman magistrates.{{sfnm|Evans|1995|1p=154|Duncan|2017|2p=157}}

After rejecting a plan to deploy the army near Rome under proconsul [[Marcus Antonius (orator)|Marcus Antonius]], Marius rallied volunteers from the urban plebs and his veterans.{{sfnm|Lintott|1994|1p=101|Broughton|1951|2p=576}} He cut the water supply to the Capitoline hill and put Saturninus under a short and decisive siege.{{Sfn|Duncan|2017|p=157}} After Saturninus surrendered, Marius attempted to keep Saturninus and his followers alive by locking them safely inside the [[Curia Hostilia|senate house]], where they would await prosecution.{{Sfnm|Lintott|1994|1p=101|Duncan|2017|2p=157}} Possibly with Marius's implied consent,<ref>{{harvnb|Evans|1995|p=155|ps=, citing App. ''BCiv.'', 1.32.}}</ref> an angry mob broke into the building and, by dislodging the roof tiles and throwing them at the prisoners below, lynched those inside.{{Sfn|Duncan|2017|pp=157–158}} Glaucia too was dragged from a house and killed.{{sfn|Broughton|1951|pp=574–75}}

In complying with the Senate's wishes, Marius tried to show the Senate, who had always been suspicious of his motives, that he was one of them instead of the outsider that Quintus Metellus said he was in 108&nbsp;BC. Marius's overall concern was always how to maintain the Senate's esteem: in the words of the scholar [[A.N. Sherwin-White]], Marius "wanted to end his days as ''vir censorius'', like the other great worthies among the ''novi homines'' of the second century".{{sfn|Sherwin-White|1956|p=5}} 

This episode in the city, however, won Marius little advantage. After he left office, Metellus Numidicus' relatives dogged him in mourning dress for his maltreatment of the general, pleading for his recall from exile.{{sfn|Lintott|1994|p=101}} Plutarch states that Marius had alienated both senators and the people.{{sfn|Plut. ''Mar.''|loc=30.4}} It is, however, unlikely that Marius was abandoned by his clients and peers, as Plutarch also claims.<ref>{{harvnb|Evans|1995|p=156|ps=, citing {{harvnb|Plut. ''Mar.''|loc=32.1}}. }}</ref> Evans tells us that Marius entered a semi-retirement as an elder statesman, a role which "precluded a more active participation in public life".{{sfn|Evans|1995|p=157}}