Editing Gaius Marius (section)

=== Political violence ===
While political violence had been increasingly normalised throughout the middle and late Republic, starting with the murder of the Gracchi brothers, the passage of the {{Lang|la|senatus consultum ultimum}} against Saturninus and Glaucia in Marius's sixth consulship normalised the use of force not only against private citizens, but also "against properly elected magistrates in order to preserve [the Senate's] own position".{{Sfn|Evans|1995|p=212}} 

Moreover, Marius's attempts to undermine Sulla's command at the start of the First Mithridatic War massively expanded the scope of that violence. No longer would only mobs clash in the streets of Rome. No longer would personal grudges be pursued by mere political prosecutions in the courts:{{Efn|E.g., the extortion and treason courts set up by Saturninus and Gaius Mamilius's [[Mamilian commission]].}} political enemies would be killed.{{Sfn|Evans|1995|p=169}}{{Efn|See both Sulla's and Marius's purges{{when|date=August 2023}} of the city after they captured it under arms.}} The use of the Assemblies eroded senatorial control which, along with Sulla's decision to march on Rome, created significant and prolonged instability, only resolved by the destruction of the Republican form of government and the transition to [[Roman Empire|Empire]].{{Sfn|Evans|1995|pp=167–8}}