Marcus Marius (quaestor 76 BC)

Marcus Marius was a quaestor of the Roman Republic in 76 BC[1] and proquaestor under Quintus Sertorius's government in exile in Spain.

M. Marius is supposed to have arrived in Spain in the company of Perperna, but no further association is recorded with the man who was the prime instigator of Sertorius's assassination a few years later.

[4] He was certainly a fugas (φυγάς), a fugitive or exile, in keeping with the "peculiar legal situation" of Sertorius's men, some of whom were proscripti, and others of whom were hostes publici, "public enemies."

In both cases, their lives and property were forfeit, and their sons and grandsons lost the rights of citizenship, but the proscribed in addition had bounties on their heads.

Sertorius reserved in his own name Rome's claim to Asia, already organized as a province and acquired — he insisted — legitimately, but he asserted no rights over Bithynia, Paphlagonia, Cappadocia, and Galatia; these, he said, "had nothing to do with the Romans.

Bearing the fasces and axes, he entered at least two Asian cities and granted them and a number of others independent status and tax exemptions on behalf of the Sertorian government; in effect, he assumed possession of Asia with proconsular powers.

[9] In Plutarch's view, the province welcomed the new regime, because it had been oppressed by Rome's tax collectors and contractors (publicani) and by the "rapacity and insolence" of the soldiers stationed there.

At Chalcedon, a maritime town of Bithynia, they marched and sailed against Cotta, who rushed into battle before Lucullus could join him, prematurely savoring a triumph he didn't want to share.

The arrival of an omen, as reported by Plutarch, was thus fortuitous:[22] But presently, as they were on the point of joining battle, with no apparent change of weather, but all on a sudden, the sky burst asunder, and a huge, flame-like body was seen to fall between the two armies.

Marius was forced to move on without the fight he had sought, but the delay allowed Mithradates to leave Chalcedon and set out for Cyzicus.

Cyzicus was weakened from losing a significant number of troops at Chalcedon, and its capture would provide him with an abundant and much-needed food supply, as well as access to an excellent harbor and major inland routes.

Lucius Magius remained with Mithradates and appears from this point to have begun misleading him, perhaps because he had heard what may have been still only a rumor of Sertorius's death.

According to some reconstructions of events, it was at this time that Marius assumed the governorship of the Roman province of Asia, where he gained immediate control of Parium and Lampsacus, rejoining the Pontic forces only later in the siege; this is not entirely clear in the ancient sources, which may be recounting operations he conducted earlier upon arrival.

Along with Alexandros the Paphlagonian and Dionysios Eunuchos ("the Eunuch"), he was placed in joint command of 50 ships and 10,000 handpicked men, among them, in the words of Mommsen, "the flower of the Roman emigrants.

Ford imagines that this Marius was a nephew of the seven-time consul — a grandnephew would be more likely, since the consul's nephew Marcus Marius, known by his cognomen Gratidianus, died in the proscriptions — and that his presence at the Pontic court was meant to draw the support of popularist sympathizers supposed to have been among Lucullus's forces from the legions who had served under Fimbria.