Appendix V
As has been mentioned throughout this work, the fundamental problem we have when analysing the wars of this period, is the lack of surviving sources. As we have seen, wars were raging throughout Spain, Gaul, Sicily, Africa, Illyria, Macedon and Thrace, not to mention an invasion of Italy itself. Yet in most cases all we have are a few lines or at most a few paragraphs of detail. Had we fuller sources then this period would have a far higher profile than it currently does, especially given fuller accounts of the key battles of Arausio, Aquae Sextiae and Raudian Plain. The following is a brief overview of the surviving and lost sources for the period.
Surviving Roman Sources
Sallust – The Jugurthine Wars (First Century BC)
Sallust’s narrative of the Jugurthine Wars is an invaluable piece of evidence and the only in-depth narrative of the period to survive. Furthermore, it was written just sixty years after the war itself and benefited greatly from Sallust’s use of the works of men such as Cornelius Sulla, Rutilius Rufus and Aemilius Scaurus, who had taken part in the events described. It also benefited from Sallust’ governorship of Africa Nova, the name given to the new province created from eastern Numidia when it was annexed in 46 BC. The position gave him access to the library of the Numidian kings (itself composed of a number of volumes taken from the sack of Carthage in 146 BC). Sallust refers to The Libri Punici in his work.491The major danger in using the Jugurthine Wars is Sallust’s stated intent to show how corrupt and degenerate the Romans had become, which had led to the civil wars of his day and explains the constant barrage of accusations of corruption against key figures of this period. Furthermore, as has been detailed, he was not writing a military history, and misses or condenses vital information for our understanding of the war.
Plutarch – Lives of Marius, Sulla & Sertorius (First Century AD)
Plutarch’s ‘lives’ are today indispensable biographies of a number of the Republic’s most famous figures. His life of Marius gives us our best source for the final clashes with the Cimbri and Teutones. Furthermore, he also made use of the biographies of both Sulla and Catulus, key figures involved in these wars. This latter point is his key weakness as he uses material written by men who became enemies of Marius in latter life and wanted to thoroughly darken his name and downplay his abilities.
Orosius – Seven Books against the Pagans (Fifth Century AD)
Orosius was a Christian writer of the fifth century AD, whose work on pagan history preserves a number of interesting accounts of Roman history. In particular, his details on the Jugurthine War, though brief in places, gives us a good source to compare to the account of Sallust.
(Unknown) Periochae of Livy
Despite the loss of Livy’s grand narrative history of the Republic, for events after 167 BC, we do have a surviving collection of summaries of his lost books. We have little idea when they were summarized or by whom, but they condense Livy’s narrative into a series of headlines for events that took place each year. Even reduced to such a format they still provide us with valuable information for the period.
Florus – Epitome of Roman History (Second Century AD)
Florus wrote a short abridgement (epitome) of Roman Republican history. Despite its brevity he preserves accounts for a number of the wars of the period and gives us an insight into the narrative histories that are now lost.
Velleius Paterculus – Roman History (First Century AD)
Paterculus also wrote a short history of the Republican period, but preserves less military material than Florus for the period in question.
Diodorus – Library of History (First Century BC)
Diodorus’ work took the form of a universal history of the ancient world from its earliest day down to his time. Although much of it has been lost, his later chapters on Roman history provide a wealth of previously unknown details, including a full account of the Servile wars.
Appian – Histories of the Civil, Gallic, Illyrian, Numidian & Spanish Wars (Second Century AD)
Appian was a second-century AD Greek scholar, who wrote a series of works charting the various wars the Romans fought, separated geographically, along with his Civil Wars, Unfortunately, aside from his work on the Civil Wars, the other wars survive in varying degrees of completeness. Nevertheless, they prove a number of useful narratives.
Granius Licinianus – Roman History (Second Century AD?)
We only have a handful of fragments of Licinianus’ work, but it is believed to have been an epitome of Roman history. The few fragments we have cover the period
163–78 BC and provide some interesting insights into the events under discussion.
Unknown – De viris illustribus (Late Empire)
The de viris illustribus, or lives of famous men, is a compilation of short biographies of famous Romans and non-Romans, mostly from the Republican period. Despite its brevity and unknown sources, we have biographies of Marius, Metellus Numidicus, Sulla, Aemilius Scaurus and Saturninus, as well as Scipio Aemilianus, the Gracchi, Metellus Macedonicus and even Viriathus.
Strabo – Geography (First Century AD)
Strabo’s work on geography contains the most detailed accounts of the tribes that were at war with Rome in this period, notably the Cimbri and the Scordisci. He made extensive use of Poseidonius and allows us a glimpse at the origins and culture of Rome’s enemies.
Lost Roman Sources for the Period
Detailing all the sources that have been lost to us but which would have covered the events of this period would be another book in itself. Nevertheless, there are a few which have been mentioned in the preceding text.
Livy – History of Rome from the Foundation of the City (First Century BC)
Of all the lost Roman works, it is perhaps Livy’s that stand out the most. His history of Rome from Romulus to Augustus was composed of 142 separate books. Today all that survive are books 1–10 (753 to 293 BC) and 21–45 (218–167 BC). Thus books 46 to 142 covered the last 100-plus years of the Republic and would provide us with such a wealth of information that it would transform the study of Roman history. We know from the summaries that books 62–69 covered the period 120–100 and would have provided us with details on all the wars that Rome fought in this period.
L. Cornelius Sulla – Autobiography (Second / First Century BC)
Sulla famously wrote an autobiography of his life, giving later historians a firsthand account of the events he took part in, although as such it was prone to increasing his own role at the expense of others, notably Marius, who became his sworn enemy during the First Civil War.
Q. Lutatius Catulus – Autobiography and history of the Cimbric War (Second/First Century BC)
Catulus, consul 102 BC, was another contemporary Roman who wrote on the events of his life. As well as an account of his won consulship, used by Plutarch, which clearly disguised his military shortcomings, he also wrote a history of the Cimbric War. He too clearly suffered from the desire to inflate his own achievements and also became a sworn enemy of Marius, an act that cost him his life; a victim of the bloodbath that accompanied Marius’ capture of Rome in 87 BC, though by his own hand.
P. Rutilius Rufus – Autobiography and History of Rome (Second / First Century BC)
Rutilius Rufus was another of the men involved in these events to write an autobiography. He was a legate to both Scipio Aemilianus in Numantia and Metellus Numidicus in Numidia, serving with Marius on both occasions, and was elected to the consulship in 105 BC. Following the disaster at Arausio it was Rutilius who had charge of Italy. He was exiled from Rome in 92 BC, a victim of an equestrian rigged jury, due to his campaign against corruption in the provinces. Nevertheless, this exile allowed him to avoid the bloodshed of the First Civil War and live out a comfortable exile in the Greek islands, writing his accounts of the events in which he had taken part.492
Poseidonius – Histories and Geography (First Century BC)
Poseidonius was a Greek scholar of the first century BC who wrote extensively on matters of science and nature. He also wrote historical works continuing Polybius’ histories from 146 to 88 BC. From the references in Strabo it appears that his works contained detailed accounts of the various tribal enemies which faced Rome, especially the Cimbri.
Lost Sources – Non Roman
As always we must remember that many of the other races of the ancient world had a corpus of literature as well. As already noted (Chapter 2) the Numidian court of Micipsa was famous for its patronage of scholars. Sallust refers to a number of now-lost native works detailing the Numidian peoples. Further more, the royal court received many of the works salvaged from the sacking of Carthage. It must be noted, however, that any Numidian writing a history of the Jugurthine Wars would be taking a grave risk if it took anything other than a pro-Roman bias, as a loyal client of Rome.
Perhaps the greatest problem for the historian is the lack of any material from the tribal nations involved in these wars. For the Cimbri and Scordisci there were no such chroniclers, though there may have been a flourishing bardic tradition which maintained elements of their histories in an oral tradition. Without such counter-balancing evidence we always risk the danger of only seeing these wars from the Roman point of view.