The History of Manius Aquillius (consul 101 BC)The coin: Roman Republic, Mn. Aquillius Mn. f. Mn. n.,
gens Aquillia
AR -
denarius (
serratus), 3.96g, 20.01mm, 180°
Rome, ca. 71 BC
Av.:
Bust of
Virtus with helmet and
cuirass to r.
behind
III VIR, before from below
VIRTVSRv: Soldier in short war dress and with large
shield in
his left hand, standing to the
left,
head to the right, helping up a fallen female figure with
his right hand.
in the left
field from above MNF.MNN
in the right
field from below MNAQVIL
in ex.
SICILRef.:
Crawford 401/1;
Sydenham 798;
Kestner 3297;
BMCRR Rome 3364;
SRCV 336;
Albert 1303; Aquillia 2
About the coin:(1) This
denarius commemorates the defeat of the 2nd slave war in
Sicily by the
mint master's grandfather and
his virtus. The
legionary on the
reverse probably represents Manius Aqilllius,
consul in 101 BC, who is helping the personified
Sicilia.
(2) The title
III VIR appears on this coin for the first time.
The gens AquilliaThe Aquillia, sometimes also spelled
Aquilia (
Lat.
aquila =
eagle), were an ancient plebeian noble family of probable Etruscan descent. 2 of their
members are said to have been involved in bringing the Tarquinians back to
Rome. In 487 BC, Gaius Aquillius Tuscus was
consul and waged war against the Hernicians, an
Italic tribe south-east of
Rome, for which he received an
ovatio.
When Attalus III of
Pergamon died in 133 BC and, as he
had no descendants, bequeathed
his kingdom to the
Romans, a revolt broke out. Only Manius Aquillius, who
had become
consul in 129 BC, succeeded in ending this war. He then reorganized the province of
Asia as
proconsul. However, he played an inglorious role when he handed over one of the fiefdoms of
Pergamon to the kings of
Bithynia and
Pontus in exchange for bribes.
The Manius Aquillius mentioned on our coin (died 88 BC in
Pergamon) was probably the son of this Manius Aquillius, the
consul of 129 BC. He fought with Gaius
Marius against the Cimbri and was
his legatus. He played a major role in the
victory over the Teutones and Ambrons at Aquae Sextiae. In 103 BC
Marius appointed him commander-in-chief of the army and in 101 BC he became
consul together with
Marius. The Senate commissioned him to finally put an end to the 2nd slave revolt in
Sicily, which
had been going on for 3 years.
The slave wars in Sicily:The revolt of the slaves under the gladiator Spartacus is probably known to all, especially through the famous movie by Stanley Kubrick starring Kirk Douglas. However, the fact that there were slave revolts before that is less well known. The first slave revolts took place in
Sicily.
The 1st slave war took place from 136-132 BC. The rebels
had previously mostly been free citizens and were mercilessly exploited, especially in the mines. They were not considered human beings. Varro called them
instrumenti genus vocale (= talking
tools). In the end, the uprising was bloodily suppressed. 20000 insurgents were crucified or thrown to their deaths from
rocks.
The 2nd slave war:In 104 BC, the
Roman Senate decided to free the slaves who came from countries allied with
Rome. But Sicilian slave owners (
domini) sabotaged the measures and the second great slave revolt in
Sicily began. It was very similar to the first: this revolt also started from two groups, that of Athenion and that of Salvius (sometimes also called Tryphon). The number of their followers rose to 30,000. Athenion (died 101 BC) came from
Cilicia and was the overseer of 200 other slaves in western
Sicily. At the outbreak of the revolt, he assumed the title of
king, but then served Salvius, who
had been proclaimed
king in eastern
Sicily, as commander of the army. After the latter's death, he became
his successor.
His plan was to expropriate the large landowners and turn their land into common property. In the long run, however, the rebels were no match for
Rome's
military superiority. In a battle, Athenion was killed by Manius Aquillius in a duel. Aquillius then remained in
Sicily as pro-consul until 100/99 and celebrated an
ovatio.
When this
denarius was minted in 71 BC, the 3rd slave war, the Spartacus revolt,
had just been ended by Licinius Crassus, a
consul from another family. It therefore stands to reason that the coinage in this period, characterized by strong competition between the senatorial families, was intended to commemorate the
success of the
mint master's family 30 years earlier.
But
his successes in the slave war in
Sicily already showed that Aquillius
had a dark
side, which was finally to be
his undoing in the war against Mithridates: As early as 98 BC, he was accused by
Lucius Rufus of mismanagement in
Sicily. To put it simply: he
had enriched himself there. He was defended by
Marcus Antonius Orator, the grandfather of
Marcus Antonius, and although there was strong evidence of
his guilt, he was acquitted because of
his bravery in war (Plutarch, Life of
Marius).
The later
fate of the ancestor in the war against Mithridates is of course not mentioned. I want to make up for that here.
The war against MithridatesWhen Nicomedes III,
king of
Bithynia, died in 94 BC,
his son Nicomedes IV
Philopator succeeded him on the throne. Shortly after
his accession, however, he was expelled from
Pontus by
his half-brother
Socrates Chrestus with the support of Mithridates IV and fled to
Rome, asking the Senate for
help. As a result, Manius Aquillius was sent as an envoy to
Asia in 91 BC to reinstate Nicomedes IV. Even with
military pressure on Mithridates, Nicomedes was reinstated as
king in 90 BC, when
Socrates Chrestos was killed.
Appian, the most accurate describer of these wars, attributes the responsibility for the outbreak of the subsequent 1st Mithridatic War primarily to Aquillius. In 88 BC, he incited Nicomedes to invade
Pontus and plunder it. In doing so, he clearly overstepped
his authority as an envoy. When the Senate rejected Mithridates' attempts at peaceful mediation, Mithridates' generals quickly seized the initiative and crushed Nicomedes in
Paphlagonia. A second army of just one legion under Manius Aquillius faced an army of 100,000 Pontic infantrymen at Protopachium. Aquillius was defeated and fled. He made it as far as
Lesbos, where the inhabitants of Mytilene captured him and handed him over to Mithridates. He was put on a donkey and taken to
Pergamon. On the way there, he was constantly forced to confess
his crimes against the Anatolian population. As
his father was already known as an exploiter and he was accused of the same, he was killed by having liquid gold poured down
his throat. He died in 88 BC. This method of execution became popular and Crassus was also killed in this way by the
Parthians after the Battle of
Carrhae in 53 BC.
I have added a pic of the
bust of Mithridates IV of
Pontus as
Heracles, 1st century AD, Louvre. He was the last great Hellenistic ruler (Wikimedia)
Sources:(1) Plutarch,
Marius (2) Diodor, Bibliotheke historike
(3)
Cicero, Deoratore
(4) Iustinus Epitoma historiarum Philippicarum Pompei Trogi
(5) Appian, Mithridateios
(6) Velleius Paterculus,
Historia Romana
(7) Plinius, Naturalis
historia Literature:
(1) Theodor
Mommsen, Römische Geschichte
(2) Der Kleine
PaulyOnline Sources:(1)
Wikipedia, Manius Aquillius (
Consul 101 v. Chr.)
(2)
Wikipedia,
Mithridates VI. of
PontosBest regards
Jochen
