Chapter 9
The Silent Revolution
By September 279 BC, the Etruscans had made their preparations and the
Second Punic War was about to begin.
A formidable fleet of 120 vessels had been mustered at Volaterrae – a further 80 were still under construction. The fleet would be under the command of the eminent Prefect
Martialis. The Prefect was encouraged by reports from Africa indicating that the Carthaginian fleet was in poor condition – Carthage had funnelled all it’s resources into it’s desperate land war against Numidia and Garamantes. Consequently its fleet was depleted in numbers and lacking in training.
The Etruscan fleet had been loaded with an assault force of 5,000 men, ready for the invasion of Sardinia. These would be commanded by Consul
Valens himself, as per the terms of his settlement with Martialis and Nasica. Resistance on Sardinia was expected to be minimal – Carthage had neither the resources to spare in its defence, nor the ability to safely ship them from the African mainland without risking a confrontation with Martialis and the Etruscan Navy. Valens had thus part achieved his first objective – providing Pax Etruria with a military force under sympathetic command.
Valens finally gains a military command for Pax Etruria.
With the forces assembled, all that remained was for Consul Valens to select the Republic’s envoy to deliver the official declaration of war to the Carthaginian Senate. Valens had demanded personal choice of the envoy as part of the conditions agreed with his rivals to enable the onset of war. It would be a crucial yet highly dangerous assignment. Carthage had been known to imprison or even execute envoys from foreign states engaged in acts of war. Relations between Carthage and Etruria, in particular, had hit bedrock since the opportunistic Etruscan land-grab of Corsica in the last Punic War. Nevertheless, Martialis and Nasica had agreed to Valens' terms - it seemed natural for the Consul to want some influence over this important aspect of the operation.
Thus was Valens’ second, far more vicious and personal objective revealed. The Consul had long craved revenge on his bitter rival Martialis for obstructing his political ambitions for so many years. As a senior member of the expansionist party, Martialis had lobbied for a series of reckless wars in which Etruscan lives, and that of the state itself, were put into danger time after time. Valens’ retribution was astonishingly cruel, for as envoy he proceeded to select none other than Martialis’s only son,
Tiberius Claudius the Younger. Valens cunningly left his second in command, Senator
Gracchus, to deliver the announcement of the envoy’s selection only once the fleet had already departed for the open sea. Prefect Martialis was therefore unaware of the events that would enfold until it was too late.
The younger Tiberius Claudius, namesake of his illustrious father, had only recently turned 18 years of age – with no political experience to speak of, he was clearly unsuited to the task. Nevertheless, Tiberius was promptly dispatched to Carthage, carrying a vitriolic and inflammatory dispatch that had been handwritten by Valens himself. When Tiberius - emboldened by the arrogance of youth - announced this message to the Carthaginian Senate, they were incensed both at the cynical opportunism of the Etruscans as well as the grievously insulting prose. Enraged, they ordered their guards to execute Tiberius on the spot.
Highlight of the younger Tiberius Claudius shown from the perspective of his father, the Proconsul Martialis.
Martialis’s one and only son was now dead.
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OCTOBER & NOVEMBER 279 BC – THE PAX ETRURIA COUP
Martialis was unaware even as Valens and his forces disembarked on Sardinian coast. Valens moved quickly, marching his 5,000 men to the northern city of Olbia and laying it to siege before word reached his adversary back on the fleet.
Martialis himself then discovered the dreadful news some days later. Stricken with anguish, the Prefect confined himself to his quarters, mourning grievously over the loss of his son. Cursing the name of his nemesis Valens, Martialis swore bitter revenge.
But Valens’ schemes ran far deeper than anyone could have predicted. The Consul had made arrangements for an ambitious plot to unfold back on the mainland - one that would enable
Pax Etruria to assume total control of the Republic once and for all.
On 27th November, a band of the faction’s supporters arrived at the mainland army’s camp in the dead of night. They brought with them a Consular decree, sealed by Valens himself. Nasica was to be replaced as General with immediate effect by none other than Valens’ second in command, Tiberius Julius
Gracchus.
Nasica is ousted as commander of the Auxilia in favour of Senator Gracchus.
Fearing the consequences to his safety once removed from the protective bounds of the
Auxilia, Nasica managed to evade the usurpers and fled to Volaterrae, where he would remain in hiding for the foreseeable future. The General had been outwitted and betrayed, blinded by his own ambition into trusting the agreement with Valens that he would enjoy full control over the army while Valens was Consul. Valens was now breaking this promise in spectacular fashion.
But it wasn’t just Nasica’s personal ambitions that had been thwarted. Valens and his
Pax Etruria supporters now controlled almost every aspect of the Republic – the Consulate, the Government and the Army. Only the Navy remained independent in the hands of Martialis, who even now was paralysed by grief over the loss of his son. It was a stunning coup and one that had proven utterly effective. Publicly, Valens proclaimed this as a glorious ‘
Silent Revolution’ – an overthrow of the Republic’s warmongering elite, which had been achieved without conflict or loss of life amongst the masses.
To ensure no outside intervention to his act of revolution, Valens’ proxies in the Senate House refused to sanction any call to arms of the Republic’s allies. For the time being, Etruria would be facing it’s internal as well as external conflicts alone.
Pax Etruria forces the Senate to block the calling of Etruria's allies to war.
As for Gracchus, his career had now been reignited thanks to his patron, Valens. Gracchus was a capable bureaucrat, having once held the Consulship back in 297-295BC and successfully delaying the First Italian War while he was in office. However, he had been on the political sidelines for over 15 years and more to the point, he had no military experience whatsoever. He would soon be exposed as a woefully indecisive and talentless combat leader.
Senator Gracchus finds himself at the helm of the Auxilia Etruria, a command for which he is woefully unqualified.
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DECEMBER 279 BC – MARCH 278 BC: CALAMITY AT BONONIA
By December, news of the astonishing
Pax Etruria coup finally stirred Prefect Martialis to action. Squadrons of Carthaginian ships were beginning to penetrate Etruscan waters between Corsica and the mainland. Raising anchor, Martialis orders the Navy in pursuit. Deployed in smaller groups, the Carthaginian ships are able to largely outmanoeuvre the Etruscan fleet. Nevertheless, Martialis’s resolve has been hardened by the loss of his son and he doggedly maintains the hunt, picking off enemy ships in a series of running battles.
Martialis engages the Carthaginian navy squadrons...
...while Valens continues to besiege Olbia.
Meanwhile, Carthage’s land forces remain completely occupied with its war on the African mainland. Etruria, too, would shortly face grave domestic problems of it’s own.
In January 278 BC, a new horde of barbarians is spotted crossing the Alps, heading towards Italy. In comparison to previous invasions the barbarian numbers are moderate – 14,000 men of the Quadi tribe. However, with 5,000 men absent with Valens on Sardinia, the Etruscan mainland forces could only muster 9,000 in total.
The Quadi had invaded Italy once before at the tail end of the Great Crisis when, in 302 and 301 BC, they were defeated by the great
Mercator Audax. But Mercator was no longer in charge of the defence – leadership now rested with the questionable Senator Gracchus. Early warning signs of his abilities could be seen in the slow and sluggish response to the invasion – the Quadi had already arrived in Bononia and begun raiding Etruscan settlements by the time the
Auxilia eventually arrived. The men were in poor order and Gracchus’s deficient leadership skills were sorely exposed when the army finally engaged the Quadi on 20th February. In the calamitous
Battle of Bononia the Quadi win a stunning victory, killing almost half the Republic’s troops while only taking a handful of losses themselves. The remnants of the
Auxilia fall back to Volaterrae in complete disarray.
Gracchus engages the Quadi...
...but is sorely defeated, taking major casualties.
Arriving at Volaterrae, a dangerous standoff ensues. General Gracchus demands an immediate march back to Bononia, but the army mutinies and refuses to follow him - the rank and file declaring that they would no longer submit to Gracchus. There is but one man who they would follow back into the fray – their former General, Mamercus Ulpius
Nasica.
Nasica had been hiding inside the city walls since the
Pax Etruria coup back in November the previous year. Sensing the shifting balance of power, Nasica now emerged and presented himself to the army, who rejoiced en-masse at his return. Most of the rank and file had fought under him in numerous campaigns, firstly during his time as second in command to the great Mercator, then as General in his own right. Nasica had no Senatorial precedent or official authority to assume command – technically command still lay with Gracchus and in countermanding him Nasica was committing treason. Nevertheless, the troops rally to his side. Gracchus flees to Tarquinia in disgrace.
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APRIL 278 BC – A CONSUL OF ROME
Word of these troubling events reached Valens on 9th April. The Consul had only just negotiated the surrender of Olbia’s garrison – Etruria now held the northern half of Sardinia.
However, Valens was coming to the end of his term in office and his allies had lost control of the army back home. Realising that it would now be dangerous to return to the mainland, he ordered the army south towards Karalis, hoping to buy time while the situation improved on the mainland, while seeking to boost his support with the army by completing the conquest of Sardinia.
At this point, General Nasica was marching north to relieve Bononia. With Martialis also away fighting with the Navy, it meant that all the main players in the Senate House were absent when the new Consular elections had to be held later that month. Senator Gracchus was the only senior figure from either
Pax Etruria or
Mars Imperito who was present, having recently arrived at the capital following his flight from Volaterrae. However, Gracchus had been disgraced following the disastrous battle with the Quadi earlier in the year and was never realistically going to be considered for the Consulship. He was, however, able to influence proceedings considerably.
Among the Senatorial observers present was Publius Cornelius
Dolabella. Dolabella was a powerful yet highly corrupt Roman magnate who had been inducted into the Etruscan Senate following the final surrender of the Roman state, 4 years previously. He wielded a vast personal fortune and held large tracts of land in the city of Rome itself, enjoying great influence over the local Roman aristocracy. He had been Consul as well as a Censor in Rome, back when the city still had it’s independence. Having arrived in Tarquinia to witness the elections, Dolabella was soon approached by Gracchus with an intriguing offer. Gracchus offered to utilise his remaining political influence with
Pax Etruria to provide an election platform for Dolabella – in return, the Roman magnate was to align himself with the faction and enact their policies while Consul, as well as working to turn the city of Rome into a new base of support for the faction. Dolabella quickly accepted the offer, eager for the chance to immerse himself further in the political workings of the Republic and for the power he would gain in the process.
Gracchus’s nomination of Dolabella was received in the Senate with outrage and disgust. Only 4 years previously the Republic had been at war with Rome – indeed, Romans had been the mortal enemies of Etruscans for generations. Now Gracchus was proposing installing a Roman as the Etruscan head of state. It was a desperate move by the politically disenfranchised Gracchus. The idea was scandalous to many, but the Senate as a body was proving increasingly ineffectual at managing any kind of actual democratic process. In recent times, several Consular ‘elections’ had been effectively rigged, such as when Mercator installed Nasica or when Octavius installed Valens. Equally troubling was how Senatorial decrees were being ignored – only the previous year Gracchus had been ejected from his lawful position as General, with Nasica replacing him in treasonous circumstances. The Senate was losing control of the workings of the state as well as its leading statesmen, who were embroiled in increasingly bitter feuds. Once again the Senate would prove powerless to intervene as Gracchus and his allies succeeding in installing Dolabella as the Republic’s new Consul.
In a scandalous turn of events, the former Roman Senator, Dolabella, is elected Consul of Etruria.
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MAY – DECEMBER 278 BC: THE SECOND BATTLE OF BONONIA
Even as Dolabella took the Consul’s chair to a chorus of jeers and whistles, the situation elsewhere was precariously balanced.
The war in Africa was being furiously contested by both sides. For the time being, Carthage could ill afford to spare a single man in the defence of Sardinia. In the west, the Numidians were bearing the brunt of the fighting but had succeeded in pushing back Carthaginian forces to the coast in some areas, capturing several key towns along the way. In the east, the Garamantes had taken advantage of Carthaginian distractions elsewhere and had occupied the small border region of Augemmi, but had otherwise made no significant gains. The citizens of Carthage itself began to grow tired of the prolonged conflict and a minor rebellion had broken out in the city. The war was certainly showing no sign of abating.
Carthage continues to be distracted by the hotly contested campaign on the African mainland, leaving Valens a free hand in Sardinia.
Meanwhile, back in Etruria, General Nasica and the reassembled Auxilia engaged the Quadi in a
Second Battle of Bononia. Under Nasica’s leadership the Auxilia finally drive off the barbarians, who become trapped at the foot of the Alps and are completely destroyed. This proved a huge redemption for Nasica – following his ejection from the army the previous year, he had won back his command (albeit in unlawful circumstances) and re-imposed his authority. The Senate may have been dominated at this point by
Pax Etruria, but with the renewed support of the army Nasica was as powerful as any other man in the Republic.
The newly reinstalled General Nasica returns to fight the Quadi once again...
...eventually destroying them entirely.
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JANUARY 277 BC – MARCH 276 BC: STALEMATE
Karalis surrenders to Valens’ forces soon in the new year, and the occupation of Sardinia is complete. This could not have come at a better time, for more disturbing news arrives shortly after – the Numidian war effort has collapsed and the Kingdom has meekly surrendered to Carthage, suffering the annexation of most of it’s territory. Carthage remains at war with the Garamantes, but whether they could keep Carthaginian forces distracted within Africa remained to be seen.
Valens takes Karalis while the war continues in Africa...
...but Numidia soon capitulates, losing most of it's territory to the victorious Carthaginians.
With Carthage beginning to wrest itself free of its domestic strife, Dolabella (with Gracchus’s approval) finally sends a delegation to Etruria’s allies, the Samnites and the Lucani. Despite their misgivings over the volatile situation evolving within Etruria, the age-old allies respond to the call to arms. Carthage now faced a united Italian front.
With the Italians remaining on the defensive and Sardinia already occupied, the remainder of Dolabella’s term passes uneventfully.
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APRIL – AUGUST 276 BC: VALENS’ DOWNFALL
While the stalemate continues in the south, General Nasica remains in the north, pacifying the region following the recent Quadi raids. Meanwhile, Martialis patrols the seas against Carthaginian naval attacks.
Pax Etruria remains in nominal control of the Senate House. Senator Gracchus, who has been pulling the strings in Valens’ absence, arranges for his political ally
Sextus Fulvius Valens to take over from Dolabella as Consul at the end of his term. Dolabella returns to Rome to solidify backing for
Pax Etruria within the city. This would be Sextus’s second term in office, having previously held the Consulate from 289 BC.
Sextus gains a second term as Consul, albeit as an essentially unelected one installed by Gracchus.
With control of the Senate House secured, Nasica away in the north, and with messages of support beginning to emerge from within the Roman aristocracy, Proconsul Valens now felt confident enough to return from his Sardinian expedition and address the situation on the mainland. Leaving a loyal garrison behind to control Karalis, he endeavours to make an overnight crossing to Tarquinia, intending to link up with Gracchus and Sextus.
This would prove to be a fatal mistake. Valens had underestimated Martialis’s control of the seas and on the night of August 25th his transport vessel is intercepted and seized by one of the navy’s patrols. The rancorous Martialis orders Valens brought aboard his flagship in chains. On the following morning, Martialis levels charges against his adversary – exploiting his position as former Consul, treason against the state and plotting to overthrow the government. Most bitterly of all, he held him responsible for the death of his son, Tiberius the Younger, back in 279 BC. The charges are legally tenuous since Valens had essentially been acting in his legally appointed position as Consul throughout, albeit recklessly. But the feud between the two rivals was beyond reckoning and no man could withhold Martialis from gaining vengeance for his son.
Valens was summarily found guilty of all charges. The judgment was death.
Thus, on the morning of 26th August 276 BC, the former Consul Valens was crucified on the deck of the flagship for all to see. It was a gruesome and miserable end.
Martialis finally has his nemesis in his grasp.
The Prefect gains the ultimate revenge for the murder of his son, Tiberius the Younger.
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Spurius Vitellius Valens had been one of the Republic’s principal leaders throughout its recent history. He was the incumbent Consul when Etruria was dragged into the Second Samnite War
[see Chapter 1] and went on to gain two more Consulships over the course of his long and illustrious career. This was an unprecedented feat – no other Senator had ascended the Consulship three times.
Valens’ political influence was rooted in his populist appeal. Throughout his career he had striven for what he believed to be the best and safest outcome for Etruria’s citizens – namely, aversion to risky foreign wars and an emphasis on peace and a more manageable colonial expansion. In the face of an increasingly powerful new generation of warmongering Etruscan politicians, Valens had founded the insular and conservative faction,
Pax Etruria, for which he had provided strong leadership for many long decades. As the Etruscan Senate became volatile and fragmented in more recent years, his political and personal rivalry with the senior
Mars Imperito Senator
Martialis had flared out of control. This resulted in the effective murder of Martialis’ son and, ultimately, that of Valens himself following the failure of his audacious but ultimately doomed
Silent Revolution of 279 BC.
News of Valens’ grizzly demise at the hands of Martialis sent shockwaves across the Republic. Martialis may have had insurmountable moral grievances over his rival but he had little or no legal grounds for ordering his execution. It was yet another essentially treasonous act from a leading
Mars Imperito supporter, following Nasica’s army coup the previous year. This was an unprecedented scandal - one that would prove to be the final nail in the coffin as far as Senatorial authority was concerned.
Back on the mainland, the remaining members of
Pax Etruria agonized over the downfall of their situation, as well as their remaining options. Valens’ demise meant that leadership of the faction nominally passed to the old and wily Senator
Gracchus, supported by the likes of former General
Octavius and the Roman Senator
Dolabella, as well as the incumbent Consul,
Sextus. Together their situation now looked grim. They had lost control of the northern provinces, where General Nasica had re-asserted his leadership over the army. Meanwhile, any possible help from Valens’ forces had been extinguished by Martialis, who controlled the coastal seas with an iron fist. The one silver lining was that they still controlled the government in Tarquinia, as well as having significant authority in Rome thanks to Dolabella’s influence there.
With the situation at home looking increasingly dangerous, Consul Sextus soon negotiated a soft peace with Carthage in order to focus on his own political survival, and that of
Pax Etruria as a whole. As part of the settlement, Carthage agreed to cede the city of Karalis – the southern half of Sardinia – to Etruria. Olbia was to be returned to Carthaginian control, much to the chagrin of the
Mars Imperito leadership.
The
Second Punic War was over.
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SUMMARY – SEPTEMBER 276 BC
The
Second Punic War had lasted 3 years – approximately the same duration as the First Punic War that had been fought around a decade earlier. The Second War, however, had been fought under completely different circumstances to its predecessor.
Whereas the First Punic War had been an epic Mediterranean-wide campaign dominated by Greek forces, the Second War was a much smaller conflict orientated around the island of Sardinia only. Etruscan troops had the run of the island from the outset – Carthage’s main focus was on its domestic struggles with Numidia and Garamantes and it had been totally unable to reinforce the island garrison, which was quickly overrun. The fledging
Etruscan Navy had proven it’s worth however, defeating an array of Carthaginian flotillas in several skirmishes and gaining total control of the local sea-lanes.
The Republic of Etruria had come out of the war having annexed the southern half of Sardinia. This was a relatively poor showing for 3 years of occupation, particularly considering Carthage’s domestic troubles. However, once again, Etruria had been held back by it’s own internal conflicts. Alarmingly, these had now spilled over into full-on violence and disorder, culminating in the failed
Silent Revolution and the murder of Proconsul Valens. Etruria might have emerged victorious from the war but it now seemed to be entering its darkest chapter yet.
Carthage, meanwhile, had seemingly vanquished the Numidians and now controlled most of their former territory in Africa. Their struggle with the Garamantes would continue for years, but the territory gained from Numidia would vastly outweigh that lost to the Republic of Etruria, so for the time being they had come out of their myriad conflicts ahead of par.
For the next 18 months the situation in Italy would prove to be tenuously stable. The southern Italian states remained at peace – Magna Graecia’s civil war had since come to a conclusion and the Lucani and Samnites otherwise remained docile. Massilia was the one notable exception. The western Greek Republic had once again suffered a torrent of barbarian invasions, beginning in early 276 BC, which pushed back the Massilian army and overran Vocontii. Frustration at the hapless government boiled over and later in the year the local governor of Emporion, one Aristophanes, would declare himself Tyrant, sparking a civil war.
Back in Etruria, a tense standoff ensued between the legitimate
Pax Etruria government in the south, headed by Consul
Sextus, and the circling vultures of General
Nasica in the north and Prefect
Martialis in the west. Nasica was pinned down in Liguria, fighting off the same barbarian raiders who had rampaged through Vocontii earlier in the year. With Nasica preoccupied on the frontier while Sextus, Gracchus and their allies loitered in the capital, an ominous calm descended over the Republic for the remainder of 276 BC and the whole of 275 BC.
But by the start of 274 BC, Sextus’s legal term as Consul was drawing to a close. The final climactic battle for the future of Etruscan leadership was about to begin.