Pseudo-Marius (also referred to as Amatius, Herophilus, Chamates, or the false Marius; died 13 April 44 BC) was a man who claimed to be the son of

Gaius Marius the Younger Gaius Marius "the Younger" (c. 110 – 82 BC) was a Roman republican general and politician who became consul in 82 BC with Papirius Carbo. He fought in Sulla's civil war. He committed suicide that same year at Praeneste, after his defeat by S ...

, and therefore the grandson of the famous Roman general

Gaius Marius Gaius Marius (; – 13 January 86 BC) was a Roman general and statesman. Victor of the Cimbric and Jugurthine wars, he held the office of consul an unprecedented seven times during his career. He was also noted for his important refor ...

. He was murdered on the orders of

Mark Antony Marcus Antonius (14 January 1 August 30 BC), commonly known in English as Mark Antony, was a Roman politician and general who played a critical role in the transformation of the Roman Republic from a constitutional republic into the autoc ...

following the

assassination Assassination is the murder of a prominent or important person, such as a head of state, head of government, politician, world leader, member of a royal family or CEO. The murder of a celebrity, activist, or artist, though they may not have ...

Julius Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC), was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war, and ...

Biography

Pseudo-Marius, calling himself Gaius Marius, first appeared in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

in 45 BC, where he presented himself as the

patron Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows on another. In the history of art, arts patronage refers to the support that kings, popes, and the wealthy have provided to artists su ...

of the towns founded by Marius's grandfather and populated by the descendants of the legionary veterans who were established there. Taking advantage of the

Roman Dictator A Roman dictator was an extraordinary Roman magistrate, magistrate in the Roman Republic endowed with full authority to resolve some specific problem to which he had been assigned. He received the full powers of the state, subordinating the other ...

's absence in Spain, he cultivated the support of the various

plebeian In ancient Rome, the plebeians (also called plebs) were the general body of free Roman citizens who were not patricians, as determined by the census, or in other words " commoners". Both classes were hereditary. Etymology The precise origins of ...

collegia A (plural ), or college, was any association in ancient Rome that acted as a legal entity. Following the passage of the ''Lex Julia'' during the reign of Julius Caesar as Consul and Dictator of the Roman Republic (49–44 BC), and their reaff ...

'', and became enormously popular in the process. He was apparently wealthy enough to open up his gardens in order to entertain the people of Rome. Around the time Caesar returned to Rome in May 45 BC, Pseudo-Marius contacted the former

Roman consul A consul held the highest elected political office of the Roman Republic ( to 27 BC), and ancient Romans considered the consulship the second-highest level of the ''cursus honorum'' (an ascending sequence of public offices to which politic ...

Cicero Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, and academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises that led to the estab ...

, asking for his help as a defender, presumably concerning a legal case. Cicero, writing to

Titus Pomponius Atticus Titus Pomponius Atticus (November 110 BC – 31 March 32 BC; later named Quintus Caecilius Pomponianus Atticus) was a Roman editor, banker, and patron of letters, best known for his correspondence and close friendship with prominent Roman s ...

on 20 May 45 BC, says he refused, citing Marius' close familial links with Julius Caesar as the reason (Marius' supposed grandmother Julia was an aunt of Julius Caesar). It is uncertain whether the two events were linked, but in the autumn of 45 BC, Caesar expelled Pseudo-Marius from the city. With Julius Caesar's assassination on 15 March 44 BC, Pseudo-Marius returned from exile and attempted to set himself up as leader of the city's plebeian masses. Assuming the role of Caesar's avenger, in early April 44 BC he erected an altar to Caesar on the spot where the dictator's body had been burnt. Once again his popularity skyrocketed, causing the consul

some concern, as he was expecting the plebs or Rome to rally around him. Hearing news that self-proclaimed Marius had gathered together a street gang and was planning to capture and kill two of Caesar's assassins (

Gaius Cassius Longinus Gaius Cassius Longinus (c. 86 BC – 3 October 42 BC) was a Roman senator and general best known as a leading instigator of the plot to assassinate Julius Caesar on 15 March 44 BC. He was the brother-in-law of Brutus, another leader of the cons ...

and

Marcus Junius Brutus Marcus Junius Brutus (; ; 85 BC – 23 October 42 BC), often referred to simply as Brutus, was a Roman politician, orator, and the most famous of the assassins of Julius Caesar. After being adopted by a relative, he used the name Quintus Serv ...

), Mark Antony ordered his capture and put him to death without a trial on April 13. Although an illegal act, the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

approved of it, as they were concerned about Cassius and Brutus' safety. Pseudo-Marius' body was dragged around the city and eventually thrown into the

Tiber river The Tiber ( ; it, Tevere ; la, Tiberis) is the third-longest river in Italy and the longest in Central Italy, rising in the Apennine Mountains in Emilia-Romagna and flowing through Tuscany, Umbria, and Lazio, where it is joined by the Riv ...

. His followers gathered at the

Roman Forum The Roman Forum, also known by its Latin name Forum Romanum ( it, Foro Romano), is a rectangular forum (plaza) surrounded by the ruins of several important ancient government buildings at the center of the city of Rome. Citizens of the ancient ...

and demanded that the altar he had erected be dedicated to Marius, but Antony sent in soldiers to disperse the mob and kill the principal ringleaders.

Identity of Pseudo-Marius

It remains unclear who this Pseudo-Marius was. According to

Valerius Maximus Valerius Maximus () was a 1st-century Latin writer and author of a collection of historical anecdotes: ''Factorum ac dictorum memorabilium libri IX'' ("Nine books of memorable deeds and sayings", also known as ''De factis dictisque memorabilibus'' ...

, he was a former eye doctor called Herophilus, while

Livy Titus Livius (; 59 BC – AD 17), known in English as Livy ( ), was a Ancient Rome, Roman historian. He wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people, titled , covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome before the traditiona ...

said he was a low born individual named Chamates. Finally,

Appian Appian of Alexandria (; grc-gre, Ἀππιανὸς Ἀλεξανδρεύς ''Appianòs Alexandreús''; la, Appianus Alexandrinus; ) was a Greek historian with Roman citizenship who flourished during the reigns of Emperors of Rome Trajan, Hadr ...

called him Amatius or simply Pseudo-Marius. Modern scholarly opinion has largely followed the imperial historians' opinion, and declared that Pseudo-Marius was not the grandson of Gaius Marius, with suggestions including a runaway slave, or a freedman, or an illegitimate son of Gaius Marius the Younger. However, the only extant eyewitness,

, has provided two very different accounts a year apart. In the first account, in the letter to Atticus in 45 BC, he casts no doubt on the identity of the so-called Marius - he explicitly names him as Gaius Marius, son of Gaius and grandson of Gaius. Then, in April 44 BC, when he hears of Pseudo-Marius' activities in Rome, he still refers to him as Marius, and on hearing of his death on April 13, explicitly names him the grandson of

Lucius Licinius Crassus Lucius Licinius Crassus (140–91 BC) was a Roman orator and statesman. He was considered the greatest orator of his day, most notably by his pupil Cicero. Crassus is also famous as one of the main characters in Cicero's work '' De Oratore'', a d ...

- the father-in-law of Gaius Marius the Younger. However, by September 44 BC, Cicero's opinion had changed. In the 1st Philippic, delivered on 2 September 44 BC, Cicero declares that Marius was an impostor, an (unnamed) runaway slave who had assumed the name of Gaius Marius and had contemplated a massacre of the Senate. It is this assertion of being an impostor that the later Roman historians followed when providing the identity of Pseudo-Marius. However, the political environment in Rome when Cicero delivered his 1st Philippic may have required Cicero to possibly manufacture an alternate identity for Marius, given the longstanding political and friendship ties between the Marii and the Tullii Cicerones, and Cicero's desire not to be tainted by Pseudo-Marius' subversive activities in April. The families of the ''

Nobiles The ''nobiles'' ( ''nobilis'') were members of a social rank in the Roman Republic indicating that one was "well known". This may have changed over time: in Cicero's time, one was notable if one descended from a person who had been elected Roman c ...

'' were a small elite aristocratic group in ancient Rome, and well known to each other. It is unlikely that Cicero would have been taken in by an impostor in 45 BC, especially as the two families came from the same town of

Arpinum Arpino ( Southern Latian dialect: ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the province of Frosinone, in the Latin Valley, region of Lazio in central Italy, about 100 km SE of Rome. Its Roman name was Arpinum. The town produced two consuls of the ...

. Further, when Julius Caesar was confronted by Pseudo-Marius, he was silent on the matter of Pseudo-Marius' identity, and rather than having the impostor killed, he had Pseudo-Marius banished from Rome. Caesar would have known from his aunt (Julia, the wife of the famous Gaius Marius, and who died in 68 BC) whether she had a grandson or not, and his hesitancy in getting rid of Pseudo-Marius permanently, as well as his not denouncing the supposed impostor, speaks volumes. This theory is supported by a passage in

Nicolaus of Damascus Nicolaus of Damascus (Greek language, Greek: , ''Nikolāos Damaskēnos''; Latin: ''Nicolaus Damascenus'') was a Greek historian and philosopher who lived during the Augustus, Augustan age of the Roman Empire. His name is derived from that of his b ...

', ''Life of Augustus'', where he relates that Pseudo-Marius approached the young Gaius Octavius who was accompanied by a number of women from his family. While some of the women acknowledged his paternity as the grandson of Gaius Marius, both Atia (Augustus' mother and Julius Caesar's niece) and her younger sister refused to confirm or deny his paternity. Finally, the fact that the veterans in the Italic towns founded by Gaius Marius all acknowledged Pseudo-Marius as their patron. If he was not a member of the Marii, both the elite families of Rome and the clients of the Marii, both in Rome and across the towns in Italy, would never have acknowledged an impostor as their equal or their patron. Nevertheless the majority scholarly consensus, based upon the primary sources, remains that Pseudo-Marius was not the grandson of Gaius Marius. Some see his execution by Mark Antony without trial as evidence of his non-citizen status, that he was quite likely a wealthy freedman, and that his influence was achieved solely through the use of Marius' name.Steed, pg. 122

References

Sources

Ancient

, ''Letters to Atticus'' xii. 49, xiv. 6—8 *Cicero, ''

Philippicae The ''Philippics'' ( la, Philippicae, singular Philippica) are a series of 14 speeches composed by Cicero in 44 and 43 BC, condemning Mark Antony. Cicero likened these speeches to those of Demosthenes against Philip II of Macedon; both Demo ...

'' i. 2 *

, ix. 15. § 2 *

, ''Civil Wars'' iii. 2, 3 *

, ''Epit.'' 116 *

, ''Life of Augustus'' c. 14. p. 258, ed. Coraes

Modern