Two Camps: Sulla, Marius and the Boy from the Subura

Rome, 88–⁠83 BC: Sulla, Marius, Cinna and a boy who lands in the very middle of the web.

Transcript

Eighty-eight BC. Two commanders want to lead the war in the East. The Senate gives it to Sulla, the people to Marius.

Sulla does the unthinkable: he leads his legions against Rome. Marius flees.

The next year Marius returns with the consul Cinna, and killings flood Rome. In January, a year after his return, Marius dies. Cinna rules.

In this world a boy grows up. He is sixteen and marries Cornelia, Cinna’s daughter. His aunt Julia is the wife of Marius. And he himself is to become a priest of Jupiter.

In spring, five years after the march on Rome, Sulla lands at Brundisium. The boy is caught in a web where every thread leads to one of the two enemies.