By Night on the Capitol: The Statues of Marius

Night, 65 BC: Caesar, as aedile, carries the forbidden trophies of Marius up to the Capitol. At dawn Rome looks on, and Catulus shouts in the Senate.

Transcript

Night on the Capitol. By torchlight, someone is setting up statues of Marius.

Gilded Victories and trophies. The inscriptions speak of triumphs over the Cimbri.

At dawn, people come to see. Marius’s old soldiers, Plutarch writes, weep with emotion.

In the Senate, Catulus rises. According to Plutarch, he cries out that Caesar is no longer undermining the state, but storming it with siege engines!