By the early first century BC, the Roman Republic had already carved itself a massive empire and was easily the most powerful state in the Mediterranean. Roman armies had marched victoriously over enemies far and wide, but the Roman heartland was soon to feel the tramp of armies on campaign as the Republic was convulsed by civil war and rival warlords vied for supremacy, sounding the first death knell of the Republican system. At the center of the conflict was the rivalry between Marius, victor of the Jugurthine and Northern wars, and his former subordinate, Sulla. But, as Gareth Sampson points out in this new analysis, the situation was much more complex than the traditional view portrays it and the scope of the First Civil War both wider and longer.
Introduction – When is a Civil War not a Civil War?
Key conflicts of the First Civil War, 91–70 BC
Chapter 1. The Road to Civil War
Chapter 2. War in Italy (91–87 BC)
Chapter 3. Coups and Counter-coups in Rome (88 BC)
Chapter 4. The Consuls at War (87 BC)
Chapter 5. Peace in Italy – a World at War (86–84 BC)
Chapter 6. The War for Italy (83–82 BC)
Chapter 7. Peace in Italy – a World at War II (82–79 BC)
Chapter 8. The Wars in Italy and Spain (78–77 BC)
Chapter 9. The War in Spain (77–74 BC)
Chapter 10. War on Two Fronts: Spain and Asia (74–71 BC)
Chapter 11. The Rise of the New Republic (71–70 BC)
Appendix I: On the Offensive – Roman Expansion in the 70s BC
Appendix II: The New Republic’s First Challenge – The Attempted Coups of 65 and 63 BC
Appendix III: Two Decades of Bloodshed – Roman Senatorial Causalities in the First Civil War