Effect On Civil War
- See also Gaius Valerius Flaccus (consul 93 BCE): Role in civil war and Lucius Valerius Flaccus (princeps senatus 86 BC): Role in civil war.
At the time of the murder, Lucius's brother Gaius was governor of Gallia Transalpina and most likely Cisalpina, and also a recent and possibly still current governor of one or both of the Spanish provinces. He thus would have commanded the largest number of troops in the western empire. Gaius had either remained neutral or supported the Cinnan government until that point. He is thought to have begun turning away from the Marian-Cinnan faction when a Marian was responsible for his brother's death, and to have accepted the new regime once Sulla's troops were in Cisalpine Gaul. His nephew, who had joined him in Gaul after Lucius Flaccus's death in Asia, served as his military tribune in 82 or 81.
Gaius also may have been influenced by their cousin Lucius who was princeps senatus at the time of the murder. The elder Lucius had been the colleague of Marius in the consulship for 100 BC, but after the failure of his peace initiatives toward Sulla, he sponsored the legislation to establish the dictatorship.
Read more about this topic: Lucius Valerius Flaccus (suffect Consul 86 BC)
Famous quotes containing the words civil war, effect, civil and/or war:
“One of the greatest difficulties in civil war is, that more art is required to know what should be concealed from our friends, than what ought to be done against our enemies.”
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)
“We all have—to put it as nicely as I can—our lower centres and our higher centres. Our lower centres act: they act with terrible power that sometimes destroys us; but they don’t talk.... Since the war the lower centres have become vocal. And the effect is that of an earthquake. For they speak truths that have never been spoken before—truths that the makers of our domestic institutions have tried to ignore.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)
“If I thought that I could speak with discrimination and impartiality of the nations of Christendom, I should praise them, but it tasks me too much. They seem to be the most civil and humane, but I may be mistaken.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“This is not Johnson’s war. This is America’s war. If I drop dead tomorrow, this war will still be with you.”
—Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–1973)