Chapter 4 Summary

Chapter four begins on the first day of Marius's consulship. After staying up all night to ensure that there are no bad omens for his inauguration day, Marius proceeds to the temple of Jupiter to be duly inducted into the consulship. The very next day, Marius calls the Senate together to hear his proposal. The Senate is packed to hear him. Most senators don't approve of a New Man being consul and they instinctively fear Marius, so they want to make sure they keep an eye on him and hear what he has to say.

Marius begins by recounting many recent defeats of the Roman army at the hands of German barbarians. In the last fifteen years, sixty thousand Roman soldiers have been killed in battle. Of course, this is a stunning loss of human life, but beyond that, it also means that...