Son of Mars

Son of Mars is a short Roman novel framed around Gaius Marius reflecting on the beginning of his military life. Writing to Quintus Sertorius, Marius looks back to service in Spain, where the experience of campaigning, fear and killing begins to form the ambition that will later make him one of the Republic’s most disruptive commanders.

The historical setting is the Numantine War, when Scipio Aemilianus restored Roman discipline and brought the Celtiberian city of Numantia to surrender. The novella is useful as a prelude to both the Marius and Sertorius material because it shows military patronage, harsh command and the making of a new man before the late Republic’s larger political crises.