Day Four: Sardinia divided in loyalty between Julius Caesar and Pompey; What Roman orator and lawyer Marcus Tullius Cicero thought about the Sardinian people

Part One: Sardinia’s divided loyalties and an interesting late Republican period Roman coin

Sardinia had been under Roman governance for over 150 years when Julius Caesar began his rise to political power. Rome endured a civil war when Caesar was opposed by Pompey. In Sardinia, Carales, (the provincial capital and major port), Turris Libisonis and other cities gave their loyalty to Caesar, sending him troops and supplies. The city of Sulcis, although near Carales, gave its loyalty to Pompey, sending him unworked iron and weapons for his army.

With Caesar’s triumph, Carales and Turris LIbisonis were rewarded with their political status upgraded. Sulcis on the other hand was punished by having her taxes increased from 1/10 to 1/8 of her products. Some of her citizens were also dispossessed of their property.

After Caesar was assassinated the loyal cities continued by supporting Octavian against Sextus Pompey and then against Marcus Antony.

A side-note herein: coins were minted during Rome’s governance that showed, as did the previous Carthaginian coins, a combination of indigenous cult and Rome’s control. One example of such a coin shows Marcus Atius Balbus, maternal grandfather of Octavian Caesar, who served as propraetor of Sardinia around the year 80 BC. The coin referred to bears his likeness on one side and on the other is the head of Sardus, the deity of Sardinia considered the son of Libyan Makeris/Carthaginian Melqart/Greek Hercules (nb the assimilation of deities once again) who here is depicted with feathered crown and wearing a jade on his shoulder.

Part Two: Marcus Tullius Cicero bares his ethnic prejudices while serving as lawyer in a trial in Sardinia.

Marcus Tullius Cicero was an orator and lawyer. He wrote many essays (or disputations), orations against Mark Antony, countless letters to family members. As lawyer he defended several individuals, including Marcus Aemilius Scaurus. Cicero’s defense speeches can be read as Pro Scauro in a variety of modern collections.

Scaurus served as governor of Sardinia in 55 BC. He apparently attempted to put together a fund for standing as consul in the coming election of 54 BC. But within days of his return to Rome he was indicted for misconduct during his governorship. Since this indictment came just days before the consular elections in which Scaurus had intended to run, the intent surely was to hinder his election, either because empaneling a jury would disqualify him or his conviction would. The prosecution intended to shock the jury with charges of Scaurus’ cruelty, greed and unbridled lust, that he murdered a Sardinian named Bostar for his money and forced another Sardinian to flee and his wife to commit suicide rather than surrender to his lustful designs.

Sardinian witnesses did come forward to attest to Scaurus’ wrongdoing, including manipulation of Sardinia’s grain supply. Cicero as one of the defense team did chide the prosecution for its lack of direct investigation in Sardinia rather than merely relying on witness testimony, But he went further, choosing to not simply negate the possibly weak evidence of simple testimony but additionally impugning the individual and ethnic character of the Sardinians as a collective people.

He first states simply that the Sardinians are convinced they can please the current consul, Appius Claudius Pulcher, an opponent of Scaurus, hoping to gain greedy advantages from him, by diminishing Scaurus’ reputation.

Cicero then goes on to besmirch the Phoenician people. It was probably well known in Rome by that time that Carthage, which had previously governed Sardinia, had been founded by the Phoenicians and so Cicero perceived they were all one “race.” He thus continues on to say that “the Phoenicians are utterly untrustworthy. The Carthaginians, descended from them, have shown by many rebellions, treaties violated and broken that they have degenerated, The Sardinians were not settled into Sardinia and established there by the Carthaginians of mixed African race but were colonists banished and rejected by them…. I am sure my friend Gnaeus Domitious Sincalus, a man of great distinction, will pardon me…so will other sound men from Sardinia; I trust there are a few. When I speak of a people’s vices I certainly make exceptions. ..Some may have conquered the vices of their line itself and their people THe facts themselves show clearly that the majority is without credibility, without partnership and bond with our nation. WHat province besides Sardinia is there that has no community that is friend to the Roman people or free. …Will you struggle and demand that Scaurus with all his public standing…with the glory of his grandfather, be surrendered to a most disreputable, mendacious, unreliable people, and i might almost say, witnesses covered with skins?”

THat final disparaging comment refers no doubt to the “Sardi pelliti” mentioned in my previous account of the Hampsicora rebellion. While the people of the Sardinian cities probably dressed in different attire like tunics and robes, the mountain people, for warmth if nothing else, dressed themselves in animal skins. Not something to be ashamed of but the fact seems to lend itself to a way to belittle a people.

Dare this writer say that at least this part of Cicero’s speech somehow sounds a bit familiar to a modern ear.

Day Five: Leaving Rome to move backwards a bit in time to the Phoenicians arrival in Sardinia and what they contributed to the indigenous culture.