Lucius Cornelius Sulla

Багерман А.Я.

Lucius Cornelius Sulla (138–78 BCE) was a Roman commander and politician, consul in 88 and 80 and extraordinary dictator after victory in the civil war of 82. In his period, imperator recognised military success; it did not denote the later imperial office.

Sulla twice brought troops into Rome, in 88 and 82 BCE. His rule involved proscriptions, confiscations and changes to Republican institutions. He later relinquished extraordinary powers and retired from active politics.

Biography

Lucius Cornelius Sulla was born in 138 BCE. He received his name Lucius in honor of his father.

Salustius provides the following information about Sulla's education and way of life: "Sulla belonged to a noble patrician family, a branch of which had nearly died out due to the inactivity of his ancestors. He was well versed in Greek and Latin literature, was extremely patient, had an insatiable appetite for pleasure, and even more so for glory [In this, he resembled Marius and any distinguished young Roman dreaming of glory]. In his leisure time, he enjoyed indulging in luxury, but carnal pleasures never distracted him from his duties... He was eloquent, cunning, easily made friends, and had an extraordinary ability to be discreet in his affairs. He was generous in many ways, especially with money." Gaius Sallustius Crispus. Works. Translation by V.O. Gorenstein. Publisher: Nauka. Moscow. 1981. Pages 95-96. The Jugurthine War. 95.3.

Plutarch provides information about Sulla's life: "...Sulla himself grew up in a modest family and, from a young age, he lived with others, renting a place for a small fee, which later became the subject of ridicule—his happiness seemed inconsistent with his dignity... As a young and still unknown man, he spent whole days with mimes and jesters, indulging in revelry with them. And when he became the supreme ruler, he would gather the most shameless people from the theater and stage every evening, reveling in their company and competing with them in wittiness..." Plutarch. Selected Lives. Moscow. Publisher: Pravda. 1987. Volume II. Page 37 (II).

Plutarch also informs us about Sulla's appearance, but only in his mature years. He writes: "All the features of Sulla's appearance are portrayed in his statues, except perhaps the look of his light-blue eyes—heavy and penetrating—and his colorful face, which made this already difficult gaze even more intimidating. His whole face was covered with a nervous red rash, under which only patches of white skin could be seen. Therefore, it is said that the name Sulla is a nickname he received because of the color of his face..." Plutarch. Selected Lives. Moscow. Publisher: Pravda. 1987. Volume II. Page 38 (II).

We learn about Sulla's personal life from his biographer, Plutarch. Plutarch tells us that Sulla was married five times. One of his marriages connected him to the influential plebeian family of the Caecilii Metelli, who were long-standing enemies of Gaius Marius. From his five marriages, Sulla had children from his first marriage—his daughter Cornelia, who married Quintus Pompeius, son of the consul Quintus Pompeius Rufus, and her daughter became the second wife of Gaius Julius Caesar. From his third marriage, Sulla had a son named Faustus and a daughter named Cornelia Fausta. Faustus Cornelius Sulla later became a relative of Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, fought on his side in the civil war against Caesar, but lost and was executed. Sulla also had another daughter named Cornelia Postuma.

Beginning of a military career

In his youth, Sulla was the lover of a wealthy freedwoman named Nicopolis, from whom he inherited her estate upon her death, as reported by Plutarch. In 107 BCE, with the help of his wealth, Sulla was appointed quaestor in the army of Gaius Marius, who was at that time going to war against the Numidian king Jugurtha.

Sallust describes how Sulla conducted himself in Africa: "And so, Sulla, as already mentioned, arrived with his cavalry in Africa, that is, in Marius' camp, initially inexperienced and unknowledgeable in military matters, but in a short time, he became highly skilled in them. Moreover, he spoke amiably with the soldiers, often doing them favors at their request, and sometimes even on his own initiative, repaying debts quicker than they were incurred. He demanded nothing from anyone and tried to have as many people indebted to him as possible. He conversed, both in jest and seriousness, with people of the lowest rank. He consistently participated in labor, campaigns, and guard duty without tarnishing the good name of the consul or any other respected person, as often happens with misguided ambition. He only could not tolerate anyone surpassing him in advice or in deeds, while leaving many others far behind. With these qualities and behavior, he quickly gained the greatest favor of Marius and the soldiers." Gaius Sallustius Crispus. Works. Translation by V.O. Gorenstein. Publisher: Nauka. Moscow. 1981. Page 96. The Jugurthine War.

Marius decided to send Sulla to negotiate with Bocchus, Jugurtha's father-in-law, for the extradition of Jugurtha to the Romans. Sulla successfully fulfilled this mission, managing to persuade Bocchus to hand over Jugurtha. If he had failed, the war would have continued, and he himself would have faced an unknown, dreadful fate. But he succeeded, and Bocchus, as promised, handed Jugurtha over to Sulla, who brought him captive to Marius. This marked the end of the long war, which ended victoriously for Rome.

Marius returned to Rome as a victor, and on January 1, 104 BCE, he celebrated his triumph, in which Sulla also participated.

According to Plutarch, Sulla ordered the depiction of his feat to be carved on the seal of his ring and used it constantly ever since. The seal depicted Sulla receiving Jugurtha from the hands of Bocchus. Plutarch. Sulla. III-IV. Despite the emerging doubts from Marius, Sulla continued to serve under his command and took part in his new military campaign against the Cimbri, Teutons, and their Gallic allies, such as the Helvetii, Ambrones, and Volcae-Tectosages, among others. During this war, in 104-103 BCE, Sulla suppressed the resistance of the Volcae-Tectosages and persuaded the Marsi tribe to form an alliance with Rome. Afterward, due to the growing anger and distrust caused by his successes, Sulla switched to the command of his consular colleague Quintus Lutatius Catulus in 102 BCE.

Beginning of a political career

After the war with the Cimbri, Sulla decided to test himself in the realm of public service, namely politics.

Plutarch informs us that "Sulla thought that he had already distinguished himself enough with his military exploits to venture into the political arena. Immediately after the campaign, he dedicated himself to civil affairs. He ran as a candidate for urban praetor, but failed in the elections. According to him, the blame lay with the plebeians who knew about his friendship with Bocchus and expected, if he were to become an aedile before becoming praetor..." Plutarch. Sulla. V. On his second attempt, with the help of bribery, Sulla managed to become a praetor in 97 BCE, although this date is still disputed by many scholars.

After completing his term as magistrate, Sulla was appointed to the East, typically believed to be Cilicia. The subjugation of this region to Rome began in the late 2nd century BCE and was related to the fight against pirates. However, in this case, the term "province" referred not to an annexed territory but to the area where the commander had to conduct military operations, as the word "province" was understood in earlier centuries. This assignment was not an easy one. Cilicia was known for its pirates, so notorious that the term "Cilician" became a general term for pirate among the Romans. Sulla's main tasks in Cilicia were to combat the pirates and deal with the brigand tribes of the highlands. He was also forced to intervene in the military actions in Cappadocia, where King Mithridates VI of Pontus was at war with the pro-Roman King Ariobarzanes.

At the same time, as the highest-ranking Roman official, he conducted negotiations with Parthia regarding the fate of Cappadocia and the alliance, peace, and friendship between Rome and Parthia. After completing his duties, Sulla returned to Rome, believing that he was known there as the first Roman to establish contact with the Parthians. However, upon his arrival in Rome, he realized that Rome carried on with its own affairs without much interest in the achievements of one of its governors.

Meanwhile, the Social War broke out in Italy in 91 BCE, during which Sulla's star rose as a talented military commander and general. Prior to the war, conflicts intensified between Marius and Sulla over the erection of a statue by King Bocchus on the Capitoline Hill depicting the capture of Jugurtha and Sulla's role in it. Sulla entered this war as the legate of one of the consuls in 90 BCE, namely Lucius Julius Caesar. During this war, there was an incident that vividly demonstrated that the commander began to understand the role of the army in the political life of the state and took it into account.

Plutarch describes this incident: "His legate Albinus was pelted with stones by the soldiers. Sulla left such a serious offense unpunished and even took pride in it, boasting that because of this, his men would become even more militant, redeeming their guilt with bravery." Plutarch. Sulla. VI.

This incident also shows that Sulla began to prepare and cultivate an army personally loyal to him, ready to follow him through fire and water. Thanks to his successes in the Social War, Sulla could now aspire to the position of consul.

Toward the end of the Social War, a new war against Mithridates, who decided to take advantage of Rome's weakness due to the Social War, began to gain momentum. The war with Mithridates promised glory, spoils, and significant growth of political influence for the victor.

Since the war had to be entrusted to one of the consuls, numerous contenders for this position emerged immediately. At this time, Sulla married a representative of one of Rome's influential families, the Metelli-Caecilia, divorcing his previous wife, Clelia, on the pretext of her infertility.

Civil War and the War with Mithridates

In the end, Lucius Cornelius Sulla and Quintus Pompeius Rufus emerged as the winners of the elections. Sulla became consul at the age of 50, although the usual practice was for individuals to hold this position after reaching the age of 43. In Asia, the situation deteriorated as Mithridates captured new territories and massacred Roman inhabitants in Ephesus. Sulla was appointed as the commander in the war against Mithridates. However, his actions were hindered by the plebeian tribune Sulpicius, who saw himself as a second Saturninus, and by Gaius Marius, who wanted to command the war and thus conspired with Sulpicius. As a result, it was decided to transfer the command in the war from Sulla to Marius.

Sulla hurried to his army in Campania, where his legions were besieging the last stronghold of the Social War, the city of Nola. His headquarters were in Capua, where he arrived ahead of the military tribunes sent by Sulpicius from Rome. He called the soldiers to assemble and delivered an inflammatory speech. In it, he accused Sulpicius and Marius of forcibly obtaining a decision from the comitia to transfer power in the upcoming war from Sulla, the legitimate consul, to Marius. Sulla also expressed his uncertainty about whether his soldiers would follow him, suggesting that Marius would send them home and raise a new army, which would mean depriving the soldiers of the rich spoils that awaited them in this war. The soldiers expressed their support for Sulla's plan to march on Rome. They demonstrated their loyalty to Sulla by killing the military tribunes who arrived from Rome and began the march on Rome.

As Plutarch reports, "The Senate, which was no longer free in its decisions but followed the instructions of Marius and Sulpicius, learned that Sulla was approaching the city and sent two praetors, Brutus and Servilius, to stop him from advancing further." Plutarch. Sulla. IX.

Appian provides a conversation between the praetors and Sulla: "On his way, envoys from Rome met Sulla and asked him why he was marching on his homeland with an armed force. Sulla replied to them, 'To free it from tyrants.' He repeated the same answer twice and thrice to other envoys who came to him, adding, however, that if they wished, they should gather the Senate, along with Marius and Sulpicius, on the Campus Martius, and he would act according to the decision made." Appian. Roman History. M. AST Publishers. 2002. p. 421 (B.C. I. 57).

Shortly after a fierce battle for Rome, Sulpicius fled and was soon killed, while Marius also fled and embarked on his forced wandering.

Sulla apparently did not consider his march on Rome as the beginning of a civil war. He simply wanted to remove the enemy that hindered his goals, and his goal was to go to Asia to fight against Mithridates. By defeating Mithridates, he would acquire great wealth, and his future achievements would overshadow his unlawful act of marching on Rome.

On the following day after the capture of Rome in 88 BC, the consuls convened the Senate and declared Gaius Marius, Sulpicius, and their closest supporters as enemies of the Roman people, outlawing them.

Sulla also enacted new laws, including a law that required all matters to be discussed in the Senate before being presented for consideration in the comitia. Sulla began restoring order in the city, but he was unable to secure the election of his supporters. One of the consuls for 87 BC was his opponent Lucius Cornelius Cinna, while Gnaeus Octavius, a supporter of Sulla, was also elected. In the tribune elections, he managed to get his nephew Marcus Marius Gratidianus elected, but he failed to secure the election of Quintus Sertorius, who seemed suspicious to him and whom he would confront in the future. Not trusting Cinna, Sulla, as Plutarch reports, made Cinna swear to support his cause. After that, Sulla, who had been granted proconsular powers, set off for Asia to wage war against Mithridates.

Plutarch describes the Roman army during the time of Sulla and Marius: "Now the commanders sought primacy not through valor but through violence. They needed the army more for fighting against each other than against the enemies. They had to flatter their subordinates while commanding them and did not realize that, by lavishing money on the soldiers to satisfy their base desires and thereby buying their loyalty, they made both the state and themselves objects of commerce. By seeking to dominate the best, they found themselves enslaved by the worst of the worst. This was what drove Marius into exile and later brought him back to wage war against Sulla, and what turned Cinna into the murderer of Octavius and Fimbria into the murderer of Flaccus. But the primary culprit, who initiated this evil, was Sulla, who, in order to seduce and entice those who served under another commander, bestowed gifts upon his soldiers too generously. In doing so, he corrupted both the foreign troops, leading them to treason, and his own soldiers, making them hopelessly dissolute." Plutarch. Sulla. XII.

Sulla needed funds to initiate the war against Mithridates since the previously collected resources and money had been spent on the fight against Marius and Sulpicius. In the spring of 87 BC, Sulla left Italy.

Appian informs us about the size of the army with which Sulla set out to fight against Mithridates and his actions in Greece: "Sulla, selected by the Romans for the war against Mithridates, had only now crossed from Italy to Hellas with five legions, several maniples, and cavalry squadrons, and he immediately began to collect money, allies, and provisions in Aetolia and Thessaly. When he deemed that he had enough of all these things, he headed to Attica to confront Archelaus." Appian. Mithridatic Wars.

In Athens (Greece), Sulla began besieging two key cities of Greece, Athens, where the Mithridates loyalist tyrant Aristion took refuge, and the port of Piraeus. He divided his army, leading the siege of Piraeus himself.

Sulla besieged Athens and Piraeus for a long time, which required a significant amount of money. At this time, he received news from Rome that his enemies had regained power, which meant an end to the financing of the war and his replacement by a successor from Rome. However, Sulla was not particularly concerned about this since he had already tested his army and knew they would follow him anywhere. To continue the war, he decided to take funds from the treasuries of the Greek sanctuaries. Sulla fought quite successfully against Mithridates himself and his commanders, including Archelaus, Taxiles, Dromichaetes, Dorylaeus, and others in Greece and the province of Asia. He defeated the enemy's forces several times. Sulla entrusted Lucullus with assembling a fleet, and he successfully gathered it, achieving several victories against the Pontic king. Soon, Sulla captured Athens and executed the local tyrant Aristion and his supporters, resulting in a massacre in the city. Shortly thereafter, Piraeus fell as well. After that, Sulla defeated a new Pontic army in Macedonia.

During this time, a new Roman army arrived from Rome, led by Sulla's successor Lucius Valerius Flaccus, the consul of 86 BC. According to Appian and Plutarch, he was sent ostensibly to fight against Mithridates, but in reality, his task was to confront Sulla. However, Flaccus apparently hoped that Sulla's soldiers would defect to him, but that did not happen. Most likely, Flaccus was sent as a kind of assistance to Sulla.

The soldiers disliked Flaccus due to his character—greed and cruelty—and the fact that they were already suffering losses even before the campaign began. Some soldiers switched sides and joined Sulla. However, the rest were held by a man who could communicate with the soldiers—Gaius Flavius Fimbria—who would later kill Flaccus and lead his army. Fimbria negotiated with Sulla about dividing the spheres of action and set off to Macedonia himself, while Sulla headed to confront the new army of Mithridates, whom he defeated at Orchomenus. In this battle, as many ancient authors and historians write, Sulla addressed his wavering soldiers, saying, "Romans, where did you betray your commander? You will have to answer for it at Orchomenus." All of this led to Sulla winning the campaign of 86 BC. Soon, due to Sulla's successes and the threat to the Pontic kingdom, Mithridates requested a truce through Archelaus.

Sulla reached the peace of Dardanus with Mithridates in 85 BCE. The king relinquished conquests, paid an indemnity and supplied ships, allowing Sulla to return to the struggle for power in Italy.

Marius and Cinna’s supporters had gained control during his absence; Marius died in January 86. Sulla returned in 83 and won the civil war of 83–82. The lex Valeria established his dictatorship to legislate and reorganise the state, without the ordinary six-month limit.

The proscriptions of 82 involved killings, confiscations and enrichment of the victors’ supporters. Plutarch and Appian convey the scale of terror, but their numbers are not complete contemporary statistics.

Principal changes included: - enlarging the Senate and strengthening senators’ role in courts; - increasing quaestors to twenty and praetors to eight, and regulating political careers; - restricting plebeian tribunes and barring former tribunes from further offices; individual protective intervention was not abolished altogether; - expanding permanent courts; the first extortion court had existed since 149 BCE; - veteran settlements and land redistribution that severely affected some Italian communities.

Sulla freed many enslaved people belonging to the proscribed, who became known as Cornelii. His measures sought to strengthen a particular senatorial order but rested on military victory and violence.

Sulla held a second consulship in 80 BCE with Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius, an exception to his own restrictions on repeated tenure. The date of his resignation from the dictatorship is debated; his withdrawal from official power is usually placed within 81–79. He retired from active politics in 79.

He lived in Campania, worked on his memoirs and retained influence through supporters and personal connections. The claim that every state document was sent daily for his compulsory signature is not securely supported.

He died in 78 BCE. Ancient accounts of parasites and bodily decay are not an established medical diagnosis; they also reflect moral judgements about his life. His body was ceremonially cremated and buried on the Campus Martius.

Plutarch conveys the meaning of his planned epitaph: no one surpassed him in gratitude to friends or revenge upon enemies. Assessments remain divided because institutional changes and military successes accompanied mass violence. Some restrictions were repealed in the following decades.

Related topics

• Roman Republic
• Gaius Marius
• Gaius Julius Caesar
• Dictator

Literature and sources

Ancient authors:

1. Appian. Civil wars. Book 1.

2. Plutarch. Comparative biographies, Moscow, 1994.

3. Vellei Paterkul. Roman history.

4. Gaius Sallust Crispus. The Yugurta War.

5. Titus Livy. Epitomes of the "history of the city's foundation".

Contemporary authors:

1. Korolenkov A.V. Smykov E. Sulla. ZhZL series. M. Molodaya Gvardiya. 2007

2. Mommsen T. Roman history. T.2. M 1937

3. Utchenko S. L. Drevnyj Rim [Ancient Rome]. Events. People. Ideas, Moscow: Nauka Publ., 1969.

4. Carcopino J. Sylla ou la monarchie manquée. — Paris: L’Artisan du livre, 1931.

5. Keaveney A. Sulla, the last republican. — 2nd ed. — London — New York, 2005.

6. Lanzani C. Lucio Cornelio Silla dittatore: storia di Roma negli anni 82-78 a.c. — Milano: tip. "Popolo d'Italia", 1936.

7. Letzner W. Lucius Cornelius Sulla: Versuch einer Biographie. — Münster, 2000.

8. Lovano M. The Age of Cinna: Crucible of Late Republican Rome. — Stuttgart, 2002.

9. Egorov A. B. The Sulla Party: the Union of aristocrats and Marginals / / Studia historica, 2006, no. 6, pp. 128-152.

10. Egorov A. B. Sotsial'no-politicheskaya borba v Rime v 80-e gg. I v. B.C. (k istorii diktatury Sulla) [Socio-political struggle in Rome in the 80s of the first century BC (on the history of Sulla's dictatorship)]. Sotsial'naya borba i politicheskaya ideologiya v antichnem mire, L., 1989, pp. 108-144.

11. Korolenkov A.V., Smykov E. V. From the latest literature on Sulla //Bulletin of Ancient History. - 2010. - No. 1. - pp. 218-229.

12. Eremin A.V. Dictatorship of Sulla (socio-political and legal foundations of the Sullan regime). Abstract of the dissertation for the degree of Candidate of Historical Sciences: 07.00.03 (St. Petersburg State University). - SPb., 2003.