Lucius Cornelius Sulla

Roman general and statesman

• Born: 138 b.c.e.
• Birthplace: Rome (now in Italy)
• Died: 78 b.c.e.
• Place of death: Puteoli (now Pozzuoli, Italy)

Sulla played an extremely important role in the transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire. While attempting to prevent others from using force to influence Roman politics, Sulla became the first Roman to use the military to gain a political end.

Early Life

Lucius Cornelius Sulla (LEW-shee-uhs kawr-NEEL-yuhs SUHL-uh) was born into an old Roman patrician family in 138 b.c.e. Although not much is known of his youth, Sulla did receive an excellent education in the Greek and Roman classics. He grew to be a handsome man with golden red hair and sharp, piercing blue eyes. Sulla had a very pale complexion, and a severe skin condition badly scarred his face. Because his family had little wealth and his father left him nothing when he died, Sulla had to live on the income from a relatively small investment. As a consequence of his modest means, he lived in a small apartment in one of the less desirable neighborhoods of Rome, a circumstance he found demeaning. To an ambitious patrician, wealth was a necessary prerequisite to participation in politics.

Sulla’s life changed, however, when he inherited the estates of both his stepmother and his mistress, allowing him to pursue his dream of public service.

Although Rome had been at war with Jugurtha in North Africa since 111, the Roman army had not made much progress toward victory. In 108, Gaius Marius was elected consul for the following year, and the people voted to transfer the command of the war from Quintus Caecilius Metellus to Marius. In the same election, they elected Sulla quaestor and chose him to serve under Marius.

During his years of military service in Africa, Sulla proved himself an able and courageous soldier, popular with common soldiers as well as officers. Although Marius was more successful against Jugurtha than Metellus had been, he was unable to capture the elusive enemy leader. Sulla was entrusted with the task of convincing Bocchus (king of Mauretania and father-in-law of Jugurtha) to betray Jugurtha to the Romans. Through skillful diplomacy, Sulla was able to win the friendship of Bocchus, capture Jugurtha, and end the war.

After the war, Marius returned to Rome in triumph on January 1, 104. Although Sulla captured Jugurtha, Marius claimed the triumph as his. Sulla, as a military subordinate, was in no position to dispute Marius’s claim. Immediately after their victory in Africa, the Romans faced a new war against two German tribes, the Cimbri and the Teutons. Because of his recent triumph, the Romans now elected Marius consul to defend Italy. Sulla served as a legate of Marius and once again used his diplomatic skills to detach the Marsi from the German alliance.

After his latest tour of duty, Sulla returned to Rome in 99 to stand for the praetorship. Despite his military successes, Sulla failed to win office. The next year, however, the people elected Sulla urban praetor. The senate assigned Sulla to Cilicia for his propraetorial governorship. On reaching his province, Sulla received a senatorial order to restore Ariobarzanes to the throne of Cappadocia. After his success in Cappadocia, Sulla had the opportunity to negotiate Rome’s first diplomatic relations with the Parthians.

Life’s Work

Sulla now returned to Rome to seek the consulship. When his political enemies prosecuted him in an unsuccessful campaign to discredit him, Sulla had to postpone his canvassing for office. With the failed campaign for the consulship came public notice of Sulla’s feud with Marius. Many of the Roman aristocracy viewed Marius as an upstart (novus homo) who did not know his proper place. Sulla’s capture of Jugurtha, his military successes, and his patrician background made him the perfect man to challenge Marius. When Sulla received sufficient backing, he gained the consulship for 88.

Because of the territorial expansion of Mithradates the Great, king of Pontus, the senate decided to give Sulla the command of the war against Mithradates. The tribune Publius Sulpicius Rufus, however, introduced a bill in the Tribal Assembly to transfer the command to Marius. Because no public business could be conducted during a public holiday, Sulla and a consular colleague declared a public holiday to prevent the vote from taking place. Sulpicius claimed that this was illegal and incited the people to riot. To save himself from the mob, Sulla rescinded the holiday decree and pretended to accept the transfer of his command. Sulla then went to address his troops gathered in Campania for the war against Mithradates. After he explained the political developments in Rome, the troops urged Sulla to lead them to Rome to reclaim his rightful command. With the backing of his soldiers, Sulla marched on Rome and took the city by force.

Although these events marked the first time in history a Roman army had violated the pomerium (the sacred boundary of Rome), Sulla believed that he was defending legally constituted authority and that he was saving Rome from tyrannical demagogues. Once in control of Rome, Sulla had the senate declare Marius and Sulpicius public enemies, subject to immediate execution. Although Marius managed to escape from Rome, Sulpicius was captured and killed. After having the senate annul the laws of Sulpicius, Sulla sent his army away and allowed the election of the consuls for the next year. Gnaeus Octavius (a supporter of Sulla) and Lucius Cornelius Cinna (an enemy of Sulla) were elected consuls for the year 87. Sulla, eager to fight the war with Mithradates, left for Greece.

With Sulla out of Italy, Cinna declared Sulla a public enemy but did nothing to hinder him in the East. After pushing the forces of Mithradates out of Greece and defeating them in Asia Minor, Sulla made peace with Mithradates. On hearing that Cinna had been murdered by his own troops, Sulla invaded Italy in the spring of 83. Within a year, Sulla defeated all the forces ranged against him. He massacred the Italians who sided with Cinna and who were still in rebellion and confiscated some of their lands.

Having Rome firmly in his control, Sulla ordered the execution of all magistrates and high military officers who had served Cinna’s government. To limit the executions to those guilty, Sulla published proscription lists of those subject to the death penalty. Sulla confiscated the properties of those proscribed and auctioned them to his supporters. Motivated by greed, some Sullan supporters arranged for the proscription of certain wealthy individuals in order to acquire their money and lands. The death toll among the upper classes included seventy senators and sixteen hundred equestrians. The sons and grandsons of those proscribed were barred from holding public office in the future.

From Sulla’s point of view, he meted out various punishments under his authority as proconsul. The drawback to being a proconsul, however, was that Sulla could not enter Rome. When the death of Gnaeus Papirius Carbo, Cinna’s former consular colleague, became known, Sulla suggested that the dictatorship be revived after a lapse of 120 years. Although the usual term of office for a dictator in Rome was six months or less, Sulla wanted no time limit placed on him. Accordingly, the people elected Sulla dictator and granted him complete immunity. Sulla’s having the title of “Dictator for the making of laws and the settling of the Constitution” allowed his every decree to become law immediately.

As dictator in 81 Sulla instituted a constitutional reform that placed the senate in total control of the state. Sulla increased senate membership from the traditional number of three hundred to six hundred by including pro-Sullan equestrians and by automatically making all former quaestors members of the senate. The number of praetors was increased to eight and the number of quaestors to twenty. To create an orderly career ladder, Sulla established a strict cursus honorum in which politicians had to hold the quaestorship and praetorship before holding the consulship (the minimum age for holding this office was to be forty-two). Because tribunes had caused so much political turmoil in the past, men holding the tribuneship were now limited in the use of the veto and were barred from holding any higher office. In addition, prior senatorial approval was required before bills from a tribune could be introduced into an assembly.

At the height of his power, Sulla stepped down from the dictatorship and restored constitutional government. He was elected consul for 80, after which he retired to one of his villas in Puteoli (in Campania) to write and to relax by hunting and fishing. In his extensive memoirs, Sulla minimized the humble circumstances of his early years and emphasized his career from the time of war with Jugurtha. Sulla wanted to create the image of having possessedfelicitas (good luck) from childhood. After a lifetime spent in active service to Rome, Sulla died of liver failure in 78. His body was taken to the Forum in Rome, where it lay in state. After thousands of Sullan veterans and ordinary people passed the funeral bier to pay their respects, the body was cremated. So great was Sulla’s following that the matrons of Rome mourned Sulla for a full year, just as they would have done for their own fathers.

Significance

Although Lucius Cornelius Sulla was not a talented orator, he had the ability to establish an immediate personal rapport with people. Whether commanding troops, leading the state, or managing delicate diplomatic negotiations, Sulla was always able to earn the respect of the people with whom he dealt. Sulla’s contemporaries of all classes were most impressed by his personal charm and by this highly developed sense of humor. In addition, Sulla believed that he possessed a special divine gift, felicitas. With his natural abilities and his good luck backing him, Sulla was always confident.

Unknowingly, Sulla played an important historical role in Rome’s transition from a Republic to an Empire. Despite his passionate belief in Rome’s republican form of government, Sulla felt compelled to defend the state by being the first to use military force against it. As Roman politics became more polarized, adversaries used violence as the means to a political end. Although angered at the prospect of losing his command against Mithradates, Sulla looked on Marius, Cinna, Carbo, and Sulpicius as men intent on violating the Roman constitution. Sulla, therefore, saw his actions in a broader context than a mere factional dispute. As a patriotic Roman, Sulla could not stand by and watch the subversion of the Republic.

When Marius allowed the Roman legions to recruit from among the urban proletariat, he made possible the rise of a man such as Sulla. Generals now recruited armies whose only loyalties were to their commanders. When Sulla’s men believed their general to have been wronged, they rose to his defense, not to that of the state. Although Sulla exercised absolute power over Rome, he did not use his power to establish a Hellenistic-style monarchy. Sulla viewed the senate as representing traditional republican government: He attempted to restore it to its former central role. In short, Sulla tried to repair the Roman constitution after self-serving politicians had damaged it.

Using as many historical precedents as possible, Sulla tried to resolve Rome’s problems in a constitutional manner. In reviving the dictatorship with no time limit, he was harking back to 387 b.c.e., when Marcus Furius Camillus required more than six months to save Rome from the Gauls. Just as the Romans thought Camillus the savior of Rome, Sulla hoped for the same recognition. When the Romans needed a thorough revision of their laws in 451, they turned to the decemviri for leadership. In Sulla’s view, the Romans needed a new constitutional reform.

Despite his great talents and his extreme patriotism, Sulla ultimately failed to accomplish what he had set out to do. The Sullan reforms were not permanent, and they did not stop the Roman constitution from changing. By 70, Sulla’s own supporters, Marcus Licinius Crassus and Pompey the Great, annulled or changed much of Sulla’s work. Although his efforts to preserve the Republic were well-meaning, they demonstrated that he did not understand Rome’s deep-seated problems. The very situation he sought to prevent, the use of force in politics, became the established norm as a result of Sulla’s march on Rome and his use of proscription lists. Rome did not achieve political stability until Augustus established the Roman Empire in 27 b.c.e.

Bibliography

Appianus of Alexandria. Appian’s “Roman History.” Translated by Horace White. 4 vols. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1990-1999. Appian’s “The Civil Wars,” “The Mithridatic Wars,” and “Numidian Affairs” cover the time periods for Sulla’s participation in these events. Although Appian lived during the late first and early second centuries c.e., he preserved some very valuable information from an unknown early Imperial annalist.

Badian, E. “Waiting for Sulla.” Journal of Roman Studies 52 (1962): 47-61. The author attempts to bring modern critical historiographical analysis to the study of the period of Sulla. Through a reexamination of the sources, Badian maintains that Sulla’s ambition drove him into rebellion against lawful authority. Sulla’s contemporaries did not, according to Badian, believe that Sulla was a champion of the Roman nobility.

Baker, G. P. Sulla the Fortunate. 1927. Reprint. Lanham, Md.: Rowan and Littlefield, 2001. Baker’s classic biography of Sulla as the bloody, fearless forerunner of Julius Caesar. Index.

Keaveney, Arthur. Sulla: The Last Republican. London: Croom Helm, 1982. The first full-scale biography of Sulla to appear in English. The author gathered and analyzed all the available evidence on the life of Sulla and presents it in a most convincing manner. A very favorable interpretation of Sulla.

Lovano, Michael. The Age of Cinna: Crucible of Late Republican Rome. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner, 2002. Chronological treatment of the period from the consulship of Cinna (87 b.c.e.) to Sulla’s seizure of Italy (82 b.c.e.). Attempts to view these events from the perspective of Sulla’s opponents, who are not treated well in the ancient sources.

Plutarch. Fall of the Roman Republic, Six Lives: Marius, Sulla, Crassus, Pompey, Caesar, Ciero. Translated by Rex Warner. Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England: Penguin Books, 1981. This volume contains a chapter on Sulla together with other chapters on some of his political rivals. Because Plutarch used many sources unavailable today, he preserved much anecdotal material that may be contemporaneous with Sulla. Although Plutarch’s work lacks historical perspective and is very moralistic, it portrays Sulla vividly.

Sallust. “The Jugurthine War” and “The Conspiracy of Catiline.” Translated by S. A. Handford. Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1967. A useful and interesting but brief account of Marius and Sulla in the war against Jugurtha. Despite his prejudice against the Roman nobility and his inaccuracies in chronology and geography, Sallust is an important source of information. It is highly probable that Sallust used Sulla’s memoirs as one of his sources.

Scullard, H. H. From the Gracchi to Nero: A History of Rome from 133 B.C. to A.D. 68. New York: Routledge, 1988. This book contains two chapters, “The Rise and Fall of Marius” and “The Rise and Fall of Sulla,” which give an exceptionally clear account of this most crucial period in Roman history. Points of interpretative discussion with secondary source citations are included in the notes at the back of the book.