Who is sulla from rome

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Skip to main content Please enable JavaScript in your web browser to get the best experience. Read more about our cookie policy Accept and close the cookie policy. Life dates BC BC. Biography Roman military commander and dictator of the Roman republic BC. He was a patrician who marched on Rome twice but ultimately gave up his dictatorial powers. Bibliography RRC , pp. Production date 54BC.

The first of these was Q. Caecilius Metellus Pius who governed Africa. The old enemy of Marius, and assuredly of Cinna as well, led an open revolt against the Marian forces in Africa. Additional help came from Picenum and Spain. Two of the three future Triumvirs joined Sulla's cause in his bid to take control. Marcus Licinius Crassus marched with an army from Spain, and would later play a pivotal role at the Colline Gates.

The young son of Pompeius Strabo the butcher of Asculum during the Social War , raised an army of his own from among his father's veterans and threw his lot in with Sulla. At the tender age of 23, and never having held a Senatorial office, Pompey forced himself into the political scene with an army at his back. Regardless, the war would continue on with Asiagenus raising another army in defense.

This time he moved after Pompey, but once again, his army abandoned him and went over to the enemy. As a result, desperation followed in Rome as the year 83 came to a close. The Senate re-elected Cinna's old co-Consul, Papirius Carbo, to his third term, and Gaius Marius the Younger, the 26 year old son of the great general, to his first. Hoping to inspire Marian supporters throughout the Roman world, recruiting began in earnest among the Italian tribes who had always been loyal to Marius.

In additional counter measures from an intimidation perspective more blood shed against possible Sullan supporters took place. The urban praetor L. Junius Brutus Damasippus led a slaughter of those Senators who seemed to lean towards the invading forces, yet one more incident of murder in a growing spiral of violence as a political tool in the late Republic.

As the campaign year of 82 BC opened, Carbo took his forces to the north to oppose Pompey while Marius moved against Sulla in the south. Attempts to defeat Pompey failed and Metellus with his African forces along with Pompey secured northern Italy for Sulla. In the South, Marius gathered a large host of Samnites who assuredly would lose influence with the anti-popular Sulla in charge of Rome.

Marius met Sulla at Sacriportus and the two forces engaged in a long and desperate battle. In the end, many of Marius' men switched sides over to Sulla and he had no choice but to retreat to Praeneste. Sulla followed the son of his arch-rival and laid siege to the town, leaving a subordinate in command.

Sulla himself moved north to push Carbo, who had withdrawn to Etruria to stand between Rome and the forces of Pompey and Metellus. Indecisive battles were fought between Carbo and Sulla's forces but Carbo knew that his cause was lost.

News arrived of a defeat by Norbanus in Gaul, and that he also switched sides to Sulla. Carbo, caught between three enemy armies and with no hope of relief, fled to Africa. It was not yet the end of the resistance however, those remaining Marian forces gathered together and attempted several times to relieve Marius at Praeneste.

A Samnite force under Pontius Telesinus joined in the relief effort but the combined armies were still unable to break Sulla. Rather than continue trying to rescue Marius, Telesinus moved north towards Rome. Sulla raced after, not wanting to give up an opportunity to win the war and claim the ultimate prize right outside the gates. The battle was a huge and desperate final struggle with both sides certainly believing their own victory would save Rome.

Sulla was pushed hard on his left flank with the situation so dangerous that he and his men were pushed right up against the city walls. Crassus' forces, fighting on Sulla's right however, managed to turn the opposition's flank and drive them back.

The Samnites and the Marian forces were folded up and broke. In the end, over 50, Romans lost their lives and Sulla stood alone as the master of Rome with the following sunrise. In a meeting the following day, and while the execution of several thousand prisoners was taking place, Sulla addressed the Senate in the temple of Bellona.

Here he began to lay out the law that would eventually re-shape Roman government, at least for a time, and show the Senate what Sulla's vengeance would mean. Just as the proscription of his political enemies was about to begin, however, there were still matters to deal with outside of Rome. The siege of Marius in Praeneste continued, and Sulla needed to put an end to it to take final control. The man recently responsible for the death of his supporters, Damasippus, was beheaded for a special purpose.

In order to show Marius that Sulla now had Rome and was the victor, he had the head thrown into Praeneste as proof. It wasn't long before Marius realized that all was lost and ordered a slave to take his life.

All was still not over for Sulla, however. He unleashed the young Pompey whom later was possibly dubbed Magnus "the Great", somewhat sarcastically by Sulla , on the countryside and any remaining opposition. Domitius Ahenobarbus. He then brought Africa under the control of Sulla and the resistance was over.

Sulla was now the undisputed ruler of Rome. Sulla took control of Rome in late 82 and early 81 BC after victories in the civil war of his own making, and those of his chief legate Pompeius Magnus. With the army at his back, the Senate was forced to ignore the constitution and proclaim Sulla as Dictator of Rome for an indefinite period of time.

The dictatorship, under constitutional law, was an office designed for extreme emergencies generally military with the intention of a 6 month term. Sulla not only butchered the constitution through various reforms he would make, but also focused his power on the leading members of the Roman ruling classes. The new dictator introduced a judicial process called the proscription.

Essentially this new concept was an open publication listing names of people he deemed to be undesirable. A reign of terror ensued with rewards offered for the death or capture of any name on the list. At first the proscriptions including confiscation of property and not always involving physical harm were mainly focused on Sulla's direct enemies and supporters, but eventually the death toll would reach epidemic proportions.

In the first series alone, as many as 40 senators and 1, members of the equestrian class were murdered. Before long, in order to exact extreme control the list grew exponentially. There was simply no place to hide or run. People taking refuge in the temples were murdered; others were lynched by the Roman mob. An intricate network of spies kept Sulla informed and at his whim, tracked down anyone who might be considered an enemy of the state. One member of the proscription lists who managed to survive was Gaius Julius Caesar.

The husband of Cinna's Sulla' rival daughter and the nephew of Gaius Marius, he was most assuredly a top candidate for death. He managed to escape Rome prior to capture, but a delegation of Caesar's supporters made an influence on Sulla. He allowed Caesar to live in exchange for divorcing his wife, but Caesar defiantly refused. Lucky to find himself alive at all, Sulla only confiscated his wife's dowry. Sulla apparently was reluctant to let the ambitious young man live, commenting that he saw "many Mariuses" in his nature.

For reasons not completely clear, Sulla did let Caesar live though and his prediction was later proven quite true. In the midst of instituting his own form of the constitution, Sulla's power grab did little to curb corruption. The payment of large bounties to bringing in 'disloyal' Romans, and confiscation of properties certainly enriched the treasury, but it also lined the pockets of many Sullan supporters.

Among these were Marcus Crassus, who it was alleged, helped build his vast fortune through the proscriptions. Others, like the young orator Marcus Tullius Cicero made names for themselves in Sulla's courts.

The cases were fast and furious, and Cicero began to groom himself as the world's foremost lawyer and politician during Sulla's dictatorship. Taking control through murder and confiscation, Sulla next focused on the laws of the state. He began his reform of the constitution in order to bring power back the Senate and away from the Tribunes. Oddly enough, after killing so many members of the senate, he became its champion.

The powers of the tribunes, including veto rights, were virtually abolished. New legislation could not even be introduced without the approval of the Senate. The roles of the Senate were doubled to , placing powerful equestrians in the empty seats. This was more important than it may seem at first glance. As senators were limited to restrictive business opportunities, equestrians filled the gap by running powerful business empires.

By moving these equestrians into the Senate, and forcing similar restrictions on them, these leaders no longer found it practical to support the popular politics of the day and largely in contrast to the conservative Senate group that made their businesses more lucrative.

New entries into the Senate after Sulla's reforms were also required to serve in the traditional magistrate position of quaestor before admittance into the Senate. Forcing senators to have some experience along the political path or cursus honorum to begin their careers also helped quell incredible and sudden rises to power by young ambitious populares.

Additionally, he quelled this danger by introducing a law requiring at least a two year gap between holding an office and being elected for the next higher one. Also from this point on, office holders would be required to hold successive offices in the Cursus Honorum before being elected to the next higher one. Tribunes were further penalized to prevent ambitious politicians from using the office as a political launching pad.

As such, a law was passed that prevented any office holder of the Tribune of the Plebes from ever holding a higher political office in the mainstream Senatorial path such as Consul. The courts were also reformed, each court being assigned one of seven different types of cases. The seven types of cases were: murder and poisoning, forgery, electoral bribery, peculation theft , assault, extortion and treason.

The senate was also required to sit all cases and the equestrian class was excluded from judging cases, clearly putting the control of the courts back into the hands of the traditional familial oligarchy that was the Senate.

Sulla didn't quite abide by his own constitutional law waiting ten years between major magistracies when in 80 BC he forced through his own election as Consul first was in 78 BC and continued his policies of reform including the settling of his veterans on confiscated lands.

By the next year though, Sulla had either tired of the political life, or felt that he accomplished all that he could.

In 79 BC he retired to a country villa with the intention of writing his memoirs. Before he left Rome however, Sulla confirmed long standing rumors about his own sexual behavior to a shocked audience. He announced that Metrobius, a famous actor, had been his lifetime lover. As he left Rome, he was accompanied by a large contingent of actors, dancers and prostitutes in a final act of disdain. His memoirs, which he would finish over the next year, while they have not survived, did prove a valuable resource to later Roman writers Plutarch and Appian in particular.

Sulla died shortly after, in 78 BC, opening the Roman political system to a new and even more dangerous wave of power grabs. After the death of Sulla in 78 BC, additional and expected power grabs were the result. Unpopular while he was still alive, Sulla's reforms went under immediate attack without fear of reprisal. Political turmoil was once again the call of the day and various personalities emerged from the restraints of Sulla's power. Among these leading men were his former supporters such as M.

Aemilius Lepidus, Q. Lutatius Catulus and Marcus Licinius Crassus. Other men who opposed Sulla, such as Sertorius in Spain figured prominently as well. Two men however, rose above them all. Marcus Tullius Cicero rose to prominence by becoming arguably the most gifted orator and lawyer along with respectable political skills in the history of the world, while another, Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, stood above them all as the leading military personality before Caesar. Sulla did not limit himself to political reform.

He started a number of building projects, including a new public-records office, and rebuilt temples. In this construction activity to enhance his image, as in his political reforms, he set the pattern for later potentates, like Pompey and Caesar, and for the Roman emperors.

In 79 B. Sulla felt that his aims of establishing Senate control had been accomplished, so he retired. Even though popular leaders like Lepidus began agitating almost immediately against Sulla's constitution, the old dictator did not leave retirement in Campania, where he died the following year. His use of the army to seize the state and his term as dictator provided an example for Julius Caesar.

The ancient biography of Sulla written by Plutarch is useful. Also useful for understanding Sulla's career are the article by E. Baddian in Robin Seager, ed.

All rights reserved. Dictatorship and Reform In Rome, Sulla based his political power in the revival of the old Roman office of dictator and then proceded to reform Roman law to ensure the power of the senatorial oligarchy.