Sulla Blew Rome Open With Blood, and Paved the Road for Caesar
Sulla was the first man to march an army into Rome. He won the civil war, made himself dictator, and then stepped down on his own. But the taboo he broke could never be put back — Caesar called him a fool for giving up the dictatorship.
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A consul was beaten to death by his own soldiers in the harbour
Cinna was Sulla's most troublesome opponent, consul four years running, and very nearly Rome's first permanent dictator. He gathered an army to cross to Greece and fight Sulla. The first fleet crossed safely; the second was driven back to harbour by a storm. The soldiers refused to board again. Cinna called an assembly to dress them down, and when his guards used their rods to clear a path they hurt a soldier, who struck back — and it turned into a general brawl. The soldiers drew their swords and stabbed Cinna dead on the spot. He died without even reaching Greece. It was enormous luck for Sulla: the opposition's most substantial leader was gone, leaving only the 26-year-old son of Marius to hold the stage.
Jupiter's temple burned, and Marius's son looted it to buy office
After the temple was struck by lightning and burned, Sulla's side could say Jupiter was punishing Cinna for breaking his oath. But the temple held Rome's gold reserve — effectively the central bank. Young Marius rushed up the Capitoline and, without saving a single statue or relic, swept up the treasure to pay a private army and bribe votes. In 82 BC, at 26, he became consul, which by Roman convention was utterly unthinkable. Even Sulla was shocked, and said something bitter: the older he got, the younger his enemies became.
The Samnites nearly took Rome while it lay undefended
The Samnites were Sulla's most ferocious enemies. They were on their way to relieve the besieged young Marius at Praeneste when they noticed Rome was almost undefended, and abruptly turned and drove straight at the city. Sulla was caught off guard and raced after them. The Samnite commander said outside the walls: do you think these wolves, who have committed such monstrous crimes against Italian freedom, will simply vanish unless you destroy the forest that shelters them? They charged the Colline Gate. At that very moment Sulla's cavalry slammed into the Samnite rear, and Sulla himself arrived with his exhausted army and threw it into battle at once, against his legate's advice. The fighting went on all night; Crassus on the left broke the enemy, Sulla prayed to Venus and steadied the line, and by dawn victory was his.
Sulla held a meeting while six thousand prisoners were slaughtered
Six thousand Samnite prisoners were penned inside the public villa on the Campus Martius. Sulla summoned the Senate to meet in the nearby temple of Bellona — the goddess of war — a spot from which they could both hear the public villa and see the charred remains of Jupiter's temple. Sulla was recounting his achievements when the senators began to hear thuds, then blows, then screams. Without changing expression, Sulla paused and said: some criminals are being punished there, never fear, it is all done on my orders. The six thousand were systematically massacred, their bodies dragged across the Campus Martius and thrown into the Tiber, choking the bridges and the banks. A poet later wrote that the corpses stayed in the river until the current cut a streak of blood out onto the blue open sea.
On the proscription list, being rich was a capital offence
Sulla turned killing into an administrative procedure. At a supporter's request he posted a list of those to be punished in the Forum, and then the lists multiplied, hundreds and thousands of names. To be on a list meant total confiscation of property, with sons and grandsons barred from public office and anyone harbouring a listed man liable to the same fate. Later the lists held not only Marius's men: anyone rich enough and not close enough to Sulla could be quietly slipped onto one — if you had a pool, a garden, or a villa on the Bay of Naples, someone would come hunting you. The most shameless at inserting rich men's names was Crassus, and he was so blatant that Sulla finally rebuked him in public. Sulla himself bought up confiscated estates cheap and resold them to friends and relatives; Marius's villa, built to resemble a legionary camp, he practically gave away to his own daughter.
Pompey, 25, demanded a triumph, and Sulla gave him one
Pompey was clearing out Marius's men in Sicily and Africa, executing their commanders without trial, and Rome called him the "boy butcher" (adulescentulus carnifex). But his legions loved him and called him "the Great" (Magnus). Back in Italy, Pompey refused to disband his army as a commander normally would and sent Sulla word directly: I will not disband my legions, I want a triumph. He was only 25, entirely without precedent. Sulla said no, it violated every convention. Pompey replied: more men worship the rising sun than the setting sun. Sulla not only granted the triumph, he formally confirmed the title "Magnus".
Sulla's reform turned the tribunate into a dead end
As dictator, Sulla performed a whole set of institutional surgeries. He expanded the Senate from 300 to 600, deliberately bringing in Italian elites as a gesture to the Italians. He legislated that a consul must wait at least 10 years before standing again, that the junior offices required an age of 30, and that no one could be consul before 40 — formerly custom, now written into law. He hated the tribunes above all, because a tribunician bill had stripped him of his command for Marius in 88 BC. So he barred tribunes from proposing legislation and ruled that anyone who had been a tribune could not run for any other office, making the tribunate a complete political dead end. His aim was plain: Rome must never again produce a Marius, a Cinna, a young Marius.
The dictator resigned on his own, then drank himself to death
Two years later, Sulla judged the Republic cured. One morning he appeared in the Forum without his 24 lictors — a dictator normally had 24, a consul only 12. Just like that he laid down the dictatorship and became an ordinary citizen holding no office at all. Appian writes that he feared neither his enemies at home nor the exiles, such was his courage and his luck. In retirement he lived in a villa on the Bay of Naples, eating oysters, taking the waters, throwing boating parties, and drinking for days on end with the old comedians, actors, courtesans and the drag queen Metrobius. He died in 78 BC, most likely of liver failure. At his death his veterans escorted the body back to Rome and cremated it on the Campus Martius; the rain began just as the fire finished, and everyone said: Sulla's luck held to the very last.
In their own words · checked verbatim
no man could truly be reckoned rich who lacked the funds to maintain his own army
do you think that these wolves who have prayed so terribly upon the freedoms of italy will ever vanish until the forest that shelters them has been destroyed
some criminals are receiving their punishment there is no need to worry it is all being done on my orders
more people worship the rising sun than the setting sun
fearing neither his enemies at home nor the exiles abroad. Such was the extent of his daring and his good luck.
Sulla could do it. Why can't I?
a man who was dedicated to the principles of conservatism shows his successors the way to demolish the structures, the institutions in some ways for which he was fighting
Figures
| Year Sulla marched on Rome | 88 BC | 2:09 |
| Consecutive consulships held by Cinna | 4 | 5:22 |
| Age at which young Marius became consul | 26 | 25:00 |
| Samnite prisoners massacred after the Colline Gate | 6000 | 34:13 |
| Sulla expanded the Senate from 300 to | 600 | 55:04 |
| Minimum interval Sulla set before a consul could stand again | 10 years | 56:06 |
| Minimum age Sulla set for the consulship | 40 | 57:07 |
| Pompey's age when he demanded a triumph | 25 | 48:50 |
| Year of Sulla's death | 78 BC | 1:02:13 |
Glossary
- proscription
- Sulla's posted lists of the condemned: those on them had their property confiscated, their sons and grandsons barred from public office, and anyone harbouring them liable to the same punishment.
- lictor
- The ceremonial attendants of a Roman magistrate, carrying the fasces; a consul had 12, a dictator 24.
- tribunate
- The office of the Roman tribune of the plebs, able to propose legislation; Sulla drastically cut its powers and made it a political dead end.
- adulescentulus carnifex
- The nickname Pompey's enemies gave him for executing Marius's commanders without trial — "the boy butcher".
- Campus Martius
- The flat ground outside Rome's walls used for mustering armies, voting and holding triumphs.
How to listen
Listeners interested in the political machinery of the late Roman Republic, especially anyone who wants to watch a dictator legitimise himself and then dismantle himself.
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