ver Rome like a heavy cloud for thirty years from the Dictatorship of Sulla to the Dictatorship of Caesar. It was the age of

on melior’. 2 And Pompeius is in the direct line of Marius, Cinna and Sulla . 3 It all seems inevitable, as though destiny ord

yet in the last generation of the Free State, after the ordinances of Sulla the Dictator, there were many senators whose fath

lianus put up the tribune Ti. Sempronius Gracchus. The Metelli backed Sulla . The last dynastic NotesPage=>012 1 Compar

‘ Optimates’ and ‘Populares’ (P-W, forthcoming). PageBook=>017 Sulla prevailed and settled order at Rome again through

ailed and settled order at Rome again through violence and bloodshed. Sulla decimated the knights, muzzled the tribunate, and

the knights, muzzled the tribunate, and curbed the consuls. But even Sulla could not abolish his own example and preclude a

abolish his own example and preclude a successor to his domination. Sulla resigned power after a brief tenure. Another year

exceeded only by the patrician Cornelii with their numerous branches. Sulla the Dictator, himself a patrician and a Cornelius

e censorship under the domination of Marius and Cinna, passed over to Sulla in the right season, and guided by craft and coun

ius, the Metelli got power and influence again from the alliance with Sulla . Q. Metellus Pius led an army to victory for Sull

the alliance with Sulla. Q. Metellus Pius led an army to victory for Sulla and became consul with him in 80 B.C. The Dictato

302 ff.; J. Carcopino, Sylla ou la monarchie manquée (1931), 120 ff. Sulla married Caecilia Metella, daughter of Delmaticus

usins of Metellus Pius. 4 The elder, trained in eastern warfare under Sulla and highly trusted by him, led armies through Asi

Varro Lucullus is not known. PageBook=>022 the right wing when Sulla destroyed the Samnite army at the Battle of the C

Such were the men who directed in war and peace the government after Sulla , owing primacy to birth and wealth, linked by tie

grity: it broke their spirit. Certain of the earliest consuls after Sulla were old men already, and some died soon or disap

s, but not unaided. 4 Against novi homines the great families after Sulla stood with close ranks and forbidding aspect. M.

wife of Marius. Caesar, who took Cinna’s daughter in marriage, defied Sulla when he sought to break the match. When pronounci

Pompeia, doubly recalled the Sullan party she was a granddaughter of Sulla . 4 Active ambition earned a host of enemies. But

with the strongest military leader, with Sulla’s heir as before with Sulla . The implacable Cato detested the financiers. H

played an ambiguous game when civil war broke out between Marius and Sulla . Brutal, corrupt and perfidious, Strabo was belie

share in the jury-courts, the tribunes recovered the powers of which Sulla had stripped them. They soon repaid Pompeius. Thr

and army commanders when they united to overthrow the constitution of Sulla . 4 The soldier L. Afranius commanded armies for P

eded support from the nobiles. The dynastic marriage pointed the way. Sulla , as was expedient, had married a Metella: the asp

and vicious person who had married Fausta, the dissolute daughter of Sulla . 2 His enemy P. Clodius was running for the praet

reminder of the dignitas of their house. 4 It was the oligarchy of Sulla , manifest and menacing in its last bid for power,

ed a proconsul who was fighting the wars of the Republic in the East. Sulla had all the ambition of a Roman noble: but it was

ions of Spain and the hosts of all the East, and then to return, like Sulla , to victory and to power. 4 Caesar, it is true,

t: some refused even to ask. 3 Under these unfavourable auspices, a Sulla but for clementia, a Gracchus but lacking a revol

ion. A champion of the People, he had to curb the People’s rights, as Sulla had done. NotesPage=>051 1 Ad Att. 8, 11,

order again (rei publicae constituendae). Despite odious memories of Sulla , the choice of the Dictatorship was recommended b

xpressed alarming opinions about the res publica ’it was only a name: Sulla , by resigning supreme power, showed that he was a

y of Roman political invective, applicable alike to the domination of Sulla and the arbitrary power exercised by Cicero durin

peius by his latest change of front came back to earlier alliances. Sulla restored the oligarchic rule of the nobiles. Thir

ather who had passed unscathed through the faction-wars of Marius and Sulla . 3 A consular who could stand neutral without the

-cries of the last civil war, only thirty years before. The memory of Sulla was loathed even by those who stood by the order

and as an example to deter posterity from raising dissension at Rome, Sulla outlawed his adversaries, confiscated their prope

ibune whose legislation precipitated the Civil War between Marius and Sulla , is appropriately discovered on the side of Caesa

ommanded the right wing at Pharsalus, renewing for Caesar the luck of Sulla . 3 The third consulate of Pompeius thinned the en

cuous of all is the group of nobiles of patrician stock. Caesar, like Sulla , was a patrician and proud of it. He boasted befo

ntifex maximus: the Julii themselves were an old sacerdotal family. 4 Sulla and Caesar, both members of patrician houses that

recover leadership. Some families looked to Pompeius as the heir of Sulla and the protector of the oligarchy. More numerous

A, 356; 358 f.; 424. PageBook=>069 not in vain. In the time of Sulla the Fabii have declined so far that they cannot s

survivors expected an accession of wealth, dignity and power. Had not Sulla enriched his partisans, from senators down to sol

posterity and consecrated among the uncontested memorials of history. Sulla , they said, put common soldiers into the Senate:

nothing of more than two hundred unknown to history, the Senate after Sulla must have contained in high proportion the sons o

Rome, but from choice, from gratitude or for profit. The patrician P. Sulla was joined by the nobilis C. Antonius and the obs

at Rome. 1 But the Marian party had been defeated and proscribed by Sulla . The restored oligarchy, established by violence

t from loyalty to the Marian cause, but to destroy the tyrant city. 4 Sulla saved Rome. He defeated the Samnite army at the C

ng. There could be no reconciliation until a long time had elapsed. Sulla recognized merit among allies or opponents. Minat

prised adherents from all over Italy. Like the families proscribed by Sulla , regions where Marian influence was strong furnis

partisans declared public enemies in 88 B.C. (Appian, BC 1, 60, 271). Sulla died after a fit of apoplexy caused by a quarrel

are casually revealed in the lowest ranks of the Roman Senate, before Sulla as well as after, borne by NotesPage=>093

ry few. Cautious or frugal, many knights shunned politics altogether. Sulla had taught them a sharp lesson. Nor would a seat

t, invoking clemency, partly to discredit by contrast and memories of Sulla his Sullan enemies, partly to palliate the guilt

many branches had produced the Scipiones and the Lentuli, along with Sulla and Cinna, the leading member was now the youthfu

cedented and improper in a war between citizens, and never claimed by Sulla or by Caesar. To a thoughtful patriot it was no o

ding to the Pact of Bononia. There were many men alive who remembered Sulla . Often enough before now proscriptions had been t

the pretext of hostile propaganda, or the substance of open menaces: ‘ Sulla potuit, ego non potero? ’3 The realization surpas

tremities could sometimes be avoided, among the aristocracy at least. Sulla had many enemies among the nobiles, but certain o

ical redistribution of property in Italy. He maintained the grants of Sulla . Further, many of his colonies were established o

in Italy; now they were companions in adversity. The beneficiaries of Sulla suffered at last. The Triumvirs declared a regula

hed for his wealth; 5 so did M. Fidustius, who had been proscribed by Sulla , and the notorious C. Verres, an affluent exile.

been loyal to Rome then, but had fought for the Marian cause against Sulla . Now a new Sulla shattered their strength and bro

me then, but had fought for the Marian cause against Sulla. Now a new Sulla shattered their strength and broke their spirit.

rrinas and Cn. Domitius Calvinus. Carrinas, of a family proscribed by Sulla , but admitted to honours by Caesar, commanded arm

ked enough in the generation that had survived the wars of Marius and Sulla , now gained depth, strength and justification. Me

ha, he proposed to narrate the revolutionary period from the death of Sulla onwards. Though Sallustius was no blind partisan

history, not merely of recent wars and monarchic faction-leaders like Sulla , Pompeius and Caesar, but of a wider and even mor

f in cyclical revolutions. For Rome it might appear to be the time of Sulla come again; in a larger sphere, the epoch of the

squiet. Italy was not reconciled to Rome, or class to class. As after Sulla , the colonies of veterans, while maintaining orde

nius: one of the suffecti was to be Cn. Pompeius, a great-grandson of Sulla . Historic names might convey the guarantee, or at

son of Q. Pompeius Rufus (cos. 88 B.C.) and Cornelia, the daughter of Sulla . 4 Dio 50, 7, I. PageBook=>280 consuls w

ria, Picenum and the Samnite country could remember their conquest by Sulla and by the Pompeii: that was a reality. More rece

ed by fate—or rather by their own ambition, inadequacy or dishonesty. Sulla established order but no reconciliation in Rome a

e three Valerii, Cinna’s grandson, or Cn. Pompeius, the descendant of Sulla the Dictator. After 28 B.C only two of these cons

ovinces left in the charge of proconsuls. Under the dispensation of Sulla the Dictator, the public provinces were ten in nu

(BG 1, 21, 3), a centurion or knight who had served in the armies of Sulla and of Crassus. 2 Balbus under Caesar in Spain,

to the Senate was no novelty, for it is evident that the Senate after Sulla contained many members of equestrian families. 5

he aristocracy among the peoples vanquished by Pompeius Strabo and by Sulla now entered the Senate and commanded the armies o

y period seems to have crystallized into the law of the constitution. Sulla the Dictator had probably fixed thirty as the age

erator. Augustus both created new patrician houses and sought, like Sulla and Caesar before him, to revive the ancient nobi

or miss a generation, emerging later. In the Principate of Augustus a Sulla , a Metellus, a Scaurus and other nobles did not r

gher his second was an Aemilia Lepida in whose veins ran the blood of Sulla and of Pompeius. 5 She was the destined bride of

posing mansion from his profits as a political advocate money from P. Sulla went to pay for it. The Antonian L. Marcius Censo

ge and nepotism. Hence and at this price a well ordered state such as Sulla and Caesar might have desired but could never hav

dventure two members of his family perished in the wars of Marius and Sulla ; his grandfather, the enemy of both Caesar and Po

time. 4 Other families dominant in the oligarchy of government after Sulla are now missing or sadly reduced above all the fa

inner circle of the dynastic group, namely the descendants of Cinna, Sulla , Crassus and Pompeius. Some missed the consulate

much more a traditional Roman aristocrat than many have believed; and Sulla sought to establish an ordered state. Both were d

ne possem melior iudicis esse metu. 5 PageNotes. 442 1 On Marius, Sulla and Pompeius, cf. Tacitus, Hist. 2, 38. Marius an

1 On Marius, Sulla and Pompeius, cf. Tacitus, Hist. 2, 38. Marius and Sulla do not occur in the list of Roman heroes in Aen.

come any more remunerative since then. Samnium was a desolation after Sulla , and wide tracts of south-eastern Italy were occu

a whole class. The contest had been not merely political but social. Sulla , Pompeius and Caesar were all more than mere fact

ses that were the Republic and Rome. The faction-wars of Marius and Sulla had been a punishment and a warning. In the brief

lies old and recent. The dominant figures of the monarchic dynasts, Sulla , Pompeius and Caesar, engross the stage of histor

ouses waned before the Julii and their allies. The Metelli had backed Sulla : they made a final bid for power when, with the S

ecent and ruinous notoriety in the last generation of the Free State, Sulla , Cinna, Crassus and Pompeius, were still prominen

ribonii, issue of the daughter of Sex. Pompeius. Nor was the house of Sulla extinct an obscure grandson in the Principate of

of Messallina, cf. PIRl V 89. 6 For a stemma of the descendants of Sulla , of necessity conjectural, cf. PIR2 C, facing p.

and individual ambition had ruined the Republic long ago. Marius and Sulla overthrew libertas by force of arms and establish

Hist. 2, 38: ‘mox e plebe infima C. Marius et nobilium saevissimus L. Sulla victam armis libertatem in dominationem verterunt

man People his relationship was that of Father, Founder and Guardian. Sulla had striven to repair the shattered Republic; and

r saving Rome in his consulate, had been hailed as pater patriae. But Sulla , with well-grounded hate, was styled ‘the siniste

Augustus composed his Autobiography. Other generals before him, like Sulla and Caesar, had published the narrative of their

ars Ultor. This was the recompense due to ‘boni duces’ after death. 4 Sulla had been ‘Felix’, Pompeius had seized the title o

lia Attica, 238, 257, 345. Caecilia Metella, wife of Scaurus and of Sulla , 20, 31. Caecilia Metella, daughter of Creticus,

for, 369; qualifications, 374 ff.; elections, 370 f. Consuls, after Sulla , 22; in the last years of the Republic, 94; under

hter of Metellus Scipio, 22, 36, 40. Cornelia, the eldest daughter of Sulla , 25, 279. Cornelia, daughter of Scribonia, 229,

Calvisius Sabinus (cos. A.D. 26), 498. Cornelia Fausta, daughter of Sulla , 39; 242; alleged adultery with C. Sallustius Cri

Roman distrust of, 364; Tacitus’ dislike of, 515. Dictatorship, of Sulla , 17, 52; of Caesar, 51 ff., 77; abolition of, 107

f., 450 ff. Etruria, Marian sympathies of, 17, 87 ff.; punished by Sulla , 87; rises for Lepidus, 17, 89; Marian and Caesar

20, 504, 506 f.; in the party of Marius, 19, 65; restored to power by Sulla , 17 ff.; attitude towards Pompeius, 30 f., 43 ff.

ights, Centurions. Oligarchy, as a form of government, 7 f., 18; of Sulla , 17 ff., 45, 61; code of, 57 ff.; liberal oligarc

Pater patriae, 411, 482, 519 f. Patricians, 10, 18 f.; revived by Sulla , 68; revived by Caesar, 68; on Caesar’s side, 68

hampion of the Republic, 50 f.; as a popularis, 29, 65; a partisan of Sulla , 65; an oriental dynast, 30, 54, 74, 261 f., 473;

eror. Samnium, in relation to Rome, 17, 87 f., 287; impoverished by Sulla , 91; nomenclature, 93; senators from, 88, 195, 36

, 11, 81, 196, 349, 370; entry to, 11, 167 f., 358, 370; increased by Sulla , 78, 81; by Caesar, 77 ff.; weakness in 44 B.C.,

ators, as a class, 10 ff.; wealth of, 12, 14, 135, 380 f.; created by Sulla , 78; by Caesar, 78 ff.; social status of, 80 ff.;

ageBook=>564 Suetonius, on the Restoration of the Republic, 324. Sulla , see Cornelius. Sulmo, 90, 289, 363, 468. Sul

a conservative factor, 352, 477 f. Vettius, the Picene, creature of Sulla , 249. Vettius Scato, impoverished Marsian, 91. Vi

g’s elucidation of the connexion with the descendants of Pompeius and Sulla through the marriage between Faustus Sulla and Po

table illustrates the alliances between the descendants of Pompeius, Sulla , Crassus, and L. Piso (cos. 15 B.C.), cf. above,

last of the Licinii Crassi, the consul of 14 B.C. The descendants of Sulla are taken from Groag’s table, PIR2, C, facing p.