Sulla, Lucius Cornelius

▪ Roman dictator

Introduction

also called  Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix  

born 138 BC

died 79 BC, Puteoli [Pozzuoli], near Naples

 victor in the first full-scale civil war in Roman history (88–82 BC) and subsequently dictator (82–79), who carried out notable constitutional reforms in an attempt to strengthen the Roman Republic (ancient Rome) during the last century of its existence. In late 82 he assumed the name Felix in belief in his own luck.

Life

      Sulla was the son of a politically unimportant patrician family. He early showed a taste for luxury and aspired to a political career, which he began in 107 BC, under the command of Gaius Marius (Marius, Gaius), as a quaestor (financial magistrate) in Africa in the war against King Jugurtha of the Numidians. His spectacular capture of Jugurtha by trickery marked the start of his feud with Marius. Although Marius continued to use Sulla in the war against the invading Cimbri, in 103 BC his jealousy became obvious, and Sulla transferred to the service of Marius' co-commander, Quintus Lutatius Catulus.

      After service as a Roman praetor (one of the chief magistrates) in 97 BC, Sulla fought in the Social War (90–89 BC), the struggle of Rome's Italian allies to obtain Roman citizenship. He became one of the two consuls—the highest office in the republic—in 88 and was placed in command of the war against King Mithradates VI (Mithradates VI Eupator) of Pontus in Asia Minor. By his marriage—his fourth—to Caecilia Metella, the widow of Marcus Aemilius Scaurus, in 88 BC, he formed important alliances. The Senate gave Sulla the command of an army against Mithradates, who was threatening Roman control of the east, but Marius, through his alliance with the tribune Publius Sulpicius Rufus of the popular party, succeeded in being appointed commander instead. Sulla marched on Rome and Sulpicius was killed, but Marius escaped.

      In 88 Sulla set off for Greece in charge of the war against Mithradates. By the spring of 87 most of Greece was in his power, and after a long siege he captured Athens in 86. Mithradates' general, Archelaus, was pursued into Boeotia and finally defeated in two battles in 86.

      At a meeting in 85 between Sulla and Mithradates at Dardanus on the Hellespont, the latter accepted a punitive treaty. Order was restored in Asia and Greece, and Mithradates became a vassal of the Romans again. In the summer of 83, Sulla, after a lengthy stay in Athens, returned to Brundisium in southern Italy with 40,000 men and enormous plunder.

      During his absence Sulla had been declared a public enemy by the ruling popular party. His laws were repealed, his house was destroyed, and his family and friends fled to join him in Greece. In 86 the former consul Lucius Valerius Flaccus was sent to replace Sulla in the Asian command. But Sulla's luck did not desert him; Flaccus was murdered by his lieutenant.

      From Brundisium, Sulla began his march on Rome, joined by opponents of the popular regime, including Marcus Licinius Crassus and Pompey. Through most of the ensuing civil war Sulla was opposed by the consuls Gnaeus Papirius Carbo and the younger Marius (whose father had died in 86). Sulla's victory of Colline Gate in the northern environs of Rome and the fall of Praeneste at the end of 82 ended the war, which was followed by massacres and proscriptions.

      Sulla was appointed dictator under the Lex Valeria (Valerian law), which vested constituent, legislative, military, and judicial power in him, without, however, for the first time in Rome's history, limiting the duration of his dictatorship.

      The state was reorganized and the new legislation enacted in 81, at the start of which year (January 27–28) Sulla celebrated his victory over Mithradates. In the speech delivered at the close of the ceremony, he chose for himself the name of Felix (Epaphroditos in Greek documents).

      By his extensive program of constitutional reform he intended mainly to reestablish the supremacy of the Senate in the Roman state, and his administrative reforms did indeed survive to the end of the republic. Of value were the increase of the number of courts for criminal trials; a new treason law, Lex Cornelia Majestatis, designed to prevent insurrection by provincial governors and army commanders; the requirement that the tribunes had to submit their legislative proposals to the Senate for approval; and various laws protecting citizens against excesses of judicial and executive organs.

      At the beginning of 79, Sulla resigned and withdrew to the neighbourhood of Puteoli in Campania. This action caused a sensation in Rome; many different explanations have been given, starting with the classical writers. Most commonly accepted is the view that Sulla's resignation was an act of honesty by a man who had pledged to step down as soon as his reforms had been carried out. Henceforth a private citizen, he continued to write his memoirs. Active to his very last days, Sulla was struck down by a fever in the spring of 78. He left behind two children by Metella and a posthumous daughter by his fifth wife, Valeria.

Assessment

      Sulla, a soldier and a politician, a dictator and a reformer, and a man of contradictions in an age of contradictions, is the subject of contradictory opinions expressed by both classical and modern writers. The classical writers of Sulla's time or shortly thereafter found it difficult to form an opinion of him; they noted the discrepancy of the Sulla “who follows up good beginnings with evil deeds.” Generally their attitude was a negative one, with references to despotism, slavery, cruelty, and inhumanity, and the absence of any principle of good government. The opinions held by modern writers cover a spectrum ranging from Sulla the enigma (because of his resignation), to Sulla the monarch, to Sulla the honest reformer.

      Sulla was the exponent of a decadent patriciate that tried everything in its power to save itself by instituting reforms that, while not without democratic aspects, lacked inner vitality. From the long-term perspective Sulla's actions seem meaningless; but viewed in their historical context they are justified by the transitional character—both in its military and political aspect—of his age. Inspired by a glorious past, interpreting an extremely volatile present, and heralding a future faithful to tradition, Sulla played a historical role, conclusively shaping and epitomizing the republican ideal shortly before it became submerged. But he was mistaken about the significance of his reforms: he was a temporary dictator because he wanted no one else who might follow him to become a dictator for life; yet by his example he unwittingly paved the way for Julius Caesar.

Ernesto Valgiglio

Additional Reading

Robin Seager, “Sulla,” chapter 6 in The Cambridge Ancient History, vol. 9, The Last Age of the Roman Republic, 146–43 BC, ed. by J.A. Crook, Andrew Lintott, and Elizabeth Rawson, 2nd ed. (1994), pp. 165–207, is a brief portrait. Arthur Keaveney, Sulla: The Last Republican, 2nd ed. (2005), gives a favourable view of Sulla.

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