Sulla

The Social War (‘social’ from socii, allies) lasted longest in the south. The rebels had looked for help from outside and had made contact with a new enemy of Rome, Mithridates, king of Pontus, a mountainous yet fertile kingdom on the edge of the Black Sea. Mithridates was shrewd and manipulative with the aspirations, though not the military talents, of an Alexander. Over a long reign (it had begun in 120) he had noted the growing arrogance of the Roman equestrians and their unashamed plundering of Asia and he sensed the overconfidence of rulers who had not been seriously challenged in battle in the east for eighty years.

Mithridates may have been pushed into action when the Romans unwisely encouraged an invasion of his territory by his neighbour, Nicomedes of Bithynia, but his timing was probably conditioned by the knowledge that Rome was preoccupied with the Social War. In 89 he invaded Bithynia and by 88 he had reached the province of Asia where he called on the Greeks to slaughter Italian citizens and their families. It was said that some 80,000 were killed in a night, so deep rooted was the hatred of Roman exploitation. The Asian Greeks rallied to Mithridates as a saviour, and further afield, in Athens, there was a democratic coup in his support. The fragility of the empire’s overseas conquests had again been exposed.

A consul was needed to restore control and one of those elected for 88, Lucius Cornelius Sulla, was granted the command. Sulla was of an old but not particularly distinguished patrician family and his main claim to fame was his success as a commander in the south of Italy during the Social War. As he was about to leave for the east he found his position challenged by a tribune, Publius Sulpicius. Sulpi-cius had developed a plan to distribute the newly enfranchised allied citizens among the existing tribal groups into which Roman citizens were divided in the concilium, doubtless in the hope of calling on their aid when he needed it. In order to gain Marius’ support for his plans he promised Marius, now aged 70, that he would secure him the eastern command in place of Sulla. Once again responses to the challenges of empire overseas had become inextricably mixed with domestic politics. (For Sulla, see the standard, perhaps too apologetic, biography by A. Keaveney, Sulla: The Last Republican, 2nd edition, London and New York, 2005.)

Sulpicius’ plan was clearly unconstitutional as Marius was not even one of the consuls for the year. Sulla would have been completely humiliated if it had succeeded and was left with little option but to defend his dignity. He persuaded his legions to follow him to Rome. It was a momentous decision, understandable in terms of Sulla’s frustration but outrageous otherwise. For the first time a Roman army was being led into Rome, across the pomerium, the hallowed boundary of the city, to be used against other Romans. There was no effective force to resist it though citizens pelted the troops from the rooftops. Sulla was triumphant. He pushed through a decree in the senate outlawing Sulpicius, Marius, and their supporters. Marius fled to Africa where he knew his veterans would welcome him. Sulpicius was betrayed by a slave and killed. Sulla dealt ruthlessly with the remaining opposition before departing at last for Asia.

However, once Sulla had left Italy fresh unrest broke out, again over the distribution of citizens. A consul for 87, Lucius Cornelius Cinna, tried to revive Sulpicius’ proposals but was obstructed by the other consul, a nominee of Sulla’s. Cinna was forced to flee the city but now sought out Marius and the two returned to besiege Rome. They captured the city and in 86 Cinna and Marius held the consulships, Marius’ seventh. Marius died shortly afterwards but Cinna managed to hold four successive consulships and, although the details are obscure, appears to have maintained stability. Sulla was declared an outlaw.

In Asia Sulla, despite having been ‘officially’ deprived of his command, was rebuilding his position with the harshness that was his hallmark. Athens was retaken and the supporters of Mithridates slaughtered. The Piraeus was burnt down and treasures, including one of the great libraries and columns from the unfinished temple of Olympian Zeus, carried off from the city. In Asia the reconquered cities were crushed and burdened with enormous indemnities. Mithridates, whose popularity among the Greeks collapsed as soon as the scale of the Roman retribution became clear, surrendered all his conquests and retreated to his kingdom.

This was enough for Sulla. He now had the glory of victory to back his return to Rome for revenge. As soon as he landed in Italy in 83 he initiated a civil war in which communities and peoples who had supported Marius, which included the Samnites, were crushed. Then Sulla set out on the systematic elimination of his remaining opponents. Cinna had already died in an army mutiny in 84. A list of between 2,000 and 9,000 equestrians and senators was drawn up, any of whom could be freely killed for reward. Their land was confiscated and distributed among Sulla’s veterans, a process which caused renewed disruption in Italy on an immense scale. In 82 Sulla entered Rome yet again with an army and declared himself dictator, a post normally held only for six months but held by Sulla with no declared limit. Coins celebrated his ‘victory’.

Sulla, however, was more than a revengeful tyrant. He had a plan for constitutional reform based on the restoration of the power and prestige of the senate. It was to be enlarged to 600 members (from the traditional 300). The extra 300 members had to come from the equestrian class and their appointment gave Sulla the chance to pack the senate with those loyal to himself. Meanwhile the equestrian class lost their right to sit on juries, which were from now on to be reserved for senators. To hinder the rise of popular leaders Sulla insisted that the traditional rules about magistracies be restored. No one could be praetor before the age of 39 or consul before 42, an age when ambition might be already on the wane. No one could hold the same magistracies twice within ten years. Finally Sulla decreed that anyone who had held the position of tribune could hold no other magistracy, neutralizing the post as a stepping-stone to the more senior magistracies. Tribunes could no longer introduce legislation in the concilium without the prior approval of the senate. His new system complete, Sulla then, to the surprise of many, retired from office. He died in 78.

It was during these years that violence had entered the political system and begun to corrode it. Armies had fought within Rome, the constitution had been subverted

By force, Italy had been unsettled by massive confiscations of land. Sulla’s restoration of the senate was, in the circumstances, an artificial one, especially as many experienced men had been proscribed. Almost immediately it came under pressure. The tribunes started agitating for the restoration of their powers and clashed on several occasions with the consuls. Among their most popular campaigns was one against the corruption of Sulla’s senatorial courts after it became clear that massive bribery was being used to secure verdicts. Popular unrest was fuelled by several years of high corn prices. There were also direct challenges to the state. One of the consuls for 78, Lepidus, having quarrelled with his fellow consul, put himself at the head of a mass of dispossessed landowners in Etruria, while a former supporter of Marius, Quintus Sertorius, returned to Spain (where he had originally been governor) and built up such effective support among the native peasantry that senatorial control of the province was lost.