Sulla: Tyranny, Triumph, and Treasure in the First Roman Civil War

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And now, today’s video. On January 10th, 49 BC, Julius Caesar did something that changed the course of history. He ignored orders from the Roman Senate to disband his armies and instead crossed the Rubicon River into Italy, something considered treason. A civil war erupted that ultimately led to the demise of the Republic and the rise of the Roman Empire, thus solidifying Julius Caesar’s place as the most famous and influential Roman of all time.

You’re probably familiar with that story, but you might not know that 40 years earlier, someone else did the same thing: a man named Sulla. Feeling betrayed by the machinations of his political opponents and benefiting from the unwavering support of his troops, Sulla marched into Rome and chased away his rivals. A few years later, he did the same thing again, except this time his enemies were ready for him, leading to the first civil war in Roman history and causing Sulla to become the first man to seize power from the Roman Republic by force.

Lucius Cornelius Sulla was born in 138 BC in Patioli, near Naples, today known as Pozzuoli. As his name might suggest, he was part of one of the oldest patrician houses in Rome, the gens Cornelia. However, in Sulla’s time, that name didn’t carry much weight anymore; the family had lost most of its wealth and respect following the actions of one of its ancestors, Publius Cornelius Rufinus.

Plutarch has given us the most detailed account of Sulla’s life. He said that Rufinus disgraced himself while serving as consul around 300 BC. Although his actions weren’t exactly scandalous, he amassed more than his allotted share of silver, for which he was expelled from the Senate, and his family subsequently lost a lot of its wealth and power.

It’s not like they were poor—not by a long shot—but Plutarch mentions that Sulla, when he was young, lived in modest lodgings that were only mildly better than those of a commoner. In his youth, Sulla lived by the “study hard, play hard” mantra. He was fond of wine and often engaged in revelry in the company of actors and musicians, a practice he continued all his life.

In order to improve his financial situation, he was not above serving as a companion to wealthy women. In his early twenties, he received two legacies that he used to enter politics. The first was from his stepmother, but the other was from a rich widow named Nicopolis, who was so impressed with the young man’s fortitude that she named Sulla as her heir.

His first notable position was that of a quaestor during the consulship of the man who would eventually become his arch-nemesis, Gaius Marius. In 112 BC, Rome declared war on the kingdom of Numidia in North Africa because they had supported Hannibal during the Punic Wars. This conflict became known as the Jugurthine War, named after the king of Numidia, Jugurtha.

It didn’t turn out to be the easy victory that Rome had hoped for; four consuls fought Numidia, and they all came back defeated and humiliated until Gaius Marius took command in 107 BC. At first, it seemed like Marius was destined to meet the same fate if not for the devious actions of his new quaestor.

In order to get to Jugurtha, Sulla appealed to his ally, King Bocchus of Mauritania, who agreed to betray the Numidian ruler in exchange for the western half of his kingdom. Even so, this was a massive risk for Sulla, who stepped right into the lion’s den of Bocchus’s camp, escorted only by a handful of soldiers. The trap he laid for Jugurtha could have just as easily been his own undoing if Bocchus had decided that he preferred the favor of Numidia over that of Rome.

But the Mauritanian king delivered on his promise; Jugurtha and a small retinue unsuspectingly entered the Mauritanian camp. His soldiers were cut down immediately, while the Numidian king was brought to Rome in chains, where he died in prison in 104 BC.

As we all know, Rome was never really the “live and let live” kind of place. While it was engaged in the Jugurthine War, it also took part in another conflict against a confederation of Germanic tribes led by the Cimbri that migrated into Roman-controlled territory. The Cimbrian War saw Rome suffer several losses in its early stages, including the humiliating Battle of Arausio, which gave the Roman Republic its worst defeat since Hannibal over a hundred years prior.

Once again, Gaius Marius was the one tasked with vanquishing Rome’s enemies. He was given command by the Senate to do whatever he wanted as long as he stopped the Germanic tribes from marching into Rome, a danger that had become a very real possibility given how things were going.

Marius was fortunate that, for whatever reason, the Cimbrians did not press their advantage. If they had invaded immediately following their victory at Arausio, they would have almost certainly been able to sack the Eternal City. Despite the brewing discord between Gaius Marius and Sulla, the former recognized the talent of the latter, which is why Marius continued to recruit Sulla into his service, even promoting him to a legate and giving him command of his own legion.

For his part, Sulla showed off his value first when he defeated the Teutones and captured their chieftain, Carbo, and then when he persuaded the Marsi tribe to leave the Germanic confederation and ally itself with Rome. Things seemed to be going well, but they took a turn in 102 BC. Gaius Marius had just received the consulship for the fourth time, but instead of serving under him, Sulla requested to be transferred to the other consul, Quintus Lutatius Catulus.

Plutarch described Catulus as a worthy man but too sluggish for arduous contests, and maybe this is exactly what Sulla was looking for: a less ambitious boss who had passed down their responsibilities to him. Catulus entrusted Sulla with important enterprises, thus enabling him to achieve power and glory in battle.

When Sulla was in charge of provisions, he not only made sure his own soldiers lived in plenty but sent extra rations to Marius’s men with a cheeky wink and a nod, a pure warning of the strife and violence yet to come. After Rome won the Cimbrian War, Sulla had earned enough personal fame that he could pursue a successful political career. In 97 BC, he was made praetor urbanus in Rome and later served as pro-praetor in the province of Cilicia.

While there, Sulla had to travel to nearby Cappadocia to help restore King Ariarathes to the throne. He had been overthrown by Mithridates VI, King of Pontus, who wanted to install one of his own sons on the throne. It is unlikely that Rome actually cared about Ariarathes; their main concern was to limit the influence of Mithridates, whose power had grown to the point that he had become a serious threat.

But now, Sulla did as asked, restored Ariarathes to the throne of Cappadocia without too much hassle, and he returned to Rome in 93 BC just in time to be impeached for bribery by a man named Sulpicius Rufus. Fortunately for him, this Rufus never appeared at the trial for whatever reason, so the whole thing was dropped.

Once back on track to lead Rome in yet another war, when Sulla arrived in Rome, he discovered mounting tensions between the Romans and the other groups of confederates who lived in Italy, collectively known as the Socii, primarily led by the Marsi and the Samnites. They didn’t want to be regarded as second-class citizens anymore; they wanted Roman citizenship and equal rights. Unsurprisingly, Rome didn’t want to give them this, and thus the Social War began in 93 BC.

Sulla primarily fought against the Samnites and the Picentes in southern Italy. He successfully besieged the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum before capturing the main settlement of the Hirpini, Aeculanum. His greatest triumph was outside the city of Nola, where he overwhelmed an army of twenty thousand Pompeians, including their general, Cluentius. He annihilated them with a show of unbridled and remorseless force, like Mount Vesuvius itself.

The war ended in 87 BC with another Roman victory, and Sulla was named consul for the first time in 88 BC at the age of 50. For his actions, Sulla was awarded the grass crown, which, although it didn’t sound too impressive, was actually the highest military distinction of the Roman Republic.

Clintus the Elder described what made this crown so special: it was never conferred except at a crisis of extreme desperation, never voted except by the acclamation of the whole army, and never to anyone but to him who had been its preserver. Other crowns were awarded by the generals to the soldiers; this alone by the soldiers and to the general.

Before the Social War was even over, the Roman Republic was already embroiled in another conflict in Asia. Remember Mithridates, King of Pontus, who tried to take over Cappadocia? Well, he did it again in the summer of 89 BC, and this time he was successful. While he was there, he also conquered the neighboring kingdom of Bithynia, which was a client state of Rome.

In 88 BC, he carried out the Asiatic Vespers, a genocide of all Romans and other Latin-speaking groups. Estimates of casualties range between 80,000 and 150,000 people, and once he had done this, war became inevitable. The First Mithridatic War began in 89 BC. The commission to lead the troops was a dream job for every general in Rome because it promised to be rich in plunder and prestige.

As consul and the premier military leader of that time, the honor went to Sulla, to the chagrin of Gaius Marius, who still coveted the position even though he was almost 70 years old by that point. Fortunately for him, Sulla’s rise brought him plenty of other enemies. All Marius had to do was conspire with one of them, Tribune Publius Sulpicius Rufus, to strip Sulla of the command and grant it to himself.

When word of the betrayal reached Sulla, he decided he wasn’t going to just lie down and take it. The strife between him and Marius had been brewing for a long time, and now it was time to act. Sulla led the support of his men—roughly thirty thousand soldiers—so he did something unprecedented: he marched on Rome.

Sulla first captured the Esquiline Gate, and as he and his army were making their way through the streets of Rome, they were pelted with rocks by the unarmed masses who had taken refuge on the roofs of their homes. Sulla’s response was extreme as he ordered his men to begin setting fire to the houses of those who attacked them.

By this point, Gaius Marius knew he was in deep trouble. He made a last-ditch attempt to secure protection by asking the slaves and gladiators to take up arms on his behalf, but shockingly, they refused. Marius quickly fled the city with his tail tucked between his legs, while his co-conspirator Sulpicius was betrayed and killed by one of his servants.

Now that Sulla was in charge, he convened the Senate and placed a death sentence on Gaius Marius and a few of his close supporters. As you might expect, Sulla’s actions brought him the enmity of the Senate, and the steps he took to try and win them back had little success. To show that the Republic was still free, he allowed one of his political opponents, Lucius Cinna, to become consul, which turned out to be a foolish move.

Afterward, Sulla concerned himself again with the war against Mithridates. Unsurprisingly, he was confirmed as the commander once more and made plans to travel to Asia. As soon as Sulla was out of Italy, Lucius Cinna began conspiring with Gaius Marius, who had retreated to North Africa. In 87 BC, Marius returned from exile with an army and charged Rome.

He basically repeated Sulla’s playbook but wanted to show everyone that he could be much worse. What followed were five days of chaos, death, and violence as he and Cinna decapitated many of Sulla’s supporters and displayed their heads on the Rostra, the elevated platforms which faced the Senate house, as a reminder of what happened to those who went against them.

Eventually, they stopped making distinctions between friend and foe and started killing people whose property they coveted. In 86 BC, Marius and Cinna put themselves forward as candidates for consulship, and surprise, surprise, they were both elected. Unfortunately, we never got an ultimate battle between the two fierce rivals because just two weeks after becoming consul, Gaius Marius died of natural causes, leaving his position to another of Cinna’s allies, Lucius Valerius Flaccus.

While this mayhem was going on in Rome, Sulla focused on his war against Mithridates and started with his Greek allies. At this point in history, the Greeks had only been under Roman hegemony for a few decades, so many of them jumped at the opportunity when Mithridates came along and offered to help them escape the Roman yoke of oppression.

However, when Sulla showed up with his legions armed to the teeth and ready for war, they realized that life under Roman rule might not be so bad after all. So they switched sides again and sent ambassadors to ask Sulla for forgiveness. One notable exception was Aristion, the tyrant king of Athens, who pined for the city’s glory days and remained allied with Mithridates in the hopes that Athens might again flourish as the beacon of culture of the Greek world.

Thus, the city-state became Sulla’s first target as he laid siege not only to Athens but also to the nearby port city of Piraeus. This would stop food shipments from getting to Athens. It was ruthless but effective. Soon enough, the city was a wretched sight to behold, struck by famine, deaths, and even cannibalism. By early spring 86 BC, Athens and Aristion were executed.

By this point, some of Sulla’s supporters who managed to escape the carnage back in Rome had begun arriving at his camp. Sulla knew that the Marius-Cinna faction had taken over and declared him an enemy of the state, but as we said, Gaius Marius was already dead by then, and he would soon be joined by his replacement consul, Lucius Valerius Flaccus.

Flaccus had been given the task of dealing with both Sulla and Mithridates, and considering that he only had two legions, this was somewhat optimistic. But Flaccus never even made it to the battlefield because he was betrayed by one of his officers, a man named Flavius Fimbria, who clearly thought that he was better suited for the job.

In Nicomedia, Fimbria assassinated Flaccus by cutting off his head and throwing it into the sea. Then he declared himself the new commander and went to fight Mithridates. Fimbria was more successful than expected against the King of Pontus, but then something happened that he had not anticipated: his two enemies banded together against him. Mithridates realized that the war was lost, so he made peace with Sulla.

He agreed to renounce Bithynia and Cappadocia, pay Sulla 2,000 talents, and give him 70 ships. In exchange, Sulla would confirm Mithridates as the rightful ruler of his other dominions and get him recognized as an ally of Rome. And then, of course, there was the matter of dealing with Fimbria, which did not prove difficult at all. Sulla’s much larger army surrounded the enemy camp, at which point Fimbria’s men mutinied and switched sides.

Fimbria fled to Pergamon, where he entered the temple of Asclepius and committed suicide, becoming Sulla’s third Roman enemy to die without actually fighting him. And he wouldn’t be the last. At this rate, the whole matter would have probably been settled itself if Sulla simply waited long enough, but instead, he intended to march on Rome again.

Back in Rome, word arrived that Flaccus had been less than stellar in his mission, and Lucius Cinna realized that Sulla would now be returning to Italy to look for a fight. Besides him, other leading members of his faction were a man named Carbo, who basically replaced Flaccus, and the son of Gaius Marius, Gaius Marius the Younger.

Meanwhile, Sulla also had some strong support since Cinna and Gaius Marius had made plenty of enemies during their spree of assassinations, exiles, and confiscations. People you might remember, such as Pompey and Marcus Crassus, had an axe to grind with them, so they raised armies in support of Sulla.

The war