Sulla was the Roman commander whose defence of his eastern command led to the first march of Roman legions against Rome itself.
Historical Significance
Sulla’s career connects the Social War, the Mithridatic command, the march on Rome, the proscriptions and the dictatorship. As self-proclaimed restorer of the Republic, his victory brought proscriptions, confiscations, veteran settlements and constitutional reforms designed to strengthen the Senate and restrain popular power. Yet his restoration preserved forms while damaging the trust that had once animated them. In Livarva he represents the paradox of restoration by force.
Command and Rivalry
Chapter V follows the moment when Sulla’s personal authority over his soldiers became stronger than the political order that had appointed him. Sulla turned possibility into precedent: after him, the Republic could no longer pretend that law, office or sacred boundary stood above an army loyal to its commander.
Related Entries
Appears in the Library
The Dictatorship — Chapter V: Command and Rivalry
In The First Breach, Sulla’s shadow lies over Caesar’s youth. In The Final Virtue, his precedent helps define the political world Cato tries to defend.
Further Reading
Ancient Sources: Plutarch, Life of Sulla; Appian, Civil Wars; Sallust; Cicero; Livy’s surviving summaries and fragments; Velleius Paterculus.
Modern Scholarship: Theodor Mommsen, History of Rome; Arthur Keaveney, Sulla: The Last Republican; François Hinard, studies of the proscriptions; Karl Christ, Sulla.