Wikipedia entry. He was a leader of the optimates, which sought to maintain senatorial supremacy against the populist reforms advocated by the populares, headed by Marius. Life dates 138 BC-78 BC. Sulla then established a system where all consuls and praetors served in Rome during their year in office, and then commanded a provincial army as a governor for the year after they left office. Published by at 29, 2022. "[157] This duality, or inconsistency, made him very unpredictable and "at the slightest pretext, he might have a man crucified, but, on another occasion, would make light of the most appalling crimes; or he might happily forgive the most unpardonable offenses, and then punish trivial, insignificant misdemeanors with death and confiscation of property. [146] An epitaph, which Sulla composed himself, was inscribed onto the tomb, reading, "No friend ever served me, and no enemy ever wronged me, whom I have not repaid in full. Turning south, he engaged the Pontic army allegedly 90,000[101] on the plain of Orchomenus. [13][14][15] Sulla's family thereafter did not reach the highest offices of the state until Sulla himself. Website. [100], In the summer of 86BC, two major battles were fought in Boeotia. N.S. The proscriptions are widely perceived as a response to similar killings that Marius and Cinna had implemented while they controlled the Republic during Sulla's absence. A book from 1877 England would be a primary source about Victorian history. Tweet. These sources have not been modified by interpretation and offer original thought or new information. Understanding Context: Awareness of the interconnection of events from the past, present and future. Sulla's First Civil War (88-87 BC) was triggered by an attempt to strip him of the command against Mithridates and saw Sulla become the first Roman to lead an army against the city for four hundred years. Modern sources have been somewhat less damning, as the Mithridatic campaigns later showed that no quick victory over Pontus was possible as long as Mithridates survived. Wikipedia entry + Cornelius , Epaphroditus , Sylla 138/31 The birth of L.Sulla. "[156], He was said to have a duality between being charming, easily approachable, and able to joke and cavort with the most simple of people, while also assuming a stern demeanor when he was leading armies and as dictator. [89] After Octavius induced the senate to outlaw Cinna, Cinna suborned the army besieging Nola and induced the Italians again to rise up. [118], For 82BC, the consular elections returned Gnaeus Papirius Carbo, in his third consulship, with the younger Gaius Marius, the son of the seven-time consul, who was then twenty-six. Social War, also called Italic War, or Marsic War, (90-89 bc), rebellion waged by ancient Rome's Italian allies (socii) who, denied the Roman franchise, fought for independence. If the latter, he may have married into the Julii Caesares. Sulla then left for Capua before joining an army near Nola in southern Italy.[74]. [96] Rome unsuccessfully defended Delos from an joint invasion by Athens and Pontus. [88] Political violence in Rome continued even in Sulla's absence. Gaius Marius, a lieutenant of Metellus, returned to Rome to stand for the consulship in 107BC. The second was Lucius Cornelius Sulla, who died young. [114], The general feeling in Italy, however, was decidedly anti-Sullan; many people feared Sulla's wrath and still held memories of his extremely unpopular occupation of Rome during his consulship. [98] He separately besieged Athens and Piraeus (the Long Walls had since been demolished). [48] The Parthian ambassador, Orobazus, was executed upon his return to Parthia for allowing this humiliation; the Parthians, however, ratified the treaty reached, which established the Euphrates as a clear boundary between Parthia and Rome. Making of America. Copyright statement. This prophecy was to have a powerful hold on Sulla throughout his lifetime. The circumstances of his relative poverty as a young man left him removed from his patrician brethren, enabling him to consort with revelers and experience the baser side of human nature. Primary Sources on the Web: Finding, Evaluating, Using. Some set their hearts on houses, some on landsThe whole period was one of debauched tastes and lawlessness. By the end of the war, the SSA had conscripted over 2.8 million American men. He brought Pompeii under siege. was a major figure in the late Roman Republic. Primary sources are contrasted with secondary sources, works that provide analysis, commentary, or criticism on the primary source. Identifying and locating primary sources can be challenging. With military and diplomatic victory, his political fortunes seemed positive. [119][120] The remainder of 83BC was dedicated to recruiting for the next year's campaign amid poor weather: Quintus Sertorius had raised a considerable force in Etruria, but was alienated from the consuls by the election of Gaius Marius' son rather than himself and so left to his praetorian province of Hispania Citerior; Sulla repudiated recognition of any treaties with the Samnites, whom he did not consider to be Roman citizens due to his rejection of Marius and Cinna's deal in 87BC. Primary sources are documents, images, relics, or other works that provide firsthand details of a historical or scientific event. [30] Sulla was popular with the men, charming and benign, he built up a healthy rapport while also winning popularity with other officers, including Marius. He became a tribune of the plebeians in 52 BC where he gained a reputation for being a strong supporter of the populares. Lucius Cornelius Sulla was born in 138 BCE in Puteoli, Italy. No action was taken against the troops nor action taken to relieve Pompey Strabo of command. [61] Pompeii was taken some time during the year, along with Stabiae and Aeclanum; with the capture of Aeclanum, Sulla forced the Hirpini to surrender. "[158], His excesses and penchant for debauchery could be attributed to the difficult circumstances of his youth, such as losing his father while he was still in his teens and retaining a doting stepmother, necessitating an independent streak from an early age. Primary Sources (1) Speech by Gaius Marius in the Senate, quoted by Sallust in his book The Jugurthine War (c. 40 BC) . The Roman Republic and territories in 100 B.C. The two primary sources for this paper are Sallust's He married again, with a woman called Aelia, of which nothing is known other than her name. Sulla, meanwhile, had to allow matters to unfold beyond his control. The Senate moved the senatus consultum ultimum against him and was successful in levying large amount of men and materiel from the Italians. The faculty and students of the Hanover College History Department initiated the Hanover Historical Texts Project in 1995, at a time when few primary sources were available outside of published anthologies. The next year, 96BC, he assigned "probably pro consule as was customary" to Cilicia in Asia Minor. [91], During close of the Social War, in 89BC, Mithridates VI Eupator of Pontus invaded Roman Asia. [95], Mithridates' successes against the Romans incited a revolt by the Athenians against Roman rule. Sulla would ratify Mithridates' position in Pontus and have him declared a Roman ally. Marius and his son, along with some others, escaped to Africa. Primary Source Terms:. With the capture and execution of Carbo, who had fled Sicily for Egypt, both consuls for 82BC were now dead. Threatened by the Pontic navy, Sulla sent his quaestor Lucullus to scrounge about for allied naval forces. [152], Sulla was red-blond[154] and blue-eyed, and had a dead-white face covered with red marks. In . "[133][134], At the end of 82 BC or the beginning of 81 BC,[135] the Senate appointed Sulla dictator legibus faciendis et reipublicae constituendae causa ("dictator for the making of laws and for the settling of the constitution"). [92] In the summer of 88, he reorganised the administration of the area before unsuccessfully besieging Rhodes. [21], This article is about the Roman dictator. Of those who contracted the bubonic plague, 4 out of 5 died within eight days. [44], His term as praetor was largely uneventful, excepting a public dispute with Gaius Julius Caesar Strabo (possibly his brother-in-law) and his magnificent holding of the ludi Apollinares. [108] Adding to his challenges was Lucullus' fleet, reinforced by Rhodian allies. Sulla's military coup was enabled by Marius's military reforms, that bound the army's loyalty with the general rather than to the Roman Republic, and permanently destabilized the Roman power structure. After some days, both sides engaged in battle. [66] Buttressed by success against Rome's traditional enemies, the Samnites, and general Roman victory across Italy, Sulla stood for and was elected easily to the consulship of 88BC; his colleague would be Quintus Pompeius Rufus. A primary source is an original object or document -- the raw material or first-hand information. You can limit HOLLIS searches to your time period, but sources may be published later, such as a person's diary published posthumously. At the start of his second consulship in 80BC with Metellus Pius, Sulla resigned his dictatorship. The Internet Modern History Sourcebook is one of series of history primary sourcebooks. During these times on the stage, after initially only singing, he started writing plays, Atellan farces, a kind of crude comedy. Gill. Primary sources in history are often created by people who witnessed, participated in, or were otherwise close to a particular event. Lucius Cornelius Sulla I. A list of useful online sources for reading about Rome at the time of Sulla Bill Thayer's LacusCurtius - Includes maps of the Roman world, texts of several primary sources, and William Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities. senators and equites) executed, although as many as 9,000 people were estimated to have been killed. Primary sources are available here primarily for use in high-school and university/college courses. Finding Primary Sources Primary Sources from DocsTeach Thousands of online primary source documents from the National Archives to bring the past to life as classroom teaching tools. He was saved through the efforts of his relatives, many of whom were Sulla's supporters, but Sulla noted in his memoirs that he regretted sparing Caesar's life, because of the young man's notorious ambition. [21] Regardless, by the standards of the Roman political class, Sulla was a very poor man. [94] While Rome was preparing to move against Pontus, Mithridates arranged the massacre of some eighty thousand Roman and Italian expatriates and their families, confiscating any available properties. [70][71] They were designed to regulate Rome's finances, which were in a very sorry state after all the years of continual warfare. The dictator is the subject of four Italian operas, two of which take considerable liberties with history: Sulla is a central character in the first three, Lucius Cornelius Sulla is also a character in the first book of the, His first wife was Ilia, according to Plutarch. Faced with mobilizing a sufficient fighting force, Congress passed the Selective Service Act on May 18, 1917. Primary sources include historical and legal documents, eyewitness accounts, results of experiments, statistical data, pieces of creative writing, and art objects. 82 BC. was the first man to use the army to establish a personal autocracy at Rome.. Sulla first came into prominence when he served as quaestor (107-106 B.C.) 1011 accepts these inheritances without much comment and places them around Sulla's turning thirty years of age. [23] The means by which Sulla attained the fortune which later would enable him to ascend the ladder of Roman politics are not clear; Plutarch refers to two inheritances, one from his stepmother (who loved him dearly) and the other from his mistress Nicopolis. The constitutional reforms of Sulla were a series of laws enacted by the Roman dictator Lucius Cornelius Sulla between 82 and 80 BC, reforming the Constitution of the Roman Republic in a revolutionary way.. Despite initial difficulties, Sulla was successful with minimal resources and preparation; with few Roman troops, he hastily levied allied soldiers and advanced quickly into rugged terrain before routing superior enemy forces. After another attempt to relieve Praeneste failed, Carbo lost his nerve and attempted to retreat to Africa; his lieutenants attempted again to relieve Praeneste but after that again failed, marched on Rome to force Sulla from his well-defended positions. [65] This had been preceded by the lex Julia, passed by Lucius Julius Caesar in October 90BC, which had granted citizenship to those allies who remained loyal. From this distance, Sulla remained out of the day-to-day political activities in Rome, intervening only a few times when his policies were involved (e.g. After massacring a number of Italian traders who supported one of his rivals, indignation erupted as to Jugurtha's use of bribery to secure a favourable peace treaty; called to Rome to testify on bribery charges, he successfully plotted the assassination of one another royal claimant before returning home. Sulla almost certainly received a normal education for his class, grounded in ancient Greek and Latin classics. Sulla had the distinction of holding the office of consul twice, as well as reviving the dictatorship. With Sulpicius able to enact legislation without consular opposition, Sulla discovered that Marius had tricked him, for the first piece of legislation Sulpicius brought was a law transferring the command against Mithridates to Marius. For instance, Da Vinci's Mona Lisa is a primary source because it is the most famous art piece during the Renaissance period. The assembly of the people subsequently ratified the decision, with no limit set on his time in office. When Scipio refused, Sulla let him go. The populares nonetheless seized power once he left with his army to Asia. Cinna violently quarrelled with his co-consul, Gnaeus Octavius. Encyclopaedia Romana - Has essays on several aspects of ancient Rome. This brief guide is designed to help students and researchers find and evaluate primary sources available online. With Mithridates' armies in Europe almost entirely destroyed, Archelaus and Sulla negotiated a set of relatively cordial peace terms which were then forwarded to Mithridates. A primary source is a first-hand or contemporary account of an event or topic. Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix[8] (/sl/; 13878 BC), commonly known as Sulla, was a Roman general and statesman. Although he was able to regain the command, his political setup in Rome collapsed almost as soon as he left Italy, and the war would . The veto power of the tribunes and their legislating authority were soon reinstated, ironically during the consulships of Pompey and Crassus.[150]. [117] Sulla attempted to open negotiations with Norbanus, who was at Capua, but Norbanus refused to treat and withdrew to Praeneste as Sulla advanced. This led him to a secret deal with Marius, who had for years been coveting another military command, in which Marius would support Sulpicius' Italian legislation in exchange for a law transferring Sulla's command to Marius. [129], Sulla had his stepdaughter Aemilia (daughter of princeps senatus Marcus Aemilius Scaurus) married to Pompey, although she shortly died in childbirth. Hind 1992, p.150 dismisses claims in Plutarch and Vellius Paterclus of Athens being forced to cooperate with Mithridates as "very hollow" and "apologia". [54] Various proposals to give the allies Roman citizenship over the decades had failed for various reasons, just as the allies also "became progressively more aware of the need to cease to be subjects and to share in the exercise of imperial power" by acquiring that citizenship. Reason #4: studying primary sources helps students become better citizens. [72] Sulpicius' attempts to push through the Italian legislation again brought him into violent urban conflict, although he "offered nothing to the urban plebs so it continued to resist him". These sieges lasted until spring of 86BC. Provides tips on how to read and use primary sources in historical research. The Roman general and dictator Lucius Cornelius Sulla (138-78 B.C.) Possibly to protect himself from future political retribution, Sulla had the sons and grandsons of the proscribed banned from running for political office, a restriction not removed for over 30 years. Sulla and Pompeius Rufus opposed the bill, which Sulpicius took as a betrayal; Sulpicius, without the support of the consuls, looked elsewhere for political allies. At the same time, Marius had annihilated the Cimbri's allies, the Teutones, at the Battle of Aquae Sextiae. The law was vetoed by one of the tribunes, but when Quintus Pompeius Rufus went to Pompey Strabo's army to take command under the Senate's authority, he was promptly assassinated after his arrival and assumption of command, almost certainly on Strabo's orders. Examples include journal articles, reviews . Updated on June 22, 2022 Students. Click the title for location and availability information. Student Engagement: Primary source materials "help spark students . Sulla, himself a patrician, thus ineligible for election to the office of Plebeian Tribune, thoroughly disliked the office. He was awarded the Grass Crown for his bravery at the Battle of Nola. There, while giving a speech, he had three or four thousand Samnite prisoners butchered, to the shock of the attending senators. Archelaus then hid in the nearby marshes before escaping to Chalcis. 45-120 CE) was a Platonist philosopher, best known to the general public as author of his "Parallel Lives" of paired Greek and Roman statesmen and military leaders.He was a voluminous writer, author also of a collection of "Moralia" or "Ethical Essays," mostly in dialogue format, many of them devoted to philosophical topics, not at all .