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INTRODUCTION This Book Is, First of All, a Book on Sulla and His

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INTRODUCTION This Book Is, First of All, a Book on Sulla and His INTRODUCTION This book is, first of all, a book on Sulla and his contribution to the making of the Roman hegemony in the Mediterranean world. Research on Sulla and his age is by no means a new undertaking. At least ten biographies have been published in the last century alone.1 Many accounts of the age of Sulla have also been written, and no reference work ignores its importance in the final crisis of the Roman Republic.2 Most students of the Roman Revolution have tried to provide an inter- pretation of this character, of his policies and of his aims. Sulla’s great enemies, Gaius Marius, Cinna and Mithridates Eupator, have received considerable scholarly attention too.3 Still, it may be useful to open this book with a brief summary of Sulla’s biography and of the defining events in which he took part. The life of L. Cornelius Sulla spanned over six decades, between 138 and 78BC. He was the descendant of an old patrician family, which had not produced a consul since 212BC and certainly was not in posi- tion to compete with the financial wealth of other families of compa- rable rank.4 Sulla was an exceptionally ambitious man, who happened to live in exceptionally challenging times. Indeed, some of the crucial issues that he would face in his lifetime started to take shape when he 1 Zachariä 1834;Gerlach1856, 25–48; Leutwein 1920;Levi1924;Baker1927; Berve 1931;Kahrstedt1931;Lanzani1931;Lanzani1936; Carcopino 1947; Valgiglio 1956;Volkmann1958; Badian 1970;Keaveney1982a; Hinard 1985b; Letzner 2000; Hölkeskamp 2000; Brizzi 2002;Christ2002. 2 Cybulski 1838; Mommsen 1919, 250–377; Linden 1896;Last-Gardner1932;Schur 1942; Sambito 1963;Gabba1972b; Evola Marino 1974; Santalucia 1976; Rossi 1980, 321–412;Lepore1990; Seager 1994. For a full survey of modern scholarship on this period, see Gómez-Pantoja 1990 and Gómez-Pantoja 1991. 3 Marius: Carney 1961a; Passerini 1971;Evans1994. Cinna: Bennett 1923;Lovano 2002. Mithridates: Reinach 1890;Reinach1895;McGing1986; Ballesteros Pastor 1996; Strobel 1996 (also cf. Olshausen 1972). 4 Plut. Sull. 1.1–2. About the decline of Sulla’s family, see Katz 1982. About the possible connections between the Sullae and the Sibyl, see Gabba 1975, 13–14; contra, RRC, 250. 2 introduction was just a child. In 133BC the Gracchan crisis marked a watershed in Roman political life and posed problems such as the consequences of increasing competition within the elites and the role of the people in Roman politics. The same year saw Attalus III’s decision to bequeath his kingdom to Rome, with the creation of the Roman province of Asia following a few years later. Nothing certain, however, is known about Sulla’s youth, and not much is known about his early career either.5 Heseemstohavemade efforts to gain a better financial position that would ensure that he was able to compete in the Roman political arena with some hope of suc- cess. In 106BC he is known to have served as a quaestor alongside the consul Marius during the war against Jugurtha, the King of Numidia. Sallust provides a memorable portrait of Sulla in this campaign, which I will discuss more fully at the beginning of the first part. Sulla’s inter- vention was crucial for Roman victory in the war; it was he who con- vinced Bocchus, the king of Mauretania, to betray Jugurtha and to sur- render him to the Romans. His special relationship with Bocchus would prove to be useful in the coming years too. When Sulla was praetor, Bocchus generously funded his effort to organise unprecedentedly lav- ish games: free lions and tamers were seen in Rome for the first time.6 More importantly, and most strikingly, Bocchus decided to fund the making of an equestrian statue of Sulla that was displayed on the Capi- tol. The relief found near the church of Sant’Omobono may form part of this monument, although its iconography is not incompatible with a later dating, after the victory in the First Mithridatic War.7 The rela- 5 The first thirty years of the life of Sulla are almost completely unknown: a tentative discussion in Keaveney 1980;Keaveney1982a, 6–12. 6 Sen. brev. 13.6. 7 Plut. Sull. 6.1. On the relief, see Bertoldi 1968; Giuliani 1968 (both dating it to the second century BC); Hölscher 1980, 357–371 (= Hölscher 1994, 60–74, 228– 233); Hölscher 1984, 17–18, 78 (= Hölscher 1994, 149–151, 255); Schäfer 1989, 74– 83; Sehlmeyer 1999, 192–197.Cf.Hafner1989, suggesting an unconvincing dating to the age of Scipio Africanus; Behr 1993, 126–127 takes no stance on the problem. Iconography suggests that the monument celebrates Sulla and Rome at the same time: Hölscher 1980, 365 (= Hölscher 1994, 67). The presence of two trophies may be explained by the need for symmetry rather than by a dating after the victory on Mithridates: Schäfer 1989, 78. If this is the case, it is however harder to explain why thepalmbranchintheeagle’sbeakhastwowreaths:RRC, 373;Hölscher1980, 366, fn. 106 =Hölscher1994, 67–68, 231,fn.106. Ramage 1991, 112–113 argues that the relief is part of monument built after the Eastern campaign and located next to the statue offered by Bocchus. The arguments of Schäfer 1989, 78 are unconvincing, as they give too much importance to the corona graminea that Sulla received in the Social.
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