Göttling supposes
man constitution, and to give again to the senate that the right of provocatio or appeal to the comitia
and the aristocracy that power of which they had centurinta was done away with by Sulla, but the
been gradually deprived by the leaders of the passage of Cicero (Cic.
man constitution, and to give again to the senate that the right of provocatio or appeal to the comitia
and the aristocracy that power of which they had centurinta was done away with by Sulla, but the
been gradually deprived by the leaders of the passage of Cicero (Cic.
William Smith - 1844 - Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities - c
43, 44, de Leg.
vius are especially mentioned among those who re- Agr. iii. 2. )
ceived such presents; and handsome Roman ma- Another of Sulla's measures, and one of still
trons, as likewise actors and actresses, were fa- more importance for the support of his power, was
voured in the same manner. The number of per- the establishment of military colonies throughout
Bons who perished by the proscriptions is stated Italy. The inhabitants of the Italian towns, which
differently, but it appears to have amounted to had fought against Sulla, were deprived of the full
many thousands. At the commencement of these Roman franchise which had been lately conferred
horrors Sulla had been appointed dictator. As both upon them, and were only allowed to retain the
the consuls had perished, he caused the senate to commercium: their land was confiscated and given
elect Valerius Flaccus interrex, and the latter to the soldiers who had fought under him. Twenty-
brought before the people a rogatio, conferring the three legions (Appian, B. C. i. 100), or, according
dictatorship upon Sulla, for the purpose of restoring to another statement (Liv. Epit. 89), forty-seven
order to the republic, and for as long a time as he legions received grants of land in various parts of
judged to be necessary. Thus the dictatorship was Italy. A great number of these colonies was settled
revived after being in abeyance for more than in Etruria, the population of which was thus almost
120 years, and Sulla obtained absolute power entirely changed. These colonies had the strongest
over the lives and fortunes of all the citizens. | interest in upholding the institutions of Sulla, since
This was towards the close of B. C. 81. Sulla's any attempt to invalidate the latter would bave
great object in being invested with the dictatorship endangered their newly-acquired possessions. But
was to carry into execution in a legal manner the though they were a support to the power of Sulla,
great reforms which he meditated in the constitu- they hastened the fall of the commonwealth ; an
tion and the administration of justice, by which idle and licentious soldiery supplanted an indus-
he hoped to place the government of the republic trious and agricultural population ; and Catiline
on a firm and secure basis. He had no intention found nowhere more adherents than among the
of abolishing the republic, and consequently he military colonies of Sulla. While Sulla thus esta-
caused consuls to be elected for the following year, blished throughout Italy a population devoted to
B. C. 81, and was elected to the office himself in B. C. his interests, he created at Rome a kind of body-
80, while he continued to hold the dictatorship. guard for his protection by giving the citizenship
At the beginning of the following year, B. c. 81, to a great number of slaves belonging to those who
Sulla celebrated a splendid triumph on account of had been proscribed by him. The slaves thus re-
his victory over Mithridates. In a speech which warded are said to have been as many as 10,000,
he delivered to the people at the close of the gor- and were called Cornelii after him as their patron.
geous ceremony, he claimed for himself the sur- Sulla had completed his reforms by the begin-
name of Felix, as he attributed his success in life ning of B. c. 79, and as he longed for the undis-
to the favour of the gods. He believed himself to turbed enjoyment of his pleasures, he resolved to
have been in particular under the protection of resign bis dictatorship. Accordingly, to the general
Venus, who had granted him victory in battle as surprise he summoned the people, resigned his
well as in love. Hence, in writing to Greeks, he dictatorship, and declared himself ready to render
## p. 940 (#956) ############################################
940
SULLA.
SULLA.
an account of his conduct while in office. This stated that none of his friends ever did him a kind.
voluntary abdication by Sulla of the sovereignty of negs, and none of his enemies a wrong, without
the Roman world has excited the astonishment and being fully repaid.
admiration of both ancient and modern writers. Sulla was married five times : - 1. To Ilia, for
But it is evident, as has been already remarked, which name we ought perhaps to read Julia (Plut.
that Sulla never contemplated, like Julius Caesar, Sull. 6). She bore Sulla a daughter, who was
the establishment of a monarchical form of govern- married to Q. Pompeius Rufus, the son of Sulla's
ment; and it must be recollected that he could colleague in the consulsbip in B. C. 88. [Pom-
retire into a private station without any fear that PEIUS, No. 8. ] 2. To Aelia. 3. To Coelia,
attempts would be made against his life or his whom he divorced on the pretext of barrenness,
institutions. The ten thousand Cornelii at Rome but in reality in order to marry Caecilia Metella.
and his veterans stationed throughout Italy, as 4. To Caccilia Metella, who bore him a son, who
well as the whole strength of the aristocratical died before Sulla (see below, No. 6), and likewise
party, secured him against all danger. Even in his twins, a son and a daughter. (No. 7. ] 5. Valeria,
retirement his will was law, and shortly before his who bore him a daughter after his death. [Vale-
death, he ordered his slaves to strangle a magis- RIA. )
trate of one of the towns in Italy, because he was Sulla's love of literature has been repeatedly
a public defaulter.
mentioned in the preceding sketch of his life. He
After resigning his dictatorship, Sulla retired to wrote a history of his own life and times, which
his estate at Puteoli, and there surrounded by the is called 'Trouvýuata or Memoirs by Plutarch,
beauties of nature and art he passed the remainder who has made great use of it in his life of Sulla,
of his life in those literary and sensual enjoyments as well as in his biographies of Marius, Sertorius,
in which he had always taken so much pleasure. and Lucullus. It was dedicated to L. Lucullus,
His dissolute mode of life hastened his death. A and extended to twenty-two books, the last of
dream warned him of his approaching end. There which was finished by Sulla a few days before
upon he made his testament, in which he left L. his death, as has been already related. This did
Lucullus the guardian of his son. Only two days not however complete the work, which was brought
before his death, he finished the twenty-second to a conclusion by his freedman Cornelius Epica-
book of his memoirs, in which, foreseeing his end, dus, probably at the request of his son Faustus.
he was able to boast of the prediction of the (Plut. Sull. 6, 37, Lucull. 1 ; Suet. de IU. Gramm.
Chaldaeans, that it was his fate to die after a happy 12. ) From the quotations in A. Gellius (i. 12,
life in the very height of his prosperity. He xx. 6) it appears that Sulla's work was written in
died in B. C. 78, in the sixtieth year of his age. Latin, and not in Greek, as Heeren maintains
The immediate cause of his death was the rupture (Heeren, De Fontibus Pluturchi, p. 151, &c. ;
of a blood-vessel, but some time before he had Krause, Vitae et Fragmenta Hist. Roman. p. 290,
been suffering from the disgusting disease, which &c. ) Sulla also wrote Fabulae Atellanae (Athen.
is known in modern times by the name of Morbus vi. p. 261, c. ), and the Greek Anthology contains
Pediculosus or Phthiriasis. Appian (B. C. i. 105) a short epigram which is ascribed to him. (Brunck,
simply relates that he died of a fever. Zachariae, in Lect. p. 267 ; Jacobs, Anth. Gr. vol. ii. p. 66,
his life of Sulla, considers the story of his suffering Anth. Pal. App. 91, vol. ii. p. 788. )
from phthiriasis as a fabrication of his enemies, The chief ancient authority for Sulla's life is
and probably of the Athenians whom he had Plutarch's biography, which has been translated
handled so severely; but Appian's statement does by G. Long, with some useful notes, London, 1844,
not contradict the common ac. Junt, which is at- where the reader will find references to most of
tested by too many ancient writers to be rejected on the passages in Appian and other ancient writers
the slender reasons that Zachariae alleges (Plut. who speak of Sulla. The passages in Sallust and
Sull. 36 ; Plin. H. N. vii. 43. s. 44, xi. 33. s. 39, Cicero, in which Sulla is mentioned, are given by
xxvi. 13. s. 86 ; Paus. i. 20. $ 7; Aurel. Vict. de Orelli in his Onomasticon Tullianum, pt. ii. p. 192.
Vir. Ill. 75). The senate, faithful to Sulla to the The two modern writers, who have written Sulla's
last, resolved to give him the honour of a public life with most accuracy, are Zachariae, in his work
funeral. This was however opposed by the consul entitled L. Cornelius Sulla, genannt der Glückliche,
Lepidus, who had resolved to attempt the repeal als Ordner des Römischen Freystaates, Heidelberg,
of Sulla's laws ; but Sulla’s power continued un-1834, and Drumann, in his Geschichte Roms, vol.
shaken even after his death. The veterans were ii. p. 429, &c. The latter writer gives the more
summoned from their colonies, and Q. Catulus, L. impartial account of Sulla's life and character ;
Lucullus, and Cn. Pompey, placed themselves at the former falls into the common fault of biogra-
their head. Lepidus was obliged to give way and phers in attempting to apologise for the vices and
allowed the funeral to take place without interrup- crimes of the subject of his biography.
tion. It was a gorgeous pageant. The magis.
trates, the senate, the equites, the priests, and the
Vestal virgins, as well as the veterans, accompanied All the reforms of Sulla were effected by means of
the funeral procession to the Campus Martius, Leges, which were proposed by him in the comitia
where the corpse was burnt according to Sulla's centuriata and enacted by the votes of the people.
own wish, who feared that his enemies might | It is true that the votes of the people were a mere
insult his remains, as he had done those of Marius, form, but it was a form essential to the preservation
which had been taken out of the grave and thrown of his work, and was maintained by Augustus
into the Anio at his command. It had been pre- in his legislation. The laws proposed by Sulla are
viously the custom of the Cornelia gens to bury and called by the general name of Leges Corneliae, and
not burn their dead. A monument was erected particular laws are designated by the name of the
to Sulla in the Campus Martius, the inscription particular subject to which they relate, as Lex
on which he is said to have composed himself. It | Cornclia de Falsis, Lex . Cornelia de Sicariis, &c.
THE LEGISLATION OF SULLA.
## p. 941 (#957) ############################################
SULLA.
941
SULLA.
These laws were all passed during the time that exercised a powerful influence in the state, were
Sulla was dictator, that is, from the end of B. C. strictly forbidden by Sulla. (Cic. pro Clucni. 40. )
82 to R. c. 79, and most of them in all probability The Comitia Centuriata, on the other hand, were
during the years B. c. 81 and 80. It is impossible allowed to retain their right of legislation unim,
to determine in what order they were proposed, paired. He restored however the ancient regula-
nor is it material to do so. They may be divided tion, which had fallen into desuetude, that no
into four classes, laws relating to the constitution, matter should be brought before them without the
to the ecclesiastical corporations, to the adminis. previous sanction of a senatusconsultum (Appian,
tration of justice, and to the improvement of B. C. i. 59); but he did not require the confirm.
public morals. Their general object and designation of the curiae, as the latter had long ceased to
was to restore, as far as possible, the ancient Ro- have any practical existence.
Göttling supposes
man constitution, and to give again to the senate that the right of provocatio or appeal to the comitia
and the aristocracy that power of which they had centurinta was done away with by Sulla, but the
been gradually deprived by the leaders of the passage of Cicero (Cic. Verr. Act. i. 13), which he
popular party. " It did not escape the penetration quotes in support of this opinion, is not sufficient
of Sulla that many of the erils under which the to prove it.
Roman state was suffering, arose from the corrup- The Senate had been so much reduced in num-
tion of the morals of the people ; and he therefore bers by the proscriptions of Sulla, that he was
attempted in his legislation to check the increase obliged to fill up the vacancies by the election of
of crime and luxury by stringent enactments. The three hundred new members. These however were
attempt was a hopeless one, for vice and immorality not appointed by the censors from the persons who
pervaded alike all classes of Roman citizens, and had filled the magistracies of the state, but were
no laws can restore to a people the moral feelings elected by the people. Appian says (B. C. i. 100)
which they have lost. Sulla has been much that they were elected by the tribes. Most mo-
blamed by modern writers for giving to the Roman dern writers think that we are not to understand
state such an aristocratical constitution ; but under by this the comitia tributa, but the comitia centu-
the circumstances in which he was placed he could riata, which voted also according to tribes at this
not well have done otherwise. To have vested the time ; but Göttling observes that as the senators
government in the mob of which the Roman people were regarded by Sulla as public officers, there
consisted, would have been perfect madness; and is no difficulty in supposing that they were elected
as he was not prepared to establish a monarchy, he by the comitia tributa as the inferior magistrates
had no alternative but giving the power to the were. However this may be, we know that these
senate. His constitution did not last, because the three hundred were taken from the equestrian
aristocracy were thoroughly selfish and corrupt, order. (Appian, l. c. ; Liv. Epit. 89. ) This election
and exercised the power which Sulla had entrusted was an extraordinary one, and was not intended to
to them only for their own aggrandisement and be the regular way of filling up the vacancies in
not for the good of their country. Their shame the senate ; for we are expressly told that Sulla
less conduct soon disgusted the provinces as well as increased the number of quaestors to twenty, that
the capital; the people again regained their power, there might be a sufficient number for this purpose
but the consequence was an anarchy and not a (Tac. Ann. xi. 32. ) It was not necessary for
government ; and as neither class was fit to rule, Sulla to make any alteration respecting the duties
they were obliged to submit to the dominion of a and functions of the senate, as the whole admini-
single man. Thus the empire became a necessity stration of the state was in their hands; and he
as well as a blessing to the exhausted Roman gave them the initiative in legislation by requiring
world. Sulla's laws respecting criminal jurispru- a previous senatusconsultum respecting all mea-
dence were the most lasting and bear the strongest sures that were to be submitted to the comitia, as
testimony to his greatness as a legislator. He is stated above. One of the most important
was the first to reduce the criminal law of Rome of the senate's duties was the appointment of
to a system ; and his laws, together with the Ju- the governors of the provinces. By the Lex
lian laws, formed the basis of the criminal Roman Sempronia of C. Gracchus, the senate had to de-
jurisprudence till the downfal of the empire. termine every year before the election of the con-
In treating of Sulla's laws we shall follow the suis the two provinces which the consuls should
fourfold division which has been given above. have (Cic. de Prov. Cons. 2, 7; Sall. Jug. 27);
I. Laws reluting to the Constitution - The changes but as the imperium was conferred only for a year,
which Sulla introduced in the comitia and the the governor had to leave the province at the end of
senate, first call for our attention. The Comitia that time, unless his imperium was renewed. Sulla
Tributá, or assemblies of the tribes, which originally in his law respecting the provinces (de Provinciis
possessed only the power to make regulations res- ordinandis) did not make any change in the Sempro-
pecting the local affairs of the tribes, had gradually nian law respecting the distribution of the provinces
become a sovereign assembly with legislative and by the senate ; but he allowed the governor of a
judicial authority. Sulla deprived them of their province to continue to hold the government till a
legislative and judicial powers, as well as of their successor was appointed by the senate, and enacted
right of electing the priests, which they had also that he should continue to possess the imperium till
acquired. He did not however do away with he entered the city, without the necessity of its being
them entirely, as might be inferred from the words renewed annually (comp. Cic. ad Fam. i. 9. § 12).
of Appian (B. C. i. 59); but he allowed them to The time during which the government of a pro-
exist with the power of electing the tribunes, vince was to be held, thus depended entirely upon
aediles, quaestors, and other inferior magistrates the will of the senate. It was further enacted that as
This seems to have been the only purpose for soon as a successor arrived in the province, the for-
which they were called together; and all conciones mer governor must quit it within thirty days (Cic.
of the tribes, by means of which the tribunes had ad Fam. iii. 6); and the law also limited the ex-
## p. 942 (#958) ############################################
942
SULLA.
SULLA.
-
penses to which the provincials were put in sending vol. ii. pt. ii. p. 290). To degrade the tribunato
embassies to Rome to praise the administmtion of still lower, Sulla enacted, that whoever had held this
their governors. (Cic. ad Fam. iii. 8, 10. ) office forfeited thereby all right to become a candi-
With respect to the magistrates, Sulla renewed date for any of the higher curule offices, in order
the old law, that no one should hold the praetorship that all persons of mank, talent, and wealth, might
before he had been quaestor, nor the consulship be deterred from holding an office which would be
before he had been praetor (Appian, B. C. i. 100; a fatal impediment to rising any higher in the
Cic. Phil. xi. 5); nor did he allow of any deviation state. (Appian, B. C. i. 100; Ascon. in Cornel.
from this law in favour of his own party, for p. 78, ed. Orelli. ) The statement that Sulla re-
when Q. Lucretius Ofelia, who had taken Prae- quired persons to be senators before they could
neste, presuming upon his services, offered himself become tribunes (Appian, l. c. ), is explained by
as a candidate for the consulship, without having the circumstance that the quaestorship and the
previously held the offices of quaestor and praetor, aedileship, which usually preceded the tribunate
he was assassinated in the forum by the order of gave admission to the senate ; and it would there-
the dictator. Sulla also re-established the ancient fore appear that Sulla required all persons to hold
law, that no one should be elected to the same the quaestorship before the tribunate.
magistracy till after the expiration of ten years. Il. Laws relating to the Ecclesiastical Corpora-
(Appian, B. C. i. 101 ; comp. Liv, vii. 42, x. 31. ) | tions. — Sulla repealed the Lex Domitia, which
Sulla increased the number of Quaestors from gave to the comitia tributa the right of electing
eight to twenty (Tac. Ann. xi. 22), and that of the members of the great ecclesiastical corporations,
the Praetors from six to eight. Pomponius says and restored to the latter the right of co-optatio or
(De Orig. Juris, Dig. 1. tit. 2. 6. 32) that Sulla self-election. At the same time he increased the
added four new praetors, but this appears to be a number of pontiffs and augurs to fifteen respec-
mistake, since Julius Caesar was the first who in- tively (Dion Cass. xxxvii. 37 ; Liv. Epit. 89). It
creased their number to ten. (Suet. Caes. 41 ; Dion is commonly said that Sulla also increased the
Cass. xlii. 51. ) This increase in the number of the number of the keepers of the Sibylline books from
praetors was necessary on account of the new ten to fifteen ; and though we have no express
quaestiones, established by Sulla, of which we authority for this statement (for the passage of
shall speak below.
Servius, ad Virg. Aen. vi. 73, does not prove it), it
One of the most important of Sulla's reforms is probable that he did, as we read of Quindecem-
related to the tribunate. It is stated in general viri in the time of Cicero (ad Fam. viii. 4) instead
by the ancient writers, that Sulla deprived the of decemviri as previously.
tribunes of the plebs of all real power (Vell. Pat. III. Laws relating to the Administration of Jus-
ii. 30; Appian, B. C. i. 100; Cic. de Leg. iii. 9; tice. — Sulla established permanent courts for the
Liv. Epit. 89); but the exact nature of his altera- trial of particular offences, in each of which a
tions is not accurately stated. It appears certain, praetor presided. A precedent for this had been
however, that he deprived the tribunes of the right given by the Lex Calpurnia of the tribune L.
of proposing a rogation of any kind whatsoever to Calpurnius Piso, in B. c. 149, by which it was
the tribes (Liv. Epit
. 89), or of impeaching any enacted that a praetor should preside at all trials
person before them, inasmuch as he abolished al- for repetundae during his year of office. This was
together the legislative and judicial functions of called a Quaestio Perpetua, and nine such Quaes-
the tribes, as has been previously stated. The tiones Perpetuae were established by Sulla, namely,
tribunes also lost the right of holding conciones De Repetundis, Majestatis, De Sicariis et Vene-
(Cic. pro Cluent. 40), as has likewise been shown, ficis, De Parricidio, Peculatus, Ambitus, De Num-
and thus could not influence the tribes by any mis Adulterinis, De Falsis or Testamentaria, and
speeches. The only right left to them was the De Vi Publica. Jurisdiction in civil cases was
Intercessio. It is, however, uncertain to what left to the praetor peregrinus and the praetor ur-
extent the right of Intercessio extended. It is banus as before, and the other six praetors presided
hardly conceivable that Sulla would have left the in the Quaestiones ; but as the latter were more
tribunes to exercise this the most formidable of all | in number than the praetors, some of the praetors
their powers without any limitation; and that he took more than one quaestio, or a judex quaes-
did not do so is clear from the case of Q. Opimius, tionis was appointed. The praetors, after their
who was brought to trial, because, when tribune of election, bad to draw lots for their several juris-
the plebs, he had used his intercessio in violation dictions. Sulla enacted that the judices should be
of the Lex Cornelia (Cic. Verr. i. 60). Cicero taken exclusively from the senators, and not from
says (de Leg. iii. 9) that Sulla left the tribunes only the equites, the latter of whom had possessed this
the potestas auxilii ferendi; and from this we may privilege, with a few interruptions, from the law
infer, in connection with the case of Opimius, that of C. Gracchus, in B. C. 123. This was a great
the Intercessio was confined to giving their protec- gain for the aristocracy; since the offences for
tion to private persons against the unjust decisions which they were usually brought to trial, such as
of magistrates, as, for instance, in the enlisting of bribery, malversation, and the like, were so com-
soldiers. Caesar, it is true, states, in general, that monly practised by the whole order, that they
Sulla left to the tribunes the right of intercessio, were, in most cases, nearly certain of acquittal from
and he leaves it to be inferred in particular that men who required similar indulgence themselves.
Sulla allowed them to use their intercessio in re- (Tac. Ann. xi. 22; Vell. Pat. ii. 32; Cic. Verr.
ference to senatusconsulta (Caes. B. C. i. 5, 7); Act. i. 13, 16; comp. Dictionary of Antiquities, art.
but it is not impossible, as Becker has suggested, Juder. )
that Caesar may have given a false interpretation Sulla's reform in the criminal law, the greatest
of the right of intercessio granted by Sulla, in and most enduring part of his legislation, belongs
order to justify the course he was himself adopt to a history of Roman law, and cannot be given
ing. (Becker, Handbuch der Röm. Alterthümer, here. For further information on this subject the
## p. 943 (#959) ############################################
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943
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fo
MANLI
а
9818
COINS OF THE DICTATOR SULLA.
reader is referred to the Dict.
vius are especially mentioned among those who re- Agr. iii. 2. )
ceived such presents; and handsome Roman ma- Another of Sulla's measures, and one of still
trons, as likewise actors and actresses, were fa- more importance for the support of his power, was
voured in the same manner. The number of per- the establishment of military colonies throughout
Bons who perished by the proscriptions is stated Italy. The inhabitants of the Italian towns, which
differently, but it appears to have amounted to had fought against Sulla, were deprived of the full
many thousands. At the commencement of these Roman franchise which had been lately conferred
horrors Sulla had been appointed dictator. As both upon them, and were only allowed to retain the
the consuls had perished, he caused the senate to commercium: their land was confiscated and given
elect Valerius Flaccus interrex, and the latter to the soldiers who had fought under him. Twenty-
brought before the people a rogatio, conferring the three legions (Appian, B. C. i. 100), or, according
dictatorship upon Sulla, for the purpose of restoring to another statement (Liv. Epit. 89), forty-seven
order to the republic, and for as long a time as he legions received grants of land in various parts of
judged to be necessary. Thus the dictatorship was Italy. A great number of these colonies was settled
revived after being in abeyance for more than in Etruria, the population of which was thus almost
120 years, and Sulla obtained absolute power entirely changed. These colonies had the strongest
over the lives and fortunes of all the citizens. | interest in upholding the institutions of Sulla, since
This was towards the close of B. C. 81. Sulla's any attempt to invalidate the latter would bave
great object in being invested with the dictatorship endangered their newly-acquired possessions. But
was to carry into execution in a legal manner the though they were a support to the power of Sulla,
great reforms which he meditated in the constitu- they hastened the fall of the commonwealth ; an
tion and the administration of justice, by which idle and licentious soldiery supplanted an indus-
he hoped to place the government of the republic trious and agricultural population ; and Catiline
on a firm and secure basis. He had no intention found nowhere more adherents than among the
of abolishing the republic, and consequently he military colonies of Sulla. While Sulla thus esta-
caused consuls to be elected for the following year, blished throughout Italy a population devoted to
B. C. 81, and was elected to the office himself in B. C. his interests, he created at Rome a kind of body-
80, while he continued to hold the dictatorship. guard for his protection by giving the citizenship
At the beginning of the following year, B. c. 81, to a great number of slaves belonging to those who
Sulla celebrated a splendid triumph on account of had been proscribed by him. The slaves thus re-
his victory over Mithridates. In a speech which warded are said to have been as many as 10,000,
he delivered to the people at the close of the gor- and were called Cornelii after him as their patron.
geous ceremony, he claimed for himself the sur- Sulla had completed his reforms by the begin-
name of Felix, as he attributed his success in life ning of B. c. 79, and as he longed for the undis-
to the favour of the gods. He believed himself to turbed enjoyment of his pleasures, he resolved to
have been in particular under the protection of resign bis dictatorship. Accordingly, to the general
Venus, who had granted him victory in battle as surprise he summoned the people, resigned his
well as in love. Hence, in writing to Greeks, he dictatorship, and declared himself ready to render
## p. 940 (#956) ############################################
940
SULLA.
SULLA.
an account of his conduct while in office. This stated that none of his friends ever did him a kind.
voluntary abdication by Sulla of the sovereignty of negs, and none of his enemies a wrong, without
the Roman world has excited the astonishment and being fully repaid.
admiration of both ancient and modern writers. Sulla was married five times : - 1. To Ilia, for
But it is evident, as has been already remarked, which name we ought perhaps to read Julia (Plut.
that Sulla never contemplated, like Julius Caesar, Sull. 6). She bore Sulla a daughter, who was
the establishment of a monarchical form of govern- married to Q. Pompeius Rufus, the son of Sulla's
ment; and it must be recollected that he could colleague in the consulsbip in B. C. 88. [Pom-
retire into a private station without any fear that PEIUS, No. 8. ] 2. To Aelia. 3. To Coelia,
attempts would be made against his life or his whom he divorced on the pretext of barrenness,
institutions. The ten thousand Cornelii at Rome but in reality in order to marry Caecilia Metella.
and his veterans stationed throughout Italy, as 4. To Caccilia Metella, who bore him a son, who
well as the whole strength of the aristocratical died before Sulla (see below, No. 6), and likewise
party, secured him against all danger. Even in his twins, a son and a daughter. (No. 7. ] 5. Valeria,
retirement his will was law, and shortly before his who bore him a daughter after his death. [Vale-
death, he ordered his slaves to strangle a magis- RIA. )
trate of one of the towns in Italy, because he was Sulla's love of literature has been repeatedly
a public defaulter.
mentioned in the preceding sketch of his life. He
After resigning his dictatorship, Sulla retired to wrote a history of his own life and times, which
his estate at Puteoli, and there surrounded by the is called 'Trouvýuata or Memoirs by Plutarch,
beauties of nature and art he passed the remainder who has made great use of it in his life of Sulla,
of his life in those literary and sensual enjoyments as well as in his biographies of Marius, Sertorius,
in which he had always taken so much pleasure. and Lucullus. It was dedicated to L. Lucullus,
His dissolute mode of life hastened his death. A and extended to twenty-two books, the last of
dream warned him of his approaching end. There which was finished by Sulla a few days before
upon he made his testament, in which he left L. his death, as has been already related. This did
Lucullus the guardian of his son. Only two days not however complete the work, which was brought
before his death, he finished the twenty-second to a conclusion by his freedman Cornelius Epica-
book of his memoirs, in which, foreseeing his end, dus, probably at the request of his son Faustus.
he was able to boast of the prediction of the (Plut. Sull. 6, 37, Lucull. 1 ; Suet. de IU. Gramm.
Chaldaeans, that it was his fate to die after a happy 12. ) From the quotations in A. Gellius (i. 12,
life in the very height of his prosperity. He xx. 6) it appears that Sulla's work was written in
died in B. C. 78, in the sixtieth year of his age. Latin, and not in Greek, as Heeren maintains
The immediate cause of his death was the rupture (Heeren, De Fontibus Pluturchi, p. 151, &c. ;
of a blood-vessel, but some time before he had Krause, Vitae et Fragmenta Hist. Roman. p. 290,
been suffering from the disgusting disease, which &c. ) Sulla also wrote Fabulae Atellanae (Athen.
is known in modern times by the name of Morbus vi. p. 261, c. ), and the Greek Anthology contains
Pediculosus or Phthiriasis. Appian (B. C. i. 105) a short epigram which is ascribed to him. (Brunck,
simply relates that he died of a fever. Zachariae, in Lect. p. 267 ; Jacobs, Anth. Gr. vol. ii. p. 66,
his life of Sulla, considers the story of his suffering Anth. Pal. App. 91, vol. ii. p. 788. )
from phthiriasis as a fabrication of his enemies, The chief ancient authority for Sulla's life is
and probably of the Athenians whom he had Plutarch's biography, which has been translated
handled so severely; but Appian's statement does by G. Long, with some useful notes, London, 1844,
not contradict the common ac. Junt, which is at- where the reader will find references to most of
tested by too many ancient writers to be rejected on the passages in Appian and other ancient writers
the slender reasons that Zachariae alleges (Plut. who speak of Sulla. The passages in Sallust and
Sull. 36 ; Plin. H. N. vii. 43. s. 44, xi. 33. s. 39, Cicero, in which Sulla is mentioned, are given by
xxvi. 13. s. 86 ; Paus. i. 20. $ 7; Aurel. Vict. de Orelli in his Onomasticon Tullianum, pt. ii. p. 192.
Vir. Ill. 75). The senate, faithful to Sulla to the The two modern writers, who have written Sulla's
last, resolved to give him the honour of a public life with most accuracy, are Zachariae, in his work
funeral. This was however opposed by the consul entitled L. Cornelius Sulla, genannt der Glückliche,
Lepidus, who had resolved to attempt the repeal als Ordner des Römischen Freystaates, Heidelberg,
of Sulla's laws ; but Sulla’s power continued un-1834, and Drumann, in his Geschichte Roms, vol.
shaken even after his death. The veterans were ii. p. 429, &c. The latter writer gives the more
summoned from their colonies, and Q. Catulus, L. impartial account of Sulla's life and character ;
Lucullus, and Cn. Pompey, placed themselves at the former falls into the common fault of biogra-
their head. Lepidus was obliged to give way and phers in attempting to apologise for the vices and
allowed the funeral to take place without interrup- crimes of the subject of his biography.
tion. It was a gorgeous pageant. The magis.
trates, the senate, the equites, the priests, and the
Vestal virgins, as well as the veterans, accompanied All the reforms of Sulla were effected by means of
the funeral procession to the Campus Martius, Leges, which were proposed by him in the comitia
where the corpse was burnt according to Sulla's centuriata and enacted by the votes of the people.
own wish, who feared that his enemies might | It is true that the votes of the people were a mere
insult his remains, as he had done those of Marius, form, but it was a form essential to the preservation
which had been taken out of the grave and thrown of his work, and was maintained by Augustus
into the Anio at his command. It had been pre- in his legislation. The laws proposed by Sulla are
viously the custom of the Cornelia gens to bury and called by the general name of Leges Corneliae, and
not burn their dead. A monument was erected particular laws are designated by the name of the
to Sulla in the Campus Martius, the inscription particular subject to which they relate, as Lex
on which he is said to have composed himself. It | Cornclia de Falsis, Lex . Cornelia de Sicariis, &c.
THE LEGISLATION OF SULLA.
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These laws were all passed during the time that exercised a powerful influence in the state, were
Sulla was dictator, that is, from the end of B. C. strictly forbidden by Sulla. (Cic. pro Clucni. 40. )
82 to R. c. 79, and most of them in all probability The Comitia Centuriata, on the other hand, were
during the years B. c. 81 and 80. It is impossible allowed to retain their right of legislation unim,
to determine in what order they were proposed, paired. He restored however the ancient regula-
nor is it material to do so. They may be divided tion, which had fallen into desuetude, that no
into four classes, laws relating to the constitution, matter should be brought before them without the
to the ecclesiastical corporations, to the adminis. previous sanction of a senatusconsultum (Appian,
tration of justice, and to the improvement of B. C. i. 59); but he did not require the confirm.
public morals. Their general object and designation of the curiae, as the latter had long ceased to
was to restore, as far as possible, the ancient Ro- have any practical existence.
Göttling supposes
man constitution, and to give again to the senate that the right of provocatio or appeal to the comitia
and the aristocracy that power of which they had centurinta was done away with by Sulla, but the
been gradually deprived by the leaders of the passage of Cicero (Cic. Verr. Act. i. 13), which he
popular party. " It did not escape the penetration quotes in support of this opinion, is not sufficient
of Sulla that many of the erils under which the to prove it.
Roman state was suffering, arose from the corrup- The Senate had been so much reduced in num-
tion of the morals of the people ; and he therefore bers by the proscriptions of Sulla, that he was
attempted in his legislation to check the increase obliged to fill up the vacancies by the election of
of crime and luxury by stringent enactments. The three hundred new members. These however were
attempt was a hopeless one, for vice and immorality not appointed by the censors from the persons who
pervaded alike all classes of Roman citizens, and had filled the magistracies of the state, but were
no laws can restore to a people the moral feelings elected by the people. Appian says (B. C. i. 100)
which they have lost. Sulla has been much that they were elected by the tribes. Most mo-
blamed by modern writers for giving to the Roman dern writers think that we are not to understand
state such an aristocratical constitution ; but under by this the comitia tributa, but the comitia centu-
the circumstances in which he was placed he could riata, which voted also according to tribes at this
not well have done otherwise. To have vested the time ; but Göttling observes that as the senators
government in the mob of which the Roman people were regarded by Sulla as public officers, there
consisted, would have been perfect madness; and is no difficulty in supposing that they were elected
as he was not prepared to establish a monarchy, he by the comitia tributa as the inferior magistrates
had no alternative but giving the power to the were. However this may be, we know that these
senate. His constitution did not last, because the three hundred were taken from the equestrian
aristocracy were thoroughly selfish and corrupt, order. (Appian, l. c. ; Liv. Epit. 89. ) This election
and exercised the power which Sulla had entrusted was an extraordinary one, and was not intended to
to them only for their own aggrandisement and be the regular way of filling up the vacancies in
not for the good of their country. Their shame the senate ; for we are expressly told that Sulla
less conduct soon disgusted the provinces as well as increased the number of quaestors to twenty, that
the capital; the people again regained their power, there might be a sufficient number for this purpose
but the consequence was an anarchy and not a (Tac. Ann. xi. 32. ) It was not necessary for
government ; and as neither class was fit to rule, Sulla to make any alteration respecting the duties
they were obliged to submit to the dominion of a and functions of the senate, as the whole admini-
single man. Thus the empire became a necessity stration of the state was in their hands; and he
as well as a blessing to the exhausted Roman gave them the initiative in legislation by requiring
world. Sulla's laws respecting criminal jurispru- a previous senatusconsultum respecting all mea-
dence were the most lasting and bear the strongest sures that were to be submitted to the comitia, as
testimony to his greatness as a legislator. He is stated above. One of the most important
was the first to reduce the criminal law of Rome of the senate's duties was the appointment of
to a system ; and his laws, together with the Ju- the governors of the provinces. By the Lex
lian laws, formed the basis of the criminal Roman Sempronia of C. Gracchus, the senate had to de-
jurisprudence till the downfal of the empire. termine every year before the election of the con-
In treating of Sulla's laws we shall follow the suis the two provinces which the consuls should
fourfold division which has been given above. have (Cic. de Prov. Cons. 2, 7; Sall. Jug. 27);
I. Laws reluting to the Constitution - The changes but as the imperium was conferred only for a year,
which Sulla introduced in the comitia and the the governor had to leave the province at the end of
senate, first call for our attention. The Comitia that time, unless his imperium was renewed. Sulla
Tributá, or assemblies of the tribes, which originally in his law respecting the provinces (de Provinciis
possessed only the power to make regulations res- ordinandis) did not make any change in the Sempro-
pecting the local affairs of the tribes, had gradually nian law respecting the distribution of the provinces
become a sovereign assembly with legislative and by the senate ; but he allowed the governor of a
judicial authority. Sulla deprived them of their province to continue to hold the government till a
legislative and judicial powers, as well as of their successor was appointed by the senate, and enacted
right of electing the priests, which they had also that he should continue to possess the imperium till
acquired. He did not however do away with he entered the city, without the necessity of its being
them entirely, as might be inferred from the words renewed annually (comp. Cic. ad Fam. i. 9. § 12).
of Appian (B. C. i. 59); but he allowed them to The time during which the government of a pro-
exist with the power of electing the tribunes, vince was to be held, thus depended entirely upon
aediles, quaestors, and other inferior magistrates the will of the senate. It was further enacted that as
This seems to have been the only purpose for soon as a successor arrived in the province, the for-
which they were called together; and all conciones mer governor must quit it within thirty days (Cic.
of the tribes, by means of which the tribunes had ad Fam. iii. 6); and the law also limited the ex-
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penses to which the provincials were put in sending vol. ii. pt. ii. p. 290). To degrade the tribunato
embassies to Rome to praise the administmtion of still lower, Sulla enacted, that whoever had held this
their governors. (Cic. ad Fam. iii. 8, 10. ) office forfeited thereby all right to become a candi-
With respect to the magistrates, Sulla renewed date for any of the higher curule offices, in order
the old law, that no one should hold the praetorship that all persons of mank, talent, and wealth, might
before he had been quaestor, nor the consulship be deterred from holding an office which would be
before he had been praetor (Appian, B. C. i. 100; a fatal impediment to rising any higher in the
Cic. Phil. xi. 5); nor did he allow of any deviation state. (Appian, B. C. i. 100; Ascon. in Cornel.
from this law in favour of his own party, for p. 78, ed. Orelli. ) The statement that Sulla re-
when Q. Lucretius Ofelia, who had taken Prae- quired persons to be senators before they could
neste, presuming upon his services, offered himself become tribunes (Appian, l. c. ), is explained by
as a candidate for the consulship, without having the circumstance that the quaestorship and the
previously held the offices of quaestor and praetor, aedileship, which usually preceded the tribunate
he was assassinated in the forum by the order of gave admission to the senate ; and it would there-
the dictator. Sulla also re-established the ancient fore appear that Sulla required all persons to hold
law, that no one should be elected to the same the quaestorship before the tribunate.
magistracy till after the expiration of ten years. Il. Laws relating to the Ecclesiastical Corpora-
(Appian, B. C. i. 101 ; comp. Liv, vii. 42, x. 31. ) | tions. — Sulla repealed the Lex Domitia, which
Sulla increased the number of Quaestors from gave to the comitia tributa the right of electing
eight to twenty (Tac. Ann. xi. 22), and that of the members of the great ecclesiastical corporations,
the Praetors from six to eight. Pomponius says and restored to the latter the right of co-optatio or
(De Orig. Juris, Dig. 1. tit. 2. 6. 32) that Sulla self-election. At the same time he increased the
added four new praetors, but this appears to be a number of pontiffs and augurs to fifteen respec-
mistake, since Julius Caesar was the first who in- tively (Dion Cass. xxxvii. 37 ; Liv. Epit. 89). It
creased their number to ten. (Suet. Caes. 41 ; Dion is commonly said that Sulla also increased the
Cass. xlii. 51. ) This increase in the number of the number of the keepers of the Sibylline books from
praetors was necessary on account of the new ten to fifteen ; and though we have no express
quaestiones, established by Sulla, of which we authority for this statement (for the passage of
shall speak below.
Servius, ad Virg. Aen. vi. 73, does not prove it), it
One of the most important of Sulla's reforms is probable that he did, as we read of Quindecem-
related to the tribunate. It is stated in general viri in the time of Cicero (ad Fam. viii. 4) instead
by the ancient writers, that Sulla deprived the of decemviri as previously.
tribunes of the plebs of all real power (Vell. Pat. III. Laws relating to the Administration of Jus-
ii. 30; Appian, B. C. i. 100; Cic. de Leg. iii. 9; tice. — Sulla established permanent courts for the
Liv. Epit. 89); but the exact nature of his altera- trial of particular offences, in each of which a
tions is not accurately stated. It appears certain, praetor presided. A precedent for this had been
however, that he deprived the tribunes of the right given by the Lex Calpurnia of the tribune L.
of proposing a rogation of any kind whatsoever to Calpurnius Piso, in B. c. 149, by which it was
the tribes (Liv. Epit
. 89), or of impeaching any enacted that a praetor should preside at all trials
person before them, inasmuch as he abolished al- for repetundae during his year of office. This was
together the legislative and judicial functions of called a Quaestio Perpetua, and nine such Quaes-
the tribes, as has been previously stated. The tiones Perpetuae were established by Sulla, namely,
tribunes also lost the right of holding conciones De Repetundis, Majestatis, De Sicariis et Vene-
(Cic. pro Cluent. 40), as has likewise been shown, ficis, De Parricidio, Peculatus, Ambitus, De Num-
and thus could not influence the tribes by any mis Adulterinis, De Falsis or Testamentaria, and
speeches. The only right left to them was the De Vi Publica. Jurisdiction in civil cases was
Intercessio. It is, however, uncertain to what left to the praetor peregrinus and the praetor ur-
extent the right of Intercessio extended. It is banus as before, and the other six praetors presided
hardly conceivable that Sulla would have left the in the Quaestiones ; but as the latter were more
tribunes to exercise this the most formidable of all | in number than the praetors, some of the praetors
their powers without any limitation; and that he took more than one quaestio, or a judex quaes-
did not do so is clear from the case of Q. Opimius, tionis was appointed. The praetors, after their
who was brought to trial, because, when tribune of election, bad to draw lots for their several juris-
the plebs, he had used his intercessio in violation dictions. Sulla enacted that the judices should be
of the Lex Cornelia (Cic. Verr. i. 60). Cicero taken exclusively from the senators, and not from
says (de Leg. iii. 9) that Sulla left the tribunes only the equites, the latter of whom had possessed this
the potestas auxilii ferendi; and from this we may privilege, with a few interruptions, from the law
infer, in connection with the case of Opimius, that of C. Gracchus, in B. C. 123. This was a great
the Intercessio was confined to giving their protec- gain for the aristocracy; since the offences for
tion to private persons against the unjust decisions which they were usually brought to trial, such as
of magistrates, as, for instance, in the enlisting of bribery, malversation, and the like, were so com-
soldiers. Caesar, it is true, states, in general, that monly practised by the whole order, that they
Sulla left to the tribunes the right of intercessio, were, in most cases, nearly certain of acquittal from
and he leaves it to be inferred in particular that men who required similar indulgence themselves.
Sulla allowed them to use their intercessio in re- (Tac. Ann. xi. 22; Vell. Pat. ii. 32; Cic. Verr.
ference to senatusconsulta (Caes. B. C. i. 5, 7); Act. i. 13, 16; comp. Dictionary of Antiquities, art.
but it is not impossible, as Becker has suggested, Juder. )
that Caesar may have given a false interpretation Sulla's reform in the criminal law, the greatest
of the right of intercessio granted by Sulla, in and most enduring part of his legislation, belongs
order to justify the course he was himself adopt to a history of Roman law, and cannot be given
ing. (Becker, Handbuch der Röm. Alterthümer, here. For further information on this subject the
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MANLI
а
9818
COINS OF THE DICTATOR SULLA.
reader is referred to the Dict.
