Download Lucius Cornelius Sulla (138

By Melissa Johnson
About Sulla
He came to prominence most of all in the Social War (91-89 BC). In 88 BC Mithridates,
The King of Pontus, went and attacked the Roman province of Asia.
There was 80'000 Romans and Italians and they were massacred. The senate decided that
Sulla, who was one of the current consuls, to be commander of the army against
Mithridates.
The Tribune of the People Suplicus Rufus called for the command to be changed and given to
Marius. The concilium plebis backed the proposal , but then Sulla proved a man who
was not to be messed with. He marched to Rome at the head of six legions and forced the
reversal of this decision.
His different battles

First march on Rome

First Mithridatic War

Siege of Athens

Battle of Chaeronea

Battle of Orchomenus
Images of Sulla
drawing
statue
His Siege

In 88 Sulla set off for Greece in charge of the
war against Mithradates. By the spring of 87
most of Greece was in his power, and after a
long siege he captured Athens in 86.

Mithradates’ general, Archelaus, was pursued
into Boeotia and finally defeated in two
battles in 86.
Near the end of his life

Sulla resigned and withdrew to the neighbourhood
of Puteoli in Campania.

This action caused a sensation in Rome; many
different explanations have been given, starting
with the classical writers. Most commonly accepted
is the view that Sulla’s resignation was an act of
honesty by a man who had pledged to step down as
soon as his reforms had been carried out.

Henceforth a private citizen, he continued to write
his memoirs. Active to his very last days, Sulla was
struck down by a fever in the spring of 78. He left
behind two children by Metella and a posthumous
daughter by his fifth wife, Valeria.
His Family

Wife: Ilia

Daughter: Cornelia Sulla

Son: Lucius Cornelius Sulla

Wife: Aelia (div.)

Wife: Caecilia Metella Dalmatica

Son: Faustus Cornelius Sulla

Daughter: Fausta Cornelia Sulla

Wife: Valeria Messala

Daughter: Postuma Cornelia Sulla

Boyfriend: Metrobius (actor, long term lover)