Editing Sulla (section)

== First consulship, 88 BC <span class="anchor" id="First consulship"></span><span class="anchor" id="Consulship"></span>==

Sulla's election to the consulship, successful likely due to his military success in 89&nbsp;BC, was not uncontested. [[Gaius Julius Caesar Strabo]], merely an ex-aedile and one of Sulla's long-time enemies, had contested the top magistracy. Beyond personal enmity, Caesar Strabo may also have stood for office because it was evident that Rome's relations with the [[Kingdom of Pontus|Pontic]] king, [[Mithridates VI Eupator]], were deteriorating and that the consuls of 88 would be assigned an extremely lucrative and glorious command against Pontus.{{sfn|Seager|1994|pp=165–166}} [[Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo|Pompey Strabo]] may have coveted a second consulship for similar reasons.{{sfn|Steel|2013|p=89}} The question as to whom to send against Mithridates would be one of the sources of the following domestic crisis.{{sfn|Steel|2013|p=88}}

Shortly after Sulla's election, probably in the last weeks of the year, Sulla married his daughter to one of his colleague Pompeius Rufus' sons. He also divorced his then-wife Cloelia and married Metella, widow of the recently-deceased [[Marcus Aemilius Scaurus (consul 115 BC)|Marcus Aemilius Scaurus]]. These marriages helped build political alliances with the influential [[Caecilii Metelli]] and the Pompeys.{{sfn|Seager|1994|pp=165–67}} He was also assigned by the senate, probably with the support of his consular colleague, [[Quintus Pompeius Rufus (consul 88 BC)|Quintus Pompeius Rufus]], the Mithridatic command.{{sfn|Steel|2013|pp=88–89}}

=== Sulpicius ===

Sulla became embroiled in a political fight against one of the plebeian tribunes, [[Publius Sulpicius Rufus]],{{sfn|Steel|2013|p=89}} on the matter of how the new Italian citizens were to be distributed into the [[Roman tribe]]s for purposes of voting. 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. This led him to a secret deal with Marius, who had for years been coveting another military command, according to which Marius would support Sulpicius' Italian legislation in exchange for a law transferring Sulla's command to Marius.{{sfn|Seager|1994|pp=167–168}} 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".{{sfn|Seager|1994|p=168}} The consuls, fearful of intimidation of Sulpicius and his armed bodyguards, declared a suspension of public business (''[[iustitium]]'') which led to Sulpicius and his mob forcing the consuls to flee.{{sfn|Seager|1994|p=169}}

During the violence, Sulla was forced to shelter in Marius' nearby house (later denied in his memoirs). Marius arranged for Sulla to lift the ''iustitium'' and allow Sulpicius to bring proposals; Sulla, in a "desperately weak position... [received] little in return[,] perhaps no more than a promise that Sulla's life would be safe". Sulla then left for Capua before joining an army near Nola in southern Italy.{{sfn|Seager|1994|p=169}} He may have felt, after this political humiliation, that the only way to recover his career was to come back from the Mithridatic command victorious.{{sfn|Keaveney|2005|p=49}}

=== First march on Rome ===
[[File:Benjamin Ulmann, Sylla chez Marius, c.1866, Orsay Museum.webp|thumb|Depiction of the moment  Sulla found shelter in Marius' house. By [[Benjamin Ulmann]], {{circa|1866}}]]
{{Main|March on Rome (88 BC)}}

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. Thus,

{{quote|
Sulla was presented with a choice. He could acknowledge the law as valid. To do so would mean total humiliation at the hands of his opponents, the end of his political career, and perhaps even further danger to his life. Or he could attempt to reverse it and regain his command. He can hardly have been in any doubt. Like Caesar, he was an outsider in politics, totally self-centred in pursuit of his ambitions, always ready to break the rules of the political game to achieve his objective... If Sulla hesitated it can only have been because he was not sure how his army would react.{{sfn|Seager|1994|pp=169–170}} }}

Speaking to the men, Sulla complained to them of the outrageous behaviour of Marius and Sulpicius. He hinted to them that Marius would find other men to fight Mithridates, forcing them to give up opportunities to plunder the East, claims which were "surely false".{{sfn|Seager|1994|p=170}} The troops were willing to follow Sulla to Rome; his officers, however, realised Sulla's plans and deserted him (except his quaestor and kinsman, almost certainly [[Lucullus|Lucius Licinius Lucullus]]).{{sfn|Seager|1994|p=170}}<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Levick |first=BM |date=1982 |title=Sulla's March on Rome in 88 B.C. |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4435825 |journal=Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte |volume=31 |issue=4 |pages=503–508 |jstor=4435825 |issn=0018-2311}}</ref> They then killed Marcus Gratidius, one of Marius' legates, when Gratidius attempted to effect the transfer of command.{{sfn|Evans|1995|p=167}}

When the march on Rome started, the Senate and people were appalled. The Senate immediately sent an embassy demanding an explanation for his seeming march on the fatherland, to which Sulla responded boldly, saying that he was freeing it from tyrants.{{sfn|Seager|1994|p=170}} Rome having no troops to defend itself, Sulla entered the city; once there, however, his men were pelted with stones from the rooftops by common people. Almost breaking before Marius' makeshift forces, Sulla then stationed troops all over the city before summoning the Senate and inducing it to outlaw Marius, [[Gaius Marius the Younger|Marius' son]], Sulpicius, and nine others. He then reinforced this decision by legislation, retroactively justifying his illegal march on the city and stripping the twelve outlaws of their Roman citizenship. Of the twelve outlaws, only Sulpicius was killed after being betrayed by a slave. Marius and his son, along with some others, escaped to Africa.{{sfn|Seager|1994|p=171}}

=== Aftermath ===
Sulla then had Sulpicius' legislation invalidated on the grounds that all had been passed by force. According only to Appian, he then brought legislation to strengthen the Senate's position in the state and weaken the plebeian tribunes by eliminating the ''comitia tributa'' as a legislative body and requiring that tribunes first receive senatorial approval for legislation;{{sfnm|Keaveney|2005|1p=56|Seager|1994|2p=172}} some scholars, however, reject Appian's account as mere retrojection of legislation passed during Sulla's dictatorship.{{sfn|Seager|1994|p=172}} He sent his army back to Capua{{sfn|Keaveney|2005|p=57}} and then conducted the elections for that year, which yielded a resounding rejection of him and his allies. His enemy, [[Lucius Cornelius Cinna]], was elected consul for 87&nbsp;BC in place of his candidate;{{sfnm|Seager|1994|1p=173|Keaveney|2005|2p=59|Badian|2012}} his nephew was rejected as plebeian tribune while Marius' nephew was successful.{{sfn|Seager|1994|p=173}} Cinna, even before the election, said he would prosecute Sulla at the conclusion of the latter's consular term.{{sfn|Keaveney|2005|p=59}}

After the elections, Sulla forced the consuls designate to swear to uphold his laws. And for his consular colleague, he attempted to transfer to him the command of [[Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo]]'s army. 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. No action was taken against the troops nor any action taken to relieve Pompey Strabo of command.{{sfnm|Keaveney|2005|1p=62|Seager|1994|2p=173}} He then left Italy with his troops without delay, ignoring legal summons and taking over command from a legate in Macedonia.{{sfnm|Seager|1994|1p=173|Badian|2012}}

Sulla's ability to use military force against his own countrymen was "in many ways a continuation of the Social War... a civil war between former allies and friends developed into a civil war between citizens... what was eroded in the process was the fundamental distinction between Romans and foreign enemies".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Beard |first=Mary |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/902661394 |title=SPQR: a history of ancient Rome |year=2015 |isbn=978-0-87140-423-7 |edition=1st |location=New York |oclc=902661394 |publisher=Liveright Publishing |page=244 }}</ref> Political violence in Rome continued even in Sulla's absence. Cinna [[Bellum Octavianum|violently quarrelled]] with his co-consul, [[Gnaeus Octavius (consul 87 BC)|Gnaeus Octavius]].{{sfn|Seager|1994|p=174}} After Octavius induced the senate to outlaw Cinna, Cinna suborned the army besieging Nola and induced the Italians again to rise up. Marius, offering his services to Cinna, helped levy troops.{{sfn|Seager|1994|p=175}} By the end of 87&nbsp;BC, Cinna and Marius had besieged Rome and taken the city, killed consul Gnaeus Octavius, massacred their political enemies, and declared Sulla an outlaw; they then had themselves elected consuls for 86&nbsp;BC.{{sfn|Seager|1994|pp=178–179}}