The Life of Sulla: Rome’s first Dictator for Life

[Music] Lucius Cornelius sulla a man who would later attain the nickname Felix meaning the fortunate was born in 138 BCE into a politically insignificant and financially troubled patrician family the details of his early life are unclear but Plutarch suggests his youth was spent amongst Rome's many actors musicians and dancers probably drunk most of the time it is clear however that sulla managed to receive an exceptional education which was undoubtedly key to his future success at age 30 sulla began climbing the ladder of Roman public offices known in Latin as the cursus honorum in 107 BCE Gaius Marius who was consul that year nominated soweth to serve as Queisser under his command in the jog-a-thon war which had started five years prior when a man named Joe Garza usurped the throne of numidia one of Rome's trusted allies sulla swiftly distinguished himself by orchestrating the betrayal of jag artha by one of his own allies which ultimately ended the war unfortunately once back in Rome Marius would take credit for what sulla himself had done nearly single-handedly regardless sulla gained popularity and he had proven himself to the powerful Gaius Marius it wasn't long before he was elected to office once again in 104 BCE Marius was given command of a Roman campaign against the Cimbri into Don's Germanic Celtic people who were migrating toward Roman territory during these campaigns sulla served under Marius as a military Tribune which was a position often used by ambitious politicians like himself as a stepping-stone to Senate after three years Sola was promoted he was now a legatus a high ranking officer sulla advised and commanded and honed his aptitude for both of these skills until Rome eventually won the war and he returned home Sola was elected prate or Urbanus in 97 and proconsul of Silesia in 95 both very important offices he remained in Silesia for a few years but returned to Rome in 92 when tensions between the Senate and disenfranchised Italians were reaching a breaking point by the second century BCE Rome had annexed the inn higher Italian peninsula but as Rome had subjugated region after region they'd allowed local communities and city-states to remain autonomous so long as they'd paid taxes to Rome and provided men for Rome's military should they ask some of these conquered people's known as the Latins had been allied to Rome for a long time and thus received a lot of respect others known as the so see I had resisted Roman rule for longer and more fiercely this arrangement between the so CIA and the Romans remained symbiotic for a long time but Rome's treatment gradually grew and fare and these allies of Rome did not have Roman citizenship and therefore could not stick up for themselves by participating in Rome's government frustration grew as the Senate continued to deny the extension of citizenship and in 91 BCE these Italian allies had had enough the widespread variety of Italian tribes that comprised the so see I formed a confederacy they seceded from Rome and established a capital of their new state at korfin iam which they quickly renamed italica within the media force of around a hundred thousand soldiers this insurrection was no small threat to Rome Rome swiftly mobilized the number of armies to put down the revolt Publius wrote Ilyas lupus who convinced Gaius Marius to come out of retirement and act as his advisor was to fight in the north alongside Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo while they console Lucius Julius Caesar was to fight in the south alongside Sola at the beginning of the war and through 90 BCE Rome suffered considerable losses so in 89 BCE lucius julius caesar turned his attention North leaving sulla in sole command in the South sulla now proved himself as one of the most successful generals of the social war by delivering crushing blows to the insurrectionists in Campania including the capture of askew l'm a here peeny stronghold and the annihilation of around 20,000 Samnite soldiers in NOLA for which he was awarded the corona grameena the grass crown the highest and rarest Roman military honor after an unnecessarily bloody few years the social war came to an end when Rome finally extended citizenship to those who laid down their arms sulla now a war hero was elected consul in 88 but during this time Romans weren't the only ones killing Romans a Pontic king named Mithridates was upset with roman expansion in the east so he organized the slow of 80,000 men women and children who were living in Asia Minor an event that would go down in history as the Asiatic Vespers when news of this reached Italy Rome was terrified the Senate immediately appointed sulla to lead an army East and fight Mithridates but the now old and borderline senile Gaius Marius wanted one final command with the help of the Tribune Publius Sulpicius Rufus and a little bit of violence Marius successfully reversed the Senate's decision to grant solo the command and transferred it to himself sulla was already about to leave to the east when he heard of Marius his actions furious he led six legions in a march on Rome a serious crime which had never been committed by a general before him Marius and Rufus were totally surprised they had no organized troops to resist with so Rome quickly fell to sulla Rufus was killed and Marius fled to Africa now in 87 sulla could finally sailed to Illyria and face me through navies by the time solo landed with his army in a Pyrus in 87 Mithridates had expanded into Greece and installed a tyrant in Athens sulla marched his troops southeast and laid siege to this important Greek city meantime while sulla was starving out the city of Athens Marius was busy raising an army in Africa it was now him who would march on Rome in 87 with the help of the ex consul Lucius Cornelius Cinna the two stormed into Rome seized power and began slaughtering all of Solus supporters all who opposed Senna and Marius had either been killed or in fled Rome so the two were elected consul Marius died two weeks after his election leaving Cinna in sole control of Rome back in Greece sulla had captured Athens burned it to the ground and marched towards B OSHA to take on Mithra Daviess armies so lament myth heard eighties Pontic forces at Chaeronea where although outnumbered by at least 80,000 men he used superior strategy and fortified high ground to utterly crush the huge enemy army having lost about a hundred thousand men at the Battle of Chaeronea myth lured a DS quickly raised a new army by the time Sola met this army at orchomenus it numbered about 150,000 men sulla found himself outnumbered once again so using similar tactics as he had at Chaeronea he fortified himself in rocky high ground and slaughtered the enemies after suffering these two diary Smit their daddies abandoned the war and agreed to peace terms with Sola Sola was mopping up business in Asia Minor when he received news that Senna had been stoned to death by his own troops fully aware of the power vacuum this would leave in Rome sulla sailed across the Adriatic at once I had five legions in 83 solo landed with his troops in Brenda's ium while the two newly elected Roman consuls skippy Oh easy Atticus and Gaius Nirvana's raced armies to stop his advance sulla was first met with resistance by the army of north honest but his freshly trained soldiers were no match for SOLAS war hardened veterans and no bonus was quickly defeated the other consul skip-bo easy Atticus also tried to stop sulla but before any fighting could commence his own army defected to Sola said forcing him to surrender now with the warship thing in his favour so again the support of many important men including that of Crassus and Pompey to those names sound familiar ad Atticus now raised a new army and was moving to attack Pompey who was on his way to support sulla but unfortunately for AC Atticus his troops abandoned him again back in Rome the Senate was desperate they elected Pope arias carbo and Gaius Marius his son Gaius Marius minor as consuls both of whom would quickly raise armies in a last-ditch effort to stop sulla in 82 carbo moved his troops north to oppose Pompey at the same time Marius minor moved south to face sulla after fierce battle carbo was unsuccessful in defeating Pompey and had to withdraw to a Turia meanwhile sulla and Marius had a long flat battle which after much bloodshed eventually ended in Marius retreating to pry nest a where solo laid siege solo then moved north to face carbo with Pompey but carbo quickly fled when he realized that he was surrounded although most of solos enemies were now eliminated the war was not over the Samnites aware that sulla disliked their people raise an army to support Marius when this Army's efforts to lift the siege on Marius failed they turned toward Rome SOLAS forces met the samnites just outside of Rome in the Battle of the Colleen gate commenced in this dramatic climax of the war both sides struggled desperately but ultimately sulla emerged victorious solo is now the unrivaled ruler of Rome and the Senate appointed him dictator for life which notably was a title that ever been given to a man before him now in order to eliminate any remaining opposition sulla enacted his prescriptions this was a ruthless program by which anyone suspected of opposing sulla was promptly executed so then passed laws to take power away from the increasingly pugnacious office of the Trib unit and increased the size of the senate from 300 to 600 he made many other constitutional Reformation in line with his traditionalist sentiments mainly to ensure that no one else rose to absolute power exactly as he himself had in the end of 81 BCE sulla just one year into his dictatorship surprisingly resigned still sulla was elected consul the next year but after this term he retired sulla spent the rest of his life in his countryside villa with his wife and his male lover tending to his garden and writing his memoirs sulla passed away in 78 BCE probably because of his chronic alcohol abuse regardless this ended the unprecedented and glorious life of one of Rome's greatest men thank you for watching and thank you for bearing with my horrendous animations I'm not particularly artistic but I figured that any visual would help progress a narrative so I threw them in there anyway the research for this video was compiled from these resources if you're interested in further reading I highly recommend you check them out I did have to skip around a lot of the more monotonous details of Seles life so there is a lot more to learn thanks again and goodbye

Channel: Sam Harris

Views: 485,347

Keywords: lucius cornelius sulla, lucis, cornelius, sulla, sula, felix, roman, empire, general, politician, gaius, marius, famous, top 10 roman generals, who was sulla, what did sulla do, social war, end of the republic, civil war, march on rome, history

Id: DqPR9JYYowk

Length: 10min 26sec (626 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 20 2017