Roman Politics in the 70s b.c.: a Story of Realignments?*

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I DEFINING THE LEGACY OF SULLA

In the first book of the Civil Wars Appian discusses in vivid terms the events of the year 78 b.c. He devotes considerable attention to the funeral of Sulla and frames that spectacular public ceremony as the moment that brought the season of the Civil Wars of the 80s to a close and opened up a new phase in the troubled history of the late Republic. ¹ In that account, the debate that preceded the funeral is the first stage of the process in which Sulla's legacy is contested and eventually undone. According to the main surviving ancient narratives of the period, there had been no room for dissent since the Colline Gate battle (November 82 b.c.); the dominatio of the dictator was the time for systematic massacres and the distribution of rewards to the friends of the victor, not for open political debate. ² If we are to believe Plutarch, even when the junior (if well-born) senator C. Caecilius Metellus publicly asked Sulla when he intended to put an end to the massacres that followed the Civil War, he did not question Sulla's entitlement to pursue those that he was determined to punish. ³ In Appian's words, Sulla ‘ruled as he pleased’ after he killed Lucretius Afella (or Ofella) in the middle of the Forum to punish him for his decision to stand for the consulship, probably in early 81 b.c. ⁴ As Plutarch states, many may have had reservations on the system shaped by the new Leges Corneliae, especially shortly after they were passed, but there is no evidence that these were publicly voiced and discussed. ⁵ Cicero claims to have argued against the legitimacy of the Sullan law that deprived several communities of the Roman citizenship in a case concerning a woman from Arretium, which was heard during Sulla's lifetime. The outcome may well have been favourable to Cicero's client, but the issue was not resolved by that precedent. ⁶ Tellingly, the speech was not published. ⁷ The pro Roscio Amerino was delivered during Sulla's lifetime, probably in 80 b.c., and provided comprehensive factual evidence for the abuses perpetrated during the proscriptions. It also included a bitter attack on Chrysogonus, a freedman who...