Sulla, Lucius Cornelius (138-78 B.C.), reformed the Roman government. He was the first Roman general to use his army against political foes. Later politicians, including Julius Caesar, followed this example.
Sulla was a member of a patrician (aristocratic) family. In 88 B.C., he was a consul (chief government official) and commander of a Roman army. When Mithridates VI, king of Pontus (in Asia Minor), attacked Roman lands in Asia, the Roman Senate put Sulla in command of an army to fight him. But the Roman Assembly overruled the Senate’s decision, and voted the command to Gaius Marius. Sulla was driven out of Rome. He returned with his army and drove out Marius and then went to fight Mithridates.
In 87 and 86 B.C., Sulla attacked Athens, an ally of Pontus, and defeated two of Mithridates’ armies. When Sulla entered Asia, Mithridates asked for and got peace.
Sulla hurried back to Rome because Marius and other leaders had returned and killed many of his supporters. Marius was dead when Sulla returned in 83 B.C., but Sulla fought and won a civil war against Marius’ followers. As dictator from 82 to 79 B.C., Sulla reorganized the state. He destroyed the power of the tribunes (representatives of the people), and gave the Senate control of Rome. After Sulla retired in 79 B.C., most of his reforms were discarded.
