Publius Cornelius Sulla

Publius Cornelius Sulla was the son of an otherwise unknown brother of Lucius Cornelius Sulla.^[2]

Despite being Sulla's nephew, Publius does not seem have played a prominent role in either the civil war or the dictatorship of his famous uncle. However, he may have served as a junior officer during this time, alongside his contemporary Lucius Sergius Catilina, who is known to have served with distinction in the Sullan Civil Wars. Publius was later to be closely associated with Catiline, and it is possible that it was as fellow officers under his uncle that this association began.

In 81 BC, during the dictatorship of his uncle, Cicero records that Publius used what influence he had through his close familial connection to request mercy for several of the proscribed, and was successful in having them spared.^[3] Following the death of Lucius Cornelius Sulla in 78 BC, Publius likely inherited a portion of his estate.

Having presumably worked his way up the cursus honorum, achieving the pre-requisite offices of quaestor and praetor at an earlier date, in 66 BC Sulla stood for election to the consulship (to assume office in 65 BC). Sulla was elected consul by the unanimous vote of all the centuries, with Publius Autronius as his colleague.^[4] However, the two were not to enjoy their success for long as, soon after the result had been declared, Lucius Manlius Torquatus and Lucius Aurelius Cotta, who had both stood against Sulla in the election and lost, accused those who had defeated them of bribery. Impeached on this charge, Sulla and Autronius were tried, convicted and, under the Lex Acilia Calpurnia, deprived of their office and expelled from the Senate.^[5][6]

A second round of elections were held in which Torquatus and Cotta were successful, replacing those they had removed as the consuls-designate for 65 BC. It was now that the so-called First Catilinarian Conspiracy was allegedly hatched.

It is alleged by the Roman historian Sallust that Catiline, a friend of both Sulla and Autronius, attempted to stand in the second round of elections against Torquatus and Cotta but was prevented in doing so because he had only recently emerged from a trial for extortion and, although he had been acquitted, was not permitted to stand for any office until three weeks had elapsed. This was the second time Catiline had been denied his chance at the consulship, and, incensed, he formed a conspiracy along with the deposed Sulla and Autronius, as well as Gnaeus Piso, against Cotta and Torquatus. The plan was apparently no less than to murder the two new Consuls-Elect on the very day they were to assume office, 1 January 65 BC, and to seize the government and Consulship for themselves.^[7] The preparations of the conspirators were however detected and they first postponed their planned coup to February, before abandoning it altogether; the conspiracy therefore coming to naught.^[8]

There is much doubt as to whether the First Catilinarian Conspiracy ever took place at all, and that it was instead later invented to blacken Catiline further following the Second Catilinarian Conspiracy. An alternative view is that Catiline himself was not involved, but Sulla and Autronius on their own plotted the assassination of their rivals. In any case, no attempt was made on the lives of Cotta or Torquatus and the two assumed the consulship without incident.

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Cursus honorum

Cursus honorum

The cursus honorum was the sequential order of public offices held by aspiring politicians in the Roman Republic and the early Roman Empire. It was designed for men of senatorial rank. The cursus honorum comprised a mixture of military and political administration posts; the ultimate prize for winning election to each "rung" in the sequence was to become one of the two consuls in a given year. Each office had a minimum age for election; there were also minimum intervals between holding successive offices and laws forbade repeating an office.

Quaestor

Quaestor

A quaestor was a public official in Ancient Rome. There were various types of quaestors, with the title used to describe greatly different offices at different times.

Praetor

Praetor

Praetor, also pretor, was the title granted by the government of Ancient Rome to a man acting in one of two official capacities: (i) the commander of an army, and (ii) as an elected magistratus (magistrate), assigned to discharge various duties. The functions of the magistracy, the praetura (praetorship), are described by the adjective: the praetoria potestas, the praetorium imperium, and the praetorium ius, the legal precedents established by the praetores (praetors). Praetorium, as a substantive, denoted the location from which the praetor exercised his authority, either the headquarters of his castra, the courthouse (tribunal) of his judiciary, or the city hall of his provincial governorship.

Consul

Consul

Consul was the title of one of the two chief magistrates of the Roman Republic, and subsequently also an important title under the Roman Empire. The title was used in other European city-states through antiquity and the Middle Ages, in particular in the Republics of Genoa and Pisa, then revived in modern states, notably in the First French Republic. The related adjective is consular, from the Latin consularis.

Centuria

Centuria

Centuria is a Latin term denoting military units originally consisting of 100 men. The size of the century changed over time, and from the first century BC through most of the imperial era the standard size of a centuria was 80 men.

Publius Autronius Paetus

Publius Autronius Paetus

Publius Autronius Paetus was a politician of the late Roman Republic who was involved in the conspiracy of Catiline.

Lucius Aurelius Cotta (consul 65 BC)

Lucius Aurelius Cotta (consul 65 BC)

Lucius Aurelius Cotta was a Roman politician from an old noble family who held the offices of praetor, consul and censor. Both his father and grandfather of the same name had been consuls, and his two brothers, Gaius Aurelius Cotta and Marcus Aurelius Cotta, preceded him as consul in 75 and 74 BC respectively. His sister, Aurelia, was married to Gaius Julius Caesar, brother-in-law to Gaius Marius and possibly Lucius Cornelius Sulla, and they were the parents of the famous general and eventual dictator, Gaius Julius Caesar.

Lex Acilia Calpurnia

Lex Acilia Calpurnia

Lex Acilia Calpurnia was a law established during the Roman Republic in 67 BC mandating permanent exclusion from office in cases of electoral corruption. The law was passed by Gaius Calpurnius Piso and Manius Acilius Glabrio.

Sallust

Sallust

Gaius Sallustius Crispus, usually anglicised as Sallust, was a Roman historian and politician from an Italian plebeian family. Probably born at Amiternum in the country of the Sabines, Sallust became a partisan of Julius Caesar, circa 50s BC. He is the earliest known Latin-language Roman historian with surviving works to his name, of which Conspiracy of Catiline, The Jugurthine War, and the Histories remain extant. As a writer, Sallust was primarily influenced by the works of the 5th-century BC Greek historian Thucydides. During his political career he amassed great and ill-gotten wealth from his governorship of Africa.

Following the disgrace of his conviction and expulsion from the Senate, Sulla's political career and reputation was completely destroyed and he could play no further part in public life. Humiliated and impoverished, Sulla reputedly joined the disreputable circle of desperate and dissolute nobles gathering around Catiline to form the Second Catilinarian Conspiracy. Catiline and his followers believed they had been robbed of the power that was rightfully theirs, and were committed to take it by any means necessary.

Sulla, his cousins Publius and Servius,^[9] as well as his former colleague Autronius, were implicated in the conspiracy. Following the failure of the Conspiracy in late 63 and Catiline's death in January 62, Sulla was put on trial for his alleged complicity by Lucius Manlius Torquatus, the son of the man who had impeached him in 66. Sulla managed to secure both Marcus Tullius Cicero and Quintus Hortensius, the two greatest orators of the age, for his defence, and was acquitted of all charges.^[10] This was the occasion for Cicero delivering his Pro Sulla speech. Neither Sulla's cousins nor Autronius were so fortunate, as Cicero believed them to be guilty and refused their similar requests for defence.^[11]

In 49 BC, when Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon and ignited the Civil War, Sulla chose to support him against the Senate. Given a command in the Caesarian army, Sulla accompanied Caesar on his campaign in Greece against Pompey. At Dyrrachium, Sulla was left in charge of Caesar's camp and successfully repulsed a Pompeian attack which broke through the fortifications while the bulk of the army was elsewhere fighting with Caesar.^[12] Upon driving the Pompeians back, Sulla determined not to pursue and instead withdrew back to the camp. Caesar remarks in his commentaries that if Sulla had instead pursued the fleeing enemy and followed up on his victory, the entire Civil War might have been ended on that day. However, he does not blame Sulla's cautious conduct or his decision to stay in the camp, which was his responsibility to protect.^[13]

Sulla commanded the right wing of Caesar's army at the Battle of Pharsalus.^[14] In the battle, the Caesarians were victorious and the defeated Pompey fled to Egypt, where he was murdered.

Publius Cornelius Sulla died in 45 BC.

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Julius Caesar

Julius Caesar

Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war, and subsequently became dictator from 49 BC until his assassination in 44 BC. He played a critical role in the events that led to the demise of the Roman Republic and the rise of the Roman Empire.

Pompey

Pompey

Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, known in English as Pompey or Pompey the Great, was a leading Roman general and statesman. He played a significant role in the transformation of Rome from republic to empire. Early in his career, he was a partisan and protégé of the Roman general and dictator Sulla; later, he became the political ally, and finally the enemy, of Julius Caesar.

Battle of Dyrrhachium (48 BC)

Battle of Dyrrhachium (48 BC)

The Battle of Dyrrachium took place from April to late July 48 BC near the city of Dyrrachium, modern day Durrës in what is now Albania. It was fought between Gaius Julius Caesar and an army led by Gnaeus Pompey during Caesar's civil war.

Commentarii de Bello Civili

Commentarii de Bello Civili

Commentarii de Bello Civili (Commentaries on the Civil War), or Bellum Civile, is an account written by Julius Caesar of his war against Gnaeus Pompeius and the Roman Senate. It consists of three books covering the events of 49–48 BC, from shortly before Caesar's invasion of Italy to Pompey's defeat at the Battle of Pharsalus and flight to Egypt. It was preceded by the much longer account of Caesar's campaigns in Gaul and was followed by similar works covering the ensuing wars against the remnants of Pompey's armies in Egypt, North Africa, and Spain. Caesar's authorship of the Commentarii de Bello Civili is not disputed, while the three later works are believed to have been written by contemporaries of Caesar.

Battle of Pharsalus

Battle of Pharsalus

The Battle of Pharsalus was the decisive battle of Caesar's Civil War fought on 9 August 48 BC near Pharsalus in central Greece. Julius Caesar and his allies formed up opposite the army of the Roman Republic under the command of Pompey. Pompey had the backing of a majority of Roman senators and his army significantly outnumbered the veteran Caesarian legions.