(c) Jerry Fielden2000
Sulla and the proscriptions
Lucius Cornelius Sulla was consul in 88 BC (and again in 80 BC) and dictator
from 82 to 79 BC. When he was still a proconsul in 82, he planned and executed
the proscriptions against his enemies for revenge, especially from the Marian
camp, and against rich Romans because he needed money to pay his veterans.
Unfortunately for modern readers, there are no surviving continuous first-hand
accounts of Sulla’s career.[1] We have to rely mainly on Appian and Plutarch
as second-hand sources. Here I will look at Appian and Plutarch’s versions of
the proscriptions and compare the two: first we will find out about the authors
origins and lives, about their own sources for their histories, then about the
differences and similarities between both versions of the proscriptions accounts.
Appian (?95-?165 AD) was a Romanized Greek lawyer who wrote from the military
point of view.[2] He was also a friend of Marcus Aurelius’ tutor Fronto,
through whom he may have gotten a procuratorship.[3] Appian’s possible sources
may have been Livy, Sulla himself, Sallust, and Plutarch.[4] Plutarch (?46-120
AD) was also a Greek and a municipal magistrate in his hometown of Chaeronea in
Boeotia.[5] Plutarch apparently had access to Sulla’s memoirs, amongst other
texts. He mentions them often as a reference in his biography of the dictator[6].
Both writers see Sulla as vindictive, ferocious, greedy and destructive, but
they say he becomes even more of a butcher and a tyrant during the proscriptions
and his dictatorship.[7] The numbers of the victims quoted at the onset of the
proscriptions don’t quite agree in the separate accounts however. Plutarch
mentions a list of eighty, followed by another list of 200 the next day,[8]
whereas Appian tells us of 40 senators and 1,600 equestrians proscribed
on-the-spot during a speech to the assembly of the people.[9] Both writers agree
it was a terrible massacre: Appian said that Sulla warned his enemies of their
forthcoming fate,[10] and Plutarch just said that it was blind butchery, not
even a question of being Sulla’s enemy.[11] According to Keaveney, each side
expected that the other show no mercy, and the enemy knew that Sulla had given
them fair warning and many chances to join him.[12] This is reflected by both
Plutarch, who mentions bribery and deceit to accomplish this purpose, [13] and
by Appian, who mentions a lack of leadership on the opposing general’s part in
one particular episode[14] of Sulla’s winning over an entire army.
There are a few more minor differences in the narratives but many more
similarities: Plutarch talks of paying two talents for killing a proscribed
man,[15] whereas Appian mentions “a prize for killers and rewards to informers”.[16]
Plutarch and Appian both tell us that you could be executed for sheltering one
of the proscribed.[17] Both authors also agree that many were killed for their
possessions, that Sulla needed or wanted the money.[18] The authors agree that
he needed to extort land and money, and needed the powers to do this too, in
order to reward his veterans.[19]
I conclude that there were more similarities in both accounts than differences,
which enables me to believe that the stories were accurate enough considering
the era they were written in and the fact that they were second-hand. Appian
wrote a little more on the military point of view and Plutarch on the personal
side of Sulla, but both authors agree that the proscriptions were exceptionally
cruel and horrible, even for those times.
Bibliography
Appian, Appian’s Roman History Vol. 1, translated by Horace White, Loeb
Classical Library, Heinemann, London and MacMillan, New York, 1912;, The Civil
Wars, Translated by John Carter, Penguin Classics, 1996
Freeman, Edward, Historical Essays, Second Series, 2nd Edition, MacMillan and Co.,
London, 1880
Lewis, Naphtali and Reinhold, Meyer, Roman Civilization, Vol. 1, 3rd Edition,
Columbia University Press, New York, 1990
Keaveney, Arthur, Sulla, the Last Republican, Croom Helm, London and Canberra,
1982
Plutarch, Fall of the Roman Republic, Translated by Rex Warner, revised Edition,
Penguin Books, 1972
“Plutarch”, Microsoft Encarta 98 Encyclopedia, © 1993-1997 Microsoft
Corporation
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[1] Freeman, p. 326
[2] Lewis & Reinhold, p. 28
[3] Appian Roman History, p. vii
[4] Appian Civil Wars, p. xxxi
[5] “Plutarch”, Microsoft Encarta 98
[6] For instance, see Plut., Sulla 37
[7] Appian Civil Wars 98 and 101; Plut., Sulla 31 and 33
[8] Plut, Sulla 31
[9] Appian Civil Wars, 95
[10] Appian Civil Wars, 97
[11] Plut., Sulla 31
[12] Keaveney, p. 157
[13] Plut., Sulla 28
[14] Appian Civil Wars 84
[15] Plut., Sulla 31
[16] Appian Civil Wars, 95
[17] Appian Civil Wars 95; Plut., Sulla 31
[18] Appian Civil Wars 95 and 96; Plut., Sulla 31
[19] Appian Civil Wars 96; Plut., Sulla 33