Salve Sulla

When you twice wrote in your last post, "as I understand the basics I beleive most agree on," are you referring to ...

The consensus of ancient historians who characterize Sylla as having been in revolt against the legitimate government of Rome? All save one of his officers abandoned him because they believed he was in revolt. The Senate, in spite of whatever divisions it may have held, twice ordered Sylla to turn back his army. The praetores were sent to him as heralds to demand he halt and Sylla violated that most ancient and sacred office. The Comitia of course did not recognize his authority over the army in the first place and even Sylla had publicly acknowledged this fact. Then there was the matter of his treasonous act of negotiating a treaty with an enemy of Rome and attacking instead the legitimate army sent by the Senate and Roman people against Mithridates. Plutarch has Sylla himself call such an act treasonous while he dealt with Archelaus. And what of his other treacherous act, turning on Marius after it Marius to whom he fled when Sulpicious attacked him, Marius who gave Sylla shelter in his own home and had his life spared? Plutarch comments that if only Marius had not taken such kindness towards Sylla that Rome might have been spared of the butchery and turmoil caused by Sylla. Or as Christopher Hart put it, in reviewing that book, the Rubicon by Tom Holland, "There was Sulla, most chilling of all the dictators: ...and the first to turn his own troops against Rome."

Or are you referring to those Roman authors who refer to Sylla as monstra in reference to the fact that Sylla was a megalomaniac murderer? Rome, Athens, Praeneste, the Samnites, Rome again, not to mention his redefining the meaning of the word proscriptio. Even his very last official act on the day before he died was to order a Roman magistrate be strangled. For a fuller account of Sylla's butchery you might try Plutarch

Or are you referring to contemptuous opinion of Roman authors about Sylla?s personal life? Scripsisti: "It would be nice if we could come to an overall comprehension about who Sulla's wives really were." Actually I am surprised in the board?s discussion of the wives of Sylla that no one brought up Metrobius Ilia, Metella, did you forget Valeria? But no mention of Metrobius, who Sylla, in his final address to the Roman Senate, finally acknowledge as the man who was his "life long lover?" Metrobius had made his fame as a transvestite actor and female impersonator in the theater and when Sylla's wife died it was Metrobius who he took with him, that after he had already been keeping Metrobius as his mistress throughout his three marriages. Or is that what you meant when you wrote, "As far as my namesake, I do take offence at the suggestion that I would seek a 3rd when I was sleeping with my mistress and step-mother already..." Is it Metrobius to whom you are referring? An abbreviated version of Plutarch brings out that he implied Sylla?s mulberry disease and infestation of lice was due to a personal choice of life style. To a Roman it was detestable that a man in Sylla's position would have stooped so low as to catch such diseases and a curse of the Gods on him for having done so. Compare Sylla as Plutarch did to others with the same disease. Theater people were not the most respectable anyway, but a transvestite, and one well past his prime, went far beyond what Roman propriety held as suitable conduct. Those ancient authors who do refer to this part of Sylla?s life all "agree on" what it meant to them. No less scandalous to a Roman way of thinking was the manner in which Sylla inherited a fortune by prostituting himself to an relatively "older" woman, or at least fawning on her in an unseemly way. Plutarch's comments on the affair is similar to the story of Pompey and Flora.

Any attempt to glorify such a vile character out of Roman history as Sylla or rehabilitate his memory in the face of what Romans thought of him, might be thought "a lame excuse for the distortion of history." Yet that is what you seem to imply is your desire for your namesake. I am all for taking a second look. I enjoy revisionist history; never read any fictional stories though. So I am curious at what kind of argument you wish to present on Sylla's behalf.