Actually, Aulus, wasn’t there a convention in the 19th century that transcribed an upsilon as either “u” or “y” depending on its vocalic value? Thus (roughly), a long upsilon was written as “u” and a short upsilon as “y”. That is why the historian Qoukudidhs (with two upsilons) has come down to us as Thucydides. The only reason this matters (apart from pure pedantry) is that it tells us that Sulla’s name was pronounced with a short “u” as in “dumb” or “butter” and not like Soola.

Now, about Sulla’s brutal execution at the beginning of his reign. The summary that Heraklia cites makes me wonder just how much Sulla’s brutality is connected to the Social War and the fact that a large part of the force he had just narrowly defeated were Samnites. If we have to understand Sulla to get a handle on Caesar, then we also have to understand the Social War and the events that led up to it to understand Sulla. If we keep this up, we’re going to wind up all the way back at Romulus and Remus.