Lucius Cornelius Sulla

La quête de légitimité politique est une des préoccupations majeures des protagonistes des conflits civils de la fin de la République romaine. Il a été reconnu de longue date que les types monétaires furent l’un des nombreux supports et vecteurs des discours idéologiques élaborés à cette fin. Par ailleurs, des travaux plus récents ont mis en lumière l’importance – non seulement économique, mais aussi symbolique – des réformes monétaires dans les régimes césarien et augustéen, où la remise en ordre de la monnaie apparaît comme une pièce indispensable de la restauration politique. Cette contribution tentera de préciser les différents rôles joués par la monnaie dans les stratégies de légitimation des protagonistes de la scène politique au Ier siècle av. J.-C., de Sylla à Auguste. Il s’agira d’une part d’identifier, pour chaque étape de la carrière de ces personnages, la teneur des discours élaborés pour soutenir leur position, afin de distinguer entre éléments « militaires » et « civiques », entre idéologie « impératoriale » et « de restauration » (les deux thématiques pouvant être fusionnées). D’autre part, nous tenterons de déterminer si, et le cas échéant dans quelle mesure, ces différents types de légitimation ont entraîné des innovations dans le domaine monétaire, et si celles-ci doivent être simplement considérées comme une série de mesures ad hoc ou si l’on peut y voir la marque d’une politique cohérente.

The ancient sources offer clear and unambiguous evidence that Sulla’s civil war victory at the battle of the Colline Gate was followed first by a wave of indiscriminate urban violence and then by the publication of the first proscription lists. Hinard sanitises the evidence and denies that there was a wave of violence prior to the genesis of the proscriptions. A key source is Orosius, whose testimony is rejected on the grounds that he describes bounty hunters bringing chaos to the streets of Rome before the publication of the first proscription list. Orosius refers to percussores, and Hinard claims that this was a technical term for the freelance killers who responded to the proclamation of an official bounty on the heads of the proscribed. My aim in this article is to show that this definition is without basis. It is also my intention to stress that the violence of Sulla’s victory was not exclusively official or state-sponsored.

Quali istituzioni politiche hanno accompagnato - e in parte determinato - la straordinaria vicenda storica di Roma antica? Cosa conosciamo del loro funzionamento e della loro evoluzione? Quali sono stati i principali interrogativi della lunghissima tradizione esegetica della quale siamo debitori? In base a quali suggestioni, invece, per secoli si è reinterpretato, attualizzato e, non da ultimo, strumentalizzato il vincente – e avvincente – “modello romano” nelle sue varie declinazioni? Per quali ragioni la comprensione di concetti politici d’indubbia attualità non può prescindere dallo studio di Roma antica? Tenendo presenti questi interrogativi di fondo, l’autore propone una guida sintetica al complesso sistema politico-istituzionale romano: un sistema che, sebbene lontano, offre ancora molti spunti di riflessione

The lousy disease (phthiriasis) and its potentially deadly consequences is well attested from antiquity until the 19th century. Intensely itching, vesicular or tumorous skin lesions defile the body and release swarms of insects spontaneously or after incision. Several well-known persons from antiquity and the early modern period are supposed to have died of the lousy disease. Both classicists and physicians have questioned the credibility of said accounts. By means of our interdisciplinary approach based on an analysis of different descriptions of the lousy disease from antiquity to the 19th century, this paper will present strong arguments for the existence of a potentially lethal form of phthiriasis. In contrast to its name, the lousy disease was most likely caused by a species of mites, similar to the one causing cystic subepidermal tumors in birds.

An examination of the career of Crassus, with particular attention to conflicting evidence in the available sources regarding his early life. The paper is a revision of a paper originally written in the late 1970's. It takes note of the few issues brought to my attention by my tutor at the time, and makes some adjustments based on my own recent review of the sources.

Across the eastern Mediterranean, only a limited number of inscriptions, coins and papyri attest the term ἐπιν(ε)ίκια bestowed on local festivities. My paper studies for the first time the genesis and evolution of a particular title that could be presented as a sign of loyalty and friendship towards Roman rule. Through an analysis of mostly direct evidence, I aim to provide the perspective of certain local communities which, while subjected to Rome, remarkably strove to celebrate its victories. This bottom-up approach also seeks to show the importance of reciprocity in the constant diplomatic exchange between emperors, administrators and eastern provincials.

This paper reconsiders the political facets and purposes of Caracalla’s imitatio Alexandri and esteem for Sulla. Both emulations represented the result of a well-pondered political way of thinking and acting. On the one hand, Caracalla reclaimed the exemplum Sullanum displayed by his father, and sought to lead fruitfully the edgy relationships with the Roman political class also through the political role-model embodied by Sulla; on the other hand, by activating the cultural and historical heritage of Alexander in the hellenophone and Near Eastern provinces, the Emperor aimed to interact effectively with the local communities, elites, and populations.

Bellona, blood-frenzied goddess of war, played an integral role in Roman Republican warfare. Her temple became the de facto meeting place of the Senate for nearly all matters concerning war; treaties, triumphs, engagements, meetings with ambassadors, even its ritualized declaration. Despite Bellona’s dominion over warfare, there has yet to be a single monograph dedicated to her study. Our understanding of Roman military history—not only the more ideological aspects as the
study of any deity reveals, but even the concrete practicalities like how war was actualized from start to finish—cannot be complete without at least a basic understanding of Bellona’s role.

Because the topic of Bellona has remained largely unexplored in current scholarship, this project will necessarily be preliminary. This thesis will paint a large, yet as detailed as possible, image of Bellona’s life at Rome. The approach is diachronic. We begin as far back as our evidence allows, to somewhere before the 3rd century BC, and move forward into the 3rd century AD. We trace Bellona’s evolution from an Italian, Sabine goddess of war and victory, to one closely linked to the Senate, to a goddess who would descend into madness, becoming an exoticized Eastern divinity in the company of Cybele, Attis and Isis. We will see that individual families—the Claudians, Cornelians, and Julians—will play vital roles in her transition. Naturally, not every aspect of Bellona can possibly be detailed in the following, and it must be reiterated that this thesis
serves as the necessary first step, the much needed foundation, for further study.

Broadly speaking, this is a work on Roman religion. However, as has almost become a maxim among scholars of ancient religion, we cannot extricate religion from politics, society, the arts and daily life more generally. The following inevitably touches upon topics like Roman
military history, gens based politics in the Roman Republic, topography and the politics of space, collective and individual memory, ancestral worship, civic religion, and the importation of Eastern
cults.

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Bellona, déesse de la guerre, animée d'une frénésie sanglante, a joué un rôle intégral dans les combats de la République Romaine. Son temple est devenu, de fait, le lieu de congrès du sénat pour presque toutes les affaires concernant la guerre—traités, triomphes, engagements, l'accueil des ambassadeurs, et même sa déclaration ritualisée. Or, malgré la domination de Bellona dans le cadre de la guerre, il reste qu'aucune oeuvre a été consacrée a son étude. Notre connaissance de l'histoire militaire de Rome -- tant les aspects plutôt idéologiques, que révèle l'étude de n'importe quel dieu, tant les réalités matérielles, voire comment une guerre s'est manifestée de son début jusqu'à sa fin—ne peut s'achever sans une connaissance au moins rudimentaire du rôle de Bellona.

A mesure que le sujet de Bellona est resté pour la plupart ignoré, ce projet sera nécessairement préliminaire. Cette recherche vise a peindre à grands traits, mais comprenant autant de détail que possible, une image de la vie de Bellona chez les Romains. La programme sera diachronique: on commencera d'un point de départ aussi reculé que nous permettent nos témoignages—c'est a dire d'un temps antérieur au troisième siècle av. J. C—et on avancera jusqu'en plein troisième siècle de notre ère. On suivra le fil de l'évolution de Bellona, de ses origines comme déesse sabine à sa place privilégiée auprès du sénat, et ensuite à son caractère d'une déesse qui s'abime dans la folie, devenant une figure orientale et exotisée en compagnie de Cybele, Attis, et Isis. On vera que des familles particulières—les Claudiens, les Corneliens, et les Juliens—vont jouer des rôles cruciaux dans sa transformation. Bien entendu, ce ne sera pas possible de préciser tous les aspects de Bellona, et il faut encore souligner que cette recherche sert comme premier pas, la base nécessaire de futures études.

En gros, ceci est une enquête sur la religion Romaine. Cependant, nous constatons, avec les autres spécialistes de la religion antique, qui en ont fait presqu'une maxime, que nous ne pouvons dégager la religion de la politique, de la société, de l'art, et, plus généralement, de la vie quotidienne de la communauté. Inévitablement, ce qui suit va porter sur d'autres thèmes, à savoir l'histoire militaire de Rome, la politique de la gens chez la République, la topographie et la politique de l'éspace, les mémoires collectifs et individuels, le culte des ancêtres, la religion civique, et l'appropriation des cultes orientaux.

This paper aims to challenge our knowledge on the coinage of the enigmatic Mostis, king of south-eastern Thrace in the late second to early first century BC. Important questions about the identity, chronology and localisation of his kingdom will be targeted. An updated die study of the available silver tetradrachms of Mostis (only 20 specimens are known) will be presented together with a particular focus on his bronze coinage. Issues on the provenance and distribution of bronzes with a review of the main types, whose countermarking was hitherto unrecorded, from known collections and new finds will be touched on also. In my view a thorough study on the monograms applied on the coins of Mostis set against the distribution record from Aegean Thrace and the western Black Sea area might allow suggesting a new localisation of the mint for his coinage.

Military and political career of Pompey is considered in the thesis. It is based on a wide range of the ancient written and archaeological evidence as well as the vast complex of research literature. Many problems of the history of the Late Republic are revised: the part of Pompey in Sulla’s Civil war; early military campaigns of Pompey; his first extraordinary magistracies; the first triumvirate; the sole consulship of Pompey the Great; the causes of Caesar’s Civil war etc.
Pompey’s military career started in a time of civil wars under command of his own father Pompey Strabo, who was a skillful Roman general during the Social war. After Strabo’s death Pompey was forced to declare his loyalty to the new regime of Cinna. Pompey’s survival was a result of his ability to make alliances with different sides of conflict. Because of this he easily turned from collaboration with Cinnans to Sullan party. During several decades Pompey had been fighting against the remnants of Sulla’s
enemies, conducting military campaigns on Sicily, in Northern Africa and Spain. But for him it was just a way to build his political career. He had never been true-hearted Sullan and his first consulship, which was achieved due to blackmail and insubordination, proved that. As consul, Pompey abolished some critical elements of the constitution of Sulla and
restored the authority of the plebeian tribunes. After the 70 B.C. Pompey became an independent participant of Rome’s political life. His successful military campaigns against the pirates and Mithradates made him the most popular and hopeful Roman general of 60's B.C.
Despite his military progress, Pompey wasn’t a skillful politician. His opponents – the senate and M. Licinius Crassus nearly destroyed his achievements. Political loses forced Pompey to seek for new alliance, which was organized with his recent rival Crassus and prospective politician C. Julius Caesar. The impact of the first triumvirate – ‘a threeheaded monster’ of Roman politics – was crucial for the republican political system, which gone in a deep crisis during 50s B.C. Also it must be emphasized, that Pompey’s political activity, in those decade (especially – his second consulship with Crassus) was the most
destructive for the Roman republic. The sole consulship of Pompey the Great in 52 B.C. became a try of restoring a state health and stability. But his measures were unacceptable for Caesar, who faced with risk to lose his achievements that had been reached during his Gallic war. A clash of the private interests of two Roman aristocrats turned into a new civil war and brought death to Pompey the Great and his measures for rescuing the
Republic died with him.

The three wars between Rome and the kingdom of Pontus (88-63 BC) illustrate the ultimate progress of the Republican intervention in the East and its most brutal consequences, as the non-combatant populations of many Greek poleis suffered from such severe war conditions. Therefore, garrisoning legionaries in towns, the origins of the ‘Ephesian Vespers’, the use of local auxiliaries, and the final doom of civilians, particularly women and children, as war casualties are analysed in four different perspectives in this joint paper.

Cette contribution s’intéresse aux grands individus qui, de Marius et Sylla à Octavien-Auguste, ont marqué l’histoire des guerres civiles de la fin de la République, et traite en particulier des rapports que ces chefs militaires entretenaient avec les armées sur lesquelles ils s’appuyaient pour soutenir leur position politique. L’hypothèse mise à l’épreuve est que les conflits civils furent pour ainsi dire le laboratoire d’une nouvelle norme régissant le comportement des 'imperatores' vis-à-vis des soldats. La première partie de l’article rappelle en quoi les développements du IIe siècle a.C. préparèrent les innovations de l’époque des guerres civiles, et souligne que la soi-disant “réforme” de Marius ne fut à l’origine d’aucune norme nouvelle. Est ensuite analysé le développement d’une nouvelle 'ars imperatoria' de la part de Sylla, lequel instaure avec les troupes un rapport démagogique qui apparaît à la fois comme un développement et un dévoiement de la forme de commandement mise en œuvre par Marius. Ce modèle allait devenir contraignant pour les générations suivantes. La dernière partie de cette étude examine l’intégration de cette “norme impératoriale” héritée des guerres civiles dans le régime augustéen, où l’indispensable “proximité affective” avec les troupes n’est plus assurée par Auguste lui-même, lequel se donne à voir comme un 'princeps' davantage que comme un 'dux'. // [ENGLISH] This paper is dedicated to the great figures who, from Marius and Sulla to Octavian-Augustus, have left their mark on the history of the civil wars at the end of the Republic. It deals in particular with the relationship these commanders had with the armies which supported their political position. Our hypothesis is that the civil war was so to say a laboratory for the creation of a new norm governing the behaviour of the 'imperatores' towards the soldiers. In the first part of the paper it is reminded that the developments of the 2nd cent. B.C. prepared the innovations of the time of the civil wars, and that the so-called Marian “reform” was not the cause of any new norm. Next, we analyze how Sulla developed a new 'ars imperatoria' by establishing with his soldiers a demagogical relationship, which appears to be a development as well as a corruption of Marius’ style of command. This became a compelling model for the next generations. The last part of the paper examines the integration of the “imperatorial norm”, inherited from the civil wars, into the Augustan Principate. The essential “affective proximity” with the troops was then no more provided by Augustus, who presented himself much more as a 'princeps' than as a 'dux'.

The Late Hellenistic didrachms struck in the name of the people of Leukas form a spectacular heavy silver coinage – standing nearly alone for that size in that area at that time – characterized by a rich variety of Greek names. What Barclay V. Head summed up, after Postolakas and Imhoof-Blumer, in his Historia Nummorum more than a century ago has not been challenged up to now:

“In B.C. 167 Leucas was separated by the Romans from the Acarnanian Confederacy, but it continued to be a place of importance, and, like Corcyra, appears to have retained its autonomy under Roman protection. To this period may be ascribed the long series of silver coins with magistrates’ names (Prytaneis?), of which more than forty are known”. 

This paper aims to demonstrate that this coinage was a very compact one, characterized by many die-links between different names, and that, consequently, these names cannot be magistrates’ names (prytaneis or whatever). The compactness of this coinage as well as its heavy military flavor is likely to be linked with a major Roman involvement in the area. It is likely and argued that, as for the Ainianes, the bulk of these didrachms has to be connected with Sylla during the first Mithradatic war.

This paper is based on Richard Schaefer’s archive of Roman republican coin images organized by Crawford number and die. The archive has been digitized by the American Numismatic Society (ANS) and is being released through Archer, the ANS’s archival database and linked to CRRO (Coinage of the Roman Republic Online). The authors of this paper co-direct the Roman Republican Die Project (RRDP) at the ANS, which aims to further disseminate and expand Schaefer’s analyses. Schaefer’s archive and die analyses provide our best data to date for quantifying the size of Roman republican coin issues and testing existing models for extrapolating the number of original dies from the number of observed dies. The paper briefly introduces Schaefer’s work and the partnership with the ANS to make this work publicly available before demonstrating the potential of the data in two sections focused on different problems of quantification. Section one investigates how we might find a baseline for the quantification of Roman republican issues and present estimates for the size of annual issues for years in which the identity of the college of moneyers is known (RRC 283-285, 299, 335, 350a and  360-363) or strongly presumed (RRC 382-384). Section two demonstrates how RRDP data (RRC 359/2, 367/11, 3 and 5) can be combined with our existing knowledge of Athenian New Style tetradrachms and cistophoric production in Asia after Dardanus, as well as literary testimony, in order to meaningfully quantify the scale of Sulla’s resources for his reconquest of Italy.

Offprints available on request.

This article examines the testimonies which describe how Marius’ tomb was desecrated, and his remains thrown into the river Anio, after Sulla’s victory in the civil war of 83-82. The standard view is that Sulla issued orders ‘from above’, but one source attributes agency to Sulla’s soldiers, and this article makes the case that the impetus for this act of civil war violence came ‘from below’ and was condoned by Sulla only after the fact. The second part of the article examines the location of Marius’ tomb. It accepts the standard view that it stood at the bridge over the Anio on the Via Salaria and argues that its message was to recall Marius’ acclamation as Rome’s saviour after his victories over the German tribes at Aquae Sextiae and Vercellae.

My paper explores whether and to what extent, Sulla's memoirs could have constituted a model for Caesar's Commentarii.
The scholarship takes for granted that Sulla's work remains in the background as a precedent of Caesar's Commentarii. At first glance, similarities - such as the title, the length of the account and the content related to a civil conflict - seem to emerge, but the fragmentary survival of Sulla's work does not allow much speculation. Crucial for Caesar might have been rather the idea of engaging and challenging the champion Sulla, as an intellectual dictator who wrote a historia. In a letter to Cicero (Att. 9.7c.1), Caesar explicitly breaks away from Sulla's methods (the proscriptions), referring to a new ratio vincendi, which arguably might have an equivalent to a new ratio scribendi in the literary field.
Beyond style and content, one aspect appears to be the most striking sign of similarity and novelty between the two works: the role played by Epicadius in continuing Sulla's account and by Hirtius in completing Caesar's Commentarii.
On this note my paper suggests the importance of a Roman entourage, on whom Caesar clearly relied throughout his entire military life, as different from the aristocratic habit of being surrounded by intellectual Greeks, as Sulla was. This practice seems to be genuinely Caesar's creation, and a significant trait of distinction from Sulla.

In 75 B.C.E., two events affecting the tribuni plebis occurred: their right to stand for further office, previously interdicted by Sulla, was restored; and the praetor’s tribunal was moved away from the Comitium and the Rostra, a main area of tribunician activity. This essay attempts to locate, link, and interpret these events within a broad social and historical context.

Dans la Vie de Lucullus, Plutarque mentionne que la monnaie produite par les soins de L. Lucullus dans le Péloponnèse durant la première guerre mithridatique fut appelée « lucullienne », désignation confirmée par un acte d’affranchissement delphique de la fin du Ier siècle av. J.-C. Cet article tente d’abord d’inscrire la production de ce monnayage dans le contexte militaire et financier des opérations syllaniennes en Grèce continentale. Sont ensuite réexaminés systématiquement les éléments en faveur de l’identification traditionnelle des monnaies « luculliennes » avec les stéphanéphores syllaniens. Loin de se contredire, le texte de Plutarque et les monogrammes renvoyant au « questeur Marcus », le frère de L. Lucullus, indiquent une collaboration des deux personnages à différents niveaux de la production monétaire. Enfin, on ne peut reconnaître les « luculliennes » dans certaines des dernières émissions de la ligue achéenne, dont la datation au Ier siècle est elle-même douteuse.

In his Life of Lucullus, Plutarch mentions that the coinage issued under the direction of L. Lucullus in the Peloponnese during the First Mithridatic War was called “Lucullan”, a designation that was also used in a Delphic manumission inscription dating from the late 1st century B.C. First, this paper attempts to place the production of this coinage in the military and financial context of Sulla’s operations in Greece. It then systematically examines the elements that support the traditional identification of “Lucullan” coins with Sullan stephanephoros coinage. Far from contradicting each other, Plutarch’s text and the monograms referring to the “quaestor Marcus”, L. Lucullus’ brother, both indicate that the two men collaborated at different levels on coinage production. Finally, this paper stresses that the “Lucullan” coinage cannot be assimilated to some of the latest coin issues of the Achaean League, which were hardly struck in the 1st century BC.

Most scholars are convinced that Rome in 79 B.C.E. remained cowed by fear of Sulla. This paper attempts a new reconstruction of the political mood of the year 79 and the significance of the successful consular canvass of M. Aemilius Lepidus. I argue that the insecurity of Sulla’s settlement was felt almost immediately after he stepped back from formal power. A general unease crystallized around two specific and explosive issues: the unresolved fate of those in exile from the Sullan regime and the possibility of recriminations for actions taken during the civil war and proscriptions.

Le sac d'Athènes par Sylla en 86 av. J.-C. est bien documenté dans les sources littéraires, et de nombreuses traces archéologiques de destruction ont été mises en rapport avec le siège syllanien. L'année suivante, en 85 av. J.-C., C. Flavius Fimbria met à sac la ville d'Ilion - l'ancienne Troie -, un épisode qui trouva un écho important chez les historiens antiques. Cependant, les recherches archéologiques récentes ont remis en question ces récits, notamment en ce qui concerne l'ampleur des destructions. À partir de ces deux exemples, cette étude tente d'éclairer le poids symbolique de la destruction de cités prestigieuses, les résonances idéologiques du geste destructeur et l'éventuelle falsification ou exagération des faits réels dans une perspective de propagande.

Pour Aristote, Empédocle est l’inventeur de la métaphore. Pour les modernes, c’est tantôt le philosophe-poète par excellence, tantôt le biologiste dont l’évolutionnisme avant la lettre a frappé Darwin. Prenant appui sur tous les fragments et témoignages disponibles – dont de nouvelles sources manuscrites par lui découvertes –, Marwan Rashed propose ici une résolution inédite de l’énigme du Cycle cosmique et déchiffre comment le philosophe dissimule, entre les lignes de son poème, les différents noms de la déesse du cycle de la vie et de la mort, Perséphone. Conjuguant philologie et philosophie, il révèle ainsi l’unité d’une pensée tout entière consacrée à explorer et à construire l’idée de cycle.

This paper deals with the reorganisation of the Senate carried out by Sulla in 81 BC. Attention is devoted to three main problems: the number of the senators appointed by Sulla; the social background of the new senators; the role of the censors after the Sullan intervention. The appendices list and discuss the evidence for the individuals who may have been Sullan appointees and on their geographical origins.

Die vorliegende Untersuchung umfasst den Zeitraum des 1. Jh. v. Chr. zwischen der Plünderung durch Sulla im Jahre 86 v. Chr. und der Einrichtung der Provinz Achaia im Jahre 27 v. Chr. In dieser abgeschlossenen und klar definierten Periode wird die Stadt Athen – mit besonderer Aufmerksamkeit auf die Hauptkomplexe – untersucht, um zwei Ziele zu erreichen: Zum einen werden die Folgen der Plünderung im Bezug auf die von den Römern verursachten Zerstörungen analysiert, zum anderen wird der Zustand der Stadt nach der Belagerung und vor der augusteischen Zeit rekonstruiert.