Marius was supposedly unhappy at receiving the dissolute youth as his subordinate, but Sulla proved a competent military leader.

Lacking ready money, Sulla spent his youth amongst Rome ’ s comics, actors, lute-players, and dancers.

Many of the optimates at this time had been personal friends of Sulla, whom Cato had despised since his youth, yet Cato attempted to make his name by returning his faction to its pure republican roots.

The holding of seats in the two highest colleges was not repeated until either Julius Caesar or possibly Sulla.

Although this system dates to the later 5th century BC, it was slow to take root, as it does not appear in official documents until the late 2nd century BC and was not common until the time of Sulla, right before the Empire.

During his dictatorship from 82 BC until 80 BC, Lucius Cornelius Sulla restored the old Servian Organization to this assembly.

It did not follow the line of the Servian walls, and remained unchanged until the Dictator Lucius Cornelius Sulla, in a demonstration of his absolute power, expanded it in 80 BC.

He did not return until 82 BC, during the dictatorship of Lucius Cornelius Sulla.

* The eternal flame that was kept burning in the inner hearth of the Temple of Delphic Apollo at Delphi in Greece until Delphi was sacked by the Roman general Sulla in 87 BC.

The first of these was Sulla, who prevented an overthrow of the republic by Gaius Marius but became a sort of " lord protector " of the Senate until his death ( 78 BC ).

For a time after his third wife's death Cornelia served as his official hostess until Sulla married his fourth and final wife, Valeria Messala, around 80 BC.

Other than to quell occasional revolts, there was minimal military presence in Asia province, until forces led by Sulla set forth in their campaign against Mithridates VI.

Sulla consistently refused to offer Archelaus battle until he found his enemy encamped in terrain favourable to his Roman force.

Sulla hoped to live until the temple was rebuilt, but Quintus Lutatius Catulus had the honor of dedicating the new structure in 69 BC.

In the end, Publius Sulla was acquitted, Catiline's name was further tarnished, and Cicero received a large loan to purchase a home.

* Colleen McCullough has written the famous Masters of Rome series, which deals with the end of the great Roman Republic and great personalities like Caesar, Gaius Marius and Sulla.

With the help of Bocchus I of Mauretania, Sulla captured Jugurtha and brought the war to a conclusive end.

With the help of Bocchus I of Mauretania, Sulla was able to capture Jugurtha and bring the war to a conclusive end.

He is known for having been the lover of Lucius Cornelius Sulla, the famed general and Dictator, and is mentioned twice by Plutarch, who clearly disapproves of him " and he never lost his love for an actor called Metrobius " and later " And Metrobius, ( who specialized in camp transvestite roles ) Although Metrobius was past the age of youthful bloom, Sulla remained to the end of his life in love with him, and made no secret of that fact.

In 82 BC, after a 120-year lapse, and the end of the civil war between the forces of Marius and Sulla, the latter was appointed by the Senate to an entirely new office, dictator legibus faciendis et rei publicae constituendae (" dictator for the making of laws and for the settling of the constitution ").

An " alert young divorcee ", as Ronald Syme writes, she attracted the notice of Sulla at the theatre, and he married her towards the end of his life.

At the end of the First Mithridatic War, he was left in Asia by Sulla in command of the two legions formerly controlled by Gaius Flavius Fimbria.

We know little more of the life of Andronicus, but he is of special interest in the history of philosophy, from the statement of Plutarch, that he published a new edition of the works of Aristotle and Theophrastus, which formerly belonged to the library of Apellicon, and were brought to Rome by Sulla with the rest of Apellicon's library in 84 BC.

Lucius Cornelius Sulla appointed himself in 82 BC to an entirely new office, dictator rei publicae constituendae causa, which was functionally identical to the dictatorate rei gerendae causa except that it lacked any set time limit, although Sulla held this office for over two years before he voluntarily abdicated and retired from public life.

As Cinna and Carbo doubled their efforts for war with the looming threat of Sulla, Cinna was unaware that it would not be battle, but his preparations for war which would cost him his life.

Membership in this ecclesiastical college ( collegium ) was for life, and the college was increased to a quindecimvirate — that is, a college of fifteen members — and renamed accordingly ( see quindecimviri sacris faciundis ) in the last century of the Republic, possibly by the dictator Lucius Cornelius Sulla ; the dictator Gaius Iulius Caesar added a sixteenth member, but this precedent was not followed ...

Sulla held this office for about a year before he abdicated and retired from public life.

The victorious Roman general, Publius Cornelius Sulla, left the Athenians their lives and did not sell them into slavery ; he also restored the previous government, in 86 BC.

The Pompeion and many other buildings in the vicinity of the Sacred Gate were razed to the ground by the marauding army of the Roman dictator Sulla, during his sacking of Athens in 86 BC ; an episode that Plutarch described as a bloodbath.

His problem was that despite his military successes, he was eclipsed by his contemporary Pompey the Great who blackmailed the dictator Sulla into granting him a triumph for victory in Africa over a rag-tag group of dissident Romans ; a first in Roman history on a couple of counts.

Flaccus soon took over the war against Mithridates, which Sulla interpreted as a threat ; Sulla then moved to intercept Flaccus.

In the Regal period tradition holds that there were three augurs at a time ; by the time of Sulla, they had reached fifteen in number.

Early Roman initiates at Eleusis in Greece included Sulla and Cicero ; thereafter many Emperors were initiated, including Hadrian, who founded an Eleusinian cult centre in Rome itself.

A few men were executed but ( according to Plutarch ), many Romans disapproved of Sulla's actions ; some who opposed Sulla were actually elected to office in 87 BC.

Denarius coin, Reverse: Sulla seated left on a raised seat ; before him kneels Bocchus, offering an olive-branch ; behind, Jugurtha kneeling left, 56 BC.

* Dictator – 24 lictors outside the Pomerium and 12 inside ; starting from the dictatorate of Lucius Sulla the latter rule was ignored.

Not indeed that after every victory it is to be apprehended that the victorious generals will possess themselves by force of the supreme power, after the manner of Sulla and Caesar ; the danger is of another kind.

The means by which Sulla attained the fortune which later would enable him to ascend the ladder of Roman politics, the Cursus honorum, are not clear, although Plutarch refers to two inheritances ; one from his stepmother and the other from a low-born, but rich, unmarried lady.

Armed gladiators were unable to resist organized Roman soldiers ; and although Marius offered freedom to any slave that would fight with him against Sulla ( an offer which Plutarch says only three slaves accepted ) he and his followers were forced to flee the city.

Sulla ’ s first target was Athens, ruled by a Mithridatic puppet ; the tyrant Aristion.

Then Archelaus flung his right wing at the Roman left ; Sulla, seeing the danger of this manoeuvre, raced over from the Roman right wing to help.

Sulla had defeated a vastly superior force in terms of numbers ; it was also the first recorded time that battlefield entrenchments were used.

Marius managed to escape to Africa, but Sulpicius was discovered in a villa at Laurentum and put to death ; his head was sent to Sulla and exposed in the forum, and his laws annulled.

In the north, the consul Publius Rutilius Lupus was advised by Gaius Marius and Pompeius Strabo ; in the south the consul Lucius Julius Caesar had Lucius Cornelius Sulla and Titus Didius.

This is reflected in the infrequent and inadequate production of bronze coinage during the Republic, where from the time of Sulla till the time of Augustus no bronze coins were minted at all ; even during the periods when bronze coins were produced, their workmanship was sometimes very crude and of low quality.

But her statue endured during the revolutionary reign of Sulla and became a model for future Roman women culminating with the portrait said to be of Helena, Emperor Constantine's mother four hundred years later ; however, the base of Cornelia's statue was altered during the conservative attempts of later Roman reformers in which the base of her statue that gave reference to her famous sons was filed away and replaced with the inscription as “ daughter of Africanus ” rather than “ mother of the Grachii .” 6

* Baker, George Philip: Sulla the Fortunate: Roman General and Dictator ( J Murray, London, 1927 ; reprint by Cooper Square Press, 2001 ) reprint ISBN 0-8154-1147-2

* 83 / 82 BC – First Roman civil war, between Sulla and the popular faction ; Sulla wins and becomes dictator ; censor office abolished ( to be recreated in 70 BC )