22. The First Bad Roman Dictator
Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix (138 – 78 BC), commonly known as Sulla, was a successful Roman general and statesman who came to head the optimates, Rome’s conservative and aristocratic political faction. In an ominous precedent, he used his legions to seize power in Rome and win the resultant civil war against the populares – a political faction that supported the plebeians, or commoners, against the conservative aristocratic patricians. He then had himself appointed dictator and massacred his political opponents by the thousands.
As dictator, Sulla carried out constitutional reforms that were intended – but ultimately failed – to strengthen the Roman Republic in its final decades. He came from an old patrician family that was centuries removed from its heyday by the time he was born. He grew up dissolute and debauched and consorted with actors – a despised profession in those days. Strikingly handsome, he earned his keep by the seduction of wealthy older women, upon whom he preyed. At least two of his older Sugar Mommas died in mysterious circumstances after they had designated Sulla the sole heir in their wills.