Sulla's Proscriptions: The First Systematic Political Murder in Rome
Sulla published lists of names in 82 BC and anyone on them could be killed for a reward. He had won the civil war, entered Rome as its master, and had himself appointed dictator for the making of laws and the settling of the constitution, with no time limit and no accountability — the first dictatorship since Hannibal and the first of an entirely new kind. The proscriptions were the instrument for dealing with his enemies and, as everyone at the time noticed, for financing everything. The lists were posted in the forum with rewards for killers and penalties for anyone sheltering the named; property was confiscated and auctioned, the sons and grandsons of the proscribed were barred from office, and names were added by people with an interest in the auctions. Some 1,500 senators and equestrians are recorded, and the total is certainly higher. Crassus made his fortune out of it and was excluded from favour afterwards for adding a name for profit. The young Julius Caesar was on a list and was pardoned at his relatives' request, with Sulla remarking that they should look after that boy since there were many Mariuses in him. Sulla then legislated: the senate doubled, the tribunate crippled, the courts restored to senatorial control, and the whole thing designed to make what he had done impossible. He resigned in 79 BC and died the following year, and his settlement was dismantled within a decade. The word entered the political vocabulary permanently. The triumvirs revived the practice in 43 BC with lists that included Cicero, and the reason Roman politics after Sulla was conducted with such ferocity is that everyone had seen what losing now meant.
- Year: 82 BCE
- Category: Political
