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Was Sula Responsible For The Downfall Of The Roman Republic

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The End of Romans
Sulla became prominent during Social War. After gaining command in 88 B.C. Sulla’s alliance was broken with Marius because Sulla did not want to give up his troops. Instead of outright saying Sulla wouldn’t give command, he manipulated his troops to see why changing leadership would be a bad idea. In 82 B.C., Sulla marched his troops for the second time to Rome to take command of the Roman Republic. Upon Sulla’s arrival in Rome, the Senate gave him the title of dictator out of fear of his army. This march led Sulla to bear the most responsibility for the downfall of the Roman Republic because he made the Roman Republic undemocratic, increased violence occuring in the Roman Republic and created public unrest internally and …show more content…

Although Sulla was removing corruption, he caused more harm than good with his dictatorship. “Under Sulla it first became unlimited, and so an absolute tyranny.” For Roman Republic, dictatorship was only supposed to be 6 months longer, but Sulla had power without a term limit. Although, Sulla’s dream was to restore the Roman Republic to its old ways before its corruption, he instead made it more undemocratic. He not only had the power to overrule anyone, but he also change the traditions of positions in the Republic and only allowed people he liked to run for consul and proconsul. He changed the prerequisites to obtain office in the Republic. When he increased amount of positions, it wasn’t for the Republic but to accommodate ambitious individuals. To make the Tribune weaker than the Senate, he made a law that if one held tribuneship, then one couldn’t run for anything else. The position in the tribune was the only postion you have for life. With that, he changed the ways the Roman Republic oversaw the Tribune and the Senate. The tribune and the Senate were supposed to be similarly equal, and Sulla made it so the Senate was the government. His rulings gave way to a dictatorship that was unlike what a Republic would …show more content…

His laws were mostly repealed, making the Roman Republic to be worse off than it was before. Since the Roman Republic could was weak, people like the Triumvirate and later on Caesar dictatorship were able to take control of the Roman Republic. “With simmering unrest, Pompey’s army was used to assassinate those that were enemies of the senate, sulla’s program was overturned so that the tribunes weren’t terminal.” Even though Sulla eventually gave up his power after he restored Republic to his perception of glory, his show of dominance gave rise to more dictators after him. Sulla showed the others after him that being charismatic wasn’t enough to take over the Republic, but showing dominance and one’s vast army made the senate backed down. To have control of the senate, meant you could control the money coming in, and how the administrations should be ran, including increasing and decreasing the amount of members in the senate, quaestor positions and praetor positions. Sulla’s takedown of leadership gave rise to Caesar and later on many other dictators, which made Roman Republic fail and become the Roman

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