Denarius of L. Manlius Torquatus

In a departure from our Imperial coinage to date, we have a Republican coin showing a triumphant Roman general parading in a four-horse chariot, being crowned by Victory celebrating his conquests against the enemies of Rome. However, this coin is a perversion of that traditional narrative. Having been snubbed by a political enemy for a military command, Sulla turned his armies on Rome, killed his fellow Romans, and declared himself Dictator in 82 BC.

Sulla was particularly vicious to his enemies. After taking Rome, Sulla called a meeting of the Senate, and as he began to speak, screams of massacred prisoners filtered into the room. Cowed in fear, the Senate declared him Dictator. He then commenced proscribing thousands of personal enemies, killing them, and seizing their property. After enacting new laws to curtail the power of the plebs and expand the control of the Senate, Sulla resigned from the dictatorship in 80 BC and retired to country life. Ultimately, Sulla lived up to his epitaph, “No better friend, no worse enemy.”¹

Sulla’s revolt was enabled by the Marian reforms of the previous decades that established a highly effective professional army but also made that army beholden to their general rather than the State. As the first Imperator, Sulla provided a template for the following generation of Pompey, Crassus, and Caesar to utilize their massive wealth and armies to subvert the State to their control. Pompey easily summed up their attitudes by stating, “Stop quoting laws to those of us with swords.”² Caesar would emulate Sulla in 49 BC by crossing the Rubicon and initiate the final downfall of the Republic.