The March on Rome of 88 BC was a coup d'état by the consul of the Roman Republic Lucius Cornelius Sulla, who seized power against his enemies Marius and Sulpicius, after they had ousted him from Rome. It was the first time in Roman history that a general ordered his army to march against the Republic.

In 88 BC, Sulla was elected consul and given the command of the war against the king of Pontus Mithridates, who had recently invaded the Roman province of Asia. The same year, Sulla and his colleague Quintus Pompeius Rufus opposed the attempt of the tribune of the plebs Publius Sulpicius to enrol the Italians who received the Roman citizenship at the end of the Social War (91–87 BC). To bypass the consuls' opposition, Sulpicius sought the support of the popular Gaius Marius, who had already been consul six times. Marius demanded for his help that Sulpicius pass a law transferring Sulla's command to him. Using armed gangs to intimidate the tribal assembly, Sulpicius removed Pompeius' consulship and forced Sulla to flee from Rome, after which he enrolled the Italians and gave the Mithridatic command to Marius.

Meanwhile, Sulla had returned to the legions he had assembled for the expedition against Mithridates. He convinced his soldiers to follow him in an operation against Marius and Sulpicius. Joined by Pompeius, Sulla marched against Rome and easily defeated the militia recruited by his enemies. Sulla immediately passed a law declaring Sulpicius, Marius, and ten other leaders as public enemies, thereby encouraging their murder. Only Sulpicius was caught; Marius and the others could escape to Africa and Spain. With Rome secured, Sulla started an overhaul of the Roman constitution according to his firm conservative beliefs. He passed several laws that weakened the powers of the tribunes of the plebs while enhancing those of the curule magistrates and the senate, whose membership was also doubled.

Sulla's settlement was nevertheless short-lived. First, his candidates lost the elections for 87 BC. Then, as soon as he left to fight Mithridates, his enemies coalesced around the consul for 87 BC Lucius Cornelius Cinna, who likewise marched on Rome against the other consul during the Bellum Octavianum. Cinna recalled the outlaws, including Marius, then cancelled all Sulla's laws and assumed Sulpicius' program. The inevitable confrontation between the two factions took place in 83 BC, when Sulla came back from the East, in a civil war, won by Sulla, who thereafter became dictator and re-enacted his previous laws.

Background

Sulla was an ambitious politician who had won fame by making several bold military moves, such as the capture of Jugurtha during the Jugurthine War and the battle of Vercellae of during the Cimbrian War.Gruen, Roman Politics, p. 197. He was elected praetor in 97, then left as propraetor to Cappadocia to put Ariobarzanes on the throne of that kingdom.Badian, Studies, p. 284.Cagniart, L. Cornelius Sulla in the Nineties, pp. 286, 287. On his return, he was accused of corruption by Gaius Marcius Censorinus, perhaps acting on behalf of Gaius Marius, his former commander.Gruen, Roman Politics, p. 198, who does not mention Marius, but adds that this trial is the reason for the delay in Sulla's career.Reams, Censorinus, Sulla, and Marius, pp. 281–288, thinks Marius had nothing to do with this prosecution.Cagniart, L. Cornelius Sulla in the Nineties, p. 291. Sulla then disappears from the sources for 5 years, perhaps because he thought he had no chance to become consul.Cagniart, L. Cornelius Sulla in the Nineties, pp. 302, 303, this period of Sulla's life has attracted significant scholarship speculation. He is found again in 90 as a legate during the Social War, against Rome's former Italian allies. This war was difficult for Rome, who needed up to fifteen legions in Italy to quell the revolt. Fighting on the southern theatre, Sulla was one of the two main generals who won the war, earning the devotion of his army.Gruen, Roman Politics, pp. 222, 223, the other general being Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo. His ability was recognised by the Caecilii Metelli, one of the dominant families of the time, who sealed an alliance with his marriage to Caecilia Metella. This powerful backing, combined with his military fame, enabled his election to the consulship in December 89 for the following year (88).Luce, Marius, p. 190, says they might have taken place after 25 December 89.Gruen, Roman Politics, pp. 223, 224.Cagniart, L. Cornelius Sulla in the Nineties, pp. 299–302. The other consul was also his friend Quintus Pompeius Rufus, who married his son with Sulla's daughter.Gruen, Roman Politics, p. 224.

After entering office, Sulla was granted the command of the war against the king of Pontus Mithridates, who had taken advantage of the Social War to capture Roman possessions in the Greek East.Gruen, Roman Politics, pp. 224, 226, writes Sulla was given the command by the senate.Katz, "Studies", p. 497, follows Gruen.Konrad, "From the Gracchi", p. 179, for whom Sulla received the command by lot. An eastern command was coveted by every Roman politician, because of the enormous booty it would bring them.Badian, Foreign Clientelae, p. 230. This command looked so attractive that two ineligible candidates had even tried to force their way through in the elections: Gaius Julius Caesar Strabo and Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo.Seager, "Sulla", pp. 165, 166, Caesar Strabo had not held the praetorship, and Pompeius Strabo was the seating consul for 89.Levick, "Sulla's March", p. 507, suggests that Caesar Strabo's bid was motivated by his opposition to Sulpicius' Italian bill.Luce, "Marius", p. 190, thinks Pompeius Strabo also wanted to be re-elected in order to remain immune to prosecutions.Bispham, From Asculum to Actium, p. 179.Tatum, "88 BCE", pp. 556, 557.

Sulla faced another challenge from Publius Sulpicius, a tribune of the plebs the same year as him. Sulpicius wanted to pass a law in favour of the Italians who had received the citizenship in 90 thanks to the lex Julia, but had not yet been registered in the Roman tribes. His bill distributed the Italians, as well as freedmen, evenly among the Roman tribes, a move which would have considerably altered the Roman electorate.Tatum, "88 BCE", pp. 556–560. A powerful orator and ambitious politician, Sulpicius was initially a friend of the consul Pompeius Rufus and had decisively prevented Caesar Strabo from running against Sulla, maybe to attract the latter's goodwill so he would not challenge his Italian bill.Seager, "Sulla", p. 167.Tatum, "88 BCE", p. 557. Sulpicius was however wrong; both consuls opposed his bill distributing the new Italian citizens in the old Roman tribes (Sulla and the conservatives would have rather gathered the Italians into a few tribes, so that old citizens would have kept a majority of the tribes).Tatum, "88 BCE", p. 560. Not willing to give up his plan, Sulpicius then turned to Marius for support.Keaveney, Sulla, p. 47. Like the other main politicians of the period, the old general, six times consul and very influential among the equites and Italian gentry, wanted the command against Mithridates, and also to settle some old grudges against Sulla.Luce, Marius, pp. 162–168, Marius had notably made a trip to Asia, in the purpose of—according to Luce—provoking Mithridates into a war and therefore secure a command against him. In exchange for supporting the Italian bill, Marius requested Sulpicius to pass a law transferring the Eastern command from Sulla to him.Badian, Foreign Clientelae, pp. 231–234.Seager, "Sulla", p. 168. This alliance probably took place in April–May 88.Luce, Marius, p. 194.

Sulpicius assembled a large bodyguard of 600 equites and a private army of 3,000 men, probably to avoid the same fate as previous revolutionary tribunes—such as the Gracchi and Saturninus—and to intimidate voters.Tatum, "88 BCE", p. 561. The consuls Sulla and Rufus ordered a suspension of business (justitium) to prevent Sulpicius' Italian bill from being voted. In return, Sulpicius provoked a riot with his gangs that killed Pompeius' son and forced Sulla to seek shelter into the house of Marius, who apparently negotiated his survival on the condition that he cancelled the justitium, which would let the Italian bill pass. Marius also allowed Sulla to leave Rome in order to finish the siege of Nola in Campania, one of the last pockets of resistance of the Social War.Keaveney, Sulla, p. 48.Tatum, "88 BCE", p. 562. Sulpicius then passed the bills enrolling the Italians and giving Marius the Eastern command; the latter having been kept secret so far.Seager, "Sulla", pp. 168, 169.Hinard, Sullana, p. 28. He also deposed the second consul, Pompeius Rufus, although a minority of scholars reject this part.Keaveney, Sulla, pp. 49, 50, does not think Pompeius was deposed.Tatum, "88 BCE", p. 562, rejects the deposition of Pompeius. These bills broke many constitutional practices; the most outstanding one was the transfer of the eastern command from a consul to a privatus (Marius), a citizen that did not hold any magistracy—an unprecedented occurrence.Santangelo, Sulla, the Elites and the Empire, p. 6.Morstein-Marx, Consuls, p. 263.Federico Santangelo, "La marcia su Roma dell'88 A.C.", in Schettino & Zecchini (eds.), L'età di Silla, p. 193.

March on Rome