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The Top Benevolent and Malevolent Dictators From History

Khalid Elhassan November 30, 2020 32 min

Augustus - Ancient Rome — 'The Emperor Augustus Rebukes Cornelius Cinna for His Treachery', by Etienne Jean Delecluze, 1814 - Augustus pardoned Cinna and gave him a government job. Van Go Yourself

14. Petty Jealousy Ends With a Roman General Leading His Legions on a March Against Rome

In 91 BC, the Social War broke out between Rome and her Italian allies and subjects, who demanded Roman citizenship and rights. Sulla performed brilliantly in that conflict, which ended in 88 BC. His erstwhile commander, Gaius Marius, who was aged and ailing by then, did not. In 88 BC, Sulla was elected consul, he was given command of war against Pontus, in today’s Turkey. However, Marius engineered the enactment of a law that stripped the command from Sulla, and gave it to Marius instead.

Sulla responded by informing his legions that if Marius was appointed to command the war, he would use his own legions and not Sulla’s men. That would deprive Sulla’s men of the rich rewards they had expected in the form of booty from a successful war against Pontus. With their financial interests threatened, the legions supported Sulla in marching on Rome.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.