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The Memoirs of Sulla were an autobiography written by the Roman statesman Lucius Cornelius Sulla near the end of his life. Sulla, the victor in Sulla's civil war, wrote largely to justify things done during his career, in the example of his earlier contemporaries Marcus Aemilius Scaurus, Rutilius Rufus, and Quintus Lutatius Catulus.
Ancient sources do not agree on its title: Cicero called it Historia, Aulus Gellius Libri rerum gestarum, Suetonius and Priscian use Vita Suae.[1] Most modern historians call it Memoirs because of the lack of a common name.[2] Martine Chassignet writes that the title was most probably L. Cornelii Sullae res gestae.[3]
Sulla composed his memoirs at the end of his life. The Greek moralist Plutarch tells that he wrote the 22th book two days before his death and that his freedman Epicadus finished this book. But Plutarch is ambiguous, he could either mean that the Memoirs was completed just before his death, or that he stopped writing at this point and left his work unfinished. Several modern historians have therefore assumed that the Memoirs did not cover Sulla's dictatorship and ended with his triumph.[4] Indeed, none of the surviving fragments deal with Sulla's dictatorship, which started in 81.[5]
Sulla dedicated his memoirs to Lucius Licinius Lucullus, his close friend during his career. Lucullus had been quaestor in 88 when Sulla was consul, marched on Rome with him against Marius, and followed him in his long command in Asia, where he remained until 80. In his dedication, Sulla furthermore tells that Lucullus was well-cultured and fluent in Greek and would therefore be able to either revise his work or write a history of the period by using the memoirs as a source.[6]
Contents edit
The first book may have only been a long introduction, because Sulla only details the origin of his cognomen in the second book.
Hermann Peter suggested that books 3-10 covered the period from the Cimbrian War (113–101) to the Treaty of Dardanos (85), while books 11-21 dealt with the Civil War (84–81), and book 22 on all the remaining events before his death.
Epicadus then added an account of Sulla's death and honours.
The most distinguishable feature of Sulla's Memoirs is the exceptional place he devoted to demonstrations of the gods' favour, such as omens, portents, and dreams.[7]
Legacy edit
Unlike his predecessors in the autobiographic genre, Sulla's Memoirs had an important and lasting influence. It was used as a historical source by many subsequent historians: Sallust, Livy, Diodorus of Sicily, Appian, and perhaps Velleius Paterculus.[8] Plutarch also extensively used the Memoirs to write his biography of Sulla in the famous Parallel Lives, as well as several paragraphs in those of Marius and Lucullus—Sulla's contemporaries.[9] Over the 27 recorded fragments of the Memoirs, 20 comes from Plutarch's works. Perhaps up to two third of Sulla's Life come from the Memoirs.[10]
Augustine devotes a chapter to Sulla's portents in the City of God; he tells that they were not messages from the gods, but from demons that corrupted him in his later life.
List of fragments edit
| Cornell n° | Peter n° | Chassignet n° | Sulla's book n° | ref. | subject |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Athenaeus, 261C. | Sulla dedicated his memoirs to Lucullus. |
| 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | Gellius, i. 12 § 16. | About the flamen dialis who received the cognomen Sulla. |
| 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | Gellius, xx. 6 § 3. | Fragment of a speech. |
| 4 | 16 | 17 | 10 | Plutarch, 17. | Oracles during the First Mithridatic War in 86 BC. |
| 5 | 20 | 22 | 21 | Priscus, ii. 476. | Battle of the Colline Gate in 82 BC. |
| 6 | 21 | 23 | 22 | Plutarch, 37. | Sulla foresees his death and dreams of his son. |
| 7 | 4 | 4 | Plutarch, 4. | Command during the Cimbrian War, jealousy of Marius. | |
| 8 | 5 | 5 | Plutarch, Marius, 25. | Battle of Vercellae, Marius' attempt to get all the credit for the victory. | |
| 9 | 6 | 6 | Plutarch, Marius, 26. | Battle of Vercella, Fortune favours Catullus and Sulla. | |
| 10 | 7 | 7 | Plutarch, 5. | Explanation of his failure to become praetor in 98 BC. | |
| 11 | 8 | 8 | Plutarch, 6. | Sulla's fortune. | |
| 12 | 8 | 8 | Plutarch, 6. | Sulla's fortune. | |
| 13 | 8 | 8 | Plutarch, 6. | Sulla's fortune, his meeting with Metellus Pius at Brundisium in 83 BC. | |
| 14 | 8 | 8 | Plutarch, 6. Lucullus, 23. | Sulla's fortune, he advises Lucullus to trust his dreams. | |
| 15 | 8 | 8 | Plutarch, 6. | Sulla's fortune, portent he observed during the Social War. | |
| 16 | 10 | 10 | Pliny, xxii. 12. | Sulla receives the grass crown. | |
| 17 | 9 | 9 | Cicero, De Divinatione, i. 72. | Portent during the Social War in 88 BC. | |
| 18 | 11 | 12 | Plutarch, Marius, 35. | Sulla meets Marius in the latter's house, at the time of the riots triggered by Publius Sulpicius. | |
| 19 | 12 | 13 | Plutarch, 14. | Story of Marcus Ateius, the first soldier to climb the wall of Athens during the siege in 86 BC. | |
| 20 | 13 | 14 | Plutarch, 14. | Date of the taking of Athens. | |
| 21 | 14 | 15 | Plutarch, 16. | Sulla is joined by Lucius Hortensius in Boeotia. | |
| 22 | 15 | 16 | Plutarch, 19. | Casualties at the battle of Chaeronea in 86 BC. | |
| 23 | 17 | 18 | Plutarch, 23. | Sulla's behaviour towards Archelaus. | |
| 24 | 18 | 20 | Plutarch, 27. | Various portents favouring Sulla during the Civil war in 83 BC. | |
| 25 | 19 | 21 | Plutarch, 28. | Casualties at the battle of Sacriportus in 82 BC. | |
| 26 | 10A | 11 | Plutarch, Moralia, 786D-E. | Sulla's arrival in Rome in 82 BC. | |
| 27? | 17A | 19 | Tacitus, Annales, iv. 56 § 2. | Sulla's requisition in Smyrna during the Mithridatic War (doubtful fragment). |
References edit
- ^ Chassignet, L'Annalistique romaine, T. II, pp. XCIX, C.
- ^ Cornell (ed.), Fragments, vol. I, p. 284.
- ^ Chassignet, L'Annalistique romaine, T. II, p. C.
- ^ Alexander Thein, "Felicitas and the Memoirs of Sulla and Augustus", in Powell & Smith (eds.), Lost Memoirs, p. 100.
- ^ Chassignet, L'Annalistique romaine, T. II, p. CI.
- ^ Cornell (ed.), Fragments, vol. III, p. 289, favours the latter interpretation.
- ^ Alexander Thein, "Felicitas and the Memoirs of Sulla and Augustus", in Powell & Smith (eds.), Lost Memoirs, p. 87.
- ^ Chassignet, L'Annalistique romaine, T. II, p. CIV.
- ^ Cornell (ed.), Fragments, vol. I, p. 106.
- ^ Cornell (ed.), Fragments, vol. I, p. 285.
Bibliography edit
- Chassignet, Martine (2003). L'annalistique romaine. Les belles lettres. ISBN 978-2-251-01392-3. OCLC 55737224.
- Cornell, Tim J (2013). The fragments of the Roman historians. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-927705-6. OCLC 875256901.
- Peter, Hermann (1914). Historicorum Romanorum reliquiae. Leipzig: B G Tuebner.
- Smith, Christopher; Powell, Anton, eds. (2009). The lost memoirs of Augustus and the development of Roman autobiography. Classical Press of Wales. ISBN 978-1-905125-25-8. OCLC 245566381.
- Thein, Alexander. "Felicitas and the memoirs of Sulla and Augustus". In Smith & Powell (2009), pp. 87–110.