Talk:Sulla's proscription

Some comments

Some feedback, as requested.

• Perhaps retitle the entire article to something like Proscriptions of Sulla or Sulla's proscriptions?
  • Yes, I can't change it whilst it's still a draft.
• I added a short introduction on Sulla's consulship and existing unrest. I think Lintott makes a good point also in CAH² that the Social war destroyed Romans' scruples about using force against their own. Perhaps good to mention.
  • Will check.
• limited by the legalist frame. Could you expand on this?
  • Done.
• Marianists I was under the impression that the normal adjective is Marians?
  • I told you about this here. There are many ways to call them, Marianists is used too.
• Almost every magistrate elected since Sulla's departure from Italy in 88 was targeted It may be worthwhile to shortly introduce that Cinna and Carbo had basically total control of elections during the Cinnanum tempus (pardon spelling error if present).
  • Added precision.
• equites were more numerous than senators Did Sulla target people with money on purpose like the Second Trimvirate?
  • Not specifically, but wealth played a part. I added a paragraph on this.
• Ancient writers consider that this limitation was imposed on Sulla I think the story is people asking Sulla to name those he wished to punish in a state of uncertainty? Perhaps include?
  • There is an anecdote about this, but it might go in too much detail. I will check again.
• One of the most active executants of the proscription, Catilina notoriously inflicted gruesome mutilations on Gratidianus Berry 2020 thinks this isn't true.
  • Will check.
• Re Sertorius and the people who fled to him: I thought that there was a general amnesty passed some time later. Cinna's son, I think, was part of it. Basically, they didn't all get murdered.

• • Yes, I explain in the last paragraph. In 70, the lex Plautia granted an amnesty, but did not rehabilitate them.
• In 64, Marcus Porcius Cato and Julius Caesar launched prosecutions against several percussores, but their action appears limited Cato's attack was largely about unpaid loans etc that the murderers had gotten and not repaid to the state. It may be worthwhile to mention the political and social importance of this counter-offensive and the unpopularity of the Sullans.
  • Yes, but I didn't want to detail to much the complex political situation of the 60s BC. The section is about rehabilitation. By the way, I think there could be an article on Roman politics (80–50 BC) as we know quite a lot on the period (it would match Gruen's Last Generation).
• What is the current ordering of the list of proscribed? Do you want to change it to rank order? (Separately, if the Romans were escaping the Titanic I bet they would say "consuls and censors first!")
  • The ordering is alphabetical. It's difficult to order it by rank because the career of many names is unknown.

It's a good first draft and the topic is well worthwhile. I hope my feedback is helpful! I will offer more when I have the time. Ifly6 (talk) 17:07, 17 January 2023 (UTC)

Title for when you move it

I'll shortly create the page Proscription of Sulla as a redirect to proscription; I want the link to exist so that I can put it into articles now. I think draft here is good enough to put into the main namespace; further editing there certainly wouldn't harm anything. Ifly6 (talk) 23:53, 30 April 2023 (UTC)

Clarifications

Nobody could be struck off the lists. Wasn't Caesar struck from the lists after intercession? I know that the narrative in this article is that Caesar wasn't formally proscribed; I think sources on Caesar specifically regularly say otherwise? Morstein-Marx, I can look up the specific page, if I recall correctly also mentions that Sulla never murdered any patricians, which may explain the sparing of Scipio and Cinna; thought it might be worthwhile to add. Ifly6 (talk) 20:56, 3 May 2023 (UTC)

Caesar was not proscribed, otherwise he would have been barred from any magistracy after. Please tell me the page of Morstein-Marx's book. Besides Morstein-Marx also supports Hinard on Caesar's proscription (Julius Caesar, p. 41: "it seems inconceivable that such a notable legal disability would go unmentioned in the mass of evidence, contemporary as well as posthumous, relating to Caesar’s career"). I will expand a bit on this. T8612 (talk) 22:26, 3 May 2023 (UTC)

You're right on MM. I had seen the note there which mentioned Ridley 2000 – Ridley, Ronald T (2000). "The dictator's mistake: Caesar's escape from Sulla". Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte. 49 (2): 211–229. ISSN 0018-2311. – which insisted he was proscribed; I must have confused the names because the statement is, in the most literal sense, "in" MM. Looking at the sources – rather than going off memory – it was also not MM but Badian in Companion to Julius Caesar (2009), p 17 which says Sulla in fact never executed a fellow Patrician. He also adds, ibid, that Sulla was practically forced to put him on his proscription list... [the tale of bribery] cannot be true, since confiscation of his fortune went with his proscription. Ifly6 (talk) 23:02, 3 May 2023 (UTC)