Prosperity tries the souls of even the wise; how then should men of depraved character make a moderate use of victory?
SALLUST1
BACK IN ROME, SULLA PRESIDED OVER THE CONSULAR ELECTIONS for 87 BC and used them as an opportunity to further demonstrate he was not the tyrant his enemies made him out to be. Having already ordered his troops to vacate the city, Sulla now publicly refused to interfere with the election. Even as men hostile to him stood for the consulship.2
Chief among these candidates was Lucius Cornelius Cinna. Cinna burst onto the historical stage here in the consular election for 87, and for the next four years would hold a dominant position in Roman politics. But about this man who is so critical to Roman history, we know almost nothing. Here is what we
We can, however, speculate with some confidence that Cinna was born no later than 130, probably a few years earlier. This meant he was hitting his twenties just as the Cimbri were appearing in Gaul and Jugurtha was running loose in Numidia. Fulfilling his ten years of military service during this period, Cinna likely either served in Numidia or on the recurring campaigns against the Cimbri. But though these campaigns are well documented by Roman historians, and featured major figures like Marius and Sulla, Cinna is never mentioned. His name never appears, even in passing. Given his later political leanings, though, it seems likely he served in the north under Marius and alongside the Italians whose cause he would later champion.4
But though Cinna was likely sympathetic to Marius, he was not among those twelve principal Marian leaders named by Sulla. It is highly unlikely Cinna took part in the fighting surrounding Sulla’s first march on Rome. He might not have even been in Rome at the time, but rather out with one of Rome’s various armies stomping out the last smoldering flames of the Social War. If Cinna did not return to Rome until after Sulla captured the city, he would be untainted by the entire affair and able to effectively tap those united by a common abhorrence of Sulla’s march on Rome. It is possible he ran on a platform of bringing Sulla to trial for his conduct.5
But even with Cinna making noise about political prosecution, Sulla refused to take the bait. Disqualifying Cinna would prove that Sulla was exactly what his enemies said he was. There were multiple candidates in the race, but Sulla refused to help or hinder any of them. The other strongest candidate was Gnaeus Octavius. An old optimate conservative, Octavius was no friend of Marius and supported Sulla’s reforms in theory—but the way Sulla had gone about it burned him to the edges of his toga. Octavius could not be counted on to stand in the way if Cinna decided to prosecute Sulla.6
When election day came, the Assembly elected Cinna and Octavius consuls. Sulla put a fine face on the election and said it was the ultimate proof that his enemies lied when they called him a tyrant. Would a tyrant let a man like Cinna be consul? The answer is no. Whatever Sulla’s crimes, raw tyrannical power was never his object. Sulla was fundamentally a conservative republican; the power he would acquire during his career was always at the service of conservative republican morality. At least in his own mind.
But though he accepted the election of Cinna, Sulla was not without tricks. As the man who would administer the oath of office to the new consuls, Sulla forced them to swear an oath that they would not disturb his political reforms. In front of a large crowd, the incoming consuls swore the oath, and cast a stone on the ground to accept the punishment of exile if they broke their word.7
