Last updated on July 21st, 2022 at 09:20 pm
On 1 November 82 BC, a battle took place virtually within the city of Rome itself.
It was a climactic end to a civil war that began the previous between the supporters of the Roman general, Lucius Cornelius Sulla, and an alliance of Marians.
The Marians were supporters of the recently deceased military commander, Gaius Marius, now led by his son, Marius the Younger, and a prominent Roman politician, Gaius Papirius Carbo.
The engagement took place at the Porta Colline, the Colline Gate, an entryway to the city of Rome constructed in the sixth century BC.
Our sources for the Battle of the Colline Gate are surprisingly scarce for such a crucial battle in Rome’s history, but what is clear is that this was the culmination of a long march by Sulla on the city of Rome and that he emerged victorious by the end of the day’s fighting.
It was one of the most striking episodes in the long process whereby the Roman Republic gradually collapsed in the first century BC. So here we explore why Sulla marched on Rome?
Who Was Lucius Cornelius Sulla?
Let’s backtrack a little first to see who the man who led this march even was. Lucius Cornelius Sulla was born around 138 BC into a prominent patrician family in Rome.
This time was a period of immense instability in the Roman Republic. Although Rome was never as strong militarily, expanding with enormous speed all over the Mediterranean, internally, the Republic was massively unstable.
There were calls for Roman citizenship to be extended to more of the state’s free subjects and to distribute its spoils more widely.
Most significantly, as its armies expanded and it undertook new conquests in North Africa, Greece, Asia Minor, and the Levant, Rome’s generals acquired enormous power and were increasingly difficult to control for the Roman Senate and the established political institutions.
Sulla would emerge as one of these over-mighty generals. He first rose to prominence in the late second century BC commanding an army in North Africa against the Numidian King Jugurtha.
He used this military command as a springboard to acquire several prominent political offices in Rome itself and then to become one of the foremost commanders in defense of northern Italy from the Cimbric Celts in the very last years of the second century BC.
By the 90s BC, he had become one of the most influential figures within the Republic. But he had a rival for power: Gaius Marius.
Rivalry with Marius
Marius was about twenty years older than Sulla. He was already the leading Roman general of the day in the 100s BC when Sulla began to gain praise for his military abilities.
Consequently, the two men soon became rivals. In the 90s BC, this resulted in their leadership of the two main political factions within the Roman Republic.
Marius became the leader of the populares, a grouping that sought to appeal to a broad base of support amongst Rome’s citizens, both rich and poor.
In contrast, Sulla became the leader of the optimates faction, which believed control of the Republic should continue to reside in the hands of the established patrician families of Rome.
Today we would call Sulla a conservative and Marius a populist. Their rivalry was briefly put aside in 91 BC when a conflict known as the Social War broke out across Italy.
In this, the free people of the wider peninsula, who Rome had ruled since the fourth and third centuries BC, went to war with the city authorities to demand that they be given Roman citizenship themselves.
This civil conflict lasted for several years. It was eventually defeated, though a decision was taken anyway to extend Roman citizenship to all Italians in its aftermath. However, the Social War only delayed the outbreak of further tensions between Sulla and the Marians.
