Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix

Sulla, sometimes known as Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix (138-78 BC), was a Roman general and statesman. He won the first large-scale civil war in Roman history and became the Republic's first man to gain power by force.

Sulla had the distinction of serving as consul twice and resurrecting the dictatorship. He was a skilled and clever general who won countless battles against foreign and domestic opponents. Sulla rose to fame during his superior Gaius Marius's fight against the Numidian king Jugurtha, whom he captured as a result of Jugurtha's betrayal by the king's allies. During the Cimbrian War, he defeated Germanic tribes, and during the Social War, he defeated Italic tribes. He received the Grass Crown for his courage during the Battle of Nola.

Sulla was a key figure in Rome's protracted political conflict between the optimates and populares factions. He was a leader of the optimates, who fought populist changes urged by the populares, led by Marius, in order to protect senatorial power. Sulla marched on Rome in an unusual move, defeating Marian forces in battle, in a dispute over command of the war against Mithridates, which was initially awarded to Sulla by the Senate but rescinded as a result of Marius' machinations. Nonetheless, the populares seized power after he fled to Asia with his army. In 82 BC, he returned victorious from the east, marched on Rome a second time, and crushed the populares and their Italian allies at the Battle of the Colline Gate. He then resurrected the dictatorship, which had been dormant since the Second Punic War over a century previously.

He used his power to cleanse his opponents, modify Roman constitutional rules, restore the Senate's dominance, and limit the power of pleb tribunes. Sulla went to private life after resigning as dictator in 79 BC and died the following year.