Sulla's Reforms

[L. Valerius Flaccus]

Where are there good resources online regarding Sulla's reforms/constitution? Also, do you think that if the reforms had been retained, the Republic could've lasted longer?

[Onasander]

A lot of the reforms were kept, like with the civil code. The only problem was, Caesar was a Marian.

[Ursus]

This is an extremely interesting topic, and I hope we can get into it a bit.

 

Most historians see Sulla

[Ursus]

P.S. --- the following gives a brief overview of the Roman government and Sulla's changes to it:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comitia_Centuriata

[Cyrus]

You know, I never really looked into Sulla's reforms, but this looks to me like the streamline for modern day democracy. The United States system of Checks and Balances, and a more open Senate so that there could be more. These movements substantially seem to be moving power away from the consuls and adding more into the Senate, but at the same time

[Germanicus]

I saw a book the other day that looked like it dealt with just this, and will purchase it soon - called "Sulla, the last Republican" by Aurthur Keaveney.

[Lacertus]

Agreed, really good book! I found it

here

[Virgil61]

P.S. --- the following gives a brief overview of the Roman government and Sulla's changes to it:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comitia_Centuriata

 

Excellent, thank you. It always amazes me what an great resource wikipedia is.

[Primus Pilus]

Forgive my self-promotion...

 

Sulla the Dictator

 

Sulla sided with the aristocrats, but he was no conservative. He was a radical who brought a clear sense of direction and stability to a society in shambles. Now would that direction and stability have caused the Republic to endure? Would the enlarged Senate have been capable of leading the Republic into the Imperial Age? Would the plebians have started a civil war to avenge their Tribunes and their Assembly being emasculated? I can

[sullafelix]

I am glad somone knows Arthur's work I was a student of his. he is excellent and although his views on sulla are sometimes considered to be a bit over positive I think generally he is right. The interesting thing about the reforms is that all any of them attempted to do was to take the republic back to the stuctures and magistracies that were considered to have made it great. For instance although he reduced the powerof the tribunes he left them with the power the office had originally been created to excercise, namely that they had involvment in the legal process and could protect the ordinary individual citizen from the whims of magistrates. Also dictatorship is a word with terrible conatations in our society and, after Julius Caesar and arguably after Sulla, in Roman society too. But of course it was a historical office that was used to get Rome through a crisis. It is arguable that Sulla only took a traditional office for he good of the Republic and then laid it down when he thought he had cured the evils of the republic. He was a reformer with vision but also a strong sense of tradition who understood the Roman antipathy towards power being rested in a single person for any length of time.

 

Incidentally it helps if you read Sulla the Last Republican in a belligerent irish accent you will get closer to his thought processes.

 

:pimp:

[HISTORICUS]

Where are there good resources online regarding Sulla's reforms/constitution? Also, do you think that if the reforms had been retained, the Republic could've lasted longer?

 

The way I see it the biggest problem of the republic was it imbalance regarding the executive branch. While constitutional history might seem like the most boring of subject, nations live and die by their constitution, written or unwritten. The problem in a nutshell was that due to their fear of a tyrant, the Romans created a weak executive that resulted in the very thing they were afraid of. In order to manage Rome's affairs, a strong, efficient executive branch with a sufficient term of office was needed. Sulla could have created this position by simply removing the second consul and extending the terms of office to 4-8 years, similar to a modern executive. He himself used the position, indeed couldn't do without, however under the concept of dictator, which indicated that it would be temporary. As it happened, he only made cosmetic changes which combined with the murder and exile of his opponents calmed the situation for a short while.