Famous Men of Rome · Ch. XIX · Unit 4: The end of the Republic
26. Sulla
Goal: Your child can tell how Sulla took Athens and beat Mithridates, how he ruled Rome as dictator, and why the book doubts one of its own numbers.
You'll need
- The book, open to this chapter
- A map of Italy and the Mediterranean (a free online map or a globe)
- Paper and colored pencils
- Your timeline strip (see the tips at the top)
What's in the book
Chapter XIX: Lucius Cornelius Sulla, scholar and soldier, called "the Lion" and Felix, takes Athens with battering rams and beats the armies of Mithridates at Chaeronea. He returns to win a civil war against the Marians, becomes dictator, hangs up lists of people to be killed, holds a magnificent triumph, then gives up power and retires to the Bay of Naples. He died in 78 B.C.
The lesson, step by step
Set the scene
Find Greece and Athens on the map, and Pontus on the south shore of the Black Sea, where King Mithridates ruled.
Read the chapter
Read Chapter XIX aloud. It begins:
We have said something of Sulla, but there is much more to be told about him
You may want to read it in two sittings, stopping after the peace with Mithridates.
Tell it back
Prompts:
- What two nicknames did Sulla have?
- What were battering rams, and what happened to the first ones?
- What was a proscription list?
- What did Sulla do at the end of his life?
Thinking about the sources
The book says that, as the story was told, only twelve Romans failed to answer the roll-call after the battle of Chaeronea. Read what the book says next:
But perhaps we ought not to believe that so very few Romans were killed, for it seems hardly possible that it could have been so.
SayGood historians ask, "Could that really be true?" The authors are doing that here.
Talk it over
Ask: Sulla, like Cincinnatus, gave up being dictator. How was he different from Cincinnatus?
Remember it
Add to the timeline: "78 B.C. Sulla dies." Felix is Latin for happy or fortunate.
Extra (optional)
Draw a battering ram from the book's picture: a heavy beam with an iron head shaped like a ram's.
Answers to the book's problems
"The Lion," for bravery, and Felix, meaning fortunate. Battering rams were heavy beams with iron ends for knocking down walls; Athenians came out at night and burned the first ones. A proscription list named people to be killed, hung up in the Forum. He gave up his power and lived by the Bay of Naples, feasting and studying. Cincinnatus held power for a few days to save Rome and went home poor; Sulla killed thousands and ruled by his own will for about a year first.
Worked out for this site from the scan. If a number in your copy differs, trust the book.