No Greater Friend, No Worse Enemy

-Sulla landed in Italy and immediately crushed the Roman army waiting there to fight him.
   -Other armies began to switch sides to fight for Sulla too.
-Sulla was also popular in other Roman territories, especially from two rising stars in Roman politics- Marcus Licinius Crassus and Gnaeus Pompeius (Pompey).
   -Both Crassus and Pompey raised armies to help Sulla fight in Italy.
-82- Metellus had travelled Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius, another close ally of Sulla's, traveled from Africa with an army to help Sulla too.
   -Opposing Metellus and Pompey was the consul Gnaeus Papirius Carbo, who led an army to attack their forces.
   -The other consul at the time, Gaius Marius Minor (Marius the Younger), son of Gaius Marius, led an army to attack Sulla.
-Carbo was defeated, and so he fled to Etruria (north of Rome).
-Marius the Younger's army lost to Sulla due to so many of his own forces defecting to the other side.
   -Sulla then sent an army to Etruria to crush Carbo.
      -Carbo knew he was fucked, so he fled in the night to go hide among the numerous tiny islands off the coast of Sicily.
-Sulla then tried to march on Rome but was intercepted an army of Samnites led by Marius the Younger.
   -It was a brutal battle, and the casualties numbered at about 50,000, but Sulla won.
      -Marius the Younger then committed suicide.
-Sulla then entered Rome and was pronounced dictator for life!
   -He then proceeded to slaughter any who opposed him, including 40 senators.  About 9,000 people were killed in total, many (or most) were probably innocent people.
      -Even Julius Caesar, at this time a young man who had also happened to marry Cinna's daughter, had to hide for months.
-Sulla then struck down many reforms, including the tribune's right to veto and introduce legislation.
   -He then doubled the size of the Senate and packed it with puppets.
   -He also made it so that if you became tribune, you couldn't run for any other office for the rest of your life, so nobody wanted to be tribune.
   -He also made it really difficult to be a consul, with a huge number of pre-requisites in order to hold the office.
-80 BC- Surprisingly, Sulla resigned as dictator!
   -He was then elected consul for a year before retiring permanently.
-Sulla was a very interesting, complex character because he was both a brutal tyrant, but also a humble, conservative old man.
   -He died in 78 BC.