Sulla's military coup was ironically enabled by Marius' military reforms that bound the army's loyalty with the general rather than to the republic and permanently destabilized the Roman power structure. Resigning his dictatorship in 79 BC, Sulla retired to private life and died the following year. He used his powers to purge his opponents, and reform Roman constitutional laws, to restore the primacy of the Senate and limit the power of the tribunes of the plebs.
He then revived the office of dictator, which had been inactive since the Second Punic War, over a century before. He returned victorious from the east in 82 BC, marched a second time on Rome, and crushed the populares and their Italian allies at the Battle of the Colline Gate. The populares nonetheless seized power once he left with his army to Asia. In a dispute over the command of the war against Mithridates, initially awarded to Sulla by the Senate, but withdrawn as a result of Marius' intrigues, Sulla marched on Rome in an unprecedented act and defeated Marian forces in battle.
He was a leader of the former, which sought to maintain senatorial supremacy against the populist reforms advocated by the latter, headed by Marius. Sulla played an important role in the long political struggle between the optimates and populares factions at Rome. He was awarded the Grass Crown for his command in the latter war. He then fought successfully against Germanic tribes during the Cimbrian War, and Italic tribes during the Social War.
Sulla rose to prominence during the war against the Numidian king Jugurtha, whom he captured as a result of Jugurtha's betrayal by the king's allies, although his superior Gaius Marius took credit for ending the war. A gifted and innovative general, he achieved numerous successes in wars against foreign and domestic opponents. Sulla had the distinction of holding the office of consul twice, as well as reviving the dictatorship. He won the first large-scale civil war in Roman history and became the first man of the Republic to seize power through force. Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix ( / ˈ s ʌ l ə/ 138–78 BC), commonly known as Sulla, was a Roman general and statesman.
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