Social, Political, and Economic Structures of Imperial Rome 85ting volunteers even if they owned no land. Recruits
were to be paid in cash as they had always been. Marius
also promised them a plot of land in Gaul or Africa
when they retired.
To thousands of slum dwellers and landless peas-
ants, the Marian reforms offered an escape from grind-
ing poverty, but the recruitment of proletarians created a
new danger for the state. Lacking property of their own,
the men became wholly dependent upon their comman-
der for pay and, more important, for the security of their
old age. Though land and money came ultimately from
the Senate, neither could be obtained without the influ-
ence of the consul or proconsul who requested them.
The troops, in short, became the clients of their general
who could use military force to threaten the govern-
ment. Rome was at the mercy of its own armies.
The implications of this change became evident af-
ter the Italian wars of 90–88 B.C. For decades the Italian
allies had sought Roman citizenship to no avail (see
table 5.1). Their patience exhausted, they abandoned
Rome and decided to form an independent confedera-
tion. Belatedly, the Romans extended citizenship to all
who returned to their allegiance, but two years of fight-
ing were required to reach a final settlement.
Sulla, whose reputation as a soldier had grown
greater during the Italian wars, was elected consul in 88
B.C. with the support of the Senate. His services were
needed in the east, where Mithradates, King of Pontus,
had annexed parts of Asia Minor and invaded Greece.
The aged Marius came out of retirement and convinced
the plebeian assembly to appoint him commander in-
stead. His action, based in part on personal resentment
of Sulla, provoked a lengthy crisis. Sulla, ostensibly to
defend the Senate, marched on Rome and drove out
Marius. When Sulla left for Asia, Marius returned with
his own army and conducted a bloody purge of his op-
ponent’s senatorial friends. Finally, in 83 B.C. Sulla re-
turned and established a dictatorship. To do so he had
to conclude a compromise peace with Mithradates and
fight a civil war on Italian soil against the followers of
Marius, who had died of a stroke three years before.
Sulla’s dictatorship was unlike any that had yet
been declared. It lasted four years and was intended to
reform the state from within, not to protect the state
from outside enemies. To do this, Sulla launched a
reign of terror by proscribing or outlawing his oppo-
nents, his personal enemies, and the rich, whose only
crime was that their property was needed to pay his
troops. He then passed a series of laws intended to
strengthen senatorial power and improve the criminal
justice system. Some of these changes survived his re-
tirement in 79 B.C. Although Sulla was in theory a con-
servative who sought only to preserve the traditional
system, his career marked the end of constitutional
government. For almost a decade Roman soldiers had
been used repeatedly against Roman citizens and
against each other. Power now rested with the legions
and those who commmanded them, not with the Sen-
ate or the assemblies.
Sulla’s departure created a political vacuum. Gener-
als, including his former lieutenants Pompey and Cras-
sus, vied for preeminence using the wealth and power
generated by proconsular commands. Such commands
proliferated mainly because the perception of disorder
encouraged Rome’s enemies. Roman politicians wel-
comed the commands because they wanted armies of
their own as protection against their domestic rivals.
Spain rebelled under a former ally of Marius and had to
be suppressed by Pompey. At the same time, Italy was
threatened by a massive slave rebellion led by Sparta-
cus, a Thracian gladiator. A direct result of the brutality
and greed of the slaveowners, it was put down with
great difficulty by Crassus, who crucified six thousand
of the rebels along the Appian Way between Rome andThese census estimates refer only to adult male citizens
and are taken primarily from Livy. The lower figure for
208 B.C. seems to reflect the defection of Capua and
other allies after the defeat at Cannae as well as war
losses. The major increases after 204 B.C. and 115 B.C.re-
flect the expansion of citizenship rather than a change in
underlying demographics.
Year Census total Year Census total
264 B.C. 292,234 147 B.C. 322,000
251 B.C. 297,797 142 B.C. 328,442
246 B.C. 241,212 136 B.C. 317,933
240 B.C. 260,000 131 B.C. 318,823
233 B.C. 270,713 125 B.C. 394,736
208 B.C. 137,108 115 B.C. 394,436
204 B.C. 214,000 86 B.C. 463,000
154 B.C. 324,000 70 B.C. 910,000
Source: Data from Tenney Frank, ed., An Economic Survey of Ancient
Rome,vol. 1 (New York, N.Y.: Pageant Books, 1959), pp. 56, 216–17.TABLE 5.1Citizenship in the Roman Republic,
264–70 B.C.