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The Number of the Sullan Senate
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 September 2012
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Appian (Bell. Civ. i, 59) speaking of the measures taken in 88 B.C. by the consuls Sulla and Pompeius Strabo, shortly before the former started for the East, states: κατέλεξαν ἐς τὸ βουλευτήριον, ὀλιγανθρωπότατον δὴ τότε μάλιστα ὂν καὶ παρὰ τοῦτ̕ εὐκαταΦρόνητον, ἀθρόους ἐκ τῶν ἀρίστων ἀνδρῶν τριακοσίους. Later on, in describing the acts of Sulla's dictatorship, he declares : (ibid. c. 100) αὐτῆ δὲ τῇ βουλῇ, διὰ τὰς στάσεις καὶ τοὺς πολέμους πάμπαν ὀλιγανδρούση, προσκατέλεξεν ἀμΦὶ τοὺς τριακοσίους ἐκ τῶν ἀρίστων ἱππέων, ταῖς Φυλαῖς ἀναδοὺς ΨῆΦον περὶ ἑκάστου.
Are we to suppose that Appian is merely careless, and inadvertently describes the same act twice over, though assigning it to two different dates, or was the addition of three hundred fresh members really effected on both these two occasions?
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- Copyright © E.G. Hardy1916. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies
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page 60 note 1 As the addition of three hundred was not carried into effect, we must either suppose that a substantial ‘lectio’ took place in 88 or 86, or that the βουλὴ πάμπαν ὀλιγανδροῦσα in 82 was a body which, already less than three hundred in 91, had since been depleted by the Social war, by the Marian massacres, by the civil war and by the Sullan proscriptions. I do not see how in any case we can escape the conclusion that in the Sullan senate there was a majority of new members, but on this latter supposition the majority would have been overwhelming.