Res nondum iudicata: l’ethos di Silla tra inclinazione naturale e corruzione del potere

Roman historical tradition has regarded Sulla as a paradigm of the moral corruption resulting from the exercise of absolute power. However, this negative characterisation only concerns the last part of the dictator’s life, after his victory in the civil war, and not his previous career, which on the contrary is always viewed positively in the sources; this unexplained inconsistency gives the impression of an elusive and enigmatic character. The present paper identifies Livy as the creator of this ‘double portrait’ of Sulla. As can be reconstructed from the periocha of book 88, the historian changed abruptly from a positive to a negative view of Sulla immediately after the account of the battle at the Colline Gate in 82 BC. The following account focused on three key episodes (the massacre of the prisoners of war, the destruction of Praeneste, the execution of Gratidianus) to which Livy must have attributed central importance in the economy of his narrative. The insistent recurrence of these exempla in the subsequent historiographical, rhetorical, and philosophical tradition confirms that Livy’s version of the events had immediately become canonical. The negative characterisation of the protagonist was achieved by omitting the motives behind his actions, thus suggesting that his choices were driven only by arbitrariness and cruelty. Livy’s choice reveals a design to present Sulla as an exemplary negative model, whose story was meant to warn readers of the dangers of absolute power: even a man like Sulla, faithful to the traditional Roman ethics, scrupulously respectful of the laws, loved and protected by the gods, could become dangerous for his fellow-citizens once invested with a power lacking institutional limits. The author proposes that the contemporary referent whom Livy intended to warn could be Tiberius, in his capacity as designated heir to Augustus.