Reconstruction of Sulla's image
According to ancient sources, Lucius Cornelius Sulla, after taking full power at the end of 82 BCE, began extremely bloody proscriptions against the opposition and his enemies, which claimed nearly 3,000 people. Their property was confiscated and handed over to Sulla’s supporters. According to prevailing rumours, Sulla ordered the killed victims to cut off their heads and set them up as trophies in the atrium of his house.
It is worth mentioning that it was in the good tone of the Roman tradition to place the death masks of your great ancestors in the atrium, which was to emphasize the importance of the family. Sulla, placing the severed heads in a tasteless way, mocked the tradition.
On Sulla’s tombstone, there were words that he himself wrote: “No friend ever served me, and no enemy ever wrong me, whom I have not repaid in full”.
- Beard Mary, SPQR. Historia starożytnego Rzymu, Poznań 2016
