LUCIUS CORNELIUS SULLA WAS BORN IN ROME IN 138 BC. AS a Cornelii he belonged to one of the oldest patrician families in Rome. But though he bore a noble name, and the easy arrogance that went with it, Sulla’s own particular branch of the family had long since faded into obscurity. No one in his family had risen beyond praetor for three generations, and Sulla did not seem particularly primed to restore the family to glory. As a young man he caroused with actors, poets, and musicians—the bottom feeders of the Roman social order. He and his friends drank and partied and lived their lives outside
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