Anton Korolenkov

The author compares punitive measures taken by Sulla and the Marians against Roman citizens in 88–81 BC. He points out that Marian repressions being rather limited in scale can hardly be qualified as terror. Unlike proscriptions, they did not imply confiscations and therefore had no economic consequences. The author calls in question the reliability of the accounts that a considerable number of former slaves (members of Marian troops) took part in the repressions of 87–86 and that it was prohibited to bury those who were killed in that period. He draws attention to the fact that neither Sulla nor his opponents took up arms against women, unlike the emperors who sometimes put to death women from the families under repressions. Marian repressions were rather small in scale, but they struck the society because of the high status of their victims, including several consulares. However, after Sulla’s proscriptions his figure was strongly associated with violence, and it took a considerable time before Romans began to hold Marius responsible for the bloodshed of the 80s.