Context: General Marius developed one of the first professional armies by selecting not from farmers but from various veterans. He offered this army all sorts of rewards in return for their loyalty. At some point, General Sulla becomes angered and has horrible things done to Marius's soldiers.
Author: Appian - Mysterious Greek Roman (Greek by blood) born in 95 to a wealthy Roman couple living in Alexandra, Roman Egypt. He moved to Rome around the age of 25, where he took cases before the emperors. Later, he was elected as an official of Alexandra. His date of death is unknown.
Summary: Sulla brought together the people of Rome and explained that he had some plans, and that he would kill anyone going against these plans. He made a list of roughly 1640 officials that he wanted dead, and almost immediately these people were sought out and either killed or banished. This resulted in Sulla's rise to tyrannic rule; he was the first to hold autocratic rule by force and violence for longer than a short period of time.
Key Quote: "Then Sulla became king, or tyrant, a de facto - not elected but holding power by force and violence."
Identifying Characteristics: This document is written in past tense so it includes phrases like "he finished by saying" and all verbs in past tense. Clearly, if any document mentioned "Sulla" by name or tyranny/autocratic rule, one would recognize that it was "Absolute Tyranny" but also this document has a few key words/phrases like "forthwith proscribed" and "de facto."
ReplyDeleteKevin: You did a good job at summarizing the document and the content in simple terms and keeping it brief. The only thing missing is your view on any possible bias Appian might have towards Sulla and his rule and how this could affect his account of history. The key quote you chose summarizes the article nicely and I would have decided between choosing that one or the one that follows it: "There had ben autocratic rule before -- that of the dictators-- but it was limited to short periods; under Sulla it first became unlimited, and so an absolute tyranny." Overall, I thought you understood the article much like I did and mentioned the most important part in my understanding, which was that Sulla was the first to hold autocratic rule by force and violence for an extended period of time.