Anniversaries

The ruthless Roman general ravages the Greek city

Of all the great characters in Roman history, Lucius Cornelius Sulla ranks as one of the most ruthless. A brilliant general and cunning politician, he rose to fame in his campaigns against Rome’s enemies abroad. And in the spring of 87 BC he arrived in Greece, in preparation to take on one of the most formidable: Mithridates, king of Pontus.

Sulla’s first target was the Greek city of Athens, run by Mithridates’ ally Aristion. Though a shadow of its former self, it was still a tough nut to crack. Needing wood for his siege engines, Sulla cut down the sacred groves and raided the local temples. Week by week, he tightened his grip. And at last, at midnight on 1 March 86 BC, the Romans broke through the walls and poured into the city.

For the Athenians, what followed was a nightmare of horrific proportions. “The arrival of Sulla,” wrote the biographer Plutarch, “was made terrible by the blasts of trumpets and bugles, and by the cries and yells of the soldiers whom he let loose for plunder and slaughter, who rushed through the narrow streets with drawn swords. It was impossible to count all the slain; to this day people calculate the total using the space that was covered with blood.”

But the most revealing thing, wrote Plutarch, were the Athenians who “slew themselves out of yearning pity for their native city, which they thought was going to be destroyed”. Even the best of them lost the will to live: they realised “they could expect no humanity or moderation from Sulla”.

An 1818 painting depicting lapoleon’s triumphant return to France from the island of clba. lapoleon was determined to re-establish his imperial throne, and within a matter of days he had secured the support of the nation’s army

A gold coin from 80 Ba showing the poman general Sulla. kany Athenians killed themselves when he invaded their city