Episode 34. Sulla, Part Two: The First March and Mithridates

Sources and Historiography

Plutarch's Life of Sulla is the primary source for this episode, and Plutarch had a particular personal investment in it: he was born at Chaeronea and his account of the battle there is the most detailed we have, likely drawing on local traditions and possibly on the now-lost Memoirs of Sulla himself. The Memoirs covered at least the Greek campaign; their influence on Plutarch's version is visible in the self-aggrandizing tone of some passages and in the emphasis on Sulla's divine favor and Fortune as operative forces.

The siege of Athens has received substantial recent archaeological attention. Carla Parigi's 2019 study applies modern excavation evidence to the literary accounts and argues that the destruction was more localized than the ancient sources suggest, concentrated along the route from the Kerameikos through the Agora. The blood-in-the-streets passages in Plutarch and Appian may reflect the worst areas while generalizing from them. For the Apellicon library, Strabo's Geographia is the primary source and provides more detail than Plutarch on the manuscript transmission chain from Theophrastus through Neleus to the cellar to Apellicon to Sulla to Tyrannion to Andronicus.

The Treaty of Dardanus has been a point of historiographical contention. Was Sulla's generosity to Mithridates cynical realpolitik, a rational calculation about priorities, or a reflection of his genuine Felix theology—Fortune favoring both men with a convenient peace? Arthur Keaveney argues for the rational calculation reading; Philip Matyszak's biography of Mithridates provides useful context on what the king's position actually was in 85 BCE and why the terms suited him too.

Works CitedPrimary Sources

Appian. Civil Wars, Book I; Mithridatica. The military narrative of both the Greek campaigns and the Italian civil war.
Plutarch. “Life of Lucullus,” chapters 1–4 for Lucullus's role as quaestor during the Athens siege and his naval mission.
Plutarch. “Life of Pompey,” chapters 6–9 for the young Pompey's role in the Italian campaign and the famous Imperator exchange.
Plutarch. “Life of Sulla,” chapters 11–27 cover the Greek campaigns in full; Plutarch was born at Chaeronea and brings personal knowledge to the battle descriptions. Essential.

Secondary Sources

Goldsworthy, Adrian. Caesar. 2006. Useful for Sulla's campaigns as context for Caesar's formation.
Keaveney, Arthur. Sulla: The Last Republican. 2005. Essential throughout; the fullest modern biography.
Matyszak, Philip. Mithridates the Great. 2008. The best short introduction to Sulla's opponent.

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