ABSTRACT
We sometimes speak of the ‘body politic’. If we apply this metaphor to the Roman state, we may, not unjustly perhaps, liken Sulla’s reforming role in part to that of a surgeon who comes to cut away cells which, having grown cancerous, multiply wildly and threaten the health of the body as a whole. In other words, some of the organs of government had developed in such a way that their original functions had almost been lost sight of and they themselves, perverted and twisted out of all recognition, had become a threat to the well-being of the state in general. Sulla saw it as his task to arrest and reverse these developments. For the sake of the general good, certain offices and institutions were to be recalled, where possible, to their original state.1
