ABSTRACT
Sulla’s time and energy during 81 were not, however, totally absorbed by the good works we have just described in the last chapter. Indeed, he found ample time for displays of pomp and, during the year of his dictatorship, Rome witnessed a lavish series of magnificent spectacles.1 On 29 and 30 January Sulla himself celebrated his triumph over Mithridates. On the first day the spoils taken from the king were paraded, and on the second the treasures taken from Roman temples by the younger Marius were put on show before being restored to their proper owners. On this second day, too, the populace was treated to the sight of the exiles, driven out by Cinna and others and now restored to their rightful place by Sulla, marching in the procession and hailing their deliverer as ‘saviour’ and ‘father’.2 As a permanent reminder of Sulla’s victory, Sulla’s nephew Sextus Nonius Sufenas, whom we last saw as an unsuccessful candidate in the elections of 88, now as praetor (81) instituted the Ludi Victoriae Sullae. Those were held on 1 November, the anniversary of the Colline Gate battle and saw the culmination of six days of ludi scaenici which began on 26 October. Both the victory over the Cinnans and Mithridates were commemorated. A considerable stir seems to have been caused on the second occasion (80) that these games were held. Their celebration coincided with that of the Olympics in Greece. The latter were utterly ruined when all the athletes decamped to Rome, lured it would seem by the more valuable prizes to be had there. It was also noted that on one occasion during the celebrations in the circus on the 1 November C. Antonius Hibrida, who had served as prefect of cavalry under Sulla in Greece, disgraced himself by driving his own chariot.3
