An aristocrat, a brilliant bearer of Greek culture, an outstanding strategist and diplomat, Sulla was an exceptional personality. At the head of the Roman army, he defeated two of Rome's most ardent enemies - Jugurtha and Mithridates. The consequence of the triumphant success was that he was twice declared head of the empire. A statesman, guardian of traditions and moral values, who contributed to the greatness of Rome, he fought with everyone who wanted to wage a merciless war. And, having achieved the final victory, he enjoyed absolute power, perhaps less bloody than under other dictators. However, if during his life Sulla was called Felix (Happy), then for two thousand years he retained the most sinister reputation: his successors (in particular Caesar and Augustus), more immoral than he, disposed of his reforms in their own way, but with fierce persistence they presented him as a collection of all vices. Hence the unkind comments of writers, the distortion of the image on the busts left after him. An attempt, if not rehabilitation, then at least revision, this biography leaves no stone unturned from the fabrications created by the ancients themselves and slavishly repeated (with varying success) by the Western tradition. It also reveals the vicious mechanism of one of the first falsifications of History. François Inard was born in 1941, Doctor of Science, Professor of Roman History and Archeology at the University of Caen.

© “Syila” Librairie Artheme Fayard , 1985