Personaggi della Pompei sillana

Abstract

THREE CHARACTERS FROM SULLAN POMPEIIOne of the most traumatic events of Italian social history in the times of Sulla was the establishment of colonies of veterans in towns which had taken Marius's side. A particularly well studied case, given the wealth of documentation available, is Pompeii. Amongst other things, Cicero's Pro Sulla throws some light upon the issues which, in the early years after the colonial deductio, separated the two communities in Pompeii—that is the old inhabitants and the Sullan veterans. Within this framework, this article examines, as a form of example, the cases of three people of Pompeii of the colonial period. Two of these, Norbanus Sorex and, in some senses, L. Eumachius, both of whom arrived in Pompeii as a result of the Sullan colonization, have a particular role to play in the establishment of the phenomenon of cultural uniformity which followed the general externsion of Roman citizenship. In contrast, the third case, that of the decurion M. Herennius, is an example of a member of the ancient Samnite aristocracy being restored to the height of his social privileges at a very early stage. He became a supporter of P. Sulla at the time of the Catilinarian conspiracy: the event in which he was a protagonist contributes to the clarification of some statements in the Pro Sulla.