Introduction

In 78 BC Lucius Cornelius Sulla died, believing that he had put the Republic back on track. Since the end of the Third Punic War 80 years previously, Roman politics had skewed more towards populist demagogues and blatant corruption. The generation that would kill the republic grew up in the shadow of Sulla's dictatorship. Two of those supporters - Marcus Licinese Crassus and Nius Pompeius - forged an uneasy alliance with Julius Caesar to form the first triumphary.