Second Sulla War Cancelled

Sulla marched on Rome two times. In OTL, this was provoked when his rival Marius tried to trip him of his army, declared his old reactionary "reforms" (how is anything conservative a reform?) invalid, and then kill a bunch of Sulla's friends and Senate supporters. Sulla marched on Rome again and was given dictator status.

Well, suppose Marius just decides he's getting old and there isn't a need to actively stop Sulla. He just focuses on getting rich in office and promoting his own agenda when anything he finds ideal gets... say 3/8 of the Senators (most Senators were sympathetic to the Optimates, but not all) and abstaining from anything else.

This leaves Sulla with his many of his conservative policies in place. He's likely going to win the war like OTL (unless no civil war to think about suddenly butterflies his command decisions and victories) and probably get a third term as consul. He would have much of Greece, Illyria, the Asia Minor, and Aegean Islands as a quasi-fiefdom. Sulla would also have considerable support in the Senate, which means considerable control of Rome itself. However, he would not have an excuse to march on Rome and force all of his agenda through.
 
I think some of your beginnings are wrong and unnecessary.

Sulla did not carry conservative reforms before his first march of Rome, that is before his first coup.

The main point that caused turmoil at Rome was the matter of how the registration of newly enfranchised citizens should be made and Sulla was ready to compromise on it.
Sulla and Sulpicius Rufus had been political friends with Lucius Drusus.

And I also doubt that, would Sulla just go to Asia without needing to resort to violence to retain his command, he would turn all eastern provinces into his personal client States the way Pompey did it.

After all, Sulla did not do it OTL although he was dictator and master of Rome for more than 2 years.

It was Pompey's genius to manage to do it on such a scale. He set the model for both Caesar and Augustus.

So Sulla returning victorious from Asia, where he will not necessarily have definitely ended the conflict against Mithridate, will have succeeded in establishing himself as one of the prominent optimates, like Metellus Numidicus a generation earlier or like his friend Lucullus a generation later.
 
I think that many of the measures passed by Sulla were because of the fact that he had to march on Rome, not excused by the march. Meaning, if he never marched on Rome, he never would have passed those measures, or even attempted to pass them. This becomes obvious when you realize that he would have very little support even from the optimates, who favored conservative tribunes, sure, but would hardly dream of shattering such a by-then quintessential, absolutely Roman institution as the tribunate of the Plebs.

@Alex Zetsu you can very well have Marius calm down, or even die during or right after his second stroke (easiest POD, I think), but he'll have nowhere near that much support, 3/8 of the Senate! Sure Marius was a popular hero, but by the time of Sulla's civil wars he was a washed out old man who definitely had admirers in the Senate, and quite a few enemies, but also many who were more or less ambivalent toward him and saw him in a logical light (a very old man growing senile). His support at this time was almost completely grounded in the Fourth census Class and below, and his and his allies' clients and friends among the Equestrians.

Sulla going East with Marius's support here is the best possible outcome for Rome. Without Marius's support Sulpicius Rufus could be mostly ignored, maybe even lynched like the Gracchi if he keeps trying to stir the hive. As you say, Sulla will return with half the East in his clientship and will probably be viewed similarly to Scipio Aemilianus or Scipio Macedonicus.

@Matteo Sulla couldn't complete a conquest of the East (meaning reconquest of Greece and conquest of all of Anatolia, and Armenia) because to leave Italy again would be to invite another civil war, disastrous for the treasury and Rome's population and power. It's a reason why he couldn't personally go to Spain to contend with Sertorius, who was a much greater threat (being somewhat a continuation of Marius's side in the civil war) than Mithridates and Tigranes. Certainly if Sertorius had become strong enough to march to Italy, half the Senate would have fled north to support him against Sulla. With Sulla out of Rome (to conquer the East) and even some of his supporters able to be swayed, Sertorius might have even tried it.

Remember, Sulla returned victorious from Asia in OTL, and had to fight a(nother) civil war in Italy before he could return to Rome. It would be a pain in the ass and, again, destructive to the treasury to leave Rome to the vultures again.
 
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