The Worst Late Republican Roman Figure?

Which one was the evilest of all?

  • Gaius Marius

    Votes: 5 7.4%
  • Lucius Cornelius Sulla

    Votes: 26 38.2%
  • Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus

    Votes: 10 14.7%
  • Julius Caesar

    Votes: 8 11.8%
  • Marcus Antonius

    Votes: 14 20.6%
  • Octavianus Augustus

    Votes: 5 7.4%

  • Total voters
    68
However, by whose standards are we praising or condemning these figures? Modern standards, or Roman standards? By Roman standards, Caesar-until becoming a Dictator-was a Great Man, conquering Gaul. By Roman standards, Marius was definitely a great man, until he went mad and started purging the opposition, as well as being a political reformist-his reformed army may have been politically harmful in the long term, but it saved Rome from destruction at the hands of the Germans.

If we're using Roman standards, ALL of them were great people...they have celebrated their own triumphs, had their statue erected at Rome, received various honorary titles from the Senate, and have some popularity among the Romans...
Therefore, we should use the modern ones...
 
Because we don't judge it by the late Republic vs Augustus' Empire, but what came later: Nero, Caligula et al.

I will say that this is pretty much a common misconception...emperors like Caligula and Nero actually weren't as bad as everyone always used to think...
Most of their problems and conflicts were involving the Senate and Senatorial-class citizens, not common peasants and slaves which were in fact a majority in the Empire...

Anyway, I have to admit that I was including Augustus to the poll reluctantly...there are some reasons why "Pax Romana" was sometimes also called "Pax Augusta"...
 
I went with Pompey, largely because the real worst late Republican isn't there--Cato the Younger, who based his entire political career on making problems that could have been solved with reasonable compromises into miserable clusterfucks, in the name of "tradition"--which tended to mean whatever Cato wanted it to mean.
 
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