WI: Sulla attempted to declare himself King

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So we know that the purpose behind Sulla's appointment and assumption of the dictatorship in 80 BCE was to diminish the popular power of the Tribunes and at the same time constitutionally uplift the power of the Senate.

However, what if he took a different step, betraying his Senatorial allies in tow, and instead tried to declare himself King (or the closest Roman equivalent possible given the sentiments of the time) once the dictatorship was secured?

1. Given his elder-statemen-like mastery over the politics of Rome (compared to say Caeser), do you see him getting assassinated in the same way?

2. If he his indeed successful in establishing dynastic governance in Rome in 80-90 BCE, what effects might we see for Rome in the short and long term?
 
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There was a great hatred for kings. Even Augustus never called himself king.

Hereditary dictator for life? But that would seem laughable to senators. Even if he managed to get it agreed in his lifetime, it wouldn't last in the atmosphere of the time.

He's going to have to DO something more than in OTL to find way through this.
 
Not any chances. Romans hated deeply kingship. Even to Caesar's assassins needed just some suspects that he might seek kingship. If Sulla would declare himeslf as king, he wouldn't live very long. Any powerhungry Roman dictator, whom has even few braincell, not dare do that.
 
I agree with Catalfalque and Lalli. Declaring himself king pretty much guarantees assassination and he'd be dead within a month if he even got that far.

Dictator possibly/maybe. Dictator for life much less so and really I can't see it lasting beyond his death.
 
It won't work. Dictator was as much as the population would let him. And to be fair, it was an emergency situation where his political enemies tired to kill his allies, even if Marius had good intentions.
 
Not in character at all. Sulla became, by late in his life, a master statesman. Despite how extravagant he seemed to be (given his wife's funeral and his activities post-dictatorship), he was never really stupid, and becoming king which just shakes everything up more, turns pretty much all his friends and allies against him, and destroys the Republic which he's ostensibly struggling to preserve and improve, is just not a smart idea. He's an interesting person, no doubt, laying down the dictatorship completely willingly, even after exercising basically absolute power and causing the almost arbitrary deaths of thousands in the proscriptions, he doesn't really have a tyrannical streak. An unusual personality, certainly, but not one to want to commit suicide through coronation.
 
It won't work. Dictator was as much as the population would let him. And to be fair, it was an emergency situation where his political enemies tired to kill his allies, even if Marius had good intentions.

I think for most of his career Marius had better intentions...and imo was possibly the greatest Roman of all...but very late in life he became pretty erratic and it's really hard to know where he was about anything. Possibly him going for a crown is more in the wheelhouse, if only because all bets seemed off.
 
One makes oneself king for one main reason : giving maximum opportunity for his son to inherit power.

Sulla's son was but a young child when Sulla died.
Caesar had no legitimate son at all, which makes accusations of him wanting to become king more than doubtful.

Caesar and Sulla were in fact quite the same, except for Caesar having chosen the popularis way and the path of clemency.

And Pompey and Marius were quite the same.

Both Marius and Pompey were the main responsible for the civil wars of their age. They forced Sulla and Caesar to choose between political extinction/humiliation or resorting to military uprising.
And it is always extremely risky to challenge the most talented and reckless man of one's generation into a fight for life.

And it would have been very foolish from Sulla or Caesar to have wanted to become King since the title was an insult at Rome. Same as if today some political leader wanted to bear the title of tyrant.

So, rather than answering that Sulla would lose support and be assassinated if he took the title of king, I would say Sulla would never have reached his OTL position because it would be a sign of not being very clever. And without being clever enough, Sulla would not have been able to reach the position of dictator.
 
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