Liberti and the Sulpician Laws of 88 BCE. A New Light on Freedmen Suffrage in the Roman Republic

Summary The year 88 was a turning point in Roman republican history. The Social War was yet to finish, Mithradates VI of Pontus invaded Roman Asia, and Rome eventually descended into its first full-fledged civil war resulting from insurmountable differences between conservatives and reformists centered on the suffrage rights of the newly enfranchised Latin and Italian allies and who was to pursue of the Mithradatic War. Against this volatile backdrop, this paper represents the first dedicated study of the Sulpician Law on the suffrage of the freedmen, perhaps the least understood of the divisive centerpieces of the renegade tribune of the plebs P. Sulpicius’ legislative program. After first establishing the overall parameters of the issue of freedmen suffrage in the Roman Republic from the late 4 th century BCE onwards, the paper suggests that Roman freedmen did not make for a potentially overwhelming ‘patronless’ urban proletariat but instead formed an aspiring constituency closely tied to Rome’s non-senatorial elites. Shifting the focus then to the circumstances, particulars, and objectives of the lex Sulpicia de libertinorum suffragiis and factoring in both priors and posteriors, it will be argued that this law (associated with, though distinct from, the concurrent law on the suffrage of the newly enfranchised freeborn Latin and Italian allies) instead sought to enlist the critical support of the equestrian and first census /property class citizens, including the Italian domi nobiles , in order to ensure the passage of the highly divisive Sulpician bill transferring the lucrative command against Mithradates VI from a sitting consul (L. Cornelius Sulla) to a private citizen (C. Marius).