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Lucius Cornelius Cinna

Lucius Cornelius Cinna (died 84 BC) was a Consul of the Roman Republic in 87 BC and from 87 to 84 BC. He and Gaius Marius co-led the Populares faction of Roman politics against Sulla's Optimates in Sulla's civil war, and Cinna was murdered by mutinous troops at the start of the second civil war. Through his daughter Cornelia, he was the father-in-law of Julius Caesar.

Biography[]

Lucius Cornelius Cinna served as a praetor during the early 1st century BC before being elected consul of the Roman Republic in 87 BC, supported by the lower classes and Rome's Latin allies at a time when the conservative statesman Sulla was unpopular among both constituencies. Sulla backed Cinna as a compromise candidate and forced him to swear loyalty to him on the Capitoline Hill, but, as consul, Cinna refused to let his oath to Sulla influence his decisions as consul. Instead, Cinna turned on Sulla while Sulla commanded Rome's forces in the First Mithridatic War, and his supporters clashed with those of the Sullan Gnaeus Octavius, his fellow consul. Octavius used this street fight to depose Cinna, but Cinna was joined by Quintus Sertorius in raising an army from the Italian countryside and marching on Rome. In late 87 BC, their army entered Rome, with Cinna promising no violence against the people of Rome. However, once Cinna had the Roman Senate repeal Gaius Marius' exile, Marius and his army re-entered Rome and massacred Sulla's supporters. In 86 BC, Cinna and Marius were elected consuls, and Marius died a fortnight later. This left Cinna in charge of the Roman Republic, and, under Cinna, the Republic struggled from counterfeit currency, failed to solidify the citizenship of the Italians, and mostly focused on fighting Sulla, whose eastern armies continued to pose a threat to Rome. In 84 BC, Cinna planned to lead an army across the Adriatic Sea to battle Sulla's army, but his troops, angered at the lack of potential loot, and disheartened by the shipwrecking of many of Cinna's other soldiers, instead mutinied. Cinna had a soldier arrested for fighting back against one of his strong-handed lictors, leading to another soldier throwing a stone at Cinna, and a fight breaking out, resulting in Cinna's mutinous soldiers stabbing him to death in a mutiny motivated by a flare-up of mob spirit and not politics..

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