Marius und Sulla

Marius und Sulla, an unfinished tragedy in five acts in mixed verse and prose by C. D. Grabbe. Grabbe wrote two extant versions of this, his first realistic historical drama, begun in 1823 and abandoned in 1827. The second version was published in Dramatische Dichtungen (1827). Plutarch's biographies of Marius, Sulla, and Sertorius, and Appian's Roman history (Bks. 13-17) were the principal sources for Grabbe's portrayal, by means of two great men, of a critical epoch in the history of Rome, in which he saw an apt parallel to the French Revolution and the period of Restoration.

The aged and banished Marius makes a vain effort to recover his stature as a political force. He revenges himself by taking Rome, but in the hour of triumph learns of the approach of the younger rival Sulla. As he is about to lead his troops against the enemy, he dies with a vision of his past glory, of which the massacre of his loyal ‘Marianer’ by the troops of Sertorius and Cinna cannot deprive him. Sulla emerges victorious over all his enemies, including King Mithridates and the young Marius, who has taken his father's place. According to Grabbe's synopsis of the fifth act, Sulla is celebrated as the all-powerful dictator who, having taken measures to save Rome from prolonged anarchy, relinquishes his position and retires with his wife, Metella, to the privacy of his country home.