Optimates - History

History

The optimates' cause reached its peak under the dictatorship of Lucius Cornelius Sulla (81 BC–79 BC). During his reign, the Assemblies were stripped of nearly all power, the Senate membership was raised from 300 to 600, an equally large number of populares were executed via proscription lists and thousands of soldiers were settled in northern Italy. However, after Sulla's resignation and subsequent death, many of their policies were gradually reversed.

Besides Sulla, notable optimates included Lucius Licinius Lucullus, Cato the Younger, Titus Annius Milo, Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus and Marcus Junius Brutus. Though they had opposed him for the entirety of his political career, Pompey the Great also found himself as the leader of the optimates' faction, once their civil war with Julius Caesar began. Optimates, along with disillusioned populares, who had carried out Caesar's assassination called themselves Liberatores.