Lucius Cornelius Cinna (before 130 BC – early 84 BC) was a four-time consul of the Roman republic. Opposing Sulla's march on Rome in 88 BC, he was elected to the consulship of 87 BC, during which he engaged in an armed conflict – the Bellum Octavianum – with his co-consul, Gnaeus Octavius. Emerging victorious, Cinna initiated with his ally, Gaius Marius, extrajudicial killings of their personal enemies. In the aftermath, he dominated the republic for the next three years, serving continuously as consul. While his domination was not complete – he largely contented himself with securing the consulship for himself and allies – his political rule set a "crucial precedent" for later strongmen in the republic. Through 85 and 84 BC, he prepared for civil war with Sulla, who was soon to return from the First Mithridatic War. But when trying to ferry his men across the Adriatic at Ancona early in 84 BC, they mutinied and Cinna was killed. Early life and family Cinna was born some time before 130 BC into a patrician family that was not recently distinguished. While Theodor Mommsen considered the Cornelii Cinnae to be plebeians, but most modern authors view them as patricians. His father may have been consul in 127 BC. He married a woman named Annia, with whom he had three children: two daughters and one homonymous son. His eldest daughter married Gaius Julius Caesar (the dictator and consul of 59 BC), probably during Cinna's second consulship in 86 BC; his younger daughter married Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus (who died in 81 BC). Cinna's homonymous son escaped Sulla's retribution by fleeing to Quintus Sertorius – one of Cinna's legates – after Sulla's civil war, before being given amnesty in the lex Plautia and returning to Rome. Afterwards, he became praetor in 44 BC. Some time before 90 BC, Cinna must have served as praetor. It is known that he also served during the Social War. Almost nothing, however, is known of Cinna's life or career before his election as consul. First consulship, 87 BC Electoral context In 88 BC, there were two major questions in Roman politics. The first was the Italian question. During the Social War, the Roman republic had granted basically all the Italian allies Roman citizenship. Publius Sulpicius Rufus, a plebeian tribune, sought to curry their favour by enrolling them equally into the thirty-five tribes (voting units); in this,