Senate restore restore his legal status, property, and offices. Sulla's rejection of terms was met poorly. Eventually, Sulla invaded Italy in 83 BC, triggering a civil war, in which he was eventually victorious, the next year. Assessment The dominatio Cinnae is not well documented and "assessment [of it] is rendered painfully difficult by the way in which our scrappy sources are pervaded by the insidious influence of Sulla's own version of events, diffused without competition after his victory" in the civil war. Cinna and his faction, however, were "the first to dominate the state politically". Taking power in a coup and then setting up a "rogue regime in the city" which "hardly conform[ed] to republican principles", their example set "a crucial precedent" later followed by Sulla, Caesar, and Octavian. The short length and partial nature of his dominatio – Cinna seems only to have wanted to be consul every year – "make it difficult to pass any confident judgement on him as a man or as a politician". Previous scholarship and ancient narratives, which painted Cinna as an appendage to Marius, are also now largely rejected. He was competent at using popularis-style argumentation, but "there is nothing in the evidence, such as it is, to suggest that he had any awareness of the political problems that confronted the republic". His support for Italian enfranchisement and distribution among the thirty-five tribes "was clearly based on self-interest... he took up their cause in order to gain support and once he was in power became decidedly lukewarm". After the initial wave of killings with Marius in 86 BC, there are no signs of extra-legal persecutions. The nature of politics during his dominatio was relatively traditional: "the Senate clearly met and discussed... it was prepared to defy Cinna [and make him bend to] its wishes, though equally Cinna... ignored [senatorial] instructions when [he] felt so inclined". While there must have been resentment over Cinna's monopolisation of the consulship, the political class in Rome during his consulships was largely not personally threatened and left alone. References Citations Sources Further reading Negatively commented on by : Bennett's "more general conclusions do not seem to be consistent with the facts and he seems to misunderstand both Cinna's position in Rome and his importance in Roman politics". External links 2nd-century BC births 84 BC deaths 1st-century BC Roman consuls Ancient Roman generals Lucius Deaths by stabbing in Italy