For people who don’t understand what this means, here’s an abbreviated history lesson:

What’s proscription? It was essentially a list made of enemies of the state. There were a variety of punishments for different crimes one could be listed for. It ranged from death, loss of citizenship, loss of family rights, loss of possessions or all of the above. Death was a VERY common punishment and was referred to as "summum supplicium", or the "extreme penalty". For treason the punishment was nearly always death.

So here’s a short recap of Marius vs. Sulla

Marius was a warrior turned Roman politician who was elected 7x to the highest elected office in Rome. The 7th time, it happened amid division among Rome when he joined forces with Cinna. They captured Rome and then both Marius and Cinna were elected consuls. This joining of forces is important later.

Marius is remembered in part for settling his political scores by jailing, killing or exiling people that he deemed as enemies of the state via proscriptions. One of the people Marius had declared an enemy of the state was Sulla but he escaped death.

Sulla was another general turned politician who took power through force after he won a civil war. Some say he would’ve never taken power if Marius hadn’t meddled in his military command. Marius hated Sulla and the feeling was mutual.

Marius set the standard of proscriptions being used to settle political scores but he died before Sulla took his revenge. Sulla used that standard set by Marius to exact political revenge of his own. Marius’ only son died fighting against Sulla in 82.

Sulla wanted to take his revenge against all the former supporters of Marius and Cinna who he felt had wronged him. So in 82 BC, Sulla instituted the process of proscriptions again to purge the state of former Marius and Cinna supporters.

Estimates range from 500 to 4,000 Marius + Cinna supporters condemned to death. Their supporters were named as enemies of the state and anyone who murdered them got to split their property with the state. People were given reward money for reporting others who supported him. Many were decapitated and had their heads displayed in the Forum or in the streets as a lesson. The money the state took from these people helped pay for the endless wars Rome fought.

Their relatives were punished as well.

Many say without the earlier proscriptions, Sulla would’ve never gotten away with this.

Instead because it was all normalized, Sulla ruled and later retired in Roman luxury.

The lesson is that when you set new rules or standards, they often boomerang back you in politics. It’s best not to create new standards or rules that you don’t want to have deployed against your side or your loved ones.