Since the time of Gaius Gracchus the government had conceded, as it were, the right of -'emeute- to the proletariate of the capital, and bought it off by regular distributions of corn to the burgesses domiciled there; Sulla abolished these largesses.

Gaius Gracchus had organized and consolidated the order of capitalists by the letting of the tenths and customs of the province of Asia in Rome; Sulla abolished the system of middlemen, and converted the former contributions of the Asiatics into fixed taxes, which were assessed on the several districts according to the valuation-rolls drawn up for the purpose of gathering in the arrears.( 9) Gaius Gracchus had by entrusting the posts of jurymen to men of equestrian census procured for the capitalist class an indirect share in administering and in governing, which proved itself not seldom stronger than the official adminis-tration and government; Sulla abolished the equestrian and restored the senatorial courts.

Gaius Gracchus or at any rate the Gracchan period had conceded to the equites a special place at the popular festivals, such as the senators had for long possessed;( 10) Sulla abolished it and relegated the equites to the plebeian benches.( 11) The equestrian order, created as such by Gaius Gracchus, was deprived of its political existence by Sulla.

The senate was to exercise the supreme power in legislation, administration, and jurisdiction, unconditionally, indivisibly, and permanently, and was to be distinguished also by outward tokens not merely as a privileged, but as the only privileged, order.
Reorganization of the Senate Its Complement Filled Up by Extraordinary Election Admission to the Senate through the Quaestorship Abolition of the Censorial Supervision of the Senate For this purpose the governing board had, first of all, to have its ranks filled up and to be itself placed on a footing of independence.
The numbers of the senators had been fearfully reduced by the recent crises.

Sulla no doubt now gave to those who were exiled by the equestrian courts liberty to return, for instance to the consular Publius Rutilius Rufus,( 12) who however made no use of the permission, and to Gaius Cotta the friend of Drusus;( 13) but this made only slight amends for the gaps which the revolutionary and reactionary reigns of terror had created in the ranks of the senate.