Sulla

Sulla rose during the war against Jugurtha, capturing the Numidian king though Marius claimed the glory, then fought Germanic tribes and Italian rebels, winning the Grass Crown at Nola. Elected consul in 88 BC, he lost command of the eastern war to a political deal, so he marched his legions into Rome - the first general to do it - and drove out Marius and his allies. While Sulla crushed Mithridates at Chaeronea and Orchomenos, Marius and Cinna seized Rome and declared him an enemy; by the time he returned in 82 BC both were dead, and he destroyed their successors at the Colline Gate. He revived the dormant dictatorship, enacted proscriptions, reformed the constitution to restore senatorial power and curb the tribunes, then resigned in 80 BC and retired. He died in 78 BC, having proved that a general with loyal troops could rewrite the rules and leave on his own terms.