[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

I think I need to read more about him.

A complicated man, indeed, in a complicated time which our days come increasingly to resemble. The novels are excellent, and take history through the days of Caesar, including the time of your namesake father. They were recommended by Newt Gingrich, in the heady days of 1995.

[Avoiding_Sulla]

A complicated man, indeed, in a complicated time which our days come increasingly to resemble. [emphasis added]

Oh, we have endured civil war after civil war?
We have our own armies roaming the countryside deciding who's with 'em and who's against?
We have a dictator in the seat of power proscribing enemies left and right?

Now you've gone overboard. That's not pessimism, it's excessive melodrama.

I don't think even semper has gone quite that far in describing our current plight. (Well, the dictatorial rule, maybe.)

My profile page is a bit more explicit than yours as to what we have to worry about on the homefront.
The world situation is grave but not lost.
And we've got a loving God that Sulla didn't know he had. Despair is a major sin is it not?