Sulla's proscription was a reprisal campaign by the Roman proconsul and later dictator, Lucius Cornelius Sulla, to eliminate his enemies in the aftermath of his victory in the civil war of 83–82 BC.

Following his victory at the battle of the Colline Gate, Sulla wanted to take his revenge against the former supporters of Marius and Cinna, who had declared him a public enemy in 87 BC. After having obtained a positive vote from a popular assembly, he published two lists with the names of his enemies among senators and equites, the two tiers of the Roman aristocracy. The lists contained 520 names, of which 75 are known. Those on the lists had their lives and property forfeit; rewards were given to those who assassinated the victims. Several henchmen, as well prominent politicians who supported Sulla, massively profited from the proscription, collecting bounties and receiving seized properties at concessionary prices.

The proscription was just one element of the repression organised by Sulla against his enemies. Sulla concurrently ordered many show trials, summary executions, confiscations of property, and even the massacre of the Samnites, but they were not part of the proscription, which only targeted the Roman elite.

The sons of proscribed men were also targeted; they lost their civic rights and were forced into exile. Several attempts were made to rehabilitate the proscribed and their descendants, especially by Julius Caesar, but were mostly unsuccessful. Their full rehabilitation only took place in 49 BC, after Caesar took control of Rome during his civil war.

In 88, Sulla was consul and marched on Rome, deposing and killing one of the tribunes of the plebs and outlawing about ten of his political enemies, including Gaius Marius. The next year, after his consulship, Sulla left Italy for Greece in order to fight against the king of Pontus, Mithridates VI. His enemies Marius and Cinna seized power in his absence after fighting a short war against the Senate and then controlled politics of the Republic for several years. Meanwhile, Sulla won several victories in Greece against Mithridates and rapidly concluded a peace treaty under favourable terms for Pontus. In 83, he came back to Italy to fight the Cinno-Marian faction (Marius and Cinna had died in 86 and 84, respectively), whom he decisively defeated at battle of the Colline Gate on 1 November 82. While Sulla did not bear grudge against men who had served under Cinna but joined him when he returned, he would be merciless against his unrepentant enemies.

Sulla was appointed dictator rei publicae constituendae ("Dictator for the Reconstitution of the Republic").

Sulla drew up a list of those he considered enemies of the state. Initially, Sulla wanted to obtain a vote from the senate on his proscription, but during the session that took place on 2 November 82 in the Temple of Bellona, the senate rejected his proposal. This temple was located outside of the pomerium, the sacred boundary of Rome, so Sulla could retain his imperium (which he would have lost if he had entered the pomerium). This meeting of the senate took place next to the slaughter of the Samnite prisoners captured after the battle of the Colline Gate in the nearby villa publica, and whose shouts could probably be heard by senators. Sulla's bill was opposed by both moderate senators, such as the Julii Caesares, who were horrified by Sulla's ongoing massacre, and extremists like Marcus Licinius Crassus, who would have been limited by the scope of the proscription. Indeed, the victims would have been named in the law, preventing men like Crassus from launching indiscriminate purges.

The following day, Sulla countered his failure in the senate by calling a popular assembly, which approved the proscription. A first list of proscribed was immediately published under the form of an edict. It comprised 80 names, made of the most important of Sulla's enemies sorted by rank. The four remaining Marians of consular rank were listed first, including the consuls for 82. The first name on the list was Gnaeus Papirius Carbo, then Marius the Younger (consuls for 82), Gaius Norbanus, and Lucius Cornelius Scipio Asiagenus (consuls for 83). The following names were the praetors, starting with the most recent ones, then the tribunes of the plebs and active Marians. Almost every magistrate elected since Sulla's departure from Italy in 88 was targeted. A second list counting 440 names was published in two equal parts on 5 and 6 November. The lists were personally composed by Sulla and definitive. Nobody could be struck off the lists.