Sulla's constitutional reforms did not occur in a vacuum. Over the period from the violent death of Tiberius Gracchus in 133, Roman republican politics were becoming increasingly violent and discordant; at various times, force was used against political opponents to suppress political opposition. Shortly before Sulla's first consulship in 88, the Romans fought the bloody Social War against their Italian allies, victorious mostly due to their immediate concession on the Italians' main war goal of gaining Roman citizenship. During his consulship in 88, Sulla had marched his army on Rome as consul and deposed the plebeian tribune Publius Sulpicius Rufus by force after Sulpicius induced the Assembly to reassign Sulla's command in the First Mithridatic War to Gaius Marius. The cause of Sulla's first march on Rome was a secondary issue in the politics of the day: Sulpicius had brought the bill to reassign the Mithridatic command to curry favour with Marius to support granting the Italians full citizenship rights in the aftermath of the Social War. After marching on the city, Sulla drove a number of politicians, including Marius, into exile under threat of death and left for the east to fight Mithridates.