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Plutarch's Lives

Translated by Aubrey Stewart and George Long
Volume II

Index

LIFE OF SULLA

I. Lucius Cornelius Sulla,[162] by birth, belonged to the Patricians, whom we may consider as corresponding to the Eupatridæ. Among his ancestors is enumerated Rufinus,[163] [Pg 318]who became consul; but is less noted for attaining this honour than for the infamy which befell him. He was detected in possessing above ten pounds' weight of silver plate, which amount the law did not permit, and he was ejected from the Senate. His immediate descendants continued in a mean condition, and Sulla himself was brought up with no great paternal property. When he was a young man he lived in lodgings, for which he paid some moderate sum, which he was afterwards reproached with, when he was prospering beyond his deserts, as some thought. It was after the Libyan expedition, when he was assuming airs of importance and a haughty tone, that a man of high rank and character said to him, How can you be an honest man who are now so rich, and yet your father left you nothing? For though the Romans no longer remained true to their former integrity and purity of morals, but had declined from the old standard, and let in luxury and expense among them, they still considered it equally a matter of reproach for a man to have wasted the property that he once had, and not to remain as poor as his ancestors. Subsequently when Sulla was in the possession of power and was putting many to death, a man of the class of Libertini, who was suspected of concealing a proscribed person, and for this offence was going to be thrown down the Tarpeian rock, reproached Sulla with the fact that they had lived together for some time in one house; that he had paid two thousand sestertii for his lodgings, which were in the upper part of the house, and Sulla three thousand for the lower rooms; and, consequently, that between their fortunes there was only the difference of a thousand sestertii, which is equivalent to two hundred and fifty Attic drachmæ. This is what is recorded of Sulla's early condition.

II. As for his person, we may judge of it by his statues, except his eyes and complexion. His eyes were an uncommonly pure and piercing blue, which the colour of [Pg 319]his face rendered still more terrific, being spotted with rough red blotches, interspersed with the white; from which circumstance, it is said, he got his name Sulla, which had reference to his complexion; and one of the Athenian satirists[164] in derision made the following verse in allusion to it:

"Sulla is a mulberry besprinkled with meal."

It is not out of place to avail ourselves of such traits of a man who is said to have had so strong a natural love of buffoonery, that when he was still young and of no repute, he spent his time and indulged himself among mimi[165] and jesters; and when he was at the head of the state, he daily got together from the scena and the theatre the lewdest persons, with whom he would drink and enter into a contest of coarse witticisms, in which he had no regard to his age, and, besides degrading the dignity of his office, he neglected many matters that required attention. It was not Sulla's habit when he was at table to trouble himself about anything serious, but though he was energetic and rather morose at other times, he underwent a complete change as soon as he went into company and was seated at an entertainment, for he was then exceedingly complaisant to singers of mimi and dancers, and easy of access and affable. This habit of relaxation seems to have produced in him the vice of being exceedingly addicted to women and that passion for enjoyment which stuck to him to his old age. In his youth he was for a [Pg 320]long time attached to one Metrobius,[166] an actor. The following incident also happened to him:—He formed an attachment to a woman named Nicopolis, who was of mean condition, but rich, and from long familiarity and the favour which he found on account of his youth, he came to be considered as a lover, and when the woman died she left him her heir. He also succeeded to the inheritance of his step-mother, who loved him as her own son; and in this way he acquired a moderate fortune.

III. On being appointed Quæstor to Marius in his first consulship, he sailed with him to Libya, to prosecute the war against Jugurtha.[167] In this campaign he showed himself a man of merit, and by availing himself of a favourable opportunity he made a friend of Bocchus, king of the Numidians. Some ambassadors of Bocchus who had escaped from Numidian robbers were hospitably received by Sulla, and sent back with presents and a safe conduct. Now Bocchus happened for some time to have disliked his son-in-law Jugurtha, whom he was also afraid of; and as Jugurtha had been defeated by the Romans and had fled to Bocchus, he formed a design to make him his prisoner and deliver him to his enemies; but as he wished Sulla to be the agent rather than himself, he invited Sulla to come and see him. Sulla communicated the message to Marius, and, taking a few soldiers with him, ventured on the hazardous enterprise of putting himself in the hands of a barbarian who never kept his faith even with his friends, and this for the purpose of having another man betrayed to him. Bocchus, having got both of them in his power, was under the necessity of being treacherous to one of them, and after great fluctuations in his resolution, he finally carried into effect his original perfidious design, and surrendered Jugurtha to Sulla. Marius enjoyed the triumph for the capture of Jugurtha, but the honour of the success was given to Sulla through dislike of Marius, which caused Marius some uneasiness; for Sulla was naturally of an arrogant disposition, and as this was the first occasion, on which [Pg 321]he had been raised from a mean condition and obscurity to be of some note among his fellow-citizens, and had tasted the sweets of distinction, he carried his pride so far as to have a seal-ring cut, on which the occurrence was represented, and he wore it constantly. The subject represented was Bocchus surrendering and Sulla receiving the surrender of Jugurtha.

IV. Though Marius was annoyed at this, yet as he still thought Sulla beneath his jealousy, he employed him in his campaigns—in his second consulship in the capacity of legate, and in his third consulship as tribune;[168] and by his instrumentality Marius effected many important objects. In his capacity of legate Sulla took Copillius, king of the Tectosages;[169] and when he was a tribune he persuaded the powerful and populous nation of the Marsi[170] to become friends and allies to Rome. But now perceiving that Marius was jealous of him, and was no longer willing to give him the opportunity of distinguishing himself, but opposed his further rise, Sulla attached himself to Catulus, the colleague of Marius, who was an honest man, but inactive as a soldier. Sulla being entrusted by Catulus with all matters of the greatest moment, thus attained both influence and reputation. In his military operations he reduced a large part of the Alpine barbarians; and on one occasion, when there was a scarcity of provisions in the camp, he undertook to supply the want, which he did so effectually that the soldiers of Catulus had not only abundance for themselves, but were enabled to relieve the army of Marius. This, as Sulla himself says, greatly annoyed Marius. Now this enmity, so slight and childish in its foundation and [Pg 322]origin, was continued through civil war and the inveterate animosity of faction, till it resulted in the establishment of a tyranny and the complete overthrow of the constitution; which shows that Euripides[171] was a wise man and well acquainted with the diseases incident to states, when he warned against ambition, as the most dangerous and the worst of dæmons to those who are governed by her.

V. Sulla now thought that his military reputation entitled him to aspire to a political career, and accordingly as soon as the campaign was ended he began to seek the favour of the people, and became a candidate for the prætorship; but he was disappointed in his expectations. He attributed his failure to the populace, for he says that they knew he was a friend of Bocchus, and if he filled the office of ædile before that of prætor, they expected to have brilliant hunting exhibitions and fights of Libyan[172] wild beasts, and that therefore they elected others to the prætorship, with the view of forcing him to serve as ædile. But that Sulla does not state the real cause of his failure appears evident from what followed. In the next year he obtained the prætorship, having gained the votes of the people, partly by solicitation and partly by bribery. It was in allusion to this, and during his prætorship when he was [Pg 323]threatening Cæsar[173] to use his own authority against him, that Cæsar replied with a laugh, You are right in considering your authority as your own, for you bought it. After the expiration of his prætorship he was sent to Cappadocia, for the purpose, as it was given out, of restoring Ariobarzanes[174] to his power, but in reality to check Mithridates,[175] who was very active and was acquiring new territory and dominion as extensive as what he already had. Sulla took with him no large force of his own, but meeting with zealous co-operation on the part of the allies, he slaughtered a great number of the Cappadocians, and on another occasion a still greater number of Armenians who had come to the relief of the Cappadocians, drove out Gordius, and declared Ariobarzanes king. While he was staying near the Euphrates, the Parthian general Orobazus, a commander of King Arsaces,[176] had an inter[Pg 324]view with him, which was the first occasion on which the two nations met; and this also may be considered as one of the very fortunate events in Sulla's successful career, that he was the first Roman to whom the Parthians addressed themselves in their request for an alliance and friendship with Rome. Sulla is said to have had three chairs placed, one for Ariobarzanes, another for Orobazus, and a third for himself, on which he took his seat between the two, while the business was transacted. The king of the Parthians is said to have put Orobazus to death for submitting to this indignity; as to Sulla, some commended him for his haughty treatment of the barbarians, while others blamed him for his arrogance and ill-timed pride. It is said there was a man among the attendants of Orobazus, a Chaldæan,[177] who examined the countenance of Sulla and observed the movements of his mind and body, not as an idle spectator, but studying his character according to the principles of his art, and he declared that of necessity that man must become the first of men, and he wondered that he could endure not to be the first already. On his return to Rome Censorinus[178] instituted proceedings against Sulla on the charge of having received large sums of money, contrary to express law, from a king who was a friend and ally of the Romans. Censorinus did not bring the matter to a trial, but gave up the prosecution.

VI. His quarrel with Marius was kindled anew by fresh matter supplied by the ostentation of King Bocchus, who, with the view of flattering the Roman people and pleasing Sulla, dedicated in the Capitol some figures bearing [Pg 325]trophies, and by the side of them placed a gilded figure of Jugurtha being surrendered by himself to Sulla. Marius was highly incensed and attempted to take the figures down, while others were ready to support Sulla, and the city was all but in a flame through the two factions, when the Social War which had long smouldered burst forth in a blaze upon Rome and stopped the civil discord. In this most serious war, which was attended with many variations of fortune, and brought on the Romans the greatest misery and the most formidable dangers, Marius by his inability to accomplish anything of importance showed that military excellence requires bodily vigour and strength: but Sulla by his great exploits obtained among his own citizens the reputation of a great commander, among his friends the reputation of the very greatest, and among his enemies too the reputation of the most fortunate of generals. Sulla did not behave like Timotheus[179] the son of Konon, whose success was attributed by his enemies to fortune, and they had paintings made in which he was represented asleep while Fortune was throwing a net over the cities, all which he took in a very boorish way, and got into a passion with his enemies, as if they were thus attempting to deprive him of the honour due to his exploits; and on one occasion, returning from a successful expedition, he said to the people, "Well, Fortune has had no share in this campaign, at least, Athenians." Now, as the story goes, Fortune[180] showed her spite to Timotheus [Pg 326]in return for his arrogance, and he never did anything great afterwards, but failing in all his undertakings and becoming odious to the people, he was at last banished from the city. But Sulla by gladly accepting such felicitations on his prosperity and such admiration, and even contributing to strengthen these notions and to invest them with somewhat of a sacred character, made all his exploits depend on Fortune; whether it was that he did this for the sake of display, or because he really had such opinions of the deity. Indeed he has recorded in his memoirs, that the actions which he resolved upon without deliberation, and on the spur of the moment, turned out more successfully than those which appeared to have been best considered. And again, from the passage in which he says that he was made more for fortune than for war, he appears to attribute more to fortune than to his merit, and to consider himself completely as the creature of the dæmon;[181] nay, he cites as a [Pg 327]proof of good fortune due to the favour of the gods his harmony with Metellus, a man of the same rank [Pg 328]with himself, and his father-in-law, for he expected that Metellus would cause him a good deal of trouble, whereas [Pg 329]he was a most accommodating colleague.[182] Further, in his memoirs which he dedicated to Lucullus, he advises him to think nothing so safe as what the dæmon enjoins during the night. When he was leaving the city with his troops for the Social War, as he tells us in his memoirs, a great chasm opened in the earth near Laverna,[183] from which a quantity of fire burst forth, and a bright flame rose like a column to the skies. The diviners said that a brave man, of an appearance different from and superior to ordinary men, would obtain the command and relieve the city from its present troubles, Sulla says this man [Pg 330]was himself, for the golden colour of his hair was a peculiarity in his personal appearance, and that he had no diffidence about bearing testimony to his own merits after so many illustrious exploits. So much as to his religious opinions. As to the other parts of his character, he was irregular and inconsistent: he would take away much, and give more; he would confer honours without any good reason, and do a grievous wrong with just as little reason; he courted those whose assistance he wanted, and behaved with arrogance to those who wanted his aid; so that one could not tell whether he had naturally more haughtiness or subserviency. For as to his inconsistency in punishing, sometimes inflicting death for the slightest matters, and at others quietly bearing the greatest wrongs, his ready reconciliations with his deadly enemies, and his prosecution of slight and trifling offences with death and confiscation of property—all this may be explained on the supposition that he was naturally of a violent and vindictive temper, but sometimes moderated his passion upon calculations of interest. During this Social War his soldiers killed with sticks and stones a man of Prætorian rank, who was his legatus, Albinus[184] by name, an outrage which Sulla overlooked, and made no inquiry about: he went so far as to say, with apparent seriousness, that the soldiers would bestir themselves the more in the war and make amends for their fault by their courage. As to any blame that was imputed to him, he cared not for it; but having already formed the design of overthrowing the power of Marius and of getting himself appointed to the command against Mithridates, as the Social War was now considered at an end, he endeavoured to ingratiate himself with his army. On coming to Rome he was elected consul with Quintus Pompeius[185] for his colleague, being now fifty years of age, and he formed a [Pg 331]distinguished matrimonial alliance with Cæcilia,[186] the daughter of Metellus,[187] the chief Pontifex. This gave occasion to the populace to assail him with satirical songs; and many of the highest class were displeased at the marriage, as if they did not think him worthy of such a wife, whom they had judged to be worthy of the consulship, as Titus Livius[188] remarks. Cæcilia was not the only wife that Sulla had. When he was a very young man he married Ilia, who bore him a daughter; his second wife was Ælia; and his third wife was Clœlia, whom he divorced on the ground of barrenness, yet in a manner honourable to the lady, with an ample testimony to her virtues and with presents. But as he married Metella a few days after, it was believed that his alleged ground of divorce was merely a pretext. However, he always paid great respect to Metella, which induced the Romans, when they wished to recall from exile the partisans of Marius, and Sulla refused his assent, to apply to Metella to intercede for them. After the capture of Athens also, it was supposed that he treated the citizens with more severity, because they had cast aspersions upon Metella from their walls. But of this hereafter.

VII. Sulla looked on the consulship as only a small matter compared with what he expected to attain: the great object of his desires was the command in the war against Mithridates. But he had a rival in Marius, who was moved by an insane love of distinction and by ambition, passions which never grow old in a man, for though he was now unwieldy and had done no service in the late campaigns by reason of his age, he still longed for the [Pg 332]command in a distant war beyond the seas. While Sulla was with the army completing some matters that still remained to be finished, Marius kept at home and hatched that most pestilent faction which did more mischief to Rome than all her wars; and indeed the deity[189] showed by signs what was coming. Fire spontaneously blazed from the wooden shafts which supported the military standards, and was quenched with difficulty; and three crows brought their young into the public road, and after devouring them, carried the fragments back to their nest. The mice in a temple gnawed the gold which was kept there, and the keeper of the temple caught one of the mice, a female, in a trap, which produced in the trap five young ones, and devoured three of them. But what was chief of all, from a cloudless and clear sky there came the sound of a trumpet, so shrill and mournful, that by reason of the greatness thereof men were beside themselves and crouched for fear. The Tuscan seers interpreted this to portend the commencement of a new period, and a general change. They say that there are in all eight periods, which differ in mode of life and habits altogether from one another, and to each period is assigned by the deity a certain number of years determined by the revolution of a great year. When a period is completed, the commencement of another is indicated by some wondrous sign on the earth or from the heavens, so as to make it immediately evident to those who attend to such matters and have studied them, that men are now adopting other habits and modes of life, and are less or more an object of care to the gods than the men of former periods. They say, in the change from one period to another there are great alterations, and that the art of the seer at one time is held in high repute, and is successful in its predictions, when the deity gives clear and manifest signs, but that in the course of another period the art falls into a low condition, being for the most part conjectural, and attempting to know the future by equivocal and misty signs. Now this is what the Tuscan wise men said, who are supposed to know more of such [Pg 333]things than anybody else. While the senate was communicating on these omens with the seers, in the temple of Bellona,[190] a sparrow flew in before the whole body with a grasshopper in his mouth, part of which he dropped, and the rest he carried off with him out of the place. From this the interpreters of omens apprehended faction and divisions between the landholders on the one side and the city folk and the merchant class on the other, for the latter were loud and noisy like a grasshopper, but the owners of land kept quiet on their estates.

VIII. Now Marius contrived to gain over the tribune Sulpicius,[191] a man without rival in any kind of villainy, and so one need not inquire whom he surpassed in wickedness, but only wherein he surpassed himself. For in him were combined cruelty, audacity, and rapaciousness, without any consideration of shame or of any crime, inasmuch as he sold the Roman citizenship to libertini[192] and resident aliens, and publicly received the money at a table in the Forum. He maintained three thousand men armed with daggers, and also a number of young men of the equestrian class always about him, and ready for anything, whom he called the Opposition Senate. He caused a law to be passed that no Senator should contract debt[193] to the amount of more than two thousand drachmæ, and yet at his death he left behind him a debt[193] of three millions. This man being let loose upon the people by Marius, and putting everything into a state of confusion by violence and force of arms, framed various pernicious laws, and among them that which gave to Marius the command in the Mithridatic war. The consuls accordingly [Pg 334]declared a cessation[194] of all public business; but while they were holding a meeting of the people near the temple of Castor and Pollux, Sulpicius with his rabble attacked them, and among many others massacred the youthful son of Pompeius in the Forum; Pompeius only escaped by hiding himself. Sulla was pursued into the house of Marius, from which he was compelled to come out and repeal the edict for the cessation of public business; and it was for this reason that Sulpicius, though he deprived Pompeius of his office, did not take the consulship from Sulla, but, merely transferred the command of the Mithridatic war to Marius, and sent some tribunes forthwith to Nola to take the army and lead it to Marius.

IX. But Sulla made his escape to the camp before the tribunes arrived, and the soldiers hearing of what had passed, stoned them to death; upon which the partisans of Marius murdered the friends of Sulla who were in the city, and seized their property. This caused many persons to betake themselves to flight, some going to the city from the camp, and others from the camp to the city. The Senate was not its own master, but was compelled to obey the orders of Marius and Sulpicius; and on hearing that Sulla was marching upon Rome, they sent to him two of the prætors, Brutus and Servilius, to forbid him to advance any further. The prætors, who assumed a bold tone before Sulla, narrowly escaped being murdered; as it was, the soldiers broke their fasces, stripped them of their senatorial dress, and sent them back with every insult. It caused dejection in the city to see the prætors return without their insignia of office, and to hear them report that the commotion could not be checked, and was past all remedy. Now the partisans of Marius were making their preparations, while Sulla with his colleague and six complete legions was moving from Nola; he saw that the army was ready to march right to the city, but he had some hesitation himself, and feared the risk.[195] However upon [Pg 335]Sulla making a sacrifice, the seer Postumius, after inspecting the signs, stretched out his hands to Sulla and urged him to put him in chains and keep him a prisoner till the battle took place, declaring that if everything did not speedily turn out well, he was ready to be put to death. It is said also that Sulla in his sleep had a vision of the goddess, whose worship the Romans had learned from the Cappadocians, whatever her name may be, Selene,[196] Athena, or Enyo. Sulla dreamed that the goddess stood by him and put a thunderbolt into his hand, and as she named each of his enemies bade him dart the bolt at them, which he did, and his enemies were struck to the ground and destroyed. Being encouraged by the dream, which he communicated to his colleague, at daybreak Sulla led his forces against Rome. When he was near Picinæ[197] he was met by a deputation which entreated him not to march forthwith against the city, for all justice would be done pursuant to a resolution of the Senate. Sulla consented to encamp there, and ordered the officers to measure out the ground for the encampment, according to the usual practice, and the deputation went away trusting to his promise. But as soon as they were gone, Sulla sent Lucius Bacillus and Caius Mummius, who seized the gate and that part of the walls which surrounds the Esquiline hill, and Sulla set out to join them with all speed. Bacillus and his soldiers broke into the city and attempted to gain possession of it, but the people in large numbers, being unarmed, mounted the house-tops, and by pelting the soldiers with tiles and stones stopped their further progress, and drove them back to the wall. In the mean time Sulla had come up, and seeing how matters stood, he called out that the houses must be fired, and taking a flaming torch, he was the first to advance: he also ordered the bowmen to shoot firebrands, and to aim [Pg 336]at the roofs; in which he acted without any rational consideration, giving way to passion, and surrendering the direction of his enterprize to revenge, for he saw before him only his enemies, and without thought or pity for his friends and kinsmen, would force his way into Rome with the help of flames, which know no distinction between the guilty and the innocent. While this was going on, Marius, who had been driven as far as the temple of Earth,[198] invited the slaves to join him by offering them their freedom, but being overpowered by his enemies who pressed on him, he left the city.

X. Sulla assembled the Senate, who condemned[199] to death Marius and a few others, among whom was the tribune Sulpicius. Sulpicius was put to death, being betrayed by a slave, to whom Sulla gave his freedom, and then ordered him to be thrown down the Tarpeian rock: he set a price on the head of Marius, which was neither a generous nor a politic measure, as Marius had shortly before let Sulla off safe when Sulla put himself into his power by going to the house of Marius. Now if Marius had not let Sulla go, but had given him up to Sulpicius to be put to death, he might have secured the supreme power; but he spared Sulla; and yet a few days after, when Sulla had the same opportunity, Marius did not obtain from him a like return. The conduct of Sulla offended the Senate, though they durst not show it; but the dislike of the people and their dissatisfaction were made apparent to him by their acts. They contemptuously rejected Nonius, the son of Sulla's sister, and Servius, who were candidates for offices, and elected those whose elevation they thought would be most disagreeable to Sulla. But Sulla pretended to be pleased at this, and to view it as a proof that the people, by doing what they liked, were really indebted to him for their liberty; and for the purpose of diminishing his general unpopularity [Pg 337]he managed the election of Lucius Cinna,[200] who was of the opposite faction, to the consulship, having first bound him by solemn imprecations and oaths to favour his measures. Cinna ascended the Capitol with a stone in his hand and took the oath; then pronouncing an imprecation on himself, that, if he did not keep faithful to Sulla, he might be cast out of the city as the stone from his hand, he hurled it to the ground in the presence of a large number of persons. But as soon as Cinna had received the consulship, he attempted to disturb the present settlement of affairs, and prepared to institute a process against Sulla, and induced Virginius, one of the tribunes, to be the accuser; but Sulla,[201] without caring for him or the court, set out with his army against Mithridates.

XI. It is said that about the time when Sulla was conducting his armament from Italy, many omens occurred to Mithridates, who was staying in Pergamum, and that a Victory, bearing a crown, which the people of Pergamum were letting down upon him by some machinery from above, was broken in pieces just as it was touching his head, and the crown falling upon the theatre, came to the ground and was destroyed, which made the spectators shudder and greatly dispirited Mithridates, though his affairs were then going on favourably beyond all expectation. For he had taken Asia[202] from the Romans, and [Pg 338]Bithynia and Cappadocia from their kings, and had fixed himself at Pergamum, where he was distributing wealth and provinces and kingdoms among his friends; one of his sons also held without any opposition the ancient dominions in Pontus, and the Bosporus[203] as far as the uninhabited regions beyond the Mæotis; Ariarathes[204] occupied Thrace and Macedonia with a large army; and his generals with their forces were subduing other places. Archelaus,[205] the greatest of his generals, was master of all the sea with his navy, and was subjugating the Cyclades[206] and all the other islands east of Malea, and had already [Pg 339]taken Eubœa, while with his army, advancing from Athens as his starting-point, he was gaining over all the nations of Greece as far north as Thessaly, and had only sustained a slight check near Chæroneia. For there he was met by Bruttius Sura,[207] a legatus of Sentius, prætor of Macedonia, and a man of signal courage and prudence. Archelaus was sweeping through Bœotia like a torrent, when he was vigorously opposed by Sura, who, after fighting three battles near Chæroneia, repulsed him and drove him back to the coast. On receiving orders from Lucius Lucullus[208] to make room for Sulla, who was coming, and to allow him to carry on the war, for which he had received his commission, Sura immediately left Bœotia and went back to Sentius, though he had succeeded beyond his expectations, and Greece was well disposed to change sides on account of his great merit. However, these exploits of Bruttius were very brilliant.

XII. Now all the rest of the Grecian cities immediately sent deputations to Sulla and invited him to enter; but against Athens, which was compelled by the tyrant Aristion[209] to be on the king's side, he directed all his [Pg 340]energies; he also hemmed in and blockaded the Peiræus,[210] employing every variety of engine and every mode of attack. If he had waited a short time, he might have taken the Upper City without danger, for through want of provisions it was reduced by famine to extreme necessity; but anxious to return to Rome, and fearing a new revolution there, at great risk fighting many battles and at great cost he urged on the war, wherein, besides the rest of the expenditure, the labour about the military engines required ten thousand pair of mules to be daily employed on this service. As wood began to fail, owing to many of the works being destroyed by their own weight, and burnt by the incessant fires thrown by the enemy, Sulla laid his hands on the several groves and levelled the trees in the Academia,[211] which was the best wooded of the suburbs, and those in the Lycæum. And as he wanted money also for the war, he violated the sacred depositaries of Greece, sending for the finest and most costly of the offerings dedicated in Epidaurus[212] and [Pg 341]Olympia. He wrote also to the Amphiktyons[213] to Delphi, saying that it would be better for the treasures of the god to be brought to him, for he would either have them in safer keeping, or, if he used them, he would replace them; and he sent one of his friends, Kaphis, a Phokian, to receive all the things after they were first weighed. Kaphis went to Delphi, but he was afraid to touch the sacred things, and in the presence of the Amphiktyons he deeply lamented the task that was imposed on him. Upon some of them saying that they heard the lute in the shrine send forth a sound, Kaphis either believing what they said or wishing to inspire Sulla with some religious fear, sent him this information. But Sulla replied in a scoffing tone, he wondered Kaphis did not understand that such music was a sign of pleasure and not of anger, and [Pg 342]he bade him take courage and seize the property, as the deity was quite willing, and in fact offered it. Now all the things were secretly sent off unobserved by most of the Greeks; but the silver jar, one of the royal presents which still remained, could not be carried away by the beasts of burden owing to its weight and size, and the Amphiktyons were accordingly obliged to cut it in pieces; and this led them to reflect that Titus Flamininus,[214] and Manius Acilius, and also Æmilius Paulus—Acilius, who drove Antiochus out of Greece; and the two others, who totally defeated the kings of Macedonia—not only refrained from touching the Greek temples, but even gave them presents and showed them great honour and respect. These generals, however, were legally appointed to command troops consisting of well-disciplined soldiers, who had been taught to obey their leaders without a murmur: and the commanders themselves were men of kingly souls, and moderate in their living and satisfied with a small fixed expenditure, and they thought it baser to attempt to win the soldiers' favour than to fear their enemies. But the generals at this time, as they acquired their rank by violence and not by merit, and had more occasion to employ arms against one another than against the enemies of Rome, were compelled to act the demagogue while they were in command; and by purchasing the services of the soldiers by the money which they expended to gratify them, they made the Roman state a thing for bargain and sale, and themselves the slaves of the vilest wretches in order that they might domineer over honest men. This is what drove Marius into exile, and then brought him back to oppose Sulla; this made Cinna the murderer of Octavius,[215] and Fimbria[216] the murderer of [Pg 343]Flaccus. And Sulla mainly laid the foundation of all this by his profusion and expenditure upon his own soldiers, the object of which was to corrupt and gain over to his side the soldiers of other commanders; so that his attempts to seduce the troops of others and the extravagance by which his own soldiers were corrupted, made money always necessary to him; and most particularly during the siege of Athens.

XIII. Now Sulla was seized with a violent and irresistible desire to take Athens, whether it was that he was ambitious to contend against a city which retained only the shadow of its former glory, or that he was moved by passion to revenge the scoffs and jeers with which the tyrant Aristion irritated him and his wife Metella, by continually taunting them from the wall and insulting them. This Aristion was a compound of lewdness and cruelty, who combined in himself all the worst of the vices and passions of Mithridates, and now had brought as it were a mortal disease in its last extremities upon a city which had come safe out of so many wars and escaped from so many tyrannies and civil commotions. For now when a medimnus[217] of wheat was selling for a thousand drachmæ in the Upper City, and men were obliged to eat the parthenium[218] that grew about the Acropolis, and shoes and oil-flasks, he was drinking all day long and amusing himself with revels and pyrrhic dances, and making jokes at the enemy: he let the sacred light of the goddess go out for want of oil; when the hierophant sent to ask for the twelfth part of a medimnus of wheat, he sent her as much pepper; and when the members of the Senate and the priests entreated him to have pity on the city and [Pg 344]come to terms with Sulla, he dispersed them by ordering the archers to fire on them. At last being persuaded with great difficulty, he sent two or three of his boon companions to treat of peace; but instead of making any reasonable proposals, the men began to make a pompous harangue about Theseus and Eumolpus, and the Persian wars, on which Sulla said, "Be gone, my good fellows, with your fine talk. I was not sent to Athens by the Romans to learn a lesson, but to compel rebels to submit."

XIV. In the mean time, as the story goes, some soldiers in the Keramicus[219] overheard certain old men talking to one another, and abusing the tyrant for not guarding the approach to the wall about the Heptachalkum, which was the only part, they said, where it was practicable and easy for the enemy to get over; and the soldiers reported to Sulla what they heard. Sulla did not neglect the intelligence, but he went to the spot by night, and seeing that it was practicable, he set about the thing forthwith. He says in his Memoirs that the first man who mounted the wall was Marcus Teius,[220] who, finding a soldier in his way, struck him a violent blow on the helmet, which broke his sword; still Marcus did not retreat, but kept his ground. The city then was taken from this quarter, as the old Athenians said it might be. Sulla having destroyed and levelled that part of the wall which lies between the Peiræic and the Sacred[221] Gate, about midnight entered the city, striking terror with the sound of trumpets and horns, and the shouts and cries of the soldiers, who had his full licence to plunder and kill, and made their way through the streets with naked swords. The slain were not counted, but the number is even now measured by the [Pg 345]space over which the blood flowed. For besides those who were slaughtered in the other parts of the city, the blood of those who fell about the Agora[222] covered all the Keramicus within Dipylum: many say that it even flowed through the gates and deluged the suburbs. But though the number of those who perished by the sword was so great, as many killed themselves for sorrow and regret at the overthrow of their native city. For all the most honest citizens were driven to despair, expecting in Sulla neither humanity nor moderation. But, however, when Meidias and Kalliphon, who were exiles, fell down at his knees with entreaties, and the Senators who were in his army urged him to save the city, being now sated with vengeance and passing some encomiums upon the ancient Athenians, he said he would pardon the many for the sake of the few, and the living for the sake of the dead. Sulla states in his Memoirs, that he took Athens on the Calends of March,[223] which day nearly coincides with the new moon of Anthesterion, in which month it happens that the Athenians perform many ceremonies in commemoration of the great damage and loss occasioned by the heavy rain, for they suppose that the deluge happened pretty nearly about that time. When the city was taken the tyrant retreated to the Acropolis, where he was besieged by Curio, who was commissioned for this purpose: after he had held out for some time, Aristion was compelled to surrender for want of water; his surrender was immediately followed by a token from the deity, for on the very day and hour on which Curio took the tyrant from the Acropolis, the clouds gathered in the clear sky, and a violent shower descended which filled the Acropolis with water. Sulla soon took the Peiræus also, and burnt [Pg 346]the greater part of it, including the arsenal of Philo,[224] which was a wonderful work.

XV. In the mean time Taxiles, the general of Mithridates, coming down from Thrace and Macedonia with one hundred thousand foot, ten thousand horse, and ninety scythe-bearing four-horse chariots, summoned Archelaus, who was still lying with his ships near Munychia,[225] and was neither inclined to give up the sea nor ready to engage with the Romans: his plan was to protract the war and to cut off the supplies of the enemy. But Sulla was as quick as Archelaus, and moved into Bœotia from a niggardly region, which even in time of peace could not have maintained his troops. Most people thought that he had made a false calculation in leaving Attica, which is a rough country and ill adapted for the movements of cavalry, to throw himself into the champaign and open tracts of Bœotia, when he knew that the strength of the barbarians lay in their chariots and cavalry. But in his flight from famine and scarcity, as I have already observed, he was compelled to seek the hazard of a battle. Besides, he was alarmed for Hortensius,[226] a skilful general and a man ambitious of distinction, who [Pg 347]was conducting a force from Thessaly to Sulla, and had to pass through the straits where the enemy was waiting for him. For all these reasons Sulla moved into Bœotia. But Kaphis, who was from my town, evading the barbarians by taking a different route from what they expected, led Hortensius over Parnassus, close by Tithora, which was not at that time so large a city as it is now, but only a fort on a steep rock scarped all round, to which place in time of old the Phokians who fled from Xerxes escaped with their property and were there in safety. Hortensius having encamped there during the day repelled the attacks of the enemy, and at night descending to Patronis, through a difficult path joined Sulla, who met him with his forces.

XVI. Having united their forces, Sulla and Hortensius occupied an elevation rising out of the midst of the plains of Elateia,[227] which was fertile and extensive, and had water at its base: it is called Philobœotus, and its natural qualities and position are most highly commended by Sulla. When they were encamped, the weakness of the Roman force was apparent to the enemy; for the cavalry did not exceed fifteen hundred, and the infantry was below fifteen thousand. Accordingly the rest of the generals, against the wish of Archelaus, drew out their forces in order of battle, and filled the plain with horses, chariots, shields, and bucklers; and the heavens could not contain the shouts and cries of so many nations putting themselves in battle array. At the same time the pomp and costly splendour of the troops were not without effect nor their use in causing alarm; but the glittering of the arms, which were curiously ornamented with gold and silver, and the colour of the Median and Scythian dresses mingled with the brightness of the brass and steel, pro[Pg 348]duced a firelike and formidable appearance as the masses moved like waves and changed their places, so that the Romans hid themselves behind their ramparts, and Sulla, being unable by any words to remove their fear, and not choosing to urge men to a battle who were disposed to run away, kept quiet and had to endure the insulting boasts and ridicule of the barbarians. But this turned out most favourable to the Romans; for the enemy despising them, neglected to preserve discipline, and indeed, owing to the number of commanders, the army was not generally inclined to obey orders; a few kept to their post within their ramparts, but the greater part, tempted by the hope of booty and plunder, were dispersed many days' journey from the camp. It is said that they destroyed the city of Panopeus, and plundered Lebadeia, and robbed the oracular shrine without any order from a general. Sulla, who could not endure to see the cities destroyed before his eyes and was greatly irritated, no longer allowed his soldiers to be inactive, but leading them to the Kephisus, he compelled them to divert the stream from its course and to dig ditches, allowing no man any cessation and punishing most severely all who gave in, his object being to tire his soldiers with labour and to induce them to seek danger as a release from it. And it happened as he wished. For on the third day of this labour, as Sulla was passing by, they entreated him with loud shouts to lead them against the enemy. He replied, that they said this not because they wished to fight, but because they disliked labour; but if they really were disposed to fight, he bade them move forthwith with their arms to yonder place, pointing out to them what was formerly the Acropolis of the Parapotamii,[228] but the city was then destroyed and there remained only a rocky precipitous hill, separated from Mount Hedylium by the space occupied by the river Assus, which falling into the Kephisus at the base of the Hedylium and thus becoming [Pg 349]a more rapid stream, makes the Acropolis a safe place for encampment. Sulla also wished to seize the height, as he saw the Chalkaspides[229] of the enemy pressing on towards it, and as his soldiers exerted themselves vigorously, he succeeded in occupying the place. Archelaus, being repelled from this point, advanced towards Chæroneia, upon which the men of Chæroneia who were in Sulla's army entreating him not to let their city fall into the hands of the enemy, he sent Gabinius[230] a tribune, with one legion, and permitted the men of Chæroneia to go also, who, though they had the best intention, could not reach the place before Gabinius: so brave a man he was, and more active in bringing aid than even those who prayed for it. Juba[231] says it was not Gabinius who was sent, but Ericius. However this may be, our city[232] had a narrow escape.

XVII. From Lebadeia[233] and the oracle of Trophonius favourable omens and predictions of victory were sent to the Romans, about which the people of the country have a good deal to say. But Sulla, in the tenth book of his Memoirs, writes, that Quintus Titius, a man of some note among those who had mercantile affairs in Greece, came to him immediately after the victory in Chæroneia, to report that Trophonius foretold a second battle and victory there in a short time. After Titius, a soldier in his army, named Salvenius, brought an answer from the god, as to what would be the result of affairs in Italy. Both reported the same as to the vision[234] of the god: they said, [Pg 350]that in beauty and stature he was like the Olympian Jupiter. After crossing the Assus and advancing to the foot of Hedylium, Sulla encamped near Archelaus, who had thrown up a strong intrenchment between Mounts Akontium and Hedylium, at a place called the Assia. The spot on which he encamped is called Archelaus from his name up to the present day. After the interval of one day Sulla left Murena[235] with one legion and two cohorts, to annoy the enemy if he should attempt to form in order of battle; he himself sacrificed on the banks of the Kephisus, and the victims being favourable, he advanced towards Chæroneia with the object of again effecting a junction with the forces there, and examining the place called Thurium, which was occupied by the enemy. This is a rough summit and a conical-shaped hill, named Orthopagus; and under it is the stream of the Morius and a temple of the Thurian Apollo. The deity has this name from Thuro, the mother of Chæron, who is said to have been the founder of Chæroneia. Some say that the cow which was given by the Pythian Apollo as a guide to Kadmus[236] appeared there, and that the place was so called from her; for the Phœnicians call the cow Thor. As Sulla was approaching Chæroneia, the tribune who was stationed in the city led out the soldiers under arms, and met him with a chaplet of bay. No sooner had Sulla received the chaplet, and after saluting the soldiers, encouraged them to the approaching battle, than two Chæroneians (Homoloichus and Anaxidamos) presented themselves to him and undertook to drive the enemy from Thurium if he would give them a few soldiers. They said there was a path unknown to the barbarians, leading from the place called Petrachus by the Museum[237] to the highest point of Thurium, and that by taking this direction they could, without difficulty, fall on the enemy and either roll stones down upon them from above or drive them into the plain. As Gabinius bore testimony to the courage and fidelity of the men, Sulla bade them [Pg 351]make the attempt; and in the mean time he formed his line and distributed his cavalry on each flank, himself taking the right and giving Murena the command on the left. The legati Galba[238] and Hortensius, with some reserved cohorts in the rear, occupied the neighbouring heights, to prevent the army from being attacked on the flank, for it was observed that the enemy were placing a strong body of cavalry and light infantry on their wings, with the view of adapting that part of their battle to ready and easy manœuvres, their design being to extend their line and to surround the Romans.

XVIII. In the mean time the Chæroneians, whom Sulla had placed under the command of Ericius, went round Thurium without being perceived, and all at once showed themselves to the enemy, who immediately falling into great confusion, took to flight and sustained considerable loss, but chiefly from themselves; for as they did not stand their ground, but ran down the hill, they got entangled among their own spears and shoved one another down the rocks, while the Chæroneians pressing upon them from above, wounded them in the parts which were unprotected; and there fell of the enemy to the number of three thousand. Part of those who got safe to the foot of the hill, being met by Murena, whose troops were already in order of battle, had their retreat cut off and were destroyed: the rest forced their way to the army of Archelaus, and, falling upon the line in disorder, caused a general alarm and confusion, and some loss of time to the generals; and this did them no small harm, for Sulla promptly led his forces against the enemy while they were still in disorder, and by quickly traversing the interval between the two lines, deprived the scythe-bearing chariots[239] of all opportunity of being effective. [Pg 352]The efficacy of the chariots depends mainly on the space they traverse, by which they acquire velocity and momentum; but when the space is small their attack is ineffectual and feeble, just like missiles that have not been propelled with due force. Now this happened to the barbarians. The first chariots were driven on without any vigour, and came feebly against the ranks of the Romans, who easily pushed them aside, and, clapping their hands and laughing, called for more, as the people do in the horse-races of the Circus.[240] Upon this the infantry joined battle; the barbarians pushed forward their long spears and endeavoured by locking their shields to maintain their ranks in line: the Romans hurled their javelins, and then drawing their swords, endeavoured to beat aside the spears, that they might forthwith close with the enemy; for they were irritated at seeing drawn up in front of the enemy fifteen thousand slaves, whom the king's generals had invited from the cities by a proclamation of freedom, and enrolled among the hoplitæ.[241] A Roman centurion is said to have remarked, that slaves had only freedom of speech at the Saturnalia,[242] so far as he knew. Now, owing to the depth of the ranks of these slaves and their close order, it was some time before they could be made to give way before the heavy-armed Roman soldiers, and they also fought with more courage than one expects from a slave; but the missiles from the slings and the light javelins which were showered upon them unsparingly by the Romans in the rear, at last made them turn and put them into complete confusion.

XIX. While Archelaus was extending his right [Pg 353]wing, in order to surround the Romans, Hortensius made his cohorts advance at a run, with the intention of taking the enemy in the flank; but as Archelaus suddenly wheeled round with his two thousand horsemen, Hortensius was overpowered by numbers and retreated towards the mountain region, being gradually separated from the main body of the army and in danger of being completely hemmed in by the barbarians. Sulla, who was on the right wing, which was not yet engaged in the action, hearing of the danger of Hortensius, hastened to relieve him. Archelaus conjecturing from the dust raised by Sulla's troops how the matter was, left Hortensius, and wheeling round moved towards the position which Sulla had quitted (the right), expecting to find the soldiers there without their general, and to defeat them. At the same time Taxiles led the Chalkaspides against Murena; and now the shouts being raised from both armies and re-echoed by the mountains, Sulla halted and hesitated to which quarter he should move. Having determined to maintain his own original position, he sent Hortensius with four cohorts to support Murena, and ordering the fifth to follow him, he hurried to the right wing, which unaided was bravely resisting Archelaus; but as soon as Sulla appeared, the Romans completely broke the line of Archelaus, and pursued the barbarians in disorderly flight to the river and Mount Akontium. However, Sulla did not leave Murena alone in his dangerous position, but hastened to help him. Seeing, however, that the Romans were victorious here also, he joined in the pursuit. Now many of the barbarians were cut down in the plain, but the greatest number were destroyed in the attempt to regain their entrenchments, and only ten thousand out of so large a host made their escape to Chalkis.[243] Sulla says in his Memoirs, that he missed only fourteen of his own soldiers, and that ten of them showed themselves in the evening; in commemoration of which [Pg 354]he inscribed on the trophies, Mars and Victory, and Venus, to signify that he had gained the victory no less through good fortune than skill and courage. One of these trophies, which commemorates the victory in the plain, stands where the soldiers of Archelaus first gave ground in the flight to the Molus:[244] the other is placed on the summit of Thurium, to commemorate the surprise of the barbarians, with a Greek inscription in honour of the courage of Homoloichus and Anaxidamus. Sulla celebrated the festival for the victory in Thebes at the fountain of Oedipus, where he erected a stage. The judges were Greeks invited from the other cities of Greece; for Sulla could not be reconciled to the Thebans; and he took from them half of their lands, which he dedicated to the Pythian Apollo and Olympian Jupiter; and from the revenue of these lands he ordered the sums of money which he had taken from them to be repaid to the deities.

XX. After the battle Sulla received intelligence that Flaccus,[245] who belonged to the opposite faction, was chosen consul, and was crossing the Ionian[246] sea with a force which was said to be designed against Mithridates, but was in fact directed against himself; and accordingly he advanced towards Thessalia to meet Flaccus. He had advanced to the neighbourhood of Meliteia,[247] when reports from all sides reached him that the country in his rear was ravaged by another army of Mithridates as numerous as that which he had dispersed. Dorylaus had landed at Chalkis with a large navy, on board of which he brought [Pg 355]eighty thousand men of the best trained and disciplined troops of Mithridates, and he immediately advanced into Bœotia and occupied the country, being eager to draw Sulla to an engagement, and paying no regard to Archelaus, who dissuaded him from fighting: he even said publicly that so many thousands could never have been destroyed if there had not been treachery. However, Sulla, who quickly returned to Bœotia, showed Dorylaus that Archelaus was a prudent man and had formed a very just estimate of the courage of the Romans; for after a slight skirmish with Sulla near Tilphossium,[248] Dorylaus was himself the first among those who were not for deciding the matter by a battle, but thought it best to prolong the war till the Romans should be exhausted by want of supplies. However, Archelaus was somewhat encouraged by the position of their encampment near Orchomenus, which was very favourable for battle to an army which had the superiority in cavalry; for of all the plains in Bœotia noted for their beauty and extent, this, which commences at the city of Orchomenus, is the only one which spreads without interruption and without any trees, and it reaches to the marshes in which the river Melas[249] is lost. The Melas rises close to Orchomenus, and is the only river of Greece that is a copious and navigable stream at its source; it also increases like the Nile about the summer solstice, and the same plants grow on its banks; but they produce no fruit and do not attain any large size. Its course however is short, for the larger part of the water is soon lost in obscure marshes overgrown with shrubs: a small part joins the Kephisus somewhere about the point where the lake is said to produce the reed that is adapted for making musical pipes.

XXI. The two armies being encamped near one another, Archelaus kept quiet, but Sulla began to dig trenches on [Pg 356]both sides with the view, if possible, of cutting off the enemy from the hard ground and those parts which were favourable to cavalry and driving them into the marshes. However, the barbarians would not endure this, and as soon as their generals allowed them to attack the Romans, they rushed forward with so much vigour and force, that not only were the men dispersed who were working at the trenches, but the greater part of the Roman troops that were drawn up for their protection were involved in the fight. Upon this Sulla leapt down from his horse, and snatching up a standard, made his way through the fugitives towards the enemy, crying out, "For my part, Romans, it is fit I should die here; as for you, when you are asked where you deserted your Imperator, remember to say it was in Orchomenus." These words made the soldiers rally, and two cohorts came to their support from the right wing, which Sulla led against the enemy and put them to flight. He then led his soldiers back a short distance, and after allowing them to take some food, he began again to work at the trenches which were designed to enclose the enemy's camp. The barbarians made another attack in better order than before; in which Diogenes, the son of the wife of Archelaus, fell fighting bravely on the right wing; and the bowmen being hard pressed by the Romans and having no means of retreat, took their arrows altogether in their hands, and using them like swords, struck at the Romans, but, at last they were driven back to their camp, where they spent a wretched night owing to their wounds and great losses. As soon as day dawned Sulla again led his soldiers up to the enemy's encampment and again commenced working at the ditches. The enemy came out in a great force, but Sulla put them to flight, and as no one stood his ground after they were thrown into disorder, Sulla stormed the camp. The swamps and the lake were filled with the blood and bodies of those who fell, and even to the present day many barbarian bows, helmets, and pieces of iron cuirasses and swords are found buried in the marshes, though it is near two hundred[250] years since the battle. Such, according to the [Pg 357]historians, was the battle about Chæroneia and near Orchomenus.

XXII. Cinna and Carbo[251] were now conducting themselves towards the chief men at Rome in an illegal and violent manner, and many flying from their tyranny resorted to the camp of Sulla as a harbour of refuge, so that in a short time a kind of Senate was formed about him. Metella also, who had with difficulty escaped with her children, came and reported that his house and farms were burnt by his enemies, and she entreated him to go to the assistance of his friends at Rome. Sulla was perplexed what to do: he could not endure the thoughts of neglecting his country in her present oppressed condition, nor did he see how he could leave so great an undertaking as the Mithridatic war imperfect. In the meantime there came to him a merchant of Delos,[252] named Archelaus, who secretly brought from Archelaus, the king's general, hopes of peace and certain proposals. Sulla was so well pleased that he was eager for an interview with Archelaus, and they met at Delium on the sea-coast, where the temple of Apollo is. Archelaus, who began the conference, urged Sulla to give up Asia and the Pontus, and to sail to Rome to prosecute the war against his enemies, and he offered him money, ships, and troops on behalf of the king. Sulla in reply advised Archelaus not to trouble himself any further about Mithridates, but to assume the kingly title himself and to become an ally of Rome, and to give up the ships of Mithridates. As Archelaus professed his detestation of such treachery, Sulla said, "You then, Archelaus, who are a Cappadocian, and the slave of a barbarian king, or, if you please, his friend—you refuse to do a base deed for so splendid a reward, and yet venture to talk about treachery to me who am a Roman general, and am Sulla, as if you were not that Archelaus who fled from Chæroneia with a few men out of your one [Pg 358]hundred and twenty thousand, and were hid for two days in the marshes[253] of Orchomenus, and left Bœotia with all the roads made impassable by the heaps of dead?" Upon this Archelaus changed his tone, and humbling himself, entreated Sulla to give up the war and to come to terms with Mithridates. Sulla accepted the proposal, and peace was made on the following terms:—Mithridates was to give up Asia[254] and Paphlagonia, and to surrender Bithynia to Nikomedes, and Cappadocia to Ariobarzanes, to pay down to the Romans two thousand talents, and to give them seventy ships fitted with brass and completely equipped; Sulla was to confirm Mithridates in the rest of his possessions and to recognise him as an ally of the Romans.

XXIII. These terms being settled, Sulla retraced his steps and marched through Thessaly and Macedonia to the Hellespont in company with Archelaus, whom he treated with great respect. Archelaus fell dangerously ill at Larissa, on which Sulla stopped his march and paid as much attention to him as if he had been one of his own officers and fellow-generals. This gave rise to some suspicion that the battle of Chæroneia was not fairly fought, which was strengthened by the fact that Sulla restored all the friends of Mithridates whom he had taken prisoners, except Aristion[255] the tyrant, who was an enemy of Archelaus, and whom he caused to be poisoned: but the most convincing proof of all was Sulla's giving the Cappadocian ten thousand plethra of land in Eubœa, and the title of friend and ally of the Romans. However, Sulla makes his apology about these matters in his Memoirs. Ambassadors from Mithridates now arrived, and were ready to accede to all the terms agreed on, except that the king would not consent to give up Paphlagonia, and as to [Pg 359]the ships he dissented altogether; on which Sulla in a passion exclaimed, "What say ye? Mithridates claims to keep Paphlagonia, and refuses to abide by the agreement about the ships; I thought he would have been thankful if I left him his right hand, which has destroyed so many Romans. However, he will soon speak another language when I have crossed over to Asia. At present let him stay in Pergamum and there direct the conduct of a campaign which he has not seen." The ambassadors were so much alarmed that they said nothing, but Archelaus implored Sulla and tried to soften his anger, clinging to his hands with tears in his eyes. At last he prevailed on Sulla to let him go to Mithridates, and he promised to effect a peace on Sulla's own terms, or to kill himself. Sulla accordingly sent Archelaus to Mithridates, and in the mean time he invaded Mædike,[256] and having ravaged the greater part of it, returned to Macedonia and found Archelaus at Philippi,[257] who reported that all was favourable, but that Mithridates much wished to have an interview with him. Mithridates was minly induced to this by the circumstance that Fimbria, after murdering the consul Flaccus, who belonged to the opposite faction, and defeating the generals of Mithridates, was advancing against the king himself. It was fear of Fimbria that made Mithridates more inclined to make a friend of Sulla.

XXIV. Accordingly they met at Dardanus[258] in the [Pg 360]Troad: Mithridates had there two hundred rowing-ships, twenty thousand heavy-armed soldiers, six thousand horsemen, and many of his scythe-bearing chariots: Sulla had four cohorts and two hundred horsemen. Mithridates advanced to meet Sulla and held out his hand, on which Sulla asked him if he would put an end to the war on the terms agreed to by Archelaus. As the king made no reply, Sulla said, "Well, those who sue must speak first; conquerors may remain silent." Mithridates began an apology, in which he partly imputed the origin of the war to the deities, and partly threw the blame on the Romans; but Sulla cut him short by saying, that he had long ago been told, and now he knew by his own experience, that Mithridates was a most skilful speaker, inasmuch as he had no difficulty in finding words to justify acts which were so base and so contrary to all right. Sulla went on to recapitulate all that Mithridates had done, reproaching him in bitter terms, and he then asked him again, if he would abide by the agreement of Archelaus. Mithridates said that he would; on which Sulla embraced him, threw his arms round him and kissed him; he then brought forward the kings Ariobarzanes and Nikomedes, and reconciled Mithridates to them. After surrendering to Sulla seventy ships and five hundred bowmen, Mithridates sailed off to the Pontus. Sulla perceived that his soldiers were dissatisfied at the settlement of the war: they thought it a shame that the greatest enemy of the Romans, who had contrived the massacre of one hundred and fifty thousand Romans in Asia in one day, should be seen sailing off with the wealth and the spoils of Asia, which he had been plundering and levying contributions on for four years; Sulla apologised to the soldiers by saying that he should not be able to oppose both Fimbria and Mithridates, if they were united against him.

XXV. From Dardanus Sulla marched against Fimbria, who was encamped near Thyateira,[259] and halting there, [Pg 361]began to throw up his intrenchments. Fimbria's men coming out of their camp in their jackets embraced the [Pg 362]soldiers of Sulla, and began to assist them zealously in their works. Fimbria seeing that his soldiers had deserted him, and fearing Sulla's unforgiving temper, committed suicide in the camp. Sulla now levied a contribution on Asia to the amount of twenty thousand talents: and he reduced individuals to beggary by the violence and exactions which he permitted to the soldiers who were quartered in their houses. He issued an order that the master of a house should daily supply the soldier who was quartered on him with four tetradrachmæ, and with dinner for himself and as many of his friends as he chose to invite; a centurion was to receive fifty drachmæ daily, and to be supplied with two garments, one to wear in the house and the other when he went abroad.

XXVI. Sulla set sail from Ephesus with all his ships, and on the third day anchored in the Peiræus. After being initiated into the Eleusinian[260] mysteries, he appropriated to himself the library of Apellikon[261] of Teos, [Pg 363]which contained most of the writings of Aristotle and Theophrastus. The works of these two philosophers were not then well known to people in general. It is said that when the library was brought to Rome, Tyrannio the grammarian arranged most of the books, and that Andronikus of Rhodes having procured copies from Tyrannio, published them, and made the tables which are now in use. It appears that the older Peripatetics were indeed well-instructed men, and devoted to letters, but they did not possess many of the writings of Aristotle and Theophrastus, nor yet correct copies, owing to the circumstances that the books came into the hands of the heirs of Neleus of Skepsis, to whom Theophrastus bequeathed them, and that they were ignorant persons, who never troubled themselves about such matters. While Sulla was staying at Athens, he was seized with a numbness in his feet, accompanied with a feeling of heaviness, which Strabo[262] calls "a stammering of gout." Accordingly he crossed the sea to Ædepsus[263]; where he used the warm springs, at the same time indulging in relaxation [Pg 364]and spending all his time in the company of actors. As he was walking about on the seashore, some fishermen presented him with some very fine fish; Sulla was much pleased with the present, but on hearing that the men belonged to Halæae,[264] he said, What, is there an Halæan still alive? For it happened, that while pursuing his enemies after the victory at Orchomenus, he destroyed at once three Bœotian cities, Anthedon, Larymna, and Halæae. The men were struck speechless with fear, but Sulla with a smile bade them go away in good heart, for the intercessors they had brought were no mean ones, and not to be despised. Upon this the Halæans say they took courage and again occupied their city.

XXVlI. Sulla went through Thessaly and Macedonia to the sea-coast, where he made preparations to cross from Dyrrachium[265] to Brundisium with twelve hundred ships. Near to Dyrrachium is Apollonia, and near to Apollonia is the Nymphæum,[266] a sacred spot, where perpetual streams of fire rise in various places out of a green grassy valley. It is said that a sleeping satyr was caught there, such a one as sculptors and painters represent, and was brought to Sulla and questioned by many interpreters as to who he was; but he spoke with difficulty, and what he did [Pg 365]utter was unintelligible, and something like a compound of the neighing of a horse and the bleating of a goat; upon which Sulla, who was startled at the monster, ordered him to be removed. Sulla was now about to take his soldiers over the sea, but he feared that when they landed in Italy they would disperse to their several cities; however, the soldiers voluntarily took an oath to abide by him, and not to do any damage in Italy from set design; seeing also that he required much money, they all contributed something from what they had, each according to his means. However, Sulla would not receive the contribution, but after commending their zeal and encouraging them he proceeded to cross the sea, as he expresses it in his Memoirs, to oppose fifteen hostile commanders at the head of four hundred and fifty cohorts.[267] The deity gave him sure prognostics of success; for upon his sacrificing immediately on landing in Italy near Tarentum, the liver of the animal was found to have on it the figure of a crown[268] of bay with two ribands attached to it. A short time also before he crossed the sea, two large he-goats were seen in Campania near Mount Hephæus, in the daytime, fighting, and in all respects acting like men engaged in a contest. But it was only a vision, and it gradually rose up from the ground and dispersed in the air in various directions like dark phantoms, and finally disappeared. No long time after, in this very spot, when the younger Marius and the consul Norbanus[269] came upon him at the head of a large force, Sulla, without having time to form his battle or to dispose his companies, but merely availing himself of the spirit that animated all his men, and their impetuous courage, put to flight his [Pg 366]opponents, and shut Norbanus up in Capua with the loss of seven thousand of his soldiers. It was this success, as some say, which prevented his soldiers from dispersing to their several cities, and encouraged them to stay with Sulla and to despise their opponents, though many times more numerous than themselves. At Silvium,[270] as Sulla says, a slave of one Pontius, moved by a divine impulse, met him and declared that he brought from Bellona assurance of superiority in war and victory, but that if he did not make haste the Capitol would be burnt; and this is said to have happened on the very day which the man foretold, being the day before the Nones of Quintilis, which we now call July. Further, Marcus Lucullus, one of Sulla's commanders, was opposed at Fidentia[271] with sixteen cohorts to fifty of the enemy, and though he had confidence in the spirit of his men, he was discouraged because a greater part of them were unarmed. While he was considering and hesitating what to do, a gentle breeze blowing from the adjoining plain, which was covered with grass, carried many of the flowers to the army of Lucullus, and spontaneously strewed them about, so that they rested and fell on the men's shields and helmets, which seemed to their opponents to be crowned with chaplets. Thus encouraged, the soldiers of Lucullus engaged, and gained a victory, with the loss to the opposite party of eighteen thousand men and their camp. This Lucullus was the brother of the Lucullus who afterwards defeated Mithridates and Tigranes.

XXVIII. Sulla, perceiving that he was still surrounded by many hostile camps and large forces, treacherously invited Scipio[272] one of the consuls, to come to terms. [Pg 367]Scipio accepted the proposal, which was followed by many meetings and conferences, but Sulla continually threw impediments and pretexts in the way of a final agreement, and in the mean time he corrupted Scipio's soldiers by means of his own men, who were as practised in all kinds of deceit and fraud as their commander. Going within the intrenchments of Scipio and mingling with his soldiers, they gained over some by giving them, money, others by promises, and the rest by flattery and persuasion. At last Sulla with twenty cohorts approached the camp of Scipio, and his soldiers saluted those of Scipio, who returned the salute and came over to them. Scipio, thus deserted, was taken prisoner in his tent, but set at liberty; and Sulla with the twenty cohorts, like so many tame birds, having entrapped forty of the enemy, led them all back to his camp. On this occasion, it is said, Carbo observed that he had to contend in Sulla both with a lion and a fox, but the fox gave him most trouble. After this, in the neighbourhood of Signia,[273] Marius at the head of eighty-four cohorts challenged Sulla to battle; and Sulla was very ready for the contest on that day, for he happened to have had a vision in his sleep of this sort:—He dreamed that the elder Marius, who had long been dead, was advising his son to beware of the following day, as it would bring him heavy misfortune. This was the reason that Sulla was eager to fight, and he sent for Dolabella,[274] who was encamped at some distance. But as the enemy occupied the roads and cut off the communications, the soldiers of Sulla were wearied with fighting and working at the [Pg 368]roads at the same time; and it happened that much rain also fell, and added to the fatigue of their labour. Upon this, the centurions coming up to Sulla, begged him to defer the battle, and pointed out to him that the soldiers were exhausted by fatigue and were lying on the ground with their shields under them. Sulla consented unwillingly, and gave orders for the army to halt there; but while they were beginning to throw up their rampart and dig their trenches, Marius advanced against them confidently at the head of his troops, expecting to disperse them in their state of disorder and confusion. Now the dæmon made good the words that Sulla heard in his dream; for his soldiers, transported with indignation and stopping their work, fixed their spears in the ground close to the trenches, and drawing their swords with a loud shout, were forthwith at close quarters with the enemy. The soldiers of Marius did not stand their ground long, and there was a great slaughter of them in their flight. Marius, who fled to Præneste,[275] found the gates closed, but a rope being let down from the walls, he fastened himself to it, and was drawn up into the city. Some historians say, and Fenestella[276] among them, that Marius saw nothing of the battle, but that being exhausted by want of sleep and fatigue he lay down on the ground in the shade, and as soon as the signal was given for battle, fell asleep, and that he was roused with difficulty when the flight began. Sulla says that he lost only twenty-three men in this battle, and that he killed of the enemy twenty thousand, and took eight thousand alive. He was equally successful everywhere else through his generals Pompeius,[277] Crassus, Metellus, Servilius; for without sustaining any [Pg 369]but the most trifling loss, they destroyed the great armies of their opponents, and at last Carbo,[278] who was the main support of the opposite party, stole away from his troops by night and sailed to Libya.

XXIX. In the last struggle, however, like a fresh combatant attacking an exhausted athlete, Telesinus the Samnite was very near tripping up Sulla and laying him prostrate at the gates of Rome. Telesinus was hastening with Lamponius the Lucanian and a strong force to Præneste, in order to rescue Marius, who was besieged; but finding that Sulla in his front and Pompeius in his rear were coming against him, and that he could neither advance nor retreat, like a brave and experienced man he broke up his encampment by night and marched with all his force against Rome. And indeed he was very near surprising the city, which was unguarded; however, halting about ten stadia from the Colline gate, he passed the night there, full of confidence and elated with hope, as he had got the advantage over so many great generals. At daybreak the most distinguished young men came out on horseback to oppose him, but many of them fell, and among them Claudius Appius,[279] a man of noble rank and good character. This naturally caused confusion in the city, and there were women shrieking and people hurrying in all directions, in expectation that the city was going to be stormed, when Balbus appeared first, coming at full [Pg 370]speed from Sulla with seven hundred horsemen. Balbus just halted long enough to allow his men to dry the sweat from their horses: then bridling them again, they advanced quickly and engaged with the enemy. In the mean time Sulla also appeared, and ordering the advanced ranks to take some refreshment, he began to put them in order of battle. Dolabella and Torquatus earnestly entreated him to pause, and not to put all to the hazard with his exhausted soldiers; they said, the contest was not with Carbo and Marius, but with Samnites and Lucanians, the most deadly and warlike enemies of Rome: but Sulla, without paying any regard to them, ordered the trumpets to sound the charge, though it was now about the tenth hour. The battle began, and was fiercer than any that was fought in this campaign. The right wing, where Crassus commanded, was completely successful; but the left was hard pressed, and in a dangerous plight, when Sulla came to its support mounted on a very spirited and fleet white horse, by which he was easily distinguished from the rest, and two of the enemy's soldiers, fixing their javelins, prepared to aim at him, Sulla did not see them, but his groom whipped the horse, which just carried his rider so far out of the reach of the spears that they passed close to the horse's tail, and stuck in the ground. It is said that Sulla always carried about with him in his bosom, in battle, a small golden figure of Apollo, which he got from Delphi, and that he then kissed it, and said, "O Pythian Apollo, after raising the fortunate Sulla Cornelius in so many contests to glory and renown, wilt thou throw him prostrate here, at the gates of his native city, and so bring him to perish most ignobly with his fellow-citizens?" After this address to the god it is said that Sulla entreated some, and threatened and laid hold of others; but at last, the left wing being completely broken, he was mingled with the fugitives and made his escape to the camp with the loss of many of his friends and men of note. Not a few of the citizens also, who had come to see the fight, were killed and trampled down, so that it was thought all was over with the city, and the blockade of Marius was all but raised, for many of the fugitives made their way to Præneste, and urged Ofella [Pg 371]Lucretius,[280] who had been appointed to conduct the siege, to break up his quarters with speed, as Sulla was killed, and Rome in the possession of the enemy.

XXX. It was now far on in the night when men came to Sulla's camp from Crassus to get something to eat for him and his soldiers, for after putting the enemy to flight they had pursued them to Antemnæ,[281] and there encamped. Upon this intelligence, and that most of the enemy were killed, Sulla came to Antemnæ at daybreak. Here three thousand soldiers sent to him to propose to surrender, and Sulla promised them their lives if they would punish the rest of his enemies before they joined him. Trusting to his promise, these men attacked their comrades, and a great number on both sides were cut to pieces. However, Sulla got together the soldiers who had offered to surrender and those who had survived the massacre, to the number of six thousand, in the Circus,[282] and at the same time he summoned the Senate to the temple of Bellona. As [Pg 372]soon as he began to speak, the men who were appointed to do the work began to cut down the six thousand men. A cry naturally arose from so many men being butchered in a narrow space, and the Senators were startled; but Sulla preserving the same unmoved expression of countenance, bade them attend to what he was saying, and not trouble themselves about what was going on outside; it was only some villains who were being punished by his orders. This made even the dullest Roman see that there was merely an exchange of tyrants, not a total change. Now Marius was always cruel, and he grew more so, and the possession of power did not change his disposition. But Sulla at first used his fortune with moderation and like a citizen of a free state, and he got the reputation of being a leader who, though attached to the aristocratical party, still regarded the interests of the people; besides this, he was from his youth fond of mirth, and so soft to pity as to be easily moved to tears. It was not without reason, then, that his subsequent conduct fixed on the possession of great power the imputation that it does not let men's tempers abide by their original habits, but makes them violent, vain, and inhuman. Now whether [Pg 373]fortune really produces an alteration and change in a man's natural disposition, or whether, when he gets to power, his bad qualities hitherto concealed are merely unveiled, is a matter that belongs to another subject than the present.

XXXI. Sulla now began to make blood flow, and he filled the city with deaths without number or limit; many persons were murdered on grounds of private enmity, who had never had anything to do with Sulla, but he consented to their death to please his adherents. At last a young man, Caius Metellus, had the boldness to ask Sulla in the Senate-house, when there would be an end to these miseries, and how far he would proceed before they could hope to see them stop. "We are not deprecating," he said, "your vengeance against those whom you have determined to put out of the way, but we entreat you to relieve from uncertainty those whom you have determined to spare." Sulla replied, that he had not yet determined whom he would spare. "Tell us then," said Metellus, "whom you intend to punish." Sulla said that he would. Some say that it was not Metellus, but Afidius,[283] one of Sulla's flatterers, who made use of the last expression. Sulla immediately proscribed eighty persons without communicating with any magistrate. As this caused a general murmur, he let one day pass, and then proscribed two hundred and twenty more, and again on the third day as many. In an harangue to the people, he said, with reference to these measures, that he had proscribed all he could think of, and as to those who now escaped his memory, he would proscribe them at some future time. It was part of the proscription[284] [Pg 374]that every man who received and protected a proscribed person should be put to death for his humanity; and there was no exception for brothers, children, or parents. The reward for killing a proscribed person was two talents, whether it was a slave who killed his master or a son who killed his father. But what was considered most unjust of all, he affixed infamy on the sons and grandsons of the proscribed and confiscated their property. The proscriptions were not confined to Rome; they extended to every city of Italy: neither temple nor hospitable hearth nor father's house was free from murder, but husbands were butchered in the arms of their wives, and children in the embrace of their mothers. The number of those who were massacred through revenge and hatred was nothing compared with those who were murdered for their property. It occurred even to the assassins to observe that the ruin of such a one was due to his large house, another man owed his death to his orchard, and another again to his warm baths. Quintus Aurelius, a [Pg 375]man who never meddled with public affairs, and though he was no further concerned about all these calamities except so far as he sympathised with the sufferings of others, happened to come to the Forum and there he read the names of the proscribed. Finding his own name among them, he exclaimed, Alas! wretch that I am; 'tis my farm at Alba that is my persecutor. He had not gone far before he was murdered by some one who was in search of him.

XXXII. In the mean time Marius killed himself to avoid being taken. Sulla now went to Præneste,[285] and he began by examining the case of each individual before he punished him; but having no time for this inquiry, he had all the people brought to one spot, to the number of twelve thousand, and ordered them to be massacred, with the exception of one man, an old friend of his, whom he offered to pardon. But the man nobly declared he would never owe his safety to the destroyer of his country, and mingling with the rest of the citizens he was cut down together with them. The affair of Lucius Catilina[286] was perhaps the most monstrous of all. Lucius had murdered his brother before the termination of the war, and he asked Sulla to proscribe him among the rest as if he were still alive; which was done. To show his gratitude, Catilina killed one Marcus Marius,[287] who belonged to the opposite faction, and after bringing his head to Sulla, who was then sitting in the Forum, he went to the temple of Apollo, which was close by, and washed his hands in the sacred font.[288]

[Pg 376]XXXIII. Besides the massacres, there were other things to cause dissatisfaction. Sulla had himself proclaimed Dictator,[289] and thus revived this office after an interval of one hundred and twenty years. An act of indemnity was also passed for all that he had done; for the future it was enacted that he should have power of life and death, and should confiscate property, distribute lands, found colonies, destroy them, take away kingdoms and give them to whom he pleased. The sales of confiscated property were conducted by him from his tribunal in such an arrogant and tyrannical manner, that his mode of dealing with the produce of the sales was more intolerable than the seizure of the property: he gave away to handsome women, players on the lyre, mimi and worthless libertini, the lands of whole nations and the revenues of cities; to some men he gave wives, who were compelled to marry against their will. Wishing to form an alliance with Pompeius Magnus, he made him put away his wife; and he took Æmilia, who was the daughter of Scaurus and of his own wife Metella, from her husband Manius Glabrio.[290] though she was then with child, and married her to Pompeius. Æmilia died in the house of Pompeius in childbirth. Lucretius Ofella,[291] who had taken Præneste, became a [Pg 377]candidate for the consulship, and canvassed for it. Sulla at first attempted to stop him; but on Lucretius entering the Forum supported by a large party, Sulla sent one of his centurions to kill Lucretius, himself the while sitting on his tribunal in the temple of Castor and Pollux, and looking down upon the murder. The bystanders seized the centurion and brought him before the tribunal; but Sulla bidding them stop their noise, declared that he had ordered the centurion to kill Lucretius, and they must let him go.

XXXIV. The triumph[292] of Sulla was magnificent for the splendour and rarity of the regal spoils; but the exiles formed a greater ornament to it and a noble spectacle. The most illustrious and wealthy of the citizens followed in the procession with chaplets on their heads, calling Sulla their saviour and father, inasmuch as through him they were restored to their country, their children, and their wives. When the triumph was over, Sulla before the assembled people gave an account of all the events of his life, mentioning with equal particularity his good fortune and his great deeds, and in conclusion he bade them salute him by the name of Eutyches,[293] for this is the nearest word to express the Latin Felix: and when he wrote to Greeks or had any business to transact with them, he called himself Epaphroditus. In our country also, on the trophies of Sulla, there is the inscription: Lucius Cornelius Sulla Epaphroditus. As Metella bore him twins, Sulla named [Pg 378]the male Faustus, and the female Fausta: for the Romans apply the name Faustus to what is fortunate and gladsome. Sulla indeed trusted so far to his good fortune rather than to his acts, that, though he had put many persons to death, and had made so many innovations and changes in the state, he laid down the dictatorship,[294] and allowed the people to have the full control of the consular elections, without going near them, and all the while walking about in the Forum, and exposing himself to any one who might choose to call him to account, just like a private person. Contrary to Sulla's wish, a bold man, and an enemy of his, was likely to be elected consul, Marcus [Pg 379]Lepidus,[295] not for his own merits, but because the people wished to please Pompeius, who was earnest in his support and canvassed for him. Sulla seeing Pompeius going home well pleased with his victory, called him to him and said: "What a fine piece of policy is this of yours, young man, for Lepidus to be proclaimed consul before Catulus, the most violent in preference to the most honourable of men! It is, however, time for you not to be asleep, as you have strengthened your rival against yourself." Sulla said this in a kind of prophetic tone, for Lepidus soon broke out in great excesses, and was at war with Pompeius.

XXXV. Sulla made an offering of the tenth part of his substance to Hercules, and feasted the people magnificently: so much greater indeed was the preparation than what was required, that a great quantity of provisions was daily thrown into the river, and wine was drunk forty years old, and even older. In the midst of the entertainment, which lasted several days, Metella died. As the priests would not allow Sulla to go to her, or his house to be polluted by a dead body, Sulla sent Metella a writing of divorce, and ordered her, while still alive, to be removed from his house to another. So far he observed the custom strictly through superstition; but the law which limited the cost of funerals, though he had proposed it himself, he violated by sparing no expense. He also violated his own laws for diminishing the cost of entertainments, endeavouring to forget his grief in extravagant drinking and [Pg 380]feasting, and in the company of buffoons. A few months after his wife's death there was a show of gladiators. As there was yet no distinction of places,[296] but men and women sat promiscuously in the theatre, it chanced that a woman seated herself near Sulla who was very handsome and of good family; she was a daughter of Messala, and sister of the orator Hortensius: her name was Valeria,[297] and she had lately separated from her husband. This woman, going behind Sulla, placed her hand upon him, and pulling a thread out of his dress, returned to her place. As Sulla looked on her with some surprise, she said, No mischief, Imperator;[298] I also wish to have a bit of your good fortune. Sulla was not displeased at her words, and it was soon plain that he had conceived a passion for the woman; for he privately sent to ask her name, and made himself acquainted with her family and her mode of life. After this there were interchanges of glances, and frequent side-looks, and giving and returning of smiles, and, finally, treaties and arrangements about marriage, all which on her part perhaps deserved no censure; but as to Sulla, however chaste and reputable the woman might be that he married, it was no reputable or decent matter that induced him to it, for he was caught like a young man by mere looks and wanton airs, the nature of which is to excite the most depraved and impure feelings.

XXXVI. Though Sulla married Valeria he still associated with actresses and female lute-players and dancers, [Pg 381]spending his time with them on beds, and drinking from an early hour of the day. These were the names of the persons who at this time enjoyed most of his favour:—Roscius[299] the comedian, Sorix the chief mimus, and Metrobius who played women's parts[300] in men's dress, and to whom, though Metrobius was now growing old, Sulla all along continued strongly attached, and never attempted to conceal it. By this mode of life he aggravated his disease, which was slight in its origin, and for some time he was not aware that all his viscera were full of diseased matter. The flesh, being corrupted by the disease, was changed into vermin,[301] and though many persons were [Pg 382]engaged day and night in taking the vermin away, what was got rid of was nothing compared with what came, for all his clothes, and the bath and the water, and his food, were filled with the matter that flowed from him, and with the vermin; such was the violence of the disorder. Though he went into the water several times a day and drenched his body and cleansed it from filth, it was of no avail, for the disease went on too quickly, and the quantity of vermin defied all attempts to clear it away. Among those in very remote times who are said to have died of the lousy disease was Akastus the son of Pelias; and in more recent times, Alkman the lyric poet, Pherekydes the theologian, Kallisthenes of Olynthus, while he was in prison, and Mucius the lawyer. And if one may mention those who have got a name, not for any good that they did, but in other ways, Eunus the runaway slave, who began the Servile war in Sicily, is said to have died of this disease, after he was captured and carried to Rome.

XXXVII. Sulla foresaw his end, and even in a manner wrote about it, for he finished the twenty-second book of his Memoirs only two days before his death. He there says, that the Chaldæans foretold him that it was his fate to die, after a happy life, at the very height of his prosperity; he says also that his son, who had died a short time before Metella, appeared to him in a dream, in a mean dress, and standing by him, entreated his father to rest from his troubles and to go with him to join his mother Metella, and live with her in ease and quiet. Yet he did not give up attending to public matters. Ten days before his death he restored tranquillity among the people of Dicæarchia,[302] who were in a state of civil commotion, and [Pg 383]he drew up for them a constitution; and only one day before his death, hearing that the chief magistrate Granius was a public defaulter and refused to pay the debt, waiting for Sulla's death, Sulla sent for the man to his chamber, and surrounding him with his slaves ordered him to be strangled; but with his shouting and efforts he burst an imposthume and vomited a quantity of blood. Upon this his strength failed him and he got through the night with difficulty. He left two infant children by Metella; Valeria, after his death, brought forth a daughter, whom they called Postuma,[303] for this is the name that the Romans give to children who are born after their father's death.

XXXVIII. Now many flocked to Lepidus and combined with him to prevent the body of Sulla from receiving the [Pg 384]usual interment. But Pompeius, though he had ground of complaint against Sulla, for he was the only friend whom Sulla had passed over in his will,[304] turning some from their purpose by his influence and entreaties, and others by threats, had the body conveyed to Rome, and secured it a safe and honourable interment. It is said that the women contributed so great a quantity of aromatics for Sulla's funeral,[305] that without including what was con[Pg 385]veyed in two hundred and ten litters, there was enough to make a large figure of Sulla, and also to make a lictor out of costly frankincense and cinnamon. The day was cloudy in the morning, and as rain was expected they did not bring the body out till the ninth hour. However, a strong wind came down on the funeral pile and raised a great flame, and they had just time to collect the ashes as the pile was sinking and the fire going out, when a heavy rain poured down and lasted till night; so Sulla's good fortune seemed to follow him to his funeral, and to stay with him to the last. His monument is in the Campus Martius. The inscription, which they say he wrote and left behind him, says in substance, that none of his friends ever did him a kindness, and none of his enemies ever did him a wrong, without being fully repaid.

[162] Many distinguished families belonged to the Cornelii, as the Scipiones, Lentuli, Dolabellæ, and others. The Patricians were the old Roman noble families, whom Plutarch compares with the Athenian Eupatridæ, or men of noble family, who formed in the older periods of Athenian history the first class in the State.

The origin of the word Sulla is uncertain. This Sulla was not the first who bore it. P. Cornelius Rufinus, Prætor B.C. 212, the grandfather of this Sulla, also bore the name. The various conjectures on the origin of the name Sulla are given by Drumann, Geschichte Roms, ii. p. 426. The name should be written Sulla, not Sylla. The coins have always Sulla or Sula. (Rasche, Lex Rei Numariæ; Eckhel, Doctrina Num. Vet. v. 189.) L. Cornelius Sulla was the son of L. Cornelius Sulla, and born B.C. 138.

[163] P. Cornelius Rufinus was consul B.C. 290. He was also Dictator, but in what year is uncertain. He was ejected from the Senate by the Censor C. Fabricius B.C. 275 for violating one of the sumptuary laws of Rome, or those which limited expense. The story is mentioned by Gellius (iv. 8; xvii. 21). Plutarch has translated the Latin word Libræ by the Greek Litræ.

The Romans made many enactments for limiting expense in dress, entertainments, funerals (Sulla, c. 35), amount of debt to be incurred, and so forth, all of which were unavailing. The notion of regulating private expenditure was not peculiar to the Romans among the states of antiquity; and our own legislation, which in its absurd as well as its best parts has generally some parallel in that of the Romans, contains many instances of sumptuary laws, which prescribed what kind of dress, and of what quality, should be worn by particular classes, and so forth. The English Sumptuary Statutes relating to Apparel commenced with the 37th of Edward III. This statute, after declaring that the outrageous and excessive apparel of divers people against their estate and degree is the destruction and impoverishment of the land, prescribes the apparel of the various classes into which it distributes the people; but it goes no higher than knights. The clothing of the women and children is also regulated. The next statute, 3rd of Edward IV., is very minute. This kind of statute-making went on at intervals to the 1st of Philip & Mary, when an Act was passed for the Reformation of Excessive Apparel. These Apparel Statutes were repealed by the 1st of James I.

[164] This word does not convey the exact notion, but it is sufficient. The original is Gephyrists (γεφυρισταί). There was, they say, a bridge (Gephyra) on the road between Athens and Eleusis, from which, during the sacred processions to Eleusis, the people (or, as some authorities say, the women) were allowed the liberty of joking and saying what they pleased; and hence the name of such free speakers, Bridgers, Bridge-folk. (See Casaubon's note on Strabo, p. 400.) Hence the word came to signify generally abusive people. Sulla did not forget these insults when he took Athens (c. 13). Plutarch alludes to this also in his Treatise on Garrulity, c. 7.

[165] Mimus is a name given by the Romans both to an actor and to a kind of dramatic performance, which probably resembled a coarse farce, and was often represented in private houses. Its distinguishing character was a want of decency. The word Mimus is of Greek origin, and probably derived its name from the amount of gestures and action used in these performances. The Greeks also had their Mimi.

[166] This passage is apparently corrupt. But the general meaning is tolerably clear. (See Sulla, c. 36.)

[167] See Marius, c. 10.

[168] Tribunus Militum, a military tribune. Plutarch translates the term by Chiliarchus, a commander of a thousand. At this time there were six tribunes to a Roman legion.

[169] The Tectosages were a Celtic people who lived at the foot of the Pyrenees west of Narbo (Narbonne).

[170] Mannert (Geographie der Griechen und Römer, Pt. iii. p. 216) wishes to establish that these Marsi were a German nation, who lived on both sides of the Lippe and extended to the Rhine, and not the warlike nation of the Marsi who inhabited the central Apennines south-east of Rome. This is the remark of Mannert as quoted by Kaltwasser; but I do not find it in the second edition of Mannert (Pt. iii. 168), where he is treating of the German Marsi.

[171] The passage is in the Phœnissæ of Euripides, v. 531 &c.:

Why seek the most pernicious of all dæmons,
Ambition, O my son? Not so; unjust the goddess,
And houses many, many prosperous states
She enters and she quits, but ruins all.

[172] The exhibition of wild animals in the Roman games was now become a fashion. In the latter part of the Republic it was carried to an enormous extent: the elephant, the rhinocerous, the lion, and other wild animals, were brought from Africa to Rome for these occasions. When Sulla was prætor B.C. 93, he exhibited one hundred lions in the Circus, which were let loose and shot with arrows by archers whom King Bocchus sent for the purpose. (Plinius, N.H. viii. 16, Seneca, De Brevitate Vitæ, c. 13.) There was an old decree of the Senate which prohibited the importation of African wild beasts, but it was repealed by a measure proposed by the tribune Cn. Aufidius so far as to render the importation legal for the games of the Circus.

Plutarch speaks of Sulla as immediately canvassing for the prætorship after his return to Rome. The dates show that at least several years elapsed before he succeeded.

[173] Probably Sextus Julius Cæsar, consul B.C. 91, and the uncle of the Dictator, C. Julius Cæsar.

[174] Ariobarzanes I. called Philoromæus, or a lover of the Romans, was elected king of Cappadocia B.C. 93, but he was soon expelled by Tigranes, king of Armenia, the son-in-law of Mithridates. Ariobarzanes applied for help to the Romans, and he was restored by Sulla B.C. 92. He was driven out several times after, and again restored by the Romans.

[175] The name is written Mithradates on the Greek coins. The word Mithradates occurs in various shapes in the Greek writers; and it was a common name among the Medes and Persians. The first part of the name (Mithra) is probably the Persian name Mitra or Mithra, the Sun. This Mithridates is Mithradates the Sixth, king of Pontus in Asia, who succeeded his father Mithridates V. B.C. 120, when he was about eleven years of age. He was a man of ability, well instructed in the learning of the Greeks, and a great linguist: it is said that he could speak twenty-two languages. He had already got possession of Colchis on the Black Sea, and placed one of his sons on the throne of Cappadocia. He had also strengthened himself by marrying his daughter to Tigranes king of Armenia. Other events in his life are noticed in various parts of the Lives of Sulla, Lucullus, and Pompeius. (See Penny Cyclopædia, "Mithridates VI.")

[176] This name was common to a series of Armenian, and to a series of Parthian kings. One Arsaces is considered to be the founder of the dynasty of the Parthian kings, which dynasty the Greeks and Romans call that of the Arsacidæ. This Arsaces is reckoned the ninth in the series, and was the son and successor of Arsaces the Eighth. He is placed in the series of Parthian kings as Arsaces IX. Mithridates II. (On the series of Parthian Arsacidæ, see "Arsaces," in Biograph. Dictionary of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.) From the time of this interview of Sulla to a late period under the Roman Empire, the Romans and Parthians were sometimes friends, oftener enemies. No name occurs so frequently among the Roman writers of the Augustan period as that of the Parthians, the most formidable enemy that the Romans encountered in Asia, and who stopped their victorious progress in the East.

[177] The MSS. have "a native of Chalkis" ( Χαλκιδεύς), a manifest blunder, which has long since been corrected.

[178] Censorinus was a family name of the Marcii. This appears to be C. Censorinus, whom Cicero (Brutus, c. 67) speaks of as moderately versed in Greek Literature. He lost his life in the wars of Sulla B.C. 81.

[179] Timotheus distinguished himself during the period of the decline of the power of Athens. In the year B.C. 357 he and Iphicrates were sent with a fleet to reduce to obedience the Athenian subject states and especially the island of Samos. The expedition was unsuccessful, and Timotheus and other generals were brought to trial on their return home. Timotheus was convicted, and sentenced to pay a heavy fine, but as he was unable to pay it, he withdrew to Chalkis in Eubœa, where he died B.C. 354. (Penny Cyclopædia, art. "Timotheus.") This story of the painting is told by Ælianus, Var. Hist. xiii. 43.

[180] The original has "the dæmon" (δαιμόνιον), which is Fortune, as the context shows. It is not very easy to unravel all the ancient notions about Fortune, Nemesis, and the like personifications. The opinion that the deity, or the dæmon, looks with an envious eye on a man's prosperity and in the end pays him off with some equivalent loss, is very common in the Greek writers. One instance of it occurs in the letter of Amasis, the cunning King of Egypt, to Polykrates the tyrant of Samos. (Herodotus, iii. 40.) The Egyptian King tells Polykrates plainly that his great good luck would certainly draw upon him some heavy calamity, for "the dæmon (τὸ θεῖον) is envious;" and so it was, for Polykrates died a wretched death. Timotheus, according to Plutarch, provoked Fortune by his arrogance.

[181] This word (δαίμων) often occurs in Plutarch. In order to understand it, we must first banish from our minds the modern notions attached to the word Dæmon. A little further, Sulla speaks of what the dæmon (το δαιμόνιον) enjoins during the night. People in ancient times attached great importance to dreams, because they were considered as a medium by which the gods communicated with men. There is great difficulty in translating an ancient writer on account of the terms used in speaking of superhuman powers.

Apuleius, who lived in the second century of our æra and was consequently nearly a contemporary of Plutarch, has explained this doctrine of dæmons in his treatise On the God of Sokrates. "Moreover there are certain divine middle powers, situated in this interval between the highest ether and earth, which is in the lowest place, through whom our desires and deserts pass to the gods. These are called by a Greek name dæmons, who being placed between the terrestrial and celestial inhabitants, transmit prayers from the one and gifts from the other. They likewise carry supplications from the one and auxiliaries from the other as certain interpreters and saluters of both. Through these same dæmons, as Plato says in the Banquet, all denunciations, the various miracles of enchanters, and all the species of presages, are directed. Prefects, from among the number of these, providentially attend to everything, according to the province assigned to each; either by the formation of dreams, or causing the fissures in entrails, or governing the flight of some birds, and instructing the song of others, or by inspiring prophets, or hurling thunder, or producing the coruscations of lightning in the clouds, or causing other things to take place from which we obtain a knowledge of future events. And it is requisite to think that all these particulars are effected by the will, the power, and authority of the celestial gods, but by the compliance, operations, and ministrant offices of dæmons."—T. Taylor's Translation: he adds, "For a copious account of dæmons, their nature, and different orders, see the notes on the First Alkibiades in vol. i. of my Plato, and also my translation of Iamblichus on the Mysteries." A little further on Apuleius says: "It is not fit that the supernal gods should descend to things of this kind. This is the province of the intermediate gods, who dwell in the regions of the air, which border on the earth, and yet are no less conversant with the confines of the heavens; just as in every part of the world there are animals adapted to the several parts, the volant being in the air and the gradient on the earth."

As to the expression "the god" (ὁ θεός), which often occurs in Greek writers, Taylor observes (note a.) "According to Plato one thing is a god simply, another on account of union, another through participation, another through contact, and another through similitude. For of super-essential natures, each is primarily a god; of intellectual natures, each is a god according to union; and of divine souls, each is a god according to contact with the gods; and the souls of men are allotted this appellation through similitude." He therefore concludes that Apuleius was justified in calling the dæmon of Sokrates a god; and that this was the opinion of Sokrates appears, as he says, from the First Alkibiades, where Sokrates says, "I have long been of opinion that the god did not as yet direct me to hold any conversation with you."

Apuleius further says, "There is another species of dæmons, more sublime and venerable, not less numerous, but far superior in dignity, who, being always liberated from the bonds and conjunction of the body, preside over certain powers. In the number of these are Sleep and Love, who possess powers of a different nature; Love, of exciting to wakefulness, but Sleep of lulling to rest. From this more sublime order of dæmons, Plato asserts that a peculiar dæmon is allotted to every man who is a witness and a guardian of his conduct in life, who, without being visible to any one, is always present, and who is an arbitrator not only of his deeds, but also of his thoughts. But when, life being finished, the soul returns [to the judges of its conduct], then the dæmon who presided over it, immediately seizes and leads it as his charge to judgment, and is there present with it while it pleads its cause. There, this dæmon reprehends it, if it has acted on any false pretence; solemnly confirms what it says, if it asserts anything that is true; and conformably to its testimony passes sentence. All you therefore who hear this divine opinion of Plato, as interpreted by me, so form your minds to whatever you may do, or to whatever may be the subject of your meditation, that you may know there is nothing concealed from those guardians either within the mind or external to it; but that the dæmon who presides over you inquisitively participates of all that concerns you, sees all things, understands all things, and in the place of conscience dwells in the most profound recesses of the mind. For he of whom I speak is a perfect guardian, a singular prefect, a domestic speculator, a proper curator, an intimate inspector, an assiduous observer, an inseparable arbiter, a reprobator of what is evil, an approver of what is good; and if he is legitimately attended to, sedulously known, and religiously worshipped, in the way in which he was reverenced by Sokrates with justice and innocence, will be a predicter of things uncertain, a premonitor in things dubious, a defender in things dangerous, and an assistant in want. He will also be able, by dreams, by tokens, and perhaps also manifestly, when the occasion demands it, to avert from you evil, increase your good, raise your depressed, support your falling, illuminate your obscure, govern your prosperous, and correct your adverse circumstances. It is not therefore wonderful, if Sokrates, who was a man exceedingly perfect, and also wise by the testimony of Apollo, should know and worship this his god; and that hence, this his keeper, and nearly, as I may say, his equal, his associate and domestic, should repel from him everything which ought to be repelled, foresee what ought to be noticed, and pre-admonish him of what ought to be foreknown by him, in those cases in which, human wisdom being no longer of any use, he was in want not of counsel but of presage, in order that when he was vacillating through doubt, he might be rendered firm through divination. For there are many things, concerning the development of which even wise men betake themselves to diviners and oracles." I have adopted Taylor's translation of this eloquent passage, because he was well acquainted with the theological systems of antiquity. The whole passage is a useful comment on this chapter of Plutarch and many other passages in him, and may help to rectify some erroneous notions which people maintain of the philosophical systems of antiquity, people who, as Bishop Butler expresses it, "take for granted that they are acquainted with everything." The passage about conscience contains, as Taylor observes, a dogma which is only to be found implicitly maintained in the Scholia of Olympiodorus on the First Alkibiades of Plato. Olympiodorus says that we shall not err if we call "the allotted dæmon conscience;" on which subject he has some further remarks. This doctrine of the sameness of conscience and the internal dæmon seems to be that of the Emperor Marcus Antoninus (ii. 13): "It is sufficient to attend only to the dæmon within us and to reverence it duly," and he goes on to explain wherein this reverence consists. In another passage (ii. 17) he says that philosophy consists "in keeping the dæmon within us free from violence and harm, superior to pleasures and pains, doing nothing without a purpose, and yet without any falsehood or simulation, without caring whether another is doing so or not; further, taking what happens and what is our lot as coming from the same origin from which itself came; and finally, waiting for death with a tranquil mind, as nothing else than the separation of the elements of which every living being is composed. And if there is nothing to fear in the elemental parts constantly changing one into another, why should a man have any apprehension about the change and dissolution of the whole? for it is according to Nature, and nothing is bad that is according to Nature." Bishop Butler remarks (Preface to his Sermons): "The practical reason of insisting so much upon the natural authority of the principle of reflection or conscience is, that it seems in a great measure overlooked by many who are by no means the worst sort of men. It is thought sufficient to abstain from gross wickedness, and to be humane and kind to such as happen to come in their way. Whereas, in reality, the very constitution of our nature requires, that we bring our whole conduct before this superior faculty; wait its determination; enforce upon ourselves its authority; and make it the business of our lives, as it is absolutely the whole business of a moral agent, to conform ourselves to it. This is the true meaning of that ancient precept, reverence thyself."

This note does not apply to any particular case, when dæmons are mentioned by Plutarch, but to all cases where he speaks of dæmons, divination, dreams, and other signs.

[182] Quintus Cæcilius Metellus Pius, the son of Metellus Numidicus, was consul with Sulla in his second consulship B.C. 80.

[183] The place is unknown, unless it be the place near the altar of Laverna, the goddess of thieves, which was near the Porta Lavernalis, as Varro says (Ling. Lat. v. 163). Horatius (1 Ep. xvi. 60) represents the rogue as putting up a prayer "to the Fair Laverna," that he may appear to be what he is not, an honest man, and that night and darkness may kindly cover his sins. The phænomenon which Sulla describes appears to have been of a volcanic character; and if so, it is the most recent on record within the volcanic region of the Seven Hills.

[184] Apparently Aulus Postumius Albinus, who was consul with Marcus Antonius B.C. 99. Valerius Maximus tells the story (ix. 8, 3).

[185] This was Sulla'a first consulship, B.C. 88. If he was now fifty, he was born B.C. 138. His colleague was Quintus Pompeius Rufus, who was killed in this same year at the instigation or at least with the approbation of Cn. Pompeius Strabo, the father of Pompeius Magnus. (Appian, Civil Wars, i. 63.)

[186] Cæcilia Metella was the fourth wife of Sulla. The other three are mentioned in this chapter. Ilia is perhaps a mistake for Julia. Sulla's fifth and last wife was Valeria, c. 35.

[187] Drumann (Geschichte Roms, Cæcilii) has shown that Plutarch is mistaken in supposing Cæcilia to be the daughter of Metellus Pius, who was consul with Sulla B.C. 80. She was the daughter of L. Metellus Dalmaticus, who was the brother of Metellus Numidicus and the uncle of Metellus Pius. Her first husband was M. Scaurus, consul B.C. 115, by whom she had several children, and among them the Scaurus whom Cicero defended. Metella had children by Sulla also. (See c. 36, notes.)

[188] The historian of Rome. These events belonged to the seventy-seventh book of Livius, which is lost. The Epitome shows what this book contained.

[189] This word occurs three times in this chapter. In the first instance, the word is the dæmonium; in the second it is the god (ὁ θεός); in the third, it is the dæmonium again.

[190] The Senate often met in the temple of Duellona or Bellona, the goddess of War. Duellona and Bellona are the same. Compare the Bacchanalian Inscription, and Livius (28, c. 9, &c.).

The last sentence of this chapter is corrupt, and the precise meaning is uncertain.

[191] See Marius, c. 35.

[192] A man might be manumitted so as either to have the complete citizenship or not. If Plutarch's account is true, the citizenship was sold to those libertini who were of the class Dediticii or Latini. (Gaius, i. 12, &c.)

[193] See the note on the Sumptuary Laws, c. 1.

[194] Plutarch here uses the same word (ἀπράξιαι) which I have elsewhere translated by the Roman word Justitium. (Marius, c. 35.)

[195] Appian (Civil Wars, i. 57) says that all Sulla's officers left him, when he was going to march to Rome, except one quæstor. They would not serve against their country.

[196] That is Moon, Athena (Minerva), and Enyo (Bellona). It is difficult to conjecture what Cappadocian goddess Plutarch means, if it be not the Great Mother. (Marius, c. 17.)

[197] The place is unknown. There are some discrepancies between the narrative of these transactions in Plutarch and Appian. Appian's is probably the better (i. 58, &c.). The reading Pictæ has been suggested. (Strabo, p. 237.)

[198] The Roman word is Tellus. (Livius, 2, c. 41.) The temple was built on the ground occupied by the house of Spurius Cassius, which was pulled down after his condemnation. (Livius, 2, c. 41.)

[199] Appian (Civil Wars, i. 60) mentions the names of twelve persons who were proscribed. The attempt to rouse the slaves to rebellion was one of the grounds of this condemnation, and a valid ground.

[200] L. Cornelius Cinna and Cn. Octavius were consuls B.C. 87. the year in which Sulla left Italy to fight with Mithridates. Apuleius (On the God of Sokrates) thus alludes to the kind of oath which Cinna took—"Shall I swear by Jupiter, holding a stone in my hand, after the most ancient manner of the Romans? But if the opinion of Plato is true, that God never mingles himself with man, a stone will hear me more easily than Jupiter. This however is not true: for Plato will answer for his opinion by my voice. I do not, says he, assert that the gods are separated and alienated from us, so as to think that not even our prayers reach them; for I do not remove them from an attention to, but only from a contact with human affairs."

[201] Appian (Civil Wars, i. 63, 64) gives another reason. Sulla was alarmed at the assassination of his colleague Quintus Pompeius Rufus, and left Rome by night for Capua, whence he set out for Greece.

[202] This was the country on the west coast of Asia Minor, of which the Romans had formed the province of Asia. Mithridates took advantage of the Romans being busied at home with domestic troubles to advance his interests in Asia, where he was well received by the people, who were disgusted with the conduct of the Roman governors. He had defeated the Roman generals L. Cassius, Manius Aquilius, and Q. Oppius. (Appian, Mithridatic War, c. 17, &c.) He also ordered all the Romans and Italians who were in Asia, with their wives and children, to be murdered on one day; which was done.

[203] The kingdom of Bosporus was a long narrow slip on the south-east coast of the peninsula now called the Crimea or Taurida. The name Bosporus was properly applied to the long narrow channel, now called the Straits of Kaffa or Yenikalé, which unites the Black Sea and the Mæotis or Sea of Azoff. Bosporus was also a name of Pantikapæum, one of the chief towns of the Bosporus. There was a series of Greek kings of the Bosporus, extending from B.C. 430 to B.C. 304, whose names are known; and there may have been others. In the time of Demosthenes, in the fourth century before the Christian æra, the Athenians imported annually a large quantity of corn from the Bosporus. This was the country that now belonged to Mithridates. (Penny Cyclopædia, article "Bosporus.")

[204] Kaltwasser conjectures that the son who is first mentioned was Mithridates, and he remarks that Appian (Mithridatic War, c. 64) calls him also Mithridates. But in place of the name Ariarathes, he reads Aciarathes, whom he makes to be the same as the Arcathias of Appian (c. 35). Ariarathes however was a son of Mithridates (Mithridatic War, 15); and according to Appian, it was a son Mithridates who held Pontus and the Bosporus. Ariarathes and Arcathias assisted their father in the war in Asia.

[205] This Archelaus was a native of Cappadocia, and probably of Greek stock. His name often occurs afterwards. (See "Archelaus," Biograph. Dict. of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.)

[206] The promontory of Malea, now Cape St. Angelo, is the most south-eastern point of the Peloponnesus. The expression of Plutarch is, "all the islands situated within Malea," by which he means all the islands of the Archipelago which are east of Malea, including the Cyclades, or the group which lies in somewhat of a circular form round the small rocky island of Delos.

[207] His name is Brettius in the MSS. of Plutarch. His Roman name is Bruttius, as Appian (Mithridat. War, i. 29) writes it. He took the island of Skiathus, where the enemy deposited their plunder; he hanged the slaves that he found there, and cut off the hands of the freemen. Cæsar, when he was in Gaul, cut off the hands of all the persons who had assisted in the defence of Uxellodunum against the Romans, according to the author of the eighth book of the Gallic War (viii. 44).

[208] See the Life of Lucullus.

[209] He is called Athenion by Athenæus. His father was an Athenian citizen; his mother was an Egyptian woman. His political career began with his being sent by the Athenians on an embassy to Mithridates, and he ultimately persuaded the Athenians to join the king. This is the account of Posidonius as quoted by Athenæus (v. 211, &c. ed. Casaub.) Appian (Mithridatic War, 28, &c.) gives an account of his making himself a tyrant in Athens, which is somewhat different. He appears to have established himself in B.C. 88; and his power only lasted till B.C. 86. This Aristion was a philosopher, which gives occasion to some curious remarks by Appian (Mithridatic War, c. 28), who says, speaking of his enormities: "and all this he did though he was a follower of the Epicurean philosophy. But it was not Aristion only at Athens, nor yet Kritias before him, and all who were philosophers with Kritias and tyrants at the same time; but in Italy also, those who were Pythagoreans, and in Greece the Seven Sages as they are called, as many of them as engaged in public affairs,—all were chiefs and tyrants more cruel than tyrants who were not philosophers. So that one may doubt as to other philosophers, and have some suspicion, whether it was for virtue's sake, or merely to console them for their poverty and having nothing to do with political matters, that they adopted philosophy. There are now many philosophers in a private station and poor who consequently wrap themselves up in philosophy out of necessity, and bitterly abuse those who are rich or in power; and thereby do not so much get a reputation for despising wealth and power as being envious of them. But those whom they abuse act much more wisely in despising them." There was at least one exception to these philosophers, Marcus Antoninus, who was the head of the Roman State, and required in his exalted station all the comfort that philosophy could give.

[210] The Peiræus, one of the chief ports of Athens, is often used to express the maritime city generally and the lower city, as opposed to Athens, which was called the Upper City. The two cities were united by the Long Walls, about four miles in length.

[211] The Academia, one of the suburbs of Athens, was planted with trees, among others with the olive. It was on the north-west side of the city. In the Academia there was a Gymnasium, or exercise place, and here also Plato delivered his lectures; whence the name Academy passed into use as a term for a University (in the sense of a place of learning) in the Middle Ages, and has now other significations. The Lycæum was another similar place on the east side of Athens.

[212] This was Epidaurus on the east coast of Argolis in the Peloponnesus, which contained a temple of Æsculapius, the god of healing. Olympia on the Alpheius, in Elis, contained the great temple of Jupiter and immense wealth, which was accumulated by the offerings of many ages. This and other temples were also used as places of deposit for the preservation of valuable property. Pausanias (v. 21, vi. 19, and in other passages) has spoken at great length of the treasures of Olympia. These rich deposits were a tempting booty to those who were in want of money and were strong enough to seize it. At the commencement of the Peloponnesian war (B.C. 431) it was proposed that the Peloponnesian allies should raise a fleet by borrowing money from the deposits at Olympia and Delphi (Thucydides, i. 121), a scheme which the Athenians, their enemies, appear to have looked upon as a mode of borrowing of which repayment would form no part. (i. 143. είτε καὶ κινήσαντες, &c.). Many of the rich churches in Italy were plundered by the French during their occupation of Italy in the Revolutionary wars; their search after valuables extended to very minute matters. The rich stores of the Holy House of the Virgin at Loreto were nearly exhausted by Pope Pius VI. in 1796 to satisfy the demands of the French. It is said that there is a new store got together for the next invader.

[213] The history of this ancient body cannot be given with any accuracy except in detail. (See the article "Amphictyons," Penny Cyclopædia.) The "royal presents" were the gifts of Crœsus, king of Lydia (in the sixth century B.C.) the most munificent of all the donors to the temple. Among his other presents Herodotus (i. 51) mentions four of these silver casks or jars, and he uses the same word that Plutarch does. The other three had probably been taken by some previous plunderer. In the Sacred war (B.C. 357) the Phokians under Philomelus took a large part of the valuable things at Delphi for the purpose of paying their troops. (Diodorus, xvi. 30.)

[214] Flamininus, whose life Plutarch has written under the name of Flaminius, defeated Philip V. king of Macedonia B.C. 197. Manius Acilius Glabrio, who was consul B.C. 191, defeated in that year Antiochus III. king of Syria, commonly called the Great, at Thermopylæ in Greece. Antiochus afterwards withdrew into Asia. Æmilius Paulus defeated Perseus, the last king of Macedonia, at Pydna B.C. 168, upon which Macedonia was reduced into the form of a Roman Province (Livius, 45, c. 18.). Plutarch has written the Life of Paulus Æmilius.

[215] See the Life of Marius, c. 42.

[216] See c. 20, 21. C. Flavius Fimbria was the legatus of the consul L. Valerius Flaccus. Cicero (Brutus, 66) calls him a madman.

[217] The Medimnus was a dry measure, reckoned at 11 gallons 7.1456 pints English. It was equivalent to six Roman modii. (Smith's Dictionary of Antiquities.)

[218] This plant may have had its name from the virgin (parthenos) goddess Athene, whom the Romans call Minerva. Plinius (N.H. 22, c. 20) has described it. It is identified with the modern feverfew by Smith in Rees' Cyclopædia,—a plant of the chamomile kind; rather unpleasant for food, as one might conjecture. The oil-flasks were of coarse leather. In Herodotus (ix. 118) we read of a besieged people eating their bedcords, which we may assume to have been strips of hides, or leather at least.

[219] For all matters relating to the topography of Rome and Athens, the reader must consult a plan: nothing else can explain the text. The gate called Dipylum or Double-Gate was the passage from the Keramicus within the walls to the Keramicus outside of the walls on the north-west side of Athens.

[220] Teius is not a Roman name. It is conjectured that it should be Ateius.

[221] The road from Athens to Eleusis was called the Sacred (Pausanius, i. 36): it led to the sacred city of Eleusis. The space between the Peiræic gate and the Sacred is that part of the wall which lay between the roads from Athens to the Piræus and Eleusis respectively.

[222] A Greek Agora corresponds to a Roman Forum.

[223] The description of the capture of Athens is given by Appian. (Mithridatic War, c. 30.) Plutarch here alludes to the deluge in the time of Deucalion, which is often mentioned by the Greek and Roman writers. In the time of Pausanias (i. 18), in the second century of our æra, they still showed at Athens the hole through which the waters of the deluge ran off. A map of the Topography of Athens has been published by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. Leake's Topography of Athens, K.O. Müller, in Ersch und Gruber, Encyclop. art. "Attika," p. 223, and P.W. Forchhammer, Topographie von Athen, 1841, should be consulted.

[224] See Strabo, p. 395.

[225] One of the ports of the maritime town of Athens. The events mentioned in this chapter should be compared with Appian (Mithridat. War, c. 41).

[226] His name was Lucius, and he was probably a brother of the great Hortensius. L. Hortensius had to pass through a difficult country to reach Bœotia. His route lay through the straits of Thermopylæ; but he probably took some other line, and he was conducted by Kaphis over the heights of the great mountain mass of Parnassus. Kaphis appears to be the person of the same name who has been mentioned before (c. 12), though he is there called a Phokian. In this chapter Plutarch calls him a Chæroneian. Tithora or Tithorea was in the time of Herodotus (viii. 32) the name of that summit of Parnassus to which the Phokians of the neighbouring town of Neon fled from the soldiers of Xerxes B.C. 480. Pausanias (x. 32) remarks that the city Neon must have taken the name of Tithorea after the time of Herodotus. But Plutarch means to say that the Tithora of which he speaks was the place to which the Phokians fled; and therefore Neon, the place from which they fled, cannot be Tithora, according to Plutarch; and the description of Tithorea by Herodotus, though very brief, agrees with the description of Plutarch. Pausanias places Tithorea eighty stadia from Delphi.

[227] Elateia was an important position in Phokis and near the river Kephisus. It was situated near the north-western extremity of the great Bœotian plain, and commanded the entrance into that plain from the mountainous country to the north-west. The Kephisus takes a south-east course past Elateia, Panopeus, Chæronea, and Orchomenus, and near Orchomenus it enters the Lake Kopais. Bœotia is a high table-land surrounded by mountains, and all the drainage of the plain of which those of Elateia and Orchomenus are part is received in the basin of the lake, which has no outlet.

[228] This city was burnt by Xerxes in his invasion of Greece B.C. 480. (Herodotus, viii. 33.) Pausanias (x. 33) says that it was not rebuilt by the Bœotians and Athenians: in another passage (x. 3) he says it was destroyed by Philip after the close of the Sacred or Phokian war B.C. 346; and therefore it had been rebuilt by somebody.

[229] The soldiers who had shields of brass.

[230] This was Aulus Gabinius, who was sent by Sulla B.C. 81 with orders to L. Licinius Murena to put an end to the war with Mithridates. Ericius is not a Roman name: perhaps it should be Hirtius.

[231] This is Juba II., king of Mauritania, who married Cleopatra, one of the children of Marcus Antonius by Cleopatra, queen of Egypt. Juba was a scholar and an author: he is often quoted, by Strabo, Plinius (Nat Hist.), and other writers.

[232] "Our city" will explain why Plutarch has described the campaign in the plains of Bœotia at such length. Plutarch's battles are none of the best; and he has done well in making them generally short.

[233] The cave of Trophonius was at Lebadeia in Bœotia. Pausanias (ix. 39) has given a full account of the singular ceremonies used on consulting the deity.

[234] The word is ὀμφῆς, literally "voice," which has caused a difficulty to the translators; but the reading is probably right.

[235] This was Lucius Licinius Murena, who conducted the war against Mithridates in Asia B.C. 83 as Proprætor. He was the father of the Lucius Murena in whose defence we have an extant oration of Cicero.

[236] The old story is well told by Ovidius (Metamorphoses, iii. 14, &c.)

[237] A temple of the Muses.

[238] Kaltwasser has followed the reading "Gallus" in his version, though, as he remarks in a note, this man is called Galba by Appian (Mithridat. War, 43), and he is coupled with Hortensius, just as in Plutarch.

[239] This clumsy military contrivance must generally have been a failure. These chariots were useless in the battle between Cyrus and his brother Artaxerxes B.C. 401. (Xenophon, Anabasis, i. 8.) Appian (Mithridatic War, c. 42) mentions sixty of these chariots as being driven against the Romans, who opened their ranks to make way for them: the chariots were surrounded by the Roman soldiers in the rear and destroyed.

[240] A Circus was a Roman racecourse. The chief circus was the Circus Maximus, which was used also for hunts of wild beasts. See the article "Circus" in Smith's Dictionary of Antiquities.

[241] I have kept the Greek word (ὁπλίτης), which means a soldier who was equipped with defensive armour for close fighting.

[242] The Saturnalia were a kind of Carnival at Rome in the month of December, when people indulged themselves in feasting and revelry, and the slaves had the license of doing for a time what they pleased, and acting as if they were freemen. The original "freedom of speech" may mean a little more than these words convey. The point of the centurion's remark, like many other jokes of antiquity, seems rather blunt. He simply meant to express surprise at seeing slaves in an army serving as soldiers—they whose only freedom, so far as he knew, was to have a little license once a year at the Saturnalia.

[243] A town in Eubœa on the strait of the Euripus which separates the island of Eubœa from the mainland. The smallness of the Roman loss is incredible. Appian considerately add one to the number, and makes it fifteen (Mithridatic War, c. 42, &c.) Sulla was a braggart, though he was brave.

[244] This stream is called Morius (c. 17). Pausanias, who made his tour through Greece in the first half of the second century of our æra, saw the trophies (ix. 40).

[245] L. Valerius Flaccus was elected consul B.C. 86 in the place of C. Marius, who died at the beginning of the year.

[246] The name given by the Greeks and Romans to that part of the Mediterranean which lay between Dyrrachium (Durazzo) and the opposite coast of Italy. Thucydides (i. 24) makes the Ionian Sea commence about Epidamnus (which was the old name of Dyrrachium), and probably he extended the name to all the Adriatic or modern Gulf of Venice.

[247] A town in Phthiotis, a district which is included in Thessalia in the larger sense of that term. It was on the river Enipeus, a branch of the Peneus. (Strabo, p. 452.) Thucydides (iv. 78) means the same place, when he speaks of Meliteia in Achæa.

[248] A mountain in Bœotia and a spring (Tilphussa) about fifty stadia from Haliartus. (Pausanias, ix. 33.) Haliartus is on the south side of the Lake Kopais.

[249] Orchomenus, one of the oldest towns in Bœotia and in Greece, is situated near the point where the Kephisus enters the great Lake. Plutarch speaks again of the Melas in the Life of Pelopidas (c. 16). Pausanias (ix. 88) says that the Melas rises seven stadia from Orchomenus, and enters the lake Kephisus, otherwise called Kepais.

[250] If we assume that it was exactly two hundred years, Plutarch wrote this passage about A.D. 114, in the reign of Trajanus. This battle was fought B.C. 86. Hadrianus became emperor A.D. 117. (See Preface, p. xiv.)

[251] Cn. Papirius Carbo was the colleague of Cinna in the consulship B.C. 85 and 84.

[252] A Deliac merchant This might be a merchant of Delium, the small town in Bœotia, on the Euripus, where Sulla and Archelaus met. But Delos, a small rocky island, one of the Cyclades, is probably meant Delos was at this time a great slave-market. (Strabo, p. 668.)

[253] Appian (Mithridat. War, c. 50) says that Archelaus hid himself in a marsh, and afterwards made his escape to Chalkis. Sulla's arrogance is well characterized by his speech. The Cappadocians were considered a mean and servile people, and their character became proverbial.

[254] The Roman Province of Asia. Compare Appian (Mithridat. War, c. 54, 55) as to the terms of the peace.

[255] The death of Aristion is mentioned by Appian (Mithridat. War, c. 39); but he does not speak of the poisoning.

[256] Mædike appears to be the right name. Thucydides (ii. 98) calls the people Mædi: they were a Thracian people. Compare Strabo (p. 316). Appian (Mithridat. War, c. 55) speaks of this expedition as directed aguinst the Sinti, who wore neighbours of the Mædi, and other nations which bordered on Macedonia, and annoyed it by their predatory incursions. Sulla thus kept his soldiers employed, which was the practice of all prudent Roman commanders, and enriched them with booty at the same time.

[257] This is the old town called Krenides, or the Little Springs, which King Philippus, the father of Alexander the Great, restored and gave his name to. It was near Amphipolis on the river Strymon. (See Life of Brutus, c. 38.)

[258] The Troad is the north-west angle of Asia Minor, which borders on the Hellespont and the Ægean Sea (the Archipelago). The name of the district, Troas in Greek, is from the old town of Troja. Strabo (lib. xiii.) gives a particular description of this tract.

The narrative of this affair in Appian (Mithridat. War, c. 56, &c.) differs in some respects from that of Plutarch, and this may be observed of many other events in this war. Appian is perhaps the better authority for the bare historical facts; but so far as concerns the conduct and character of Sulla on this and other occasions, Plutarch has painted the man true to the life.

Sulla left L. Lucullus behind him to collect the money. (See Life of Lucullus, c. 4.) The story of Fimbria in Appian (Mithridat. War, c. 69, 70) differs from that of Plutarch in some respects, but it is near enough to show that though these two writers apparently followed different authorities, Plutarch has given the facts substantially correct.

When Sulla was within two stadia of Fimbria, he sent him orders to give up the army, which he was illegally commanding. Fimbria sent back an insulting message to the effect that Sulla also had no right to the command which he held. While Sulla was throwing up his intrenchments, and many of Fimbria's soldiers were openly leaving him, Fimbria summoned those who still remained to a meeting, and urged them to stay with him. Upon the soldiers saying that they would not fight against their fellow-citizens, Fimbria tore his dress, and began to intreat them severally. But the soldiers turned a deaf ear to him, and the desertions became still more numerous, on which Fimbria went round to the tents of the officers, and bribing some of them, he called another meeting, and commanded the soldiers to take the oath to him. As those who were hired by him called out that he ought to summon the men by name to take the oath, he called by the crier those who had received favours from him, and he called Nonius first who had been his partner in everything. Nonius refused to take the oath, and Fimbria drew his sword and threatened to kill him, but as there was a general shout, he became alarmed and desisted. However he induced a slave by money and the promise of his freedom to go to Sulla as a deserter, and to attempt his life. The man as he came near the act was alarmed, and this gave rise to suspicion, which led to his being seized, and he confessed. The army of Sulla, full of indignation and contempt, surrounded the camp of Fimbria, and abused him, calling him Athenion, which was the name of the fellow who put himself at the head of the rebel runaway slaves in Sicily, and was a king for a few days. Fimbria now despairing came to the rampart, and invited Sulla to a conference. But Sulla sent Rutilius; and this first of all annoyed Fimbria, as he was not honoured with a meeting, which is granted even to enemies. On his asking for pardon for any error that he might have committed, being still a young man, Rutilius promised that Sulla would allow him to pass safe to the coast, if he would sail away from Asia, of which Sulla was proconsul. Fimbria replied that he had better means than that, and going to Pergamum and entering the temple of Æsculapius, he pierced himself with his sword. As the wound was not mortal, he bade his slave plunge the sword into his body. The slave killed his master, and then killed himself on the body. Thus died Fimbria, who had done much mischief to Asia after Mithridates. Sulla allowed Fimbria's freedmen to bury their master; adding that he would not imitate Cinna and Marius, who had condemned many persons to death at Rome, and also refused to allow their bodies to be buried. The army of Fimbria now came over to Sulla, and was received by him and united with his own. Sulla also commissioned Curio to restore Nicomedes to Bithynia and Ariobarzanes to Cappadocia, and he wrote to the Senate about all these matters, pretending that he did not know that he had been declared an enemy.

[259] Thyateira was a town in Lydia about 45 miles from Pergamum.

[260] The original is simply "after being initiated;" but the Eleusinian mysteries are meant. The city of Eleusis was in Attica, and the sacred rites were those of Ceres and Proserpine (Demeter and Persephone). Those only who were duly initiated could partake in these ceremonies. An intruder ran the risk of being put to death. Livius (31, c. 14) tells a story of two Akarnanian youths who were not initiated, and during the time of the Initia, as he calls them, entered the temple of Ceres with the rest of the crowd, knowing nothing of the nature of the ceremonies. Their language and some questions that they put, betrayed them, and they were conducted to the superintendents of the temple; and though it was clear that they had erred entirely through ignorance, they were put to death as if they had committed an abominable crime. Toleration was no part of the religious system of Antiquity; that is, nothing was permitted which was opposed to any religious institution, though there was toleration for a great variety. Many illustrious persons were initiated in the Eleusinian mysteries, which were maintained until Christianity became the general religion of the Empire. Marcus Aurelius, when he visited Athens, was initiated. The ceremonial of the temple may be collected to a certain extent from the ancient writers, but no one has yet succeeded in divining what were the peculiar doctrines of this place.

[261] Much has been written about this story, which cannot be literally true. The writings of Aristotle were not unknown to his immediate followers. If there is any truth in this story as told by Plutarch and Strabo (p. 608) it must refer to the original manuscripts of Aristotle. Part of the text of Plutarch is here manifestly corrupt. The subject has been examined by several writers. See art. "Aristotle," Biog. Dict. of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, and Blakesley, Life of Aristotle, Cambridge 1839.

[262] This is Strabo the Geographer, but the passage is not in the Geography, and probably was in an historical work Ὑπομνήατα ἱστορικά, Strabo, p. 13) which he wrote, and which is cited by Plutarch in his Life of Lucullus, c. 28.

[263] These warm springs, which still exist, are on the west coast of Eubœa, opposite to the mainland. They were much resorted to in Plutarch's time, as appears from his Symposium (iv. Probl. 4). The place is named Galepsus in Wyttenbach's edition, but in a note the editor admits that the true name is Ædepsus. Demetrius Calatianus (quoted by Strabo, p. 60), who had recorded all the earthquakes in Greece, says that the hot springs at Thermopylæ and at Ædepsus once ceased to flow for three days owing to an earthquake, and those of Ædepsus, when they flowed again, broke out in a fresh place. The hot springs near Cape Therma in Eubœa are supposed to be those of Ædepsus. They are more copious than the springs of Thermopylæ on the opposite mainland, but of the same kind. "The water rushes down in a copious stream into the sea, the vapour from which is visible at a considerable distance." (Penny Cyclopædia, art. "Eubœa.")

[264] Halæae should probably be written Halæ. It was near the Euripus, within Bœotia and on the borders of Phokia. (Pansaunias, ix. 24.)

[265] The usual passage from Italy to Greece and Greece to Italy was between Brundisium and Dyrrachium. Compare Appian, Civil Wars, c. 79.

[266] This phenomenon is mentioned by Strabo (p. 316), Dion Cassius (41, c. 45), and Ælian (Various History, 13, c. 16). I do not know if this spot has been examined by any modern traveller. It is a matter of some interest to ascertain how long a phenomenon of this kind has lasted. The pitch-springs of Zante (Zakynthus), which Herodotus visited and describes (iv. 195), still produce the native pitch. Strabo, who had not seen the Nymphæum, describes it thus after the account of Poseidonius: "In the territory of Apollonia is a place called the Nymphæum; it is a rock which sends forth fire, and at the base of it are springs of warm asphaltus, the asphaltic earth, as it appears, being in a state of combustion: and there is a mine of it near on a hill. Whatever is cut out, is filled up again in course of time, as the earth which is thrown into the excavations changes into asphaltus, as Poseidonius says." We cannot conclude from this confused description what the real nature of the phenomenon was. Probably the asphaltus or bitumen was occasionally set on fire by the neighbouring people. (See the art. "Asphaltum," Penny Cyclopædia.)

[267] The Cohors was the tenth part of a Roman Legion. Appian (Civil Wars, i. 82) says that on this occasion the opponents of Sulla made their cohorts contain 500 men each, so that a legion would contain 5000 men. According to this estimate there were 90,000 men under arms in Italy to oppose Sulla, who had five legions of Italian soldiers, six thousand cavalry and some men from Peloponnesus and Macedonia; in all forty thousand men. (Appian, Civil Wars, i. 79.) Appian says that he had 1,600 ships.

[268] This passage is explained by the cut p. 287 in Smith's Dict. of Antiquities, art. "Corona."

[269] Caius Junius Norbanus and L. Cornelius Scipio Asiaticus were now consuls B.C. 83.

[270] Silvium is a town in Apulia on the Appian road, on the Apennines. As to the burning of the Capitol, see Appian, Civil Wars, i. 86.

[271] Fidentia was in North Italy not far from Placentia (Piacenza): it is now Borgo San Donnino. Appian (Civil Wars, i. 92) speaks of this battle near Placentia, which Lucullus gained over some of Carbo's troops, not over Carbo himself, as is stated by some modern writers. Carbo was now in Central Italy.

[272] Sulla, with Metellus Pius, who had joined him (Appian, Civil Wars, i. 80), met L. Scipio near Teanum in Campania. Sertorius was with Scipio. The circumstances are told by Appian (Civil Wars, i. 86) as usual with more minuteness and very clearly. The main story is correct in Plutarch.

[273] Signia, now Segni, is in the Volscian mountains, 35 miles south-east of Rome. It was a Roman colony as old us the reign of Tarquinius Superbus, according to Livius (1, 55). This battle was fought B.C. 82, when Cn. Papinus Carbo was consul for the third time with the younger Marius. It appears that Sulla's progress towards Rome was not very rapid. Appian (Civil Wars, i. 87) places the battle at Sacriportus, the situation of which is unknown.

[274] Cn. Cornelius Dolabella was consul B.C. 81. He was afterwards Proconsul of Macedonia, and had a triumph for his victories over the Thracians and other barbarian tribes. C. Julius Cæsar, when a young man (Cæsar, c. 4), prosecuted B.C. 77 Dolabella for mal-administration in his province. Dolabella was acquitted.

[275] Præneste, now Palestrina. This strong town was about 20 miles E. by S. of Rome near the source of the Trerus, now the Sacco, a branch of the Liris, the modern Garigliano.

[276] A Roman historian of the age of Augustus, who wrote Annals, of which there were twenty-two books.

[277] These were Cn. Pompeius Magnus, who afterwards was the great opponent of C. Julius Cæsar; his Life is written by Plutarch: M. Licinius Crassus, called Dives or the Rich, whose Life is written by Plutarch; Quintus Metellus Pius, the son of Metellus Numidicus; and P. Servilius Vatia Isauricus, whom Sulla made consul B.C. 79, when he declined the office himself.

[278] Carbo lost courage and ran away. He got safe to the African coast, whence, with many men of rank, he made his way to Sicily, and thence to the small island of Cossyra. Cn. Pompeius sent men to seize him, who caught Carbo and his company: Carbo's followers were immediately put to death pursuant to the orders of Pompeius. Carbo was brought to Pompeius, and placed at his feet in chains; and after Pompeius had insulted him who had thrice been consul by pronouncing an harangue over him, Carbo was put to death, and his head was sent to Sulla. (Appian, Civil Wars, i. 96.) The statement of Plutarch (Pompeius, c. 10) agrees with that of Appian. These and other acts of Pompeius should be remembered by those who are inclined to pity his fate. He was probably under a necessity to put Carbo to death pursuant to the orders of his muster Sulla, but the insult might have been spared.

[279] It is uncertain who he was. See Drumann, Geschichte Roms, ii. Claudii No. 26.

[280] See c. 33. Appian (Civil Wars, i. 93) gives a different account of this affair before the Colline gate, but agrees with Plutarch in stating that Sulla's right wing was successful and the left was defeated. He says that Telesinus fell in the battle.

[281] Antemnæ was a few miles from Rome, near the junction of the Tiber and the Anio (Teverone).

[282] Appian (Civil Wars, i. 93) briefly mentions this massacre. It took place in the Circus Flaminius, which was near the temple of Bellona.

Plutarch here starts a question which suggests itself to all men who have had any experience. It is a common remark that a man who has been raised from a low degree to a high station, or has become rich from being poor, is no longer the same man. Nobody expects those whom he has known in the same station as himself to behave themselves in the same way when they are exalted above it. Nobody expects a man who has got power to be the same man that he was in an humble station. Any man who has lived a reasonable time in the world and had extensive conversation with it knows this to be true. But is the man changed, or are his latent qualities only made apparent by his changed circumstances? The truth seems to be that latent qualities are developed by opportunity. All men have the latent capacities of pride, arrogance, tyranny, and cruelty. Cruelty perhaps requires the most opportunities for its development; and these opportunities are power, fear, and opposition to his will. It has been well observed, that all men are capable of crime, but different circumstances are necessary to develop this capacity in different men. All have their price; and some may be bought cheap. He who is above the temptation of money may yield to other temptations. The possession of power is the greatest temptation of all, as it offers the greatest opportunities for the development of any latent disposition; and every man has a point or two in which he is open to the insidious attacks of opportunity. In matters political, the main thing is to know, from the indications that a man gives when he has not power, what he will be when he has power: in the ordinary intercourse of life, the main thing is to judge of the character of those with whom we deal by compulsion or choice, to know how far we can trust what they say, how far their future conduct may be predicted from present indications. But to show what these indications are, belongs, as Plutarch says, to another inquiry than the present. The general rule of old was Distrust, which the crafty Sicilian, as Cicero (Ad Attic. i. 19) calls Epicharmus, was always whispering in his ear. Epicharmus has well expressed his maxim in a single line:

Νᾶφε καὶ μέμνας' ἀπιστεῖν: άρθρα ταῦτα τῶν φρενῶν.

Wakeful be thou and distrustful: sinews these are to the mind.

This is the rule for the timid, and for them a safe one. But he who is always suspicious must not expect to be trusted himself; and when the bold command, he must be content to obey.

[283] This is not a Roman name. The nearest name to it is Aufidius. But it is conjectured that one Fufidius is meant here (see the note of Sintenis), and also in the Life of Sertorius (c. 26, 27). This is probably the Fufidius (Florus, iii. 21, where the name is written incorrectly Furfidius in some editions) who said, that "Some should be left alive that there might be persons to domineer over."

[284] A Proscriptio was a notice set up in some public place. This Proscription of Sulla was the first instance of the kind, but it was repeated at a later time. The first list of the proscribed, according to Appian (Civil Wars, i, 55), contained forty senators and about sixteen hundred equites. Sulla prefaced his proscription by an address to the people, in which he promised to mend their condition. Paterculus (ii. 28) states that the proscription was to the following effect:—That the property of the proscribed should be sold, that their children should be deprived of all title to their property, and should be ineligible to public offices; and further, that the sons of Senators should bear the burdens incident to their order and lose all their rights. This will explain the word Infamy, which is used a little below. Infamia among the Romans was not a punishment, but it was a consequence of conviction for certain offences; and this consequence was a civil disability; the person who became Infamis lost his vote, and was ineligible to the great public offices. He also sustained some disabilities in his private rights. Sulla therefore put the children of the proscribed in the same condition as if they had been found guilty of certain offences.

The consequence of these measures of Sulla was a great change of property all through Italy. Cities which had favoured the opposite faction were punished by the loss of their fortifications and heavy requisitions, such as the French army in the Revolutionary wars levied in Italy. Sulla settled the soldiers of twenty-three legions in the Italian towns as so many garrisons, and he gave them lands and houses by taking them from their owners. These were the men who stuck to Sulla while he lived, and attempted to maintain his acts after his death, for their title could only be defended by supporting his measures. These are "the men of Sulla," as Cicero sometimes calls them, whose lands were purchased by murder, and who, as he says (Contra Rullum, ii. 26), were in such odium that their title could not have stood a single attack of a true and courageous tribune.

[285] Appian (Civil Wars, i. 94) states that Sulla made all the people in Præneste come out into the plain unarmed, that he picked out those who had served him, who were very few, and these he spared. The rest he divided into three bodies, Romans, Samnites, and Prænestines: he told the Romans that they deserved to die, but he pardoned them; the rest were massacred, with the exception of the women and young children.

[286] L. Sergius Catilina, who formed a conspiracy in the consulship of M. Tullius Cicero B.C. 63. (Life of Cicero.)

[287] Cn. Marius Gratidianus, the son of M. Gratidius of Arpinum. He was adopted by one of the Marii; by the brother of Caius Marius, as some conjecture.

[288] A vessel of stone or metal placed at the entrance of a temple that those who entered might wash their hands in it, or perhaps merely dip in a finger.

[289] Plutarch's expression is "he proclaimed himself Dictator," but this expression is not to be taken literally, nor is it to be supposed that Plutarch meant it to be taken literally. Sulla was appointed in proper form, though he did in fact usurp the power, and under the title of dictator was more than king. (Appian, Civil Wars, i. 98.) The terms of Sulla's election were that he should hold the office as long as he pleased; the disgrace of this compulsory election was veiled under the declaration that Sulla was appointed to draw up legislative measures and to settle affairs. Paterculus (ii. 28) mentions the 120 years as having elapsed since the time of a previous dictatorship, which was the year after Hannibal left Italy B.C. 202. As Sulla was elected Dictator in B.C. 81, Plutarch's statement is correct. (On the functions of the Dictator see Life of Cæsar, c. 37.)

[290] Manius Acilius Glabrio, who was prætor B.C. 70 during the proceedings against Verres. He was the son of the M. Acilius Glabrio who got a law passed on mal-administration in offices (repetundæ), and the grandson of the Glabrio who defeated King Antiochus near Thermopylæ. (See c. 12.)

[291] This murder is told more circumstantially by Appian (Civil Wars, i. 101), who has added something that Plutarch should not have omitted. After saying to the people that Lucretius had been put to death by his order, Sulla told them a tale: "The lice were very troublesome to a clown, as he was ploughing. Twice he stopped his ploughing and purged his jacket. But he was still bitten, and in order that he might not be hindered in his work, he burnt the jacket; and I advise those who have been twice humbled not to make fire necessary the third time."

[292] Plinius (H.N. 33, c. 5) speaks of this triumph: it lasted two days. In the first day Sulla exhibited in the procession 15,000 pounds weight of gold and 115,000 pounds of silver, the produce of his foreign victories: on the second, 13,000 pounds weight of gold and 6000 pounds of silver which the younger Marius had carried off to Præneste after the conflagration of the Capitol and from the robbery of the other Roman temples.

[293] The term Felix appears on the coins of Sulla. Epaphroditus signifies a favourite of Aphrodite or Venus. (Eckhel, Doctrina Num. Vet. v. 190.) Eckhel infers from the guttus and lituus on one of Sulla's coins that he was an Augur.

[294] Sulla abdicated the dictatorship B.C. 79 in the consulship of P. Servilius Vatia Isauricus and Appius Claudius Pulcher. Appian (Civil Wars, i. 103, &c.) speaks of the abdication. He made no attempt to secure to his family the power that he had acquired. It may be that he had no desire to perpetuate the power in his family; and it is certain that this could not have been accomplished. Sulla had only one son, and he was now a child. But it is certainly a striking trait in this man's character that he descended to a private station from the possession of unlimited power, and after, as Appian observes, having caused the death of more than one hundred thousand men in his Italian wars, besides ninety senators, fifteen consuls, and two thousand six hundred equites, not to mention those who were banished and whose property was confiscated, and the many Italian cities whose fortifications he had destroyed and whose lands and privileges he had taken away. Sulla's character was a compound of arrogance, self-confidence, and contempt of all mankind, which have seldom been united. But his ruling character was love of sensual pleasures. He was weary of his life of turmoil, and he returned to his property in the neighbourhood of Cumæ on the pleasant shore of Campania, where he spent his time on the sea, in fishing, and in sensual enjoyments. But he had nothing to fear; there were in Italy one hundred and twenty thousand men who had served under him, to whom he had given money and land; there was a great number of persons at Rome who had shared in his cruelties and the profits of them, and whose safely consisted in maintaining the safety of their leader. Besides this, he had manumitted above ten thousand vigorous men, once the slaves of masters who had been murdered by his orders, and made them Roman citizens under the name of Cornelii. These men were always in readiness to execute his orders. With these precautions, this blood-stained man retired to enjoy the sensual gratifications that he had indulged in from his youth upwards, glorying in his happy fortune and despising all mankind. No attempt to assassinate him is recorded, nor any apprehension of his on that score. He lived and died Sulla the Fortunate.

[295] M. Æmilius Lepidus and Q. Lutatius Catulus were consuls B.C. 78, the year of Sulla's death. Lepidus attempted to overthrow Sulla's constitution after Sulla's death. He was driven from Rome by Q. Catulus and Cn. Pompeius Magnus, and died B.C. 77 in Sardinia. This Lepidus was the father of M. Lepidus the associate of Cæsar Octavianus and M. Antonius in the triumvirate. (See the Life of M. Antonius.)

Catulus was the son of Lutatius Catulus who was once the colleague of C. Marius in the consulship. He has received great praise from Cicero. Sallustius calls him a defender of the aristocratical party, and C. Licinius Macer, as quoted by Sallustius in his History, says that he was more cruel than Sulla. We cannot trust Cicero's unqualified praise of this aristocrat nor the censure of Sallustius. What would Cicero's character be, if we had it from some one who belonged to the party of Catiline? and what is it as we know it from his own writings? Insincere, changing with the times, timid, revengeful, and, when he was under the influence of fear, cruel.

[296] The Greek word (θέατρον) from which came the Roman Theatrum and our word Theatre, means a place for an exhibition or spectacle. The Roman word for dramatic representations is properly Scena. I do not know when the men and women had separate seats assigned to them in the theatres. A law of the tribune L. Roscius Otho B.C. 68 fixed the places in the theatres for the different classes, and it may have assigned separate seats to the women.

[297] Valeria was the daughter of M. Valerius Messala. She could not be the sister of Hortensius, for in that case her name would be Hortensia. The sister of the orator Hortensius married a Valerius Messala.

[298] Plutarch has translated the Roman word Imperator by the Greek Autocrator (Αὐτοκράτωρ), "one who has absolute power;" the title Autocrator under the Empire is the Greek equivalent of the Roman Imperator, but hardly an equivalent at this time. (See the Life of Cæsar.)

[299] This was the Quintus Roscius whom Cicero has so often mentioned and in defence of whom he made a speech which is extant. The subject of the action against Roscius is not easy to state in a few words. (See the Argument of P. Manutius, and the Essay of Unterholzner in Savigny's Zeitschrift, &c. i. p. 248.) Roscius is called Comœdus in the title of Cicero's oration and by Plutarch, but he seems to have acted tragedy also, as we may collect from some passages in Cicero. The general name at Rome for an actor was histrio; but the histrio is also contrasted by Cicero (Pro Q. Roscio, c. 10) with the comœdus, as the inferior compared with the higher professor of the art. Yet Roscius is sometimes called a histrio. Roscius was a perfect master of his art, according to Cicero; and his name became proverbial among the Romans to express a perfect master of any art. (Cicero, De Oratore, i. 28.) Cicero was intimate with Roscius, and learned much from him that was useful to him as an orator. Roscius wrote a work in which he compared oratory and acting. His professional gains were immense; and he had a sharp eye after his own interest, as the speech of Cicero shows.

[300] The original is λυσιοδός, which is explained by Aristoxenus, quoted by Athenæus (p. 620), as I have translated it.

[301] Appian does not mention this disease of Sulla, though other writers do. Appian merely speaks of his dying of fever. Zachariæ (Life of Sulla) considers the story of his dying of the lousy disease as a fabrication of Sulla's enemies, and probably of the Athenians whom he had handled so cruelly. This disease, called Morbus Pediculosus or Pthiriasis, is not unknown in modern times. Plutarch has collected instances from ancient times. Akastus belongs to the mythic period. Alkman lived in the seventh century B.C.: fragments of his poetry remain. This Pherekydes was what the Greeks called Theologus, a man who speculated on things appertaining to the nature of the gods. He is said to have been a teacher of Pythagoras, which shows that he belongs to an uncertain period. He was not a Philosopher; his speculations belonged to those cosmogonical dreams which precede true philosophy, and begin again when philosophy goes to sleep, as we see in the speculations of the present day. Kallisthenes is mentioned in Plutarch's Life of Alexander, c. 55. He was thrown into prison on a charge of conspiring against Alexander. This Mucius the lawyer (νομικός), or jurisconsultus, as a Roman would call him, is the P. Mucius Scævola who was consul in the year in which Tiberius Gracchus was murdered.

There were two Servile wars in Sicily. Plutarch alludes to the first which broke out B.C. 134, and is described in the Excerpts from the thirty-fourth book of Diodorus. Diodorus says that Eunus died of this disease in prison at Morgantina in Sicily.

[302] This town, also called Puteoli, the modern Pozzuolo, was near Sulla's residence. It was originally a Greek town; and afterwards a Roman colonia. Plutarch simply says that Granius "owed a public debt." Valerius Maximus (ix. 3) states that Granius was a Princeps of Puteoli and was slow in getting in the money which had been promised by the Decuriones of Puteoli towards the rebuilding of the Capitol. Sulla had said that nothing remained to complete his good fortune, except to see the Capitol dedicated. No wonder that the delay of Granius irritated such a man.

[303] The Roman words Postumus, Postuma, seem to have been generally used to signify a child born after the father's death. But they also signified a child born after the father had made a will. The word simply means "last." We use the expression "Posthumous child;" but the meaning of the word is often misunderstood. (On the effect of the birth of a Postumus on a father's will, see Smith's Dictionary of Antiquities, art. "Heres, Roman.")

Appian (Civil Wars, i. 101) speaks of Sulla's death. He saw his death coming and hastened to make his will: he died in his sixtieth year, the most fortunate man in his end and in everything else, both in name and estimation; if indeed, the historian wisely adds, a man should think it good fortune to have obtained all his wishes.

Sulla had the following children:—Cornelia, by Ilia; she married Q. Pompeius Rufus who was murdered B.C. 88, and she may have died before her father: Cornelius Sulla, a son by Metella, who died, as Plutarch has said, before his father: Faustus Cornelius Sulla and Fausta Cornelia, the twin children by Metella, who were both young when their father died. Faustus lost his life in Africa, when he was fighting on the Pompeian side. Fausta's first husband was C. Memmius, from whom she was divorced. She then married T. Annius Milo B.C. 55, who caught her in the act of adultery with the historian Sallustius, who was soundly hided by the husband and not let of till he had paid a sum of money. Sallustius did not forget this.

[304] It was considered a mark of intentional disrespect or of disapprobation, when a Roman made no mention of his nearest kin or friends in his will; and in certain cases, the person who was passed over could by legal process vindicate the imputation thus thrown on him. (See the article "Testamentum," in Smith's Dictionary of Antiquities, under the head "Querela Inofficiosi.") Sulla did not like Cn. Pompeius. The only reason for keeping on terms with him was that he saw his talents and so wished to ally him to his family. For the same reason Sulla wished to put C. Julius Cæsar to death (Cæsar. 1): he predicted that he would be the ruin of the aristocratical party. Sulla made his friend Lucius Lucullus the guardian of his children and intrusted him with the final correction of his Memoirs. (See the Life of Lucullus, c. 1).

[305] The description of the funeral in Appian (Civil Wars, i. 105, &c.) is a striking picture. Sulla was buried with more than regal pomp.

Plutarch's Life of Sulla has been spoken of as not one of his best performances. But so far as concerns Plutarch's object in writing these Lives, which was to exhibit character, it is as good as any of his Lives, and it has great merit. Whether his anecdotes are always authentic is a difficult matter to determine. Sulla had many enemies, and it is probable that his character in private life has been made worse than it was. The acts of his public life are well ascertained. Plutarch has nearly omitted all mention of him as a Reformer of the Roman Constitution and as a Legislator. Sulla's enactments were not like the imperial constitutions of a later day, the mere act of one who held the sovereign power: they were laws (leges) duly passed by the popular assembly. Yet they were Sulla's work, and the legislative body merely gave them the formal sanction. The object of Sulla's constitutional measures was to give an aristocratical character to the Roman constitution, to restore it to something of its pristine state, and to weaken the popular party by curtailing the power of the tribunes. The whole subject has often been treated, but at the greatest length by Zachariæ, Lucius Cornelius Sulla, &c., Heidelberg, 1834. Zachariæ has drawn the character of Sulla in an apologetical tone. I think the character of Sulla is drawn better by Plutarch, and that he has represented him as near to the life as a biographer can do. Whatever discrepancies there may he between Plutarch and other authorities, whatever Plutarch may have omitted which other authorities give, still he has shown us enough to justify his delineation of the most prominent man in the Republican Period of Rome, with the exception of the Dictator Cæsar. But to complete the view of his intellectual character, a survey of Sulla's legislation is necessary. Sulla was an educated man: he was not a mere soldier like Marius; he was not only a general; he was a man of letters, a lover of the arts, a keen discriminator of men and times, a legislator, and a statesman. He remodelled and reformed the whole criminal law of the Romans. His constitutional measures were not permanent, but it may truly be said that he prepared the way for the temporary usurpation of Cæsar and the permanent establishment of the Roman State under Augustus. I propose to treat of the Legislation of Sulla in an Appendix to a future volume.

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