SYLLA

Lucius Cornelius Sylla was descended of a patrician or noble family.

Of his ancestors, Rufinus, it is said, had been consul, and incurred

a disgrace more signal than his distinction. For being found

possessed of more than ten pounds of silver plate, contrary to the

law, he was for this reason put out of the senate. His posterity

continued ever after in obscurity, nor had Sylla himself any opulent

parentage. In his younger days he lived in hired lodgings, at a low

rate, which in after-times was adduced against him as proof that he

had been fortunate above his quality. When he was boasting and

magnifying himself for his exploits in Libya, a person of noble

station made answer, "And how can you be an honest man, who, since

the death of a father who left you nothing, have become so rich?"

The time in which he lived was no longer an age of pure and upright

manners, but had already declined, and yielded to the appetite for

riches and luxury; yet still, in the general opinion, they who

deserted the hereditary poverty of their family, were as much blamed

as those who had run out a fair patrimonial estate. And afterwards,

when he had seized the power into his hands, and was putting many to

death, a freedman suspected of having concealed one of the

proscribed, and for that reason sentenced to be thrown down the

Tarpeian rock, in a reproachful way recounted, how they had lived

long together under the same roof, himself for the upper rooms paying

two thousand sesterces, and Sylla for the lower three thousand; so

that the difference between their fortunes then was no more than one

thousand sesterces, equivalent in Attic coin to two hundred and fifty

drachmas. And thus much of his early fortune.

His general personal appearance may be known by his statues; only his

blue eyes, of themselves extremely keen and glaring, were rendered

all the more forbidding and terrible by the complexion of his face,

in which white was mixed with rough blotches of fiery red. Hence, it

is said, he was surnamed Sylla, and in allusion to it one of the

scurrilous jesters at Athens made the verse upon him,

Sylla is a mulberry sprinkled o'er with meal.

Nor is it out of place to make use of marks of character like these,

in the case of one who was by nature so addicted to raillery, that in

his youthful obscurer years he would converse freely with players and

professed jesters, and join them in all their low pleasures. And

when supreme master of all, he was often wont to muster together the

most impudent players and stage-followers of the town, and to drink

and bandy jests with them without regard to his age or the dignity of

his place, and to the prejudice of important affairs that required

his attention. When he was once at table, it was not in Sylla's

nature to admit of anything that was serious, and whereas at other

times he was a man of business, and austere of countenance, he

underwent all of a sudden, at his first entrance upon wine and

good-fellowship, a total revolution, and was gentle and tractable

with common singers and dancers, and ready to oblige anyone that

spoke with him. It seems to have been a sort of diseased result of

this laxity, that he was so prone to amorous pleasures, and yielded

without resistance to any temptations of voluptuousness, from which

even ill his old age he could not refrain. He had a long attachment

for Metrobius, a player. In his first amours it happened, that he

made court to a common but rich lady, Nicopolis by name, and, what by

the air of his youth, and what by long intimacy, won so far on her

affections, that she rather than he was the lover, and at her death

she bequeathed him her whole property. He likewise inherited the

estate of a step-mother who loved him as her own son. By these means

he had pretty well advanced his fortunes.

He was chosen quaestor to Marius in his first consulship, and set

sail with him for Libya, to war upon Jugurtha. Here, in general, he

gained approbation; and more especially, by closing in dexterously

with an accidental occasion, made a friend of Bocchus, king of

Numidia. He hospitably entertained the king's ambassadors, on their

escape from some Numidian robbers, and after showing them much

kindness, sent them on their journey with presents, and an escort to

protect them. Bocchus had long hated and dreaded his son-in-law,

Jugurtha, who had now been worsted in the field and had fled to him

for shelter; and it so happened, he was at this time entertaining a

design to betray him. He accordingly invited Sylla to come to him,

wishing the seizure and surrender of Jugurtha to be effected rather

through him, than directly by himself. Sylla, when he had

communicated the business to Marius, and received from him a small

detachment, voluntarily put himself into this imminent danger; and

confiding in a barbarian, who had been unfaithful to his own

relations, to apprehend another man's person, made surrender of his

own. Bocchus, having both of them now in his power, was necessitated

to betray one or other, and after long debate with himself, at last

resolved on his first design, and gave up Jugurtha into the hands of

Sylla.

For this Marius triumphed, but the glory of the enterprise, which

through people's envy of Marius was ascribed to Sylla, secretly

grieved him. And the truth is, Sylla himself was by nature

vainglorious, and this being the first time that from a low and

private condition he had risen to esteem amongst the citizens and

tasted of honor, his appetite for distinction carried him to such a

pitch of ostentation, that he had a representation of this action

engraved on a signet ring; which he carried about with him, and made

use of ever after. The impress was, Bocchus delivering, and Sylla

receiving, Jugurtha. This touched Marius to the quick; however,

judging Sylla to be beneath his rivalry, he made use of him as

lieutenant, in his second consulship, and in his third, as tribune;

and many considerable services were effected by his means. When

acting as lieutenant he took Copillus, chief of the Tectosages,

prisoner, and compelled the Marsians, a great and populous nation,

to become friends and confederates of the Romans.

Henceforward, however, Sylla perceiving that Marius bore a jealous

eye over him, and would no longer afford him opportunities of action,

but rather opposed his advance, attached himself to Catulus, Marius's

colleague, a worthy man, but not energetic enough as a general. And

under this commander, who entrusted him with the highest and most

important commissions, he rose at once to reputation and to power.

He subdued by arms most part of the Alpine barbarians; and when there

was a scarcity in the armies, he took that care upon himself, and

brought in such a store of provisions, as not only to furnish the

soldiers of Catulus with abundance, but likewise to supply Marius.

This, as he writes himself, wounded Marius to the very heart. So

slight and childish were the first occasions and motives of that

enmity between them, which, passing afterwards through a long course

of civil bloodshed and incurable divisions to find its end in

tyranny, and the confusion of the whole State proved Euripides to

have been truly wise and thoroughly acquainted with the causes of

disorders in the body politic, when he forewarned all men to beware

of Ambition, as of all the higher Powers, the most destructive and

pernicious to her votaries.

Sylla, by this time thinking that the reputation of his arms abroad

was sufficient to entitle him to a part in the civil administration,

he took himself immediately from the camp to the assembly, and

offered himself as a candidate for a praetorship, but failed. The

fault of this disappointment he wholly ascribes to the populace, who,

knowing his intimacy with king Bocchus, and for that reason

expecting, that if he was made aedile before his praetorship, he

would then show them magnificent hunting-shows and combats between

Libyan wild beasts, chose other praetors, on purpose to force him

into the aedileship. The vanity of this pretext is sufficiently

disproved by matter-of-fact. For the year following, partly by

flatteries to the people, and partly by money, he got himself elected

praetor. Accordingly, once while he was in office, on his angrily

telling Caesar that he should make use of his authority against him,

Caesar answered him with a smile, "You do well to call it your own,

as you bought it." At the end of his praetorship he was sent over

into Cappadocia, under the presence of reestablishing Ariobarzanes in

his kingdom, but in reality to keep in check the restless movements

of Mithridates, who was gradually procuring himself as vast a new

acquired power and dominion, as was that of his ancient inheritance.

He carried over with him no great forces of his own, but making use

of the cheerful aid of the confederates, succeeded, with considerable

slaughter of the Cappadocians, and yet greater of the Armenian

succors, in expelling Gordius and establishing Ariobarzanes as king.

During his stay on the banks of the Euphrates, there came to him

Orobazus, a Parthian, ambassador from king Arsaces, as yet there

having been no correspondence between the two nations. And this also

we may lay to the account of Sylla's felicity, that he should be the

first Roman, to whom the Parthians made address for alliance and

friendship. At the time of which reception, the story is, that

having ordered three chairs of state to be set, one for Ariobarzanes,

one for Orobazus, and a third for himself, he placed himself in the

middle, and so gave audience. For this the king of Parthia

afterwards put Orobazus to death. Some people commended Sylla for

his lofty carriage towards the barbarians; others again accused him

of arrogance and unseasonable display. It is reported, that a

certain Chaldaean, of Orobazus's retinue, looking Sylla wistfully in

the face, and observing carefully the motions of his mind and body,

and forming a judgment of his nature, according to the rules of his

art, said that it was impossible for him not to become the greatest

of men; it was rather a wonder how he could even then abstain from

being head of all.

At his return, Censorinus impeached him of extortion, for having

exacted a vast sum of money from a well-affected and associate

kingdom. However, Censorinus did not appear at the trial, but

dropped his accusation. His quarrel, meantime, with Marius began to

break out afresh, receiving new material from the ambition of

Bocchus, who, to please the people of Rome, and gratify Sylla, set up

in the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus images bearing trophies, and a

representation in gold of the surrender of Jugurtha to Sylla. When

Marius, in great anger, attempted to pull them down, and others aided

Sylla, the whole city would have been in tumult and commotion with

this dispute, had not the Social War, which had long lain smoldering

blazed forth at last, and for the present put an end to the quarrel.

In the course of this war, which had many great changes of fortune,

and which, more than any, afflicted the Romans, and, indeed,

endangered the very being of the Commonwealth, Marius was not able to

signalize his valor in any action, but left behind him a clear proof,

that warlike excellence requires a strong and still vigorous body.

Sylla, on the other hand, by his many achievements, gained himself,

with his fellow-citizens, the name of a great commander, while his

friends thought him the greatest of all commanders, and his enemies

called him the most fortunate. Nor did this make the same sort of

impression on him, as it made on Timotheus the son of Conon, the

Athenian; who, when his adversaries ascribed his successes to his

good luck, and had a painting made, representing him asleep, and

Fortune by his side, casting her nets over the cities, was rough and

violent in his indignation at those who did it, as if by attributing

all to Fortune, they had robbed him of his just honors; and said to

the people on one occasion at his return from war, "In this, ye men

of Athens, Fortune had no part." A piece of boyish petulance, which

the deity, we are told, played back upon Timotheus; who from that

time was never able to achieve anything that was great, but proving

altogether unfortunate in his attempts, and falling into discredit

with the people, was at last banished the city. Sylla, on the

contrary, not only accepted with pleasure the credit of such divine

felicities and favors, but joining himself in extolling and

glorifying what was done, gave the honor of all to Fortune, whether

it were out of boastfulness, or a real feeling of divine agency. He

remarks, in his Memoirs, that of all his well advised actions, none

proved so lucky in the execution, as what he had boldly enterprised,

not by calculation, but upon the moment. And in the character which

he gives of himself, that he was born for fortune rather than war, he

seems to give Fortune a higher place than merit, and in short, makes

himself entirely the creature of a superior power, accounting even

his concord with Metellus, his equal in office, and his connection by

marriage, a piece of preternatural felicity. For expecting to have

met in him a most troublesome, he found him a most accommodating

colleague. Moreover, in the Memoirs which he dedicated to Lucullus,

he admonishes him to esteem nothing more trustworthy, than what the

divine powers advise him by night. And when he was leaving the city

with an army, to fight in the Social War, he relates, that the earth

near the Laverna opened, and a quantity of fire came rushing out of

it, shooting up with a bright flame into the heavens. The

soothsayers upon this foretold, that a person of great qualities, and

of a rare and singular aspect, should take the government in hand,

and quiet the present troubles of the city. Sylla affirms he was the

man, for his golden head of hair made him an extraordinary-looking

man, nor had he any shame, after the great actions he had done, in

testifying to his own great qualities. And thus much of his opinion

as to divine agency.

In general he would seem to have been of a very irregular character,

full of inconsistencies with himself; much given to rapine, to

prodigality yet more; in promoting or disgracing whom he pleased,

alike unaccountable; cringing to those he stood in need of, and

domineering over others who stood in need of him, so that it was hard

to tell, whether his nature had more in it of pride or of servility.

As to his unequal distribution of punishments, as, for example, that

upon slight grounds he would put to the torture, and again would bear

patiently with the greatest wrongs; would readily forgive and be

reconciled after the most heinous acts of enmity, and yet would visit

small and inconsiderable offenses with death, and confiscation of

goods; one might judge, that in himself he was really of a violent

and revengeful nature, which however he could qualify, upon

reflection, for his interest. In this very Social War, when the

soldiers with stones and clubs had killed an officer of praetorian

rank, his own lieutenant, Albinus by name, he passed by this flagrant

crime without any inquiry, giving it out moreover in a boast, that

the soldiers would behave all the better now, to make amends, by some

special bravery, for their breach of discipline. He took no notice

of the clamors of those that cried for justice, but designing already

to supplant Marius, now that he saw the Social War near its end, he

made much of his army, in hopes to get himself declared general of

the forces against Mithridates.

At his return to Rome, he was chosen Consul with Quintus Pompeius, in

the fiftieth year of his age, and made a most distinguished marriage

with Caecilia, daughter of Metellus, the chief priest. The common

people made a variety of verses in ridicule of the marriage, and many

of the nobility also were disgusted at it, esteeming him, as Livy

writes, unworthy of this connection, whom before they thought worthy

of a consulship. This was not his only wife, for first, in his

younger days, he was married to Ilia, by whom he had a daughter;

after her to Aelia; and thirdly to Cloelia, whom he dismissed as

barren, but honorably, and with professions of respect, adding,

moreover, presents. But the match between him and Metella, falling

out a few days after, occasioned suspicions that he had complained of

Cloelia without due cause. To Metella he always showed great

deference, so much so that the people, when anxious for the recall of

the exiles of Marius's party, upon his refusal, entreated the

intercession of Metella. And the Athenians, it is thought, had

harder measure, at the capture of their town, because they used

insulting language to Metella in their jests from the walls during

the siege. But of this hereafter.

At present esteeming the consulship but a small matter in comparison

of things to come, he was impatiently carried away in thought to the

Mithridatic War. Here he was withstood by Marius; who out of mad

affectation of glory and thirst for distinction, those never dying

passions, though he were now unwieldy in body, and had given up

service, on account of his age, during the late campaigns, still

coveted after command in a distant war beyond the seas. And whilst

Sylla was departed for the camp, to order the rest of his affairs

there, he sat brooding at home, and at last hatched that execrable

sedition, which wrought Rome more mischief than all her enemies

together had done, as was indeed foreshown by the gods. For a flame

broke forth of its own accord, from under the staves of the ensigns,

and was with difficulty extinguished. Three ravens brought their

young into the open road, and ate them, carrying the relics into the

nest again. Mice having gnawed the consecrated gold in one of the

temples, the keepers caught one of them, a female, in a trap; and she

bringing forth five young ones in the very trap, devoured three of

them. But what was greatest of all, in a calm and clear sky there

was heard the sound of a trumpet, with such a loud and dismal blast,

as struck terror and amazement into the hearts of the people. The

Etruscan sages affirmed, that this prodigy betokened the mutation of

the age, and a general revolution in the world. For according to

them there are in all eight ages, differing one from another in the

lives and the characters of men, and to each of these God has

allotted a certain measure of time, determined by the circuit of the

great year. And when one age is run out, at the approach of another,

there appears some wonderful sign from earth or heaven, such as makes

it manifest at once to those who have made it their business to study

such things, that there has succeeded in the world a new race of men,

differing in customs and institutes of life, and more or less

regarded by the gods, than the preceding. Amongst other great

changes that happen, as they say, at the turn of ages, the art of

divination, also, at one time rises in esteem, and is more successful

in its predictions, clearer and surer tokens being sent from God, and

then again, in another generation declines as low, becoming mere

guesswork for the most part, and discerning future events by dim and

uncertain intimations. This was the mythology of the wisest of the

Tuscan sages, who were thought to possess a knowledge beyond other

men. Whilst the Senate sat in consultation with the soothsayers,

concerning these prodigies, in the temple of Bellona, a sparrow came

flying in, before them all, with a grasshopper in its mouth, and

letting fall one part of it, flew away with the remainder. The

diviners foreboded commotions and dissension between the great landed

proprietors and the common city populace; the latter, like the

grasshopper, being loud and talkative; while the sparrow might

represent the "dwellers in the field."

Marius had taken into alliance Sulpicius, the tribune, a man second

to none in any villanies, so that it was less the question what

others he surpassed, but rather in what respects he most surpassed

himself in wickedness. He was cruel, bold, rapacious, and in all

these points utterly shameless and unscrupulous; not hesitating to

offer Roman citizenship by public sale to freed slaves and aliens,

and to count out the price on public money-tables in the forum. He

maintained three thousand swordsmen, and had always about him a

company of young men of the equestrian class ready for all occasions,

whom he styled his Anti-Senate. Having had a law enacted, that no

senator should contract a debt of above two thousand drachmas, he

himself, after death, was found indebted three millions. This was

the man whom Marius let in upon the Commonwealth, and who,

confounding all things by force and the sword, made several

ordinances of dangerous consequence, and amongst the rest, one giving

Marius the conduct of the Mithridatic war. Upon this the consuls

proclaimed a public cessation of business, but as they were holding

an assembly near the temple of Castor and Pollux, he let loose the

rabble upon them, and amongst many others slew the consul Pompeius's

young son in the forum, Pompeius himself hardly escaping in the

crowd. Sylla being closely pursued into the house of Marius, was

forced to come forth and dissolve the cessation; and for his doing

this, Sulpicius, having deposed Pompeius, allowed Sylla to continue

his consulship, only transferring the Mithridatic expedition to

Marius.

There were immediately dispatched to Nola tribunes, to receive the

army, and bring it to Marius; but Sylla having got first to the camp,

and the soldiers, upon hearing of the news, having stoned the

tribunes, Marius, in requital, proceeded to put the friends of Sylla

in the city to the sword, and rifled their goods. Every kind of

removal and flight went on, some hastening from the camp to the city,

others from the city to the camp. The senate, no more in its own

power, but wholly governed by the dictates of Marius and Sulpicius,

alarmed at the report of Sylla's advancing with his troops towards

the city, sent forth two of the praetors, Brutus and Servilius, to

forbid his nearer approach. The soldiers would have slain these

praetors in a fury, for their bold language to Sylla; contenting

themselves, however, with breaking their rods, and tearing off their

purple-edged robes, after much contumelious usage they sent them

back, to the sad dejection of the citizens, who beheld their

magistrates despoiled of their badges of office, and announcing to

them, that things were now manifestly come to a rupture past all

cure. Marius put himself in readiness, and Sylla with his colleague

moved from Nola, at the head of six complete legions, all of them

willing to march up directly against the city, though he himself as

yet was doubtful in thought, and apprehensive of the danger. As he

was sacrificing, Postumius the soothsayer, having inspected the

entrails, stretching forth both hands to Sylla, required to be bound

and kept in custody till the battle was over, as willing, if they had

not speedy and complete success, to suffer the utmost punishment. It

is said, also, that there appeared to Sylla himself in a dream, a

certain goddess, whom the Romans learnt to worship from the

Cappadocians, whether it be the Moon, or Pallas, or Bellona. This

same goddess, to his thinking, stood by him, and put into his hand

thunder and lightning, then naming his enemies one by one, bade him

strike them, who, all of them, fell on the discharge and disappeared.

Encouraged by this vision, and relating it to his colleague, next day

he led on towards Rome. About Picinae being met by a deputation,

beseeching him not to attack at once, in the heat of a march, for

that the senate had decreed to do him all the right imaginable, he

consented to halt on the spot, and sent his officers to measure out

the ground, as is usual, for a camp; so that the deputation,

believing it, returned. They were no sooner gone, but he sent a

party on under the command of Lucius Basillus and Caius Mummius, to

secure the city gate, and the walls on the side of the Esquiline

hill, and then close at their heels followed himself with all speed.

Basillus made his way successfully into the city, but the unarmed

multitude, pelting him with stones and tiles from off the houses,

stopped his further progress, and beat him back to the wall. Sylla

by this time was come up, and seeing what was going on, called aloud

to his men to set fire to the houses, and taking a flaming torch, he

himself led the way, and commanded the archers to make use of their

fire-darts, letting fly at the tops of houses; all which he did, not

upon any plan, but simply in his fury, yielding the conduct of that

day's work to passion, and as if all he saw were enemies, without

respect or pity either to friend, relations, or acquaintance, made

his entry by fire, which knows no distinction betwixt friend or foe.

In this conflict, Marius being driven into the temple of

Mother-Earth, thence invited the slaves by proclamation of freedom,

but the enemy coming on he was overpowered and fled the city.

Sylla having called a senate, had sentence of death passed on Marius,

and some few others, amongst whom was Sulpicius, tribune of the

people. Sulpicius was killed, being betrayed by his servant, whom

Sylla first made free, and then threw him headlong down the Tarpeian

rock. As for Marius, he set a price on his life, by proclamation,

neither gratefully nor politicly, if we consider into whose house,

not long before he put himself at mercy, and was safely dismissed.

Had Marius at that time not let Sylla go, but suffered him to be

slain by the hands of Sulpicius, he might have been lord of all;

nevertheless he spared his life, and a few days after, when in a

similar position himself, received a different measure.

By these proceedings, Sylla excited the secret distaste of the

senate; but the displeasure and free indignation of the commonalty

showed itself plainly by their actions. For they ignominiously

rejected Nonius, his nephew, and Servius, who stood for offices of

state by his interest, and elected others as magistrates, by honoring

whom they thought they should most annoy him. He made semblance of

extreme satisfaction at all this, as if the people by his means had

again enjoyed the liberty of doing what seemed best to them. And to

pacify the public hostility, he created Lucius Cinna consul, one of

the adverse party, having first bound him under oaths and

imprecations to be favorable to his interest. For Cinna, ascending

the capitol with a stone in his hand, swore solemnly, and prayed with

direful curses, that he himself, if he were not true to his

friendship with Sylla, might be cast out of the city, as that stone

out of his hand; and thereupon cast the stone to the ground, in the

presence of many people. Nevertheless Cinna had no sooner entered on

his charge, but he took measures to disturb the present settlement,

and having prepared an impeachment against Sylla, got Virginius, one

of the tribunes of the people, to be his accuser; but Sylla, leaving

him and the court of judicature to themselves, set forth against

Mithridates.

About the time that Sylla was making ready to put oft with his forces

from Italy, besides many other omens which befell Mithridates, then

staying at Pergamus, there goes a story that a figure of Victory,

with a crown in her hand, which the Pergamenians by machinery from

above let down on him, when it had almost reached his head, fell to

pieces, and the crown tumbling down into the midst of the theater,

there broke against the ground, occasioning a general alarm among the

populace, and considerably disquieting Mithridates himself, although

his affairs at that time were succeeding beyond expectation. For

having wrested Asia from the Romans, and Bithynia and Cappadocia

from their kings, he made Pergamus his royal seat, distributing among

his friends riches, principalities, and kingdoms. Of his sons, one

residing in Pontus and Bosporus held his ancient realm as far as the

deserts beyond the lake Maeotis, without molestation; while

Ariarathes, another, was reducing Thrace and Macedon, with a great

army, to obedience. His generals, with forces under them, were

establishing his supremacy in other quarters. Archelaus, in

particular, with his fleet, held absolute mastery of the sea, and was

bringing into subjection the Cyclades, and all the other islands as

far as Malea, and had taken Euboea itself. Making Athens his

head-quarters, from thence as far as Thessaly he was withdrawing the

States of Greece from the Roman allegiance, without the least ill

success, except at Chaeronea. For here Bruttius Sura, lieutenant to

Sentius, governor of Macedon, a man of singular valor and prudence,

met him, and, though he came like a torrent pouring over Boeotia,

made stout resistance, and thrice giving him battle near Chaeronea,

repulsed and forced him back to the sea. But being commanded by

Lucius Lucullus to give place to his successor, Sylla, and resign the

war to whom it was decreed, he presently left Boeotia, and retired

back to Sentius, although his success had outgone all hopes, and

Greece was well disposed to a new revolution, upon account of his

gallant behavior. These were the glorious actions of Bruttius.

Sylla, on his arrival, received by their deputations the compliments

of all the cities of Greece, except Athens, against which, as it was

compelled by the tyrant Aristion to hold for the king, he advanced

with all his forces, and investing the Piraeus, laid formal siege to

it, employing every variety of engines, and trying every manner of

assault; whereas, had he forbore but a little while, he might without

hazard have taken the Upper City by famine, it being already reduced

to the last extremity, through want of necessaries. But eager to

return to Rome, and fearing innovation there, at great risk, with

continual fighting and vast expense, he pushed on the war. Besides

other equipage, the very work about the engines of battery was

supplied with no less than ten thousand yoke of mules, employed daily

in that service. And when timber grew scarce, for many of the works

failed, some crushed to pieces by their own weight, others taking

fire by the continual play of the enemy, he had recourse to the

sacred groves, and cut down the trees of the Academy, the shadiest of

all the suburbs, and the Lyceum. And a vast sum of money being

wanted to carry on the war, he broke into the sanctuaries of Greece,

that of Epidaurus and that of Olympia, sending for the most beautiful

and precious offerings deposited there. He wrote, likewise, to the

Amphictyons, at Delphi, that it were better to remit the wealth of

the god to him, for that he would keep it more securely, or in case

he made use of it, restore as much. He sent Caphis, the Phocian, one

of his friends, with this message, commanding him to receive each

item by weight. Caphis came to Delphi, but was loath to touch the

holy things, and with many tears, in the presence of the Amphyctyons,

bewailed the necessity. And on some of them declaring they heard the

sound of a harp from the inner shrine, he, whether he himself

believed it, or was willing to try the effect of religious fear upon

Sylla, sent back an express. To which Sylla replied in a scoffing

way, that it was surprising to him that Caphis did not know that

music was a sign of joy, not anger; he should, therefore, go on

boldly, and accept what a gracious and bountiful god offered.

Other things were sent away without much notice on the part of the

Greeks in general, but in the case of the silver tun, that only relic

of the regal donations, which its weight and bulk made it impossible

for any carriage to receive, the Amphictyons were forced to cut it

into pieces, and called to mind in so doing, how Titus Flamininus,

and Manius Acilius, and again Paulus Aemilius, one of whom drove

Antiochus out of Greece, and the others subdued the Macedonian kings,

had not only abstained from violating the Greek temples, but had even

given them new gifts and honors, and increased the general veneration

for them. They, indeed, the lawful commanders of temperate and

obedient soldiers, and themselves great in soul, and simple in

expenses, lived within the bounds of the ordinary established

charges, accounting it a greater disgrace to seek popularity with

their men, than to feel fear of their enemy. Whereas the commanders

of these times, attaining to superiority by force, not worth, and

having need of arms one against another, rather than against the

public enemy, were constrained to temporize in authority, and in

order to pay for the gratifications with which they purchased the

labor of their soldiers, were driven, before they knew it, to sell

the commonwealth itself, and, to gain the mastery over men better

than themselves, were content to become slaves to the vilest of

wretches. These practices drove Marius into exile, and again brought

him in against Sylla. These made Cinna the assassin of Octavius, and

Fimbria of Flaccus. To which courses Sylla contributed not the

least; for to corrupt and win over those who were under the command

of others, he would be munificent and profuse towards those who were

under his own; and so, while tempting the soldiers of other generals

to treachery, and his own to dissolute living, he was naturally in

want of a large treasury, and especially during that siege.

Sylla had a vehement and an implacable desire to conquer Athens,

whether out of emulation, fighting as it were against the shadow of

the once famous city, or out of anger, at the foul words and

scurrilous jests with which the tyrant Aristion, showing himself

daily, with unseemly gesticulations, upon the walls, had provoked him

and Metella.

The tyrant Aristion had his very being compounded of wantonness and

cruelty, having gathered into himself all the worst of Mithridates's

diseased and vicious qualities, like some fatal malady which the

city, after its deliverance from innumerable wars, many tyrannies and

seditions, was in its last days destined to endure. At the time when

a medimnus of wheat was sold in the city for one thousand drachmas,

and men were forced to live on the feverfew growing round the

citadel, and to boil down shoes and oil-bags for their food, he,

carousing and feasting in the open face of day, then dancing in

armor, and making jokes at the enemy, suffered the holy lamp of the

goddess to expire for want of oil, and to the chief priestess, who

demanded of him the twelfth part of a medimnus of wheat, he sent the

like quantity of pepper. The senators and priests, who came as

suppliants to beg of him to take compassion on the city, and treat

for peace with Sylla, he drove away and dispersed with a flight of

arrows. At last, with much ado, he sent forth two or three of his

reveling companions to parley, to whom Sylla, perceiving that they

made no serious overtures towards an accommodation, but went on

haranguing in praise of Theseus, Eumolpus, and the Median trophies,

replied, "My good friends, you may put up your speeches and be gone.

I was sent by the Romans to Athens, not to take lessons, but to

reduce rebels to obedience."

In the meantime news came to Sylla that some old men, talking in the

Ceramicus, had been overheard to blame the tyrant for not securing

the passages and approaches near the Heptachalcum, the one point

where the enemy might easily get over. Sylla neglected not the

report, but going in the night, and discovering the place to be

assailable, set instantly to work. Sylla himself makes mention in

his Memoirs, that Marcus Teius, the first man who scaled the wall,

meeting with an adversary, and striking him on the headpiece a home

stroke, broke his own sword, but, notwithstanding, did not give

ground, but stood and held him fast. The city was certainly taken

from that quarter, according to the tradition of the oldest of the

Athenians.

When they had thrown down the wall, and made all level betwixt the

Piraic and Sacred Gate, about midnight Sylla entered the breach, with

all the terrors of trumpets and cornets sounding, with the triumphant

shout and cry of an army let loose to spoil and slaughter, and

scouring through the streets with swords drawn. There was no

numbering the slain; the amount is to this day conjectured only from

the space of ground overflowed with blood. For without mentioning

the execution done in other quarters of the city, the blood that was

shed about the marketplace spread over the whole Ceramicus within the

Double-gate, and, according to most writers, passed through the gate

and overflowed the suburb. Nor did the multitudes which fell thus

exceed the number of those, who, out of pity and love for their

country, which they believed was now finally to perish, slew

themselves; the best of them, through despair of their country's

surviving, dreading themselves to survive, expecting neither humanity

nor moderation in Sylla. At length, partly at the instance of Midias

and Calliphon, two exiled men, beseeching and casting themselves at

his feet, partly by the intercession of those senators who followed

the camp, having had his fill of revenge, and making some honorable

mention of the ancient Athenians, "I forgive," said he, "the many for

the sake of the few, the living for the dead." He took Athens,

according to his own Memoirs, on the calends of March, coinciding

pretty nearly with the new moon of Anthesterion, on which day it is

the Athenian usage to perform various acts in commemoration of the

ruins and devastations occasioned by the deluge, that being supposed

to be the time of its occurrence.

At the taking of the town, the tyrant fled into the citadel, and was

there besieged by Curio, who had that charge given him. He held out

a considerable time, but at last yielded himself up for want of

water, and divine power immediately intimated its agency in the

matter. For on the same day and hour that Curio conducted him down,

the clouds gathered in a clear sky, and there came down a great

quantity of rain and filled the citadel with water.

Not long after, Sylla won the Piraeus, and burnt most of it; amongst

the rest, Philo's arsenal, a work very greatly admired.

In the mean time Taxiles, Mithridates's general, coming down from

Thrace and Macedon, with an army of one hundred thousand foot, ten

thousand horse, and ninety chariots, armed with scythes at the

wheels, would have joined Archelaus, who lay with a navy on the coast

near Munychia, reluctant to quit the sea, and yet unwilling to engage

the Romans in battle, but desiring to protract the war and cut off

the enemy's supplies. Which Sylla perceiving much better than

himself, passed with his forces into Boeotia, quitting a barren

district which was inadequate to maintain an army even in time of

peace. He was thought by some to have taken false measures in thus

leaving Attica, a rugged country, and ill suited for cavalry to move

in, and entering the plain and open fields of Boeotia, knowing as he

did the barbarian strength to consist most in horses and chariots.

But as was said before, to avoid famine and scarcity, he was forced

to run the risk of a battle. Moreover he was in anxiety for

Hortensius, a bold and active officer, whom on his way to Sylla with

forces from Thessaly, the barbarians awaited in the straits. For

these reasons Sylla drew off into Boeotia. Hortensius, meantime, was

conducted by Caphis, our countryman, another way unknown to the

barbarians, by Parnassus, just under Tithora, which was then not so

large a town as it is now, but a mere fort, surrounded by steep

precipices, whither the Phocians also, in old time, when flying from

the invasion of Xerxes, carried themselves and their goods and were

saved. Hortensius, encamping here, kept off the enemy by day, and at

night descending by difficult passages to Patronis, joined the forces

of Sylla, who came to meet him. Thus united they posted themselves

on a fertile hill in the middle of the plain of Elatea, shaded with

trees and watered at the foot. It is called Philoboeotus, and its

situation and natural advantages are spoken of with great admiration

by Sylla.

As they lay thus encamped, they seemed to the enemy a contemptible

number, for they were not above fifteen hundred horse, and less than

fifteen thousand foot. Therefore the rest of the commanders,

overpersuading Archelaus, and drawing up the army, covered the plain

with horses, chariots, bucklers, targets. The clamor and cries of so

many nations forming for battle rent the air, nor was the pomp and

ostentation of their costly array altogether idle and unserviceable

for terror; for the brightness of their armor, embellished

magnificently with gold and silver, and the rich colors of their

Median and Scythian coats, intermixed with brass and shining steel,

presented a flaming and terrible sight as they swayed about and moved

in their ranks, so much so that the Romans shrunk within their

trenches, and Sylla, unable by any arguments to remove their fear,

and unwilling to force them to fight against their wills, was fain to

sit down in quiet, ill-brooking to become the subject of barbarian

insolence and laughter. This, however, above all advantaged him, for

the enemy, from contemning of him, fell into disorder amongst

themselves, being already less thoroughly under command, on account

of the number of their leaders. Some few of them remained within the

encampment, but others, the major part, lured out with hopes of prey

and rapine, strayed about the country many days journey from the

camp, and are related to have destroyed the city of Panope, to have

plundered Lebadea, and robbed the oracle without any orders from

their commanders.

Sylla, all this while, chafing and fretting to see the cities all

around destroyed, suffered not the soldiery to remain idle, but

leading them out, compelled them to divert the Cephisus from its

ancient channel by casting up ditches, and giving respite to none,

showed himself rigorous in punishing the remiss, that growing weary

of labor, they might be induced by hardship to embrace danger. Which

fell out accordingly, for on the third day, being hard at work as

Sylla passed by, they begged and clamored to be led against the

enemy. Sylla replied, that this demand of war proceeded rather from

a backwardness to labor than any forwardness to fight, but if they

were in good earnest martially inclined, he bade them take their arms

and get up thither, pointing to the ancient citadel of the

Parapotamians, of which at present, the city being laid waste, there

remained only the rocky hill itself, steep and craggy on all sides,

and severed from Mount Hedylium by the breadth of the river Assus,

which running between, and at the bottom of the same hill falling

into the Cephisus with an impetuous confluence, makes this eminence a

strong position for soldiers to occupy. Observing that the enemy's

division, called the Brazen Shields, were making their way up

thither, Sylla was willing to take first possession, and by the

vigorous efforts of the soldiers, succeeded. Archelaus, driven from

hence, bent his forces upon Chaeronea. The Chaeroneans who bore arms

in the Roman camp beseeching Sylla not to abandon the city, he

dispatched Gabinius, a tribune, with one legion, and sent out also

the Chaeroneans, who endeavored, but were not able to get in before

Gabinius; so active was he, and more zealous to bring relief than

those who had entreated it. Juba writes that Ericius was the man

sent, not Gabinius. Thus narrowly did our native city escape.

From Lebadea and the cave of Trophonius there came favorable rumors

and prophecies of victory to the Romans, of which the inhabitants of

those places give a fuller account, but as Sylla himself affirms in

the tenth book of his Memoirs, Quintus Titius, a man of some repute

among the Romans who were engaged in mercantile business in Greece,

came to him after the battle won at Chaeronea, and declared that

Trophonius had foretold another fight and victory on the same place,

within a short time. After him a soldier, by name Salvenius, brought

an account from the god of the future issue of affairs in Italy. As

to the vision, they both agreed in this, that they had seen one who

in stature and in majesty was similar to Jupiter Olympius.

Sylla, when he had passed over the Assus, marching under the Mount

Hedylium, encamped close to Archelaus, who had entrenched himself

strongly between the mountains Acontium and Hedylium, close to what

are called the Assia. The place of his entrenchment is to this day

named from him, Archelaus. Sylla, after one day's respite, having

left Murena behind him with one legion and two cohorts to amuse the

enemy with continual alarms, himself went and sacrificed on the banks

of Cephisus, and the holy rites ended, held on towards Chaeronea to

receive the forces there and view Mount Thurium, where a party of the

enemy had posted themselves. This is a craggy height running up in a

conical form to a point, called by us Orthopagus; at the foot of it

is the river Morius and the temple of Apollo Thurius. The god had

his surname from Thuro, mother of Chaeron, whom ancient record makes

founder of Chaeronea. Others assert that the cow which Apollo gave to

Cadmus for a guide appeared there, and that the place took its name

from the beast, Thor being the Phoenician word for a cow.

At Sylla's approach to Chaeronea, the tribune who had been appointed

to guard the city led out his men in arms, and met him with a garland

of laurel in his hand; which Sylla accepting, and at the same time

saluting the soldiers and animating them to the encounter, two men of

Chaeronea, Homoloichus and Anaxidamus, presented themselves before

him, and offered, with a small party, to dislodge those who were

posted on Thurium. For there lay a path out of sight of the

barbarians, from what is called Petrochus along by the Museum,

leading right down from above upon Thurium. By this way it was easy

to fall upon them and either stone them from above, or force them

down into the plain. Sylla, assured of their faith and courage by

Gabinius, bade them proceed with the enterprise, and meantime drew up

the army, and disposing the cavalry on both wings, himself took

command of the right; the left being committed to the direction of

Murena. In the rear of all, Galba and Hortensius, his lieutenants,

planted themselves on the upper grounds with the cohorts of reserve,

to watch the motions of the enemy, who with numbers of horse and

swift-footed, light-armed infantry, were noticed to have so formed

their wing as to allow it readily to change about and alter its

position, and thus gave reason for suspecting that they intended to

carry it far out and so to enclose the Romans.

In the meanwhile, the Chaeroneans, who had Ericius for commander by

appointment of Sylla, covertly making their way around Thurium, and

then discovering themselves, occasioned a great confusion and rout

amongst the barbarians, and slaughter, for the most part, by their

own hands. For they kept not their place, but making down the steep

descent, ran themselves on their own spears, and violently sent each

other over the cliffs, the enemy from above pressing on and wounding

them where they exposed their bodies; insomuch that there fell three

thousand about Thurium. Some of those who escaped, being met by

Murena as he stood in array, were cut off and destroyed. Others

breaking through to their friends and falling pell-mell into the

ranks, filled most part of the army with fear and tumult, and caused

a hesitation and delay among the generals, which was no small

disadvantage. For immediately upon the discomposure, Sylla coming

full speed to the charge, and quickly crossing the interval between

the armies, lost them the service of their armed chariots, which

require a consider able space of ground to gather strength and

impetuosity in their career, a short course being weak and

ineffectual, like that of missiles without a full swing. Thus it

fared with the barbarians at present, whose first chariots came

feebly on and made but a faint impression; the Romans repulsing them

with shouts and laughter, called out as they do at the races in the

circus, for more to come. By this time the mass of both armies met;

the barbarians on one side fixed their long pikes, and with their

shields locked close together, strove so far as in them lay to

preserve their line of battle entire. The Romans, on the other side,

having discharged their javelins, rushed on with their drawn swords,

and struggled to put by the pikes to get at them the sooner, in the

fury that possessed them at seeing in the front of the enemy fifteen

thousand slaves, whom the royal commanders had set free by

proclamation, and ranged amongst the men of arms. And a Roman

centurion is reported to have said at this sight, that he never knew

servants allowed to play the masters, unless at the Saturnalia.

These men by their deep and solid array, as well as by their daring

courage, yielded but slowly to the legions, till at last by slinging

engines, and darts, which the Romans poured in upon them behind, they

were forced to give way and scatter.

As Archelaus was extending the right wing to encompass the enemy,

Hortensius with his cohorts came down in force, with intention to

charge him in the flank. But Archelaus wheeling about suddenly with

two thousand horse, Hortensius, outnumbered and hard pressed, fell

back towards the higher grounds, and found himself gradually getting

separated from the main body and likely to be surrounded by the

enemy. When Sylla heard this, he came rapidly up to his succor from

the right wing, which as yet had not engaged. But Archelaus,

guessing the matter by the dust of his troops, turned to the right

wing, from whence Sylla came, in hopes to surprise it without a

commander. At the same instant, likewise, Taxiles, with his Brazen

Shields, assailed Murena, so that a cry coming from both places, and

the hills repeating it around, Sylla stood in suspense which way to

move. Deciding to resume his own station, he sent in aid to Murena

four cohorts under Hortensius, and commanding the fifth to follow

him, returned hastily to the right wing, which of itself held its

ground on equal terms against Archelaus; and, at his appearance, with

one bold effort forced them back, and, obtaining the mastery,

followed them, flying in disorder to the river and Mount Acontium.

Sylla, however, did not forget the danger Murena was in; but hasting

thither and finding him victorious also, then joined in the pursuit.

Many barbarians were slain in the field, many more were cut in pieces

as they were making into the camp. Of all the vast multitude, ten

thousand only got safe into Chalcis. Sylla writes that there were

but fourteen of his soldiers missing, and that two of these returned

towards evening; he, therefore, inscribed on the trophies the names

of Mars, Victory, and Venus, as having won the day no less by good

fortune than by management and force of arms. This trophy of the

battle in the plain stands on the place where Archelaus first gave

way, near the stream of the Molus; another is erected high on the top

of Thurium, where the barbarians were environed, with an inscription

in Greek, recording that the glory of the day belonged to Homoloichus

and Anaxidamus. Sylla celebrated his victory at Thebes with

spectacles, for which he erected a stage, near Oedipus's well. The

judges of the performances were Greeks chosen out of other cities;

his hostility to the Thebans being implacable, half of whose

territory he took away and consecrated to Apollo and Jupiter,

ordering that out of the revenue compensation should be made to the

gods for the riches himself had taken from them.

After this, hearing that Flaccus, a man of the contrary faction, had

been chosen consul, and was crossing the Ionian Sea with an army,

professedly to act against Mithridates, but in reality against

himself, he hastened towards Thessaly, designing to meet him, but in

his march, when near Melitea, received advices from all parts that

the countries behind him were overrun and ravaged by no less a royal

army than the former. For Dorylaus, arriving at Chalcis with a large

fleet, on board of which he brought over with him eighty thousand of

the best appointed and best disciplined soldiers of Mithridates's

army, at once invaded Boeotia, and occupied the country in hopes to

bring Sylla to a battle, making no account of the dissuasions of

Archelaus, but giving it out as to the last fight, that without

treachery so many thousand men could never have perished. Sylla,

however, facing about expeditiously, made it clear to him that

Archelaus was a wise man, and had good skill in the Roman valor;

insomuch that he himself, after some small skirmishes with Sylla near

Tilphossium, was the first of those who thought it not advisable to

put things to the decision of the sword, but rather to wear out the

war by expense of time and treasure. The ground, however, near

Orchomenus, where they then lay encamped, gave some encouragement to

Archelaus, being a battle field admirably suited for an army superior

in cavalry. Of all the plains in Boeotia that are renowned for their

beauty and extent, this alone, which commences from the city of

Orchomenus, spreads out unbroken and clear of trees to the edge of

the fens in which the Melas, rising close under Orchomenus, loses

itself, the only Greek river which is a deep and navigable water from

the very head, increasing also about the summer solstice like the

Nile, and producing plants similar to those that grow there, only

small and without fruit. It does not run far before the main stream

disappears among the blind and woody marsh-grounds; a small branch.

however, joins the Cephisus, about the place where the lake is

thought to produce the best flute-reeds.

Now that both armies were posted near each other, Archelaus lay

still, but Sylla employed himself in cutting ditches from either

side; that if possible, by driving the enemies from the firm and open

champain, he might force them into the fens. They, on the other

hand, not enduring this, as soon as their leaders allowed them the

word of command, issued out furiously in large bodies; when not only

the men at work were dispersed, but most part of those who stood in

arms to protect the work fled in disorder. Upon this, Sylla leaped

from his horse, and snatching hold of an ensign, rushed through the

midst of the rout upon the enemy, crying out aloud, "To me, O Romans,

it will be glorious to fall here. As for you, when they ask you

where you betrayed your general, remember and say, at Orchomenus."

His men rallying again at these words, and two cohorts coming to his

succor from the right wing, he led them to the charge and turned the

day. Then retiring some short distance and refreshing his men, he

proceeded again with his works to block up the enemy's camp. They

again sallied out in better order than before. Here Diogenes,

step-son to Archelaus, fighting on the right wing with much

gallantry, made an honorable end. And the archers, being hard

pressed by the Romans, and wanting space for a retreat, took their

arrows by handfuls, and striking with these as with swords, beat them

back. In the end, however, they were all driven into the

entrenchment and had a sorrowful night of it with their slain and

wounded. The next day again, Sylla, leading forth his men up to

their quarters, went on finishing the lines of entrenchment, and when

they issued out again with larger numbers to give him battle, fell on

them and put them to the rout, and in the consternation ensuing, none

daring to abide, he took the camp by storm. The marshes were filled

with blood, and the lake with dead bodies, insomuch that to this day

many bows, helmets, fragments of iron, breastplates, and swords of

barbarian make, continue to be found buried deep in mud, two hundred

years after the fight. Thus much of the actions of Chaeronea and

Orchomenus.

At Rome, Cinna and Carbo were now using injustice and violence

towards persons of the greatest eminence, and many of them to avoid

this tyranny repaired, as to a safe harbor, to Sylla's camp, where,

in a short space, he had about him the aspect of a senate. Metella,

likewise, having with difficulty conveyed herself and children away

by stealth, brought him word that his houses, both in town and

country, had been burnt by his enemies, and entreated his help at

home. Whilst he was in doubt what to do, being impatient to hear of

his country being thus outraged, and yet not knowing how to leave so

great a work as the Mithridatic war unfinished, there comes to him

Archelaus, a merchant of Delos, with hopes of an accommodation, and

private instructions from Archelaus, the king's general. Sylla liked

the business so well as to desire a speedy conference with Archelaus

in person, and a meeting took place on the sea-coast near Delium,

where the temple of Apollo stands. When Archelaus opened the

conversation, and began to urge Sylla to abandon his pretensions to

Asia and Pontus, and to set sail for the war in Rome, receiving money

and shipping, and such forces as he should think fitting from the

king, Sylla, interposing, bade Archelaus take no further care for

Mithridates, but assume the crown to himself, and become a

confederate of Rome, delivering up the navy. Archelaus professing

his abhorrence of such treason, Sylla proceeded: "So you, Archelaus,

a Cappadocian, and slave, or if it so please you, friend, to a

barbarian king, would not, upon such vast considerations, be guilty

of what is dishonorable, and yet dare to talk to me, Roman general

and Sylla, of treason? as if you were not the selfsame Archelaus who

ran away at Chaeronea, with few remaining out of one hundred and

twenty thousand men; who lay for two days in the fens of Orchomenus,

and left Boeotia impassable for heaps of dead carcasses." Archelaus,

changing his tone at this, humbly besought him to lay aside the

thoughts of war, and make peace with Mithridates. Sylla consenting

to this request, articles of agreement were concluded on. That

Mithridates should quit Asia and Paphlagonia, restore Bithynia to

Nicomedes, Cappadocia to Ariobarzanes, and pay the Romans two

thousand talents, and give him seventy ships of war with all their

furniture. On the other hand, that Sylla should confirm to him his

other dominions, and declare him a Roman confederate. On these terms

he proceeded by the way of Thessaly and Macedon towards the

Hellespont, having Archelaus with him, and treating him with great

attention. For Archelaus being taken dangerously ill at Larissa, he

stopped the march of the army, and took care of him, as if he had

been one of his own captains, or his colleague in command. This gave

suspicion of foul play in the battle of Chaeronea; as it was also

observed that Sylla had released all the friends of Mithridates taken

prisoners in war, except only Aristion the tyrant, who was at enmity

with Archelaus, and was put to death by poison; and, above all, ten

thousand acres of land in Euboea had been given to the Cappadocian,

and he had received from Sylla the style of friend and ally of the

Romans. On all which points Sylla defends himself in his Memoirs.

The ambassadors of Mithridates arriving and declaring that they

accepted of the conditions, only Paphlagonia they could not part

with; and as for the ships, professing not to know of any such

capitulation, Sylla in a rage exclaimed, "What say you? Does

Mithridates then withhold Paphlagonia? and as to the ships, deny that

article? I thought to have seen him prostrate at my feet to thank me

for leaving him so much as that right hand of his, which has cut off

so many Romans. He will shortly, at my coming over into Asia, speak

another language; in the mean time, let him at his ease in Pergamus

sit managing a war which he never saw." The ambassadors in terror

stood silent by, but Archelaus endeavored with humble supplications

to assuage his wrath, laying hold on his right hand and weeping. In

conclusion he obtained permission to go himself in person to

Mithridates; for that he would either mediate a peace to the

satisfaction of Sylla, or if not, slay himself. Sylla having thus

dispatched him away, made an inroad into Maedica, and after wide

depopulations returned back again into Macedon, where he received

Archelaus about Philippi, bringing word that all was well, and that

Mithridates earnestly requested an interview. The chief cause of

this meeting was Fimbria; for he having assassinated Flaccus, the

consul of the contrary faction, and worsted the Mithridatic

commanders, was advancing against Mithridates himself, who, fearing

this, chose rather to seek the friendship of Sylla.

And so met at Dardanus in the Troad, on one side Mithridates,

attended with two hundred ships, and land forces consisting of twenty

thousand men at arms, six thousand horse, and a large train of

scythed chariots; on the other, Sylla with only four cohorts, and two

hundred horse. As Mithridates drew near and put out his hand, Sylla

demanded whether he was willing or no to end the war on the terms

Archelaus had agreed to, but seeing the king made no answer, "How is

this?" he continued, "ought not the petitioner to speak first, and

the conqueror to listen in silence?" And when Mithridates, entering

upon his plea, began to shift off the war, partly on the gods, and

partly to blame the Romans themselves, he took him up, saying that he

had heard, indeed, long since from others, and now he knew it himself

for truth, that Mithridates was a powerful speaker, who in defense of

the most foul and unjust proceedings, had not wanted for specious

presences. Then charging him with and inveighing bitterly against

the outrages he had committed, he asked again whether he was willing

or no to ratify the treaty of Archelaus? Mithridates answering in

the affirmative, Sylla came forward, embraced and kissed him. Not

long after he introduced Ariobarzanes and Nicomedes, the two kings,

and made them friends Mithridates, when he had handed over to Sylla

seventy ships and five hundred archers, set sail for Pontus.

Sylla, perceiving the soldiers to be dissatisfied with the peace, (as

it seemed indeed a monstrous thing that they should see the king who

was then bitterest enemy, and who had caused one hundred and fifty

thousand Romans to be massacred in one day in Asia, now sailing off

with the riches and spoils of Asia, which he had pillaged, and put

under contribution for the space of four years,) in his defense to

them alleged, that he could not have made head against Fimbria and

Mithridates, had they both withstood him in conjunction. Thence he

set out and went in search of Fimbria, who lay with the army about

Thyatira, and pitching his camp not far off, proceeded to fortify it

with a trench. The soldiers of Fimbria came out in their single

coats, and, saluting his men, lent ready assistance to the work;

which change Fimbria beholding, and apprehending Sylla as

irreconcilable, laid violent hands on himself in the camp.

Sylla imposed on Asia in general a tax of twenty thousand talents,

and despoiled individually each family by the licentious behavior and

long residence of the soldiery in private quarters. For he ordained

that every host should allow his guest four tetradrachms each day,

and moreover entertain him, and as many friends as he should invite,

with a supper; that a centurion should receive fifty drachmas a day,

together with one suit of clothes to wear within doors, and another

when he went abroad.

Having set out from Ephesus with the whole navy, he came the third

day to anchor in the Piraeus. Here he was initiated in the

mysteries, and seized for his use the library of Apellicon the Teian,

in which were most of the works of Theophrastus and Aristotle, then

not in general circulation. When the whole was afterwards conveyed

to Rome, there, it is said, the greater part of the collection passed

through the hands of Tyrannion the grammarian, and that Andronicus

the Rhodian, having through his means the command of numerous copies,

made the treatises public, and drew up the catalogues that are now

current. The elder Peripatetics appear themselves, indeed, to have

been accomplished and learned men, but of the writings of Aristotle

and Theophrastus they had no large or exact knowledge, because

Theophrastus bequeathing his books to the heir of Neleus of Scepsis,

they came into careless and illiterate hands.

During Sylla's stay about Athens, his feet were attacked by a heavy

benumbing pain, which Strabo calls the first inarticulate sounds of

the gout. Taking, therefore, a voyage to Aedepsus, he made use of

the hot waters there, allowing himself at the same time to forget all

anxieties, and passing away his time with actors. As he was walking

along the sea-shore, certain fishermen brought him some magnificent

fish. Being much delighted with the gift, and understanding, on

inquiry, that they were men of Halaeae, "What," said he, "are there

any men of Halaeae surviving?" For after his victory at Orchomenus,

in the heat of a pursuit, he had destroyed three cities of Boeotia,

Anthedon, Larymna, and Halaeae. The men not knowing what to say for

fear, Sylla with a smile bade them cheer up and return in peace, as

they had brought with them no insignificant intercessors. The

Halaeans say that this first gave them courage to reunite and return

to their city.

Sylla, having marched through Thessaly and Macedon to the sea-coast,

prepared, with twelve hundred vessels, to cross over from Dyrrhachium

to Brundisium. Not far from hence is Apollonia, and near it the

Nymphaeum, a spot of ground where, from among green trees and

meadows, there are found at various points springs of fire

continually streaming out. Here, they say, a satyr, such as

statuaries and painters represent, was caught asleep, and brought

before Sylla, where he was asked by several interpreters who he was,

and, after much trouble, at last uttered nothing intelligible, but a

harsh noise, something between the neighing of a horse and crying of

a goat. Sylla, in dismay, and deprecating such an omen, bade it be

removed.

At the point of transportation, Sylla being in alarm, lest at their

first setting foot upon Italy, the soldiers should disband and

disperse one by one among the cities, they of their own accord first

took an oath to stand firm by him, and not of their good-will to

injure Italy; then seeing him in distress for money, they made, so to

say, a freewill offering, and contributed each man according to his

ability. However Sylla would not accept of their offering, but

praising their good-will, and arousing up their courage, put over (as

he himself writes) against fifteen hostile generals in command of

four hundred and fifty cohorts; but not without the most unmistakable

divine intimations of his approaching happy successes. For when he

was sacrificing at his first landing near Tarentum, the victim's

liver showed the figure of a crown of laurel with two fillets hanging

from it. And a little while before his arrival in Campania, near the

mountain Hephaeus, two stately goats were seen in the daytime,

fighting together, and performing all the motions of men in battle.

It proved to be an apparition, and rising up gradually from the

ground, dispersed in the air, like fancied representations in the

clouds, and so vanished out of sight. Not long after, in the

selfsame place, when Marius the younger, and Norbanus the consul,

attacked him with two great armies, without prescribing the order of

battle, or arranging his men according to their divisions, by the

sway only of one common alacrity and transport of courage, he

overthrew the enemy, and shut up Norbanus into the city of Capua,

with the loss of seven thousand of his men. And this was the reason,

he says, that the soldiers did not leave him and disperse into the

different towns, but held fast to him, and despised the enemy, though

infinitely more in number.

At Silvium, (as he himself relates it,) there met him a servant of

Pontius, in a state of divine possession, saying that he brought him

the power of the sword and victory from Bellona, the goddess of war,

and if he did not make haste, that the capitol would be burnt, which

fell out on the same day the man foretold it, namely, on the sixth

day of the month Quintilis, which we now call July.

At Fidentia, also, Marcus Lucullus, one of Sylla's commanders,

reposed such confidence in the forwardness of the soldiers, as to

dare to face fifty cohorts of the enemy, with only sixteen of his

own; but because many of them were unarmed, delayed the onset. As he

stood thus waiting, and considering with himself, a gentle gale of

wind, bearing along with it from the neighboring meadows a quantity

of flowers, scattered them down upon the army, on whose shields and

helmets they settled, and arranged themselves spontaneously, so as to

give the soldiers, in the eyes of the enemy, the appearance of being

crowned with chaplets. Upon this, being yet further animated, they

joined battle, and victoriously slaying eight thousand men, took the

camp. This Lucullus was brother to that Lucullus who in after-times

conquered Mithridates and Tigranes.

Sylla, seeing himself still surrounded by so many armies, and such

mighty hostile powers, had recourse to art, inviting Scipio, the

other consul, to a treaty of peace. The motion was willingly

embraced, and several meetings and consultations ensued, in all which

Sylla, still interposing matter of delay and new pretences, in the

meanwhile debauched Scipio's men by means of his own, who were as

well practiced as the general himself, in all the artifices of

inveigling. For entering into the enemy's quarters and joining in

conversation, they gained some by present money, some by promises,

others by fair words and persuasions; so that in the end, when Sylla

with twenty cohorts drew near, on his men saluting Scipio's soldiers,

they returned the greeting and came over, leaving Scipio behind them

in his tent, where he was found all alone and dismissed. And having

used his twenty cohorts as decoys to ensnare the forty of the enemy,

he led them all back into the camp. On this occasion, Carbo was

heard to say, that he had both a fox and a lion in the breast of

Sylla to deal with, and was most troubled with the fox.

Some time after, at Signia, Marius the younger, with eighty-five

cohorts, offered battle to Sylla, who was extremely desirous to have

it decided on that very day; for the night before he had seen a

vision in his sleep, of Marius the elder, who had been some time

dead, advising his son to beware of the following day, as of fatal

consequence to him. For this reason, Sylla, longing to come to a

battle, sent off for Dolabella, who lay encamped at some distance.

But because the enemy had beset and blocked up the passes, his

soldiers got tired with skirmishing and marching at once. To these

difficulties was added, moreover, tempestuous rainy weather, which

distressed them most of all. The principal officers therefore came

to Sylla, and besought him to defer the battle that day, showing him

how the soldiers lay stretched on the ground, where they had thrown

themselves down in their weariness, resting their heads upon their

shields to gain some repose. When, with much reluctance, he had

yielded, and given order for pitching the camp, they had no sooner

begun to cast up the rampart and draw the ditch, but Marius came

riding up furiously at the head of his troops, in hopes to scatter

them in that disorder and confusion. Here the gods fulfilled Sylla's

dream. For the soldiers, stirred up with anger, left off their work,

and sticking their javelins into the bank, with drawn swords and a

courageous shout, came to blows with the enemy, who made but small

resistance, and lost great numbers in the flight. Marius fled to

Praeneste, but finding the gates shut, tied himself round by a rope

that was thrown down to him, and was taken up on the walls. Some

there are (as Fenestella for one) who affirm that Marius knew nothing

of the fight, but, overwatched and spent with hard duty, had reposed

himself, when the signal was given, beneath some shade, and was

hardly to be awakened at the flight of his men. Sylla, according to

his own account, lost only twenty-three men in this fight, having

killed of the enemy twenty thousand, and taken alive eight thousand.

The like success attended his lieutenants, Pompey, Crassus, Metellus,

Servilius, who with little or no loss cut off vast numbers of the

enemy, insomuch that Carbo, the prime supporter of the cause, fled by

night from his charge of the army, and sailed over into Libya.

In the last struggle, however, the Samnite Telesinus, like some

champion, whose lot it is to enter last of all into the lists and

take up the wearied conqueror, came nigh to have foiled and

overthrown Sylla before the gates of Rome. For Telesinus with his

second, Lamponius the Lucanian, having collected a large force, had

been hastening towards Praeneste, to relieve Marius from the siege;

but perceiving Sylla ahead of him, and Pompey behind, both hurrying

up against him, straightened thus before and behind, as a valiant and

experienced soldier, he arose by night, and marching directly with

his whole army, was within a little of making his way unexpectedly

into Rome itself. He lay that night before the city, at ten furlongs

distance from the Colline gate, elated and full of hope, at having

thus out-generalled so many eminent commanders. At break of day,

being charged by the noble youth of the city, among many others he

overthrew Appius Claudius, renowned for high birth and character.

The city, as is easy to imagine, was all in an uproar, the women

shrieking and running about, as if it had already been entered

forcibly by assault, till at last Balbus, sent forward by Sylla, was

seen riding up with seven hundred horse at full speed. Halting only

long enough to wipe the sweat from the horses, and then hastily

bridling again, he at once attacked the enemy. Presently Sylla

himself appeared, and commanding those who were foremost to take

immediate refreshment, proceeded to form in order for battle.

Dolabella and Torquatus were extremely earnest with him to desist

awhile, and not with spent forces to hazard the last hope, having

before them in the field, not Carbo or Marius, but two warlike

nations bearing immortal hatred to Rome, the Samnites and Lucanians,

to grapple with. But he put them by, and commanded the trumpets to

sound a charge, when it was now about four o'clock in the afternoon.

In the conflict which followed, as sharp a one as ever was, the

right wing where Crassus was posted had clearly the advantage; the

left suffered and was in distress, when Sylla came to its succor,

mounted on a white courser, full of mettle and exceedingly swift,

which two of the enemy knowing him by, had their lances ready to

throw at him; he himself observed nothing, but his attendant behind

him giving the horse a touch, he was, unknown to himself, just so far

carried forward, that the points, falling beside the horse's tail,

stuck in the ground. There is a story that he had a small golden

image of Apollo from Delphi, which he was always wont in battle to

carry about him in his bosom, and that he then kissed it with these

words, "O Apollo Pythius, who in so many battles hast raised to honor

and greatness the Fortunate Cornelius Sylla, wilt thou now cast him

down, bringing him before the gate of his country, to perish

shamefully with his fellow-citizens?" Thus, they say, addressing

himself to the god, he entreated some of his men, threatened some,

and seized others with his hand, till at length the left wing being

wholly shattered, he was forced, in the general rout, to betake

himself to the camp, having lost many of his friends and

acquaintance. Many, likewise, of the city spectators who had come

out, were killed or trodden underfoot. So that it was generally

believed in the city that all was lost, and the siege of Praeneste

was all but raised; many fugitives from the battle making their way

thither, and urging Lucretius Ofella, who was appointed to keep on

the siege, to rise in all haste, for that Sylla had perished, and

Rome fallen into the hands of the enemy.

About midnight there came into Sylla's camp messengers from Crassus,

to fetch provision for him and his soldiers; for having vanquished

the enemy, they had pursued him to the walls of Antemna, and had sat

down there. Sylla, hearing this, and that most of the enemy were

destroyed, came to Antemna by break of day, where three thousand of

the besieged having sent forth a herald, he promised to receive them

to mercy, on condition they did the enemy some mischief in their

coming over. Trusting to his word, they fell foul on the rest of

their companions, and made a great slaughter one of another.

Nevertheless, Sylla gathered together in the circus, as well these as

other survivors of the party, to the number of six thousand, and just

as he commenced speaking to the senate, in the temple of Bellona,

proceeded to cut them down, by men appointed for that service. The

cry of so vast a multitude put to the sword, in so narrow a space,

was naturally heard some distance, and startled the senators. He,

however, continuing his speech with a calm and unconcerned

countenance, bade them listen to what he had to say, and not busy

themselves with what was doing out of doors; he had given directions

for the chastisement of some offenders. This gave the most stupid of

the Romans to understand, that they had merely exchanged, not

escaped, tyranny. And Marius, being of a naturally harsh temper, had

not altered, but merely continued what he had been, in authority;

whereas Sylla, using his fortune moderately and unambitiously at

first, and giving good hopes of a true patriot, firm to the interests

both of the nobility and commonalty, being, moreover, of a gay and

cheerful temper from his youth, and so easily moved to pity as to

shed tears readily, has, perhaps deservedly, cast a blemish upon

offices of great authority, as if they deranged men's former habits

and character, and gave rise to violence, pride, and inhumanity.

Whether this be a real change and revolution in the mind, caused by

fortune, or rather a lurking viciousness of nature, discovering

itself in authority, it were matter of another sort of disquisition

to decide.

Sylla being thus wholly bent upon slaughter, and filling the city

with executions without number or limit, many wholly uninterested

persons falling a sacrifice to private enmity, through his permission

and indulgence to his friends, Caius Metellus, one of the younger

men, made bold in the senate to ask him what end there was of these

evils, and at what point he might be expected to stop? "We do not

ask you," said he, "to pardon any whom you have resolved to destroy,

but to free from doubt those whom you are pleased to save." Sylla

answering, that he knew not as yet whom to spare. "Why then," said

he, "tell us whom you will punish." This Sylla said he would do.

These last words, some authors say, were spoken not by Metellus, but

by Afidius, one of Sylla's fawning companions. Immediately upon

this, without communicating with any of the magistrates, Sylla

proscribed eighty persons, and notwithstanding the general

indignation, after one day's respite, he posted two hundred and

twenty more, and on the third again, as many. In an address to the

people on this occasion, he told them he had put up as many names as

he could think of; those which had escaped his memory, he would

publish at a future time. He issued an edict likewise, making death

the punishment of humanity, proscribing any who should dare to

receive and cherish a proscribed person, without exception to

brother, son, or parents. And to him who should slay any one

proscribed person, he ordained two talents reward, even were it a

slave who had killed his master, or a son his father. And what was

thought most unjust of all, he caused the attainder to pass upon

their sons, and son's sons, and made open sale of all their property.

Nor did the proscription prevail only at Rome, but throughout all the

cities of Italy the effusion of blood was such, that neither

sanctuary of the gods, nor hearth of hospitality, nor ancestral home

escaped. Men were butchered in the embraces of their wives, children

in the arms of their mothers. Those who perished through public

animosity, or private enmity, were nothing in comparison of the

numbers of those who suffered for their riches. Even the murderers

began to say, that "his fine house killed this man, a garden that, a

third, his hot baths." Quintus Aurelius, a quiet, peaceable man, and

one who thought all his part in the common calamity consisted in

condoling with the misfortunes of others, coming into the forum to

read the list, and finding himself among the proscribed, cried out,

"Woe is me, my Alban farm has informed against me." He had not gone

far, before he was dispatched by a ruffian, sent on that errand.

In the meantime, Marius, on the point of being taken, killed himself;

and Sylla, coming to Praeneste, at first proceeded judicially against

each particular person, till at last, finding it a work of too much

time, he cooped them up together in one place, to the number of

twelve thousand men, and gave order for the execution of them all,

his own host alone excepted. But he, brave man, telling him he

could not accept the obligation of life from the hands of one who had

been the ruin of his country, went in among the rest, and submitted

willingly to the stroke. What Lucius Catilina did was thought to

exceed all other acts. For having, before matters came to an issue,

made away with his brother, he besought Sylla to place him in the

list of proscription, as though he had been alive, which was done;

and Catiline, to return the kind office, assassinated a certain

Marcus Marius, one of the adverse party, and brought the head to

Sylla, as he was sitting in the forum, and then going to the holy

water of Apollo, which was nigh, washed his hands.

There were other things, besides this bloodshed, which gave offense.

For Sylla had declared himself dictator, an office which had then

been laid aside for the space of one hundred and twenty years. There

was, likewise, an act of grace passed on his behalf, granting

indemnity for what was passed, and for the future entrusting him with

the power of life and death, confiscation, division of lands,

erecting and demolishing of cities, taking away of kingdoms, and

bestowing them at pleasure. He conducted the sale of confiscated

property after such an arbitrary, imperious way, from the tribunal,

that his gifts excited greater odium even than his usurpations;

women, mimes, and musicians, and the lowest of the freed slaves had

presents made them of the territories of nations, and the revenues of

cities; and women of rank were married against their will to some of

them. Wishing to insure the fidelity of Pompey the Great, by a

nearer tie of blood, he bade him divorce his present wife, and

forcing Aemilia, the daughter of Scaurus and Metella, his own wife,

to leave her husband, Manius Glabrio, he bestowed her, though then

with child, on Pompey, and she died in childbirth at his house.

When Lucretius Ofella, the same who reduced Marius by siege, offered

himself for the consulship, he first forbade him; then, seeing he

could not restrain him, on his coming down into the forum with a

numerous train of followers, he sent one of the centurions who were

immediately about him, and slew him, himself sitting on the tribunal

in the temple of Castor, and beholding the murder from above. The

citizens apprehending the centurion, and dragging him to the

tribunal, he bade them cease their clamoring and let the centurion

go, for he had commanded it.

His triumph was, in itself, exceedingly splendid, and distinguished

by the rarity and magnificence of the royal spoils; but its yet

greatest glory was the noble spectacle of the exiles. For in the

rear followed the most eminent and most potent of the citizens,

crowned with garlands, and calling Sylla savior and father, by whose

means they were restored to their own country, and again enjoyed

their wives and children. When the solemnity was over, and the time

come to render an account of his actions, addressing the public

assembly, he was as profuse in enumerating the lucky chances of war,

as any of his own military merits. And, finally, from this felicity,

he requested to receive the surname of Felix. In writing and

transacting business with the Greeks, he styled himself

Epaphroditus, and on his trophies which are still extant with us,

the name is given Lucius Cornelius Sylla Epaphroditus. Moreover,

when his wife had brought him forth twins, he named the male Faustus,

and the female Fausta, the Roman words for what is auspicious and of

happy omen. The confidence which he reposed in his good genius,

rather than in any abilities of his own, emboldened him, though

deeply involved in bloodshed, and though he had been the author of

such great changes and revolutions of State, to lay down his

authority, and place the right of consular elections once more in the

hands of the people. And when they were held, he not only declined

to seek that office, but in the forum exposed his person publicly to

the people, walking up and down as a private man. And contrary to

his will, certain bold man and his enemy, Marcus Lepidus, was

expected to become consul, not so much by his own interest, as by the

power and solicitation of Pompey, whom the people were willing to

oblige. When the business was over, seeing Pompey going home

overjoyed with the success, he called him to him and said, "What a

politic act, young man, to pass by Catulus, the best of men, and

choose Lepidus, the worst! It will be well for you to be vigilant,

now that you have strengthened your opponent against yourself."

Sylla spoke this, it may seem, by a prophetic instinct, for, not long

after, Lepidus grew insolent, and broke into open hostility to Pompey

and his friends.

Sylla, consecrating the tenth of his whole substance to Hercules,

entertained the people with sumptuous feastings. The provision was

so much above what was necessary, that they were forced daily to

throw great quantities of meat into the river, and they drank wine

forty years old and upwards. In the midst of the banqueting, which

lasted many days, Metella died of disease. And because that the

priest forbade him to visit the sick, or suffer his house to be

polluted with mourning, he drew up an act of divorce, and caused her

to be removed into another house whilst alive. Thus far, out of

religious apprehension, he observed the strict rule to the very

letter, but in the funeral expenses he transgressed the law he

himself had made, limiting the amount, and spared no cost. He

transgressed, likewise, his own sumptuary laws respecting expenditure

in banquets, thinking to allay his grief by luxurious drinking

parties and revelings with common buffoons.

Some few months after, at a show of gladiators, when men and women

sat promiscuously in the theater, no distinct places being as yet

appointed, there sat down by Sylla a beautiful woman of high birth,

by name Valeria, daughter of Messala, and sister to Hortensius the

orator. Now it happened that she had been lately divorced from her

husband. Passing along behind Sylla, she leaned on him with her

hand, and plucking a bit of wool from his garment, so proceeded to

her seat. And on Sylla looking up and wondering what it meant, "What

harm, mighty Sir," said she, "if I also was desirous to partake a

little in your felicity?" It appeared at once that Sylla was not

displeased, but even tickled in his fancy, for he sent out to inquire

her name, her birth, and past life. From this time there passed

between them many side glances, each continually turning round to

look at the other, and frequently interchanging smiles. In the end,

overtures were made, and a marriage concluded on. All which was

innocent, perhaps, on the lady's side, but, though she had been never

so modest and virtuous, it was scarcely a temperate and worthy

occasion of marriage on the part of Sylla, to take fire, as a boy

might, at a face and a bold look, incentives not seldom to the most

disorderly and shameless passions.

Notwithstanding this marriage, he kept company with actresses,

musicians, and dancers, drinking with them on couches night and day.

His chief favorites were Roscius the comedian, Sorex the arch mime,

and Metrobius the player, for whom, though past his prime, he still

professed a passionate fondness. By these courses he encouraged a

disease which had begun from some unimportant cause; and for a long

time he failed to observe that his bowels were ulcerated, till at

length the corrupted flesh broke out into lice. Many, were employed

day and night in destroying them, but the work so multiplied under

their hands, that not only his clothes, baths, basins, but his very

meat was polluted with that flux and contagion, they came swarming

out in such numbers. He went frequently by day into the bath to

scour and cleanse his body, but all in vain; the evil generated too

rapidly and too abundantly for any ablutions to overcome it. There

died of this disease, amongst those of the most ancient times,

Acastus, the son of Pelias; of later date, Alcman the poet,

Pherecydes the theologian, Callisthenes the Olynthian, in the time of

his imprisonment, as also Mucius the lawyer; and if we may mention

ignoble, but notorious names, Eunus the fugitive, who stirred up the

slaves of Sicily to rebel against their masters, after he was brought

captive to Rome, died of this creeping sickness.

Sylla not only foresaw his end, but may be also said to have written

of it. For in the two and twentieth book of his Memoirs, which he

finished two days before his death, he writes that the Chaldeans

foretold him, that after he had led a life of honor, he should

conclude it in fullness of prosperity. He declares, moreover, that

in vision he had seen his son, who had died not long before Metella,

stand by in mourning attire, and beseech his father to cast off

further care, and come along with him to his mother Metella, there to

live at ease and quietness with her. However, he could not refrain

from intermeddling in public affairs. For, ten days before his

decease, he composed the differences of the people of Dicaearchia,

and prescribed laws for their better government. And the very day

before his end, it being told him that the magistrate Granius

deferred the payment of a public debt, in expectation of his death,

he sent for him to his house, and placing his attendants about him,

caused him to be strangled; but through the straining of his voice

and body, the imposthume breaking, he lost a great quantity of blood.

Upon this, his strength failing him, after spending a troublesome

night, he died, leaving behind him two young children by Metella.

Valeria was afterwards delivered of a daughter, named Posthuma; for

so the Romans call those who are born after the father's death.

Many ran tumultuously together, and joined with Lepidus, to deprive

the corpse of the accustomed solemnities; but Pompey, though offended

at Sylla, (for he alone of all his friends, was not mentioned in his

will,) having kept off some by his interest and entreaty, others by

menaces, conveyed the body to Rome, and gave it a secure and

honorable burial. It is said that the Roman ladies contributed such

vast heaps of spices, that besides what was carried on two hundred

and ten litters, there was sufficient to form a large figure of Sylla

himself, and another, representing a lictor, out of the costly

frankincense and cinnamon. The day being cloudy in the morning, they

deferred carrying forth the corpse till about three in the afternoon,

expecting it would rain. But a strong wind blowing full upon the

funeral pile, and setting it all in a bright flame, the body was

consumed so exactly in good time, that the pyre had begun to smolder,

and the fire was upon the point of expiring, when a violent rain came

down, which continued till night. So that his good fortune was firm

even to the last, and did as it were officiate at his funeral. His

monument stands in the Campus Martius, with an epitaph of his own

writing; the substance of it being, that he had not been outdone by

any of his friends in doing good turns, nor by any of his foes in

doing bad.