                                      75 AD
                                     SYLLA
                                  138-78 B.C.
                                  by Plutarch
                           translated by John Dryden
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
aftertimes 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 obscure 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 any one 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 temptation of voluptuousness, from which
even in 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 honour, 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 intrusted 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, betook 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 pretence 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 succours, 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
smouldering, 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 valour 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
honours; 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 favours, but joining himself
and extolling and glorifying what was done, gave the honour 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 admonished 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 he reconciled after the most heinous acts of enmity, and
yet would visit small and inconsiderable offences 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 clamours 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
honourably, 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 sate 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. Among 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 dissensions 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 villainies, 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 despatched 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 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
friends, 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 politically, if we consider
into whose house, not long before, he put himself at mercy, and 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 honouring
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 favourable 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, 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 off with his force
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 theatre,
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 headquarters, 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 valour
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 behaviour. 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 forborn 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 loth to touch the holy things, and with many tears, in
the presence of the Amphictyons, 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 honours, 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 labour 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 armour, 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 revelling 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 market-place 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 honourable 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 meantime 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 times, 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 there were not above fifteen hundred horse, and less
than fifteen thousand foot. Therefore the rest of the commanders,
over-persuading Archelaus and drawing up the army, covered the plain
with horses, chariots, bucklers, targets. The clamour 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 armour,
embellished magnificently with gold and silver, and the rich colours
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
labour, 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 clamoured to be led against the
enemy. Sylla replied, that this demand of war proceeded rather from
a backwardness to labour 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 despatched
Gabinius, a tribune, with one legion, and sent out also the
Chaeroneans, who endeavoured, 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 favourable
rumours and prophecies of victory to the Romans, of which the
inhabitants of those places gave 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
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 intrenched himself
strongly between the mountains Acontium and Hedylium, close to what
are called the Assia. The place of his intrenchment 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 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
inclose 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
among 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
considerable 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, out-numbered 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 succour 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
intoe 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 valour;
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 battlefield admirably suited for any 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
champaign, 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 succour
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, stepson to
Archelaus, fighting on the right wing with much gallantry, made an
honourable 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 intrenchment 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 intrenchment, 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 harbour, 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 seacoast 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
dishonourable, and yet dare to talk to me, Roman general and Sylla, of
treason? as if you were not the self-same 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 meantime, let him at his ease in Pergamus sit
managing a war which he never saw." The ambassadors in terror stood
silent by, but Archelaus endeavoured 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
despatched 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 defence of the most foul and unjust proceedings, had not wanted
for specious pretences. 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 their 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 defence 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 behaviour 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 drachms 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 seashore, 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 re-unite 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
they say, a free-will 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, went 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 self-same
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 neighbouring 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 aftertimes
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 practised
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 orders 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, straitened 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 succour, 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 honour 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 under foot. 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 was
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 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 sons'
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 despatched 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 offence.
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 intrusting 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 clamouring 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 saviour 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, a
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 polite 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 a 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 revellings with
common buffoons.
  Some few months after, at a show of gladiators, when men and women
sat promiscuously in the theatre, 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 favourites 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 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 honour, he should
conclude it in fulness of prosperity. He declares, moreover, that in a
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
honourable 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 smoulder, 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.


                               THE END
