Lucius Cornelius
SullaSulla,
Lucius Cornelius,
called Felix (138-78BC), Roman general and statesman, who led the
Optimates (aristocratic party) during the civil war of 88-86BC.
Sylla
By Plutarch
Sylla
(legendary, died 78 B.C.E.)
By Plutarch
Written 75 A.C.E.
Translated by John Dryden
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
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