817 



SULLA. 



SULLA. 



818 



to discover them, and either to put them to death or to deliver them 

 up to the consuls. (Appian, ' De Bell. Civ.,' i. 60 ; Plut., ' Sull.,' 10.) 



After this defeat of the Marian party, Sulla repealed the laws of 

 Sulpicius, but he had no leisure for a thorough reform of the constitu- 

 tion, which he appears to have conceived about this time, as his 

 soldiers were anxious to be led to Asia. Appian indeed ascribes 

 some of the most important regulations of Sulla to this time, and it is 

 not improbable that the law which enacted that no measure should be 

 brought before the people which had not previously obtained the 

 sanction of the senate, and another (lex unciaria ; Fest, s. v. ' unciaria 

 lex'), by which some disputes between debtors and creditors respecting 

 the rate of interest were settled, belong to this period. The other 

 measures, also mentioned by Appian, may have been discussed at the 

 time, but they were not carried into effect until the dictatorship of 

 Sulla. He remained at Rome until the consuls for the year following 

 were elected. The consuls for the year B.C. 87 were Cn. Octavius and 

 L. Cinna. The latter was a man of the popular party, and Sulla, pre- 

 tending to be glad to see that the people made use of their freedom in 

 the elections, contented himself with making Cinna promise with an 

 oath that he would not disturb the actual order of things. Sulla in 

 the meanwhile felt that his life was not quite safe at Rome, and was 

 therefore constantly accompanied by a strong body-guard. A short 

 time after, the tribune M. Virginius, instigated by Cinna, prosecuted 

 Sulla, who however, without auy concern about it, went to Capua to 

 undertake the command of his army, and to proceed with it to Greece, 

 where he intended to commence operations against Mithridates. He 

 landed at Dyrrachium, collected the Roman troops stationed in 

 Greece, and marched towards Athens, which Archelaus, the general of 

 Mithridates, had made his head-quarters. After a long siege and a 

 desperate defence, Athens was taken by storm (B.C. 86), and the 

 garrison of the Acropolis was soon compelled, by want of water and 

 provisions, to surrender at discretion. Piraeus also fell into the 

 hands of the victor. (Plut. ' Sull.,' 11, &c. ; Appian. 'Mithrid.,' 28-45.) 

 Sulla, who received no supplies from Italy, did not scruple to make 

 use of the rich treasures of the Greek temples, and treated with scorn 

 those who exhorted him not to provoke the anger of the gods. Athens 

 suffered severely, and many of its most magnificent buildings and 

 works of art perished on this occasion, for Sulla's anger had been pro- 

 voked during the siege by the insulting conduct of Aristion, then 

 tyrant of Athens. Archelaus collected all his forces in Greece, and 

 after having received great reinforcements from Asia, he was de- 

 termined to dispute with Sulla the possession of Greece. Though the 

 Roman army was far inferior to that of Archelaus, Sulla gained two 

 victories, one at Chseronea (B.C. 86), and the other at Orchomenos in 

 Bceotia (B.C. 85), after which he destroyed the towns of Anthedon, 

 Larymna, and Halaeae. (Plut. ' SulL,' 26.) 



Although Sulla might now consider himself master of Greece, and 

 might have carried on the war against Mithridates with the best hopes 

 of success, he thought it advisable not to drive Mithridates to 

 extremities, and therefore consented, soon after his landing in Asia, to 

 conclude a peace with him (B.C. 84) [MITHRIDATES]. There were how- 

 ever other reasons for wishing to put an end to the war. During his 

 abser.ce from Italy the popular party had recovered its ascendancy, 

 and his own party was almost annihilated : his institutions were 

 abolished, his house was destroyed, and his property confiscated, and 

 he himself was declared an enemy of the republic. The most dis- 

 tinguished senators bad been obliged to take refuge in his camp in 

 Greece, and they, together with his wife Csecilia Metella, who had 

 likewise fled from Rome, urged and entreated him not to forsake 

 them. Two years before the peace with Mithridates, the consul 

 L. Valerius Flaccus, who was of the popular party, had appeared with 

 a fleet and an army in the Ionian Sea, under the pretext of carrying 

 on the war against Mithridates, but perhaps with the secret intention 

 of attacking Sulla. This plan however had not been realised, for 

 Valerius Flaccus was murdered (B.C. 85) by his own legate C. Fimbria, 

 who placed himself at the head of the troops, and was successful in 

 several engagements with the army of Mithridates. After Sulla had 

 concluded a peace with the king in the plains of Troas, he set out 

 against Fimbria, who was stationed with his army in the neighbour- 

 hood of Thyatira in Lydia. Fimbria, being betrayed by his own 

 soldiers, put an end to his life. (Plut., ' Sull.,' 25.) 



Sulla was now at liberty to return with his army from Asia to 

 Italy, but he bad still to satisfy the demands of his soldiers, who had 

 expected to enrich themselves in the war against Mithridates. To 

 raise the necessary money, Sulla resorted to the most oppressive 

 measures. Every provincial was obliged to give to every soldier 

 quartered in his house every day a fixed sum of money, and to pro- 

 vide him and as many as he might choose to invite with a daily meal. 

 Besides this, a heavy contribution of 20,000 talents was raised ; in 

 short, Sulla treated the country, which he pretended to have delivered, 

 like that of an enemy. (Plut., 'Sull.,' 25.) After he had thus 

 secured the attachment of his soldiers, he left the province of Asia, 

 intrusted the two legions of Fimbria to his legate L. Licinius Murena 

 (Appian, 'Mithrid.,' 64), and sailed with his fleet and the remainder of 

 his army, about 30,000 men, from Ephesus to Piraeus. After a 

 voyage of three days he reached Athens. He took the library of 

 Apellicon, the father of Aristion, which according to Athenseus (v. 

 p. 211, &c.), belonged to Athenion, and which contained most of the 



BIOG. Div. VOL. v. 



works of Theophraatus and Aristotle. Sulla, who was well able to 

 appreciate such a treasure, carried it with him to Rome. [ARISTOTLE.] 

 While in Greece, Sulla had an attack of the gout, of which he was 

 cured by the use of the warm baths of JSdepsus in Eubooa. During 

 his short stay there he indulged in his usual diversions, and spent the 

 greater part of his time in the company of actors and dancers. He 

 then marched with his army towards the north, through Thessaly and 

 Macedonia to Dyrrachium, and carried his army over to Brundusium in 

 1200, or, according to Appian ('De Bell. Civ.,' L 79), in 1600 ships. 

 This passage probably took place in the spring of the year B.C. 83. 



The forces of the hostile party in Italy amounted to 200,000 men. 

 (Veil. ' Pat.,' ii. 24.) Cinna had increased his preparations as soon 

 as he heard that Sulla was on his way to Italy. In consequence 

 of a letter which Sulk while yet in Asia had addressed to the senate, 

 it had been decreed that negociations should be entered into in order 

 to effect a reconciliation between Sulk and hia enemies, and that 

 Cinna and Carbo, then consuls, should make no further preparations 

 for war. But the consuls paid no attention to this decree, and made 

 preparations for carrying an army into Dalmatia, in order to bring the 

 war to a close in Greece. But when a part of the army was already 

 transported to Dalmatia, a mutiny broke out among the soldiers, and 

 Cinna was murdered, 84 B.C. (Appian, ' De Bell. Civ.,' L 78 ; Liv. 

 ' Epit.,' 83.) The popular party, deprived of their leader, had no 

 alternative but to continue their resistance or to fall victims to the 

 vengeance of Sulla, who declared that he would pardon none of his 

 enemies. The Italians had made common cause with the democratic 

 party, for they had reason to think that Sulla would be the last man 

 to leave them in the enjoyment of the rights which they had lately 

 acquired. But Su.la endeavoured to deprive his enemies of this 

 support, and while he led his army from Brundusium through 

 Calabria and Apulia in Campania, he carefully prevented his soldiers 

 from doing any injury either to the fields or the towns of the Italians ; 

 and he even entered into negociations with some of them, and assured 

 them that he would not attempt to deprive them of their newly- 

 acquired rights. (Liv., 'Epit.,' 86). Many Romans of distinction 

 also, who had formerly shown themselves rather neutral, such aa 

 Pompey, joined his army, and increased bis forces considerably. In 

 the first battle which Sulla fought with the consul Narbanus in the 

 neighbourhood of Capua, he was successful, and while a truce was 

 concluded with this conquered enemy, the army of the other consul, 

 L. Scipio, was persuaded to abandon their general. In the following 

 year (B.C. 82), when young Marius and Cn. Papirius Carbo were 

 consuls, the war assumed a more serious aspect. Marius undertook the 

 protection of Rome and Latium, and Carbo that of Etruria and Umbria. 

 Marius however was defeated by Sulla in the battle of Sacriportus, 

 upon which he fled to Prseneste, and Rome was taken by the con- 

 queror, after the praetor L. Damasippus, at the request of Marius, had 

 put to death a great number of nobles, and among them even a 

 pontifex maximus, who were suspected of secretly supporting the 

 cause of Sulla. Carbo, who was successfully attacked by Metellus 

 Pius, Pompey, and Sulla himself, was compelled to seek refuge iu 

 Africa, after he had made a useless attempt to rescue Marius, who was 

 besieged in Praeneste by Q. Lucretius Ofella. The Samnites and 

 Lucanians, who, under the command of Pontius Telesinus and M. 

 Lamponius, likewise made a fruitless attempt to relieve Praeneste, 

 and then marched against Rome, were defeated in a great battle at 

 the Colline gate, in which both armies fought desperately (B.C. 82). 

 The number of the slain on that day is stated to have been 50,000. 

 Sulla, in his inveterate hatred of the Samnites, on the third day after 

 this victory, ordered several thousands of them, who had been made 

 prisoners, to be cut down in the Campus Martius. During the time 

 that this slaughter was going on, Sulla held a meeting of the senate 

 near the scene of horror, and when the senators became uneasy at the 

 groans of the dying prisoners, he told them to listen to what he was 

 proposing, and not to mind what was doing outside. (Appiau, ' De 

 Bell. Civ.,' i 84-94; Liv., 'Epit.,' 88; Plut., 'Sull.,' 30.) This victory 

 was soon followed by the taking of Praeneste. The Romans who 

 were found there among his enemies were pardoned, but the Sam- 

 nites and Praenestines, amounting, according to Plutarch, to 12,000, 

 were put to the sword. Marius persuaded a slave to put an end to 

 his life. 



Sulla's victory was now complete, although some towns of Italy 

 still continued to offer resistance, and although the war was continued 

 in Africa by Carbo and in Spain by Sertorius. Sulla gratified his ven- 

 geance by proscriptions, an invention of his own, by which he was 

 enabled to get rid of those whom he had to fear, and to reward his 

 friends and his soldiers. Many thousands were proscribed, that is, 

 were declared out of the protection of the law and any one was autho- 

 rised to kill them ; and those who killed a proscribed person or gave 

 notice of his place of concealment, received two talents as a reward, 

 and those who gave shelter to one forfeited their own lives. Lists 

 containing the names of the proscribed were put up in public and new 

 names were constantly added. The property of the proscribed was 

 seized and publicly sold or given away. The consequences were accord- 

 ing to the will of the tyrant, to extend to the descendants of the pro- 

 scribed, inasmuch as they were to be excluded from all honours and 

 public offices. Rome was in a state of utter consternation. But the 

 vengeance of Sulla was not confined to the city. All the Italians who 



3a 



