819 



SULLA. 



SULLA. 



820 



had in any way opposed the party of Sulla were punished in the same 

 manner, and numbers of them were murdered and their property con- 

 fiscated. AVhole cities were punished by the imposition of heavy fines, 

 or by the demolition of their fortifications. Sulla moreover, according 

 to Appian, sent twenty-three, or according to Livy, forty-seven legions 

 to be distributed as garrisons among the towns of Italy, and granted 

 to them the Roman franchise, together with the lands and houses 

 which he bad taken from their former owners. In the same manner as 

 he thus secured for himself a strong party in the towns of Italy he 

 formed at Rome for the security of his own person a body-guard con- 

 sisting of ten thousand slaves, to whom he gave their freedom and 

 their franchise, and who were called after their patron, Cornelii. The 

 people were thus silenced by fear, and all the acts committed by the 

 tyrant were ratified by a decree of the people (Appian, 'De BeL Civ.,' 

 97), and a gilt equestrian statue was erected to him in front of the 

 rostra, with the inscription ' Cornelius Sulla, Imperator Felix.' 



Sulla now caused the senate to name an interrex, and Valerius 

 Flaccus being appointed, Sulla made him propose to the senate to 

 appoint a dictator to regulate the affairs of Rome and Italy. In accord- 

 ance with his own expressed wish, Sulla was made dictator (B.C. 82), 

 an office which had not existed for the last 120 years, and which he 

 was permitted to hold as long as he pleased. In order however to 

 leave to the people some appearance of liberty, he permitted them to 

 elect consuls aa usual, and he himself in B.C. 80, held the office of 

 consul in addition to that of dictator. In the year B.C. 81 he enjoyed 

 a triumph for his victories in the war against Mithridates, and his 

 splendid games and feastings, which lasted for several days, made the 

 people forget for a time their wretched condition. (Appian, 'De Bel. 

 Civ.,' 101.) After his triumph he claimed the surname of Felix, aud 

 pretended that all his success against his enemies was owing to the 

 favour of the gods, especially of Venus, which he had enjoyed from 

 his early youth. Hence he also called himself Epaphroditus. Bui 

 although he sometimes affected gratitude towards the gods, in reality 

 he cared little about them, and he did not scruple to plunder their 

 temples and to treat with scorn and contempt the signs which appeared 

 to deter him from his sacrilegious actions. (Plut., 'Sull.,' 12.) 



After Sulla had completely annihilated the popular party, he began 

 to direct his attention to a reform in the constitution and in the admi- 

 nistration of justice. Zaohariae, a great admirer of the political wis- 

 dom of Sulla, divides all his laws which are known under the name of 

 ' Leges Corueliae,' into three great classes : 1. constitutional regula- 

 lations ; 2. criminal laws ; and 3. those that were intended to improve 

 public morals. 



The constitutional laws of Sulla were intended to restore the old 

 .aristocratic form of the republic, but such a restoration could only be 

 a matter of form, as it had no longer its hold in the hearts and minds 

 of the Romans. As a politician, Sulla was one of those short-sighted 

 men who believe that old institutions can be revived or preserved by 

 the mere letter of the law, though that which formerly alone gave 

 stability to them, the spirit of the nation, has become entirely altered. 

 The consequence was that the constitution of Sulla did not survive 

 him many years. The principal part of his reform consisted in depriv- 

 ing the comitia tributa of their legislative and judicial powers, and of 

 the right to elect the members of the great colleges of priests, which 

 the people had exercised for some time. He left to the comitia of the 

 tribes only the power to elect the inferior magistrates, as tribunes, 

 sediles, and quaestors. The power of the tribunes of the people thus 

 received a fatal blow. Some writers are of opinion that Sulla abolished 

 the assemblies of the tribes altogether. The whole of the legislative 

 power was given to the Comitia Centuriata, but in such a manner that 

 no legislative measure could be brought before them without having 

 previously received the sanction of the senate. He also allowed no 

 appeal to the people from the sentence of a magistrate. The vacancies 

 which had occurred in the senate through the late calamities were 

 filled up by the admission of 300 of the most distinguished equites 

 (Appian, 'De Bell. Civ.,' L 100). He increased the number of pontiffs 

 and augura to fifteen. 



Sulla appears greatest in his laws relating to the administration of 

 justice. All the Roman writers agree that Sulla gave the judicia 

 (either the publica and privata, or the former alone) to the senate. 

 We cannot enter here into an account of the various laws relating to 

 criminal and civil jurisdiction; but before the time of Sulla, the 

 criminal legislation of Rome was extremely imperfect, and he was the 

 first who brought order and system into this important branch of 

 administration ; and this part of his reform was not abolished after his 

 death, but most of his laws continued in force down to the latest 

 times of the empire. His legislation embraced a great variety of sub- 

 jects. The laws which Sulla enacted with a view to improve the state 

 of public morals, related chiefly to marriage and luxury (leges sum- 

 tuarise). But Sulla though apparently anxious to improve the moral 

 condition of the people, himself utterly licentious, was the last man 

 to observe any laws of the kind. (Plut., ' SulL,' 35 ; ' Comparat. Lysaud. 

 c. Sulla.') 



After the annihilation of all his enemies, and the establishment of 

 a new order of things, Sulla once more felt a desire to enjoy those 

 sensual pleasures to which he had been addicted from his early youth, 

 and without the interruption necessarily arising from being at the 

 head of the republic. Accordingly he did not accept the consulship 



for the year B.C. 79, and soon after declared to the assembled people 

 that he resigned his power and dignity of dictator, and that he was 

 rearly to render an account to them of the manner in which be had 

 exercised his power. As might have been expected, no one ventured 

 to take him at his word ; only one young man is said to have dared to 

 accuse him, and to have followed the ex-dictator on his way home 

 with bitter invectives, to which Sulla only made the remark : '' This 

 youth will prevent any one in future, after having once acquired 

 great power, from being inclined to lay it down." The abdicatioa of 

 Sulla in the height of his power has called forth the admiration of 

 ancient and modern writers ; but an accurate examination of the 

 state of affairs in Rome and Italy, and a consideration of the 

 sensual disposition of Sulla, deprive this act of much of its apparent 

 magnanimity. As regards his own inclination, it can only be said that 

 his love of pleasure unencumbered by public affairs was greater than 

 his love of power. The 10,000 Cornelii remained after his abdication 

 as attached to him as they bad been before, and they were ready to 

 take up arms for their patron at any moment, aa their owu safety 

 depended upon his. The party of Sulk was in possession of all the 

 power at Rome, and in Italy his numerous legions were as ready to 

 take up arms in his defence as the Cornelii. He could therefore with- 

 draw without any danger or fear, and how well he had calculated 

 is clear from Plutarch (' SulL,' 37), for even during his retirement to 

 private life his will was regarded as law. Soon after his abdication he 

 retired to his villa near Puteoli, where he spent his time partly in 

 literary occupations, partly in hunting and fishing, and partly giving 

 himself up to the pleasures of the table, and of women, actors, and 

 dancers. (Plut., ' Sull.,' 36.) He died in the year B.C. 78, at the age 

 of sixty. The cause of his death is not quite certain. Appian (' De 

 Bell. Civ.,' L 105) says he died of an attack of fever, while others 

 inform us that ths loathsome disease called phthiriasis was the cause 

 of his death. (Plut., ' SulL,' 36 ; Plin., ' Hist. Nat .,' xxvl 86 ; xi. 39 ; 

 vii. 44; Aurel. Viet., 'De Vir. Illustr.,' 75 ; Paus., i. 20, 4.) Two days 

 before his death Sulla had finished the twenty-second book of his 

 ' Memoirs," of which we probably possess a considerable part in bis 

 Life by Plutarch. His body was carried to Rome with great pomp, 

 aud burnt in the Campus Martins according to his own request. A 

 monument was also erected to his memory in the Campus Martius, 

 with an inscription said to have been written by Sulla himself. (Plut. 

 'Sull,,' 38.) 



Sulla was married five times, and left two children, Faustus Cor- 

 nelius Sulla and Fausta, who were twins by his fourth wife Csecilia 

 Metella. One daughter was born, after his death, by his fifth wife 

 Valeria. 



6. FAUSTUS CORNELIUS SULLA, sou of the dictator Sulla, (5) and of 

 Csecilia Metella (Plut., 'Sull.,' 34), was born in B.C. 89. After the 

 death of his father he was under the guardianship of L. Lucullus. He 

 was several times in danger of being compelled to restore the money 

 which his father had unlawfully appropriated to himself. The senate 

 however always prevented an inquiry being instituted, as some of the 

 body would have been compromised by it. In B.C. 6C a tribune of the 

 people renewed the attempt, but Sulla again escaped, chiefly through 

 the influence of Cicero, who spoke for him. (Ascon., in ' Cic. Cornel.,' 

 p. 72, Orelli ; Cic., ' Pro Cluent.,' 34 ; ' De Leg. Agr.' i. 4.) He served 

 under Pompey in Asia, and in B.C. 63 he was the first who scaled the 

 walls of the temple of Jerusalem, for which act of bravery he was 

 richly rewarded. (Joseph., 'Ant. Jud.,' xiv. 4; 'Bell. Jud.,' i. 7, 4.) 

 In B.C. 60 he gave to the people the gladiatorial games which he had 

 been requested to give by his father in his last will, and on this 

 occasion he treated the people most munificently ; he made them 

 donations of money, and allowed them the use of the baths without 

 any payment. (Dion Cass., xxxvii. 25; Cic., 'Pro Sulla," 19.) In the 

 same year B.C. 54 he obtained the qmestorship, after he had some 

 years before been made a member of the college of augurs. (Dion 

 Cass., xxxix. 17.) After the murder of Clodius, Faustus was requested 

 by the senate to restore the Curia Hostilia, and it was decreed that 

 after its restoration it should be called Curia Cornelia. (Dion Ca&s., 

 xl. 50.) Faustus Sulla did not obtain any higher office than the 

 qusestorship ; his dissolute mode of life had ruined his fortune. As 

 regards his political views, he had joined the party of Pompey, whose 

 daughter he married. In B.C. 49 Pompey wished him to be sent as 



"^ropraetor to Mauritania, but it was prevented by the tribune Philip- 

 pus. (Cses., ' De BelL Civ.,' L 6.) During the troubles of the civil 

 war between Pompey and Caesar, Sulla's only object appears to have 

 been to enrich himself. He was present in the battle of Pharsalus, 

 and thence fled to Africa, where his fate was decided in the battle of 

 Thapsus (B.C. 46). He attempted to escape to Spain, but was taken 

 prisoner and delivered to Csasar, in whose camp he was murdered 

 during a mutiny of the soldiers. His wife and children however were 

 set at liberty. (Caes., 'De BelL Afr.,' 95; Appiau, 'De Bell. Civ.,' ii. 

 100.) Of his twin-sister Fausta nothing is known, except that she 

 married twice, and each time was guilty of adultery. (Ascon., in ' Cic. 

 pro Scaur.,' p. 29.) 



7. P. COBNKLIUS SULLA, a son of Servius Cornelius Sulla, was a 

 brother of the dictator, and enriched himself considerably during the 

 proscriptions. (Dion Cass., xxxvii. 27 ; Cic. 'De OS.,' ii. 8.) In B.C. 66, 

 P. Cornelius Sulla and P. Autronius Paetus were elected consuls ; but 

 both were found guilty of ambitus (bribery), and deprived of their 



