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SULLY, DUG DE. 



SULLY, DUG DE. 



dignity. (Cic., 'Pro Sulla.') He is also believed to have been an 

 accomplice of Catiline in his first conspiracy, and in B.C. 62 he was 

 accused by L. Torquatus of having taken part in both the conspiracies 

 of Catiline. Several men of distinction lent him their protection, 

 and Hortensius and Cicero spoke for him. The speech of the latter 

 is still extant. Sulla was acquitted, but there is every reason for 

 believing that he was guilty of the crime with which he was charged. 

 Cicero's defence was evidently not made without some apprehension 

 and embarrassment. (See also Sallust, ' Cat.,' 17.) Cicero subse- 

 quently fell out with Sulla, as the latter was to some extent involved 

 in the crimes of Clodius. (Cio., ' Ad Att.,' iv. 3.) In the civil war 

 between Pompey and Csosar, Sulla served as legate in the army of 

 Caesar during the battle of Pharsalus. (Appian, ' De Bell. Civ.,' ii. 76; 

 Gees., ' De Bell. Civ.,' iii. 51, 89.) In B.C. 47, when he was commanded 

 to transport the legions destined for Africa from Italy to Sicily, he 

 was pelted with stones by the soldiers of the twelfth legion, and driven 

 away, for before embarking for Sicily they claimed the money and 

 lands which they had been promised during the campaign in Thessaly, 

 (Cic., 'Ad Att.,' xi. 21, &c.) During the confiscations and sales of 

 property in the dictatorship of Csosar, Sulla acquired considerable 

 wealth by the purchase of such property. (Cic., ' De Off,,' ii. 8 ; ' Ad 

 Fam.,' xv. 19.) In the year B.C. 45 he died on a journey : some said 

 that he had been murdered by robbers, others that he died by over- 

 eating himself; but the people appear to have rejoiced at having got 

 rid of such a worthless person. (Cic., 'Ad Att.,' ix. 10; xv. 17.) He 

 left behind him a son, P. Sulla, and a son-in-law of the name of Mem- 

 rnius, of whom nothing worth mentioning is known. (Cic., ' Ad Fam.,' 

 xv. 17; ' Ad Q. Frat.,' iii. 3 ; 'Pro Sulla,' 31.) 



8. SERVTOS CORNELIUS SULLA, a brother of P. Cornelius Sulla (7). 

 He took part in the conspiracy of Catiline (Sallust, ' Cat.,' 17, 47) ; but 

 he was not condemned to death, although his guilt was so manifest, 

 that no one would undertake his defence. (Cic., ' Pro Sull.,' 2.) 



The last person of any note bearing the name of Sulla in the history 

 of Rome occurs in the reigns of Claudius and Nero. He was a son- 

 in-law of the Emperor Claudius (Suetonius, ' Claud.,' 27 ; Tacitus, 

 ' Annal.,' xiii. 23), and was consul in A.D. 52. According to the infor- 

 mation of one Psetus, Pallas and Burrhus intended to raise him to 

 the imperial power. This charge was found to be false ; but Nero 

 nevertheless dreaded Sulla, believing him to be a cunning and crafty 

 person. Some false report subsequently increased this fear of Nero, 

 who, in A.D. 59, sent him into exile to Massilia. (Tacit., ' Annal.,' xiii. 

 47.) But as the emperor apprehended that Sulla might here induce 

 the German legions to revolt, he ordered him to be put to death, 

 which took place in A.D. 63. (Tacit., 'Annal./ xiv. 57.) 



(Respecting the history of the family of the Sullas, see Orelli, 

 Onomasticon Tullicmum, ii. p. 192, &c. ; Drumann, Oeschichte Roms 

 in seinem Uebergange, &c., ii. p. 426, &c. ; Pauly's Real-Encyclopced. 

 der Alterthumswissenschaft, ii. p. 668, &c. For the history of the dic- 

 tator Sulla, and his legislation in particular, see Zacharise, L. Cornelius 

 Sulla, genannt der Gluckliche, als Ordner des Romischen Freystaates, 

 Heidelberg, 2 vols. 8vo, 1834; Vockestsort, Dissertatio Historico-Juri- 

 dica de L. Cornelia Sulla legislatore, Lugd. Bat., 8vo, 1816 ; A. 

 Wittich, De Rei Publicce Romance ea forma, qua L. Cornelius Sulla 

 dictator totam rem Romanam ordinibus, magistratibus, comitiis com- 

 mutavit, Lipsia;, 8vo, 1834 ; and a Latin dissertation by C. Ramshorn, 

 which bears the same title as that by Wittich, and was published at 

 Leipzig, 8vo, in 1835.) 



SULLY, MAXIMILIEN DE BETHUNE, DUG DE, born at Rosny 

 on the 18th of December 1560, was descended from a younger branch 

 of the family of Bethune, in the Netherlands. His ancestors had by 

 their own exertions and wealthy marriages raised themselves to 

 importance in their adopted country of France ; but the grandfather 

 of Maximilien had squandered away his inheritance, and left to his 

 son nothing but a proud name and his mother's dowry. Franois de 

 Bethune, baron of Rosny, was a sagacious man, but not possessed of 

 sufficient talent to re-establish the family fortune ; and his adoption 

 of the Protestant religion, by alienating him from his relations, forbade 

 all hopes of improving his inheritance. His eldest son was feeble in 

 mind and body, and the cherished wish to see prosperity return to his 

 house rested upon the second the more energetic Maximilien. His 

 expectations from this quarter were strengthened by the predictions of 

 astrologers. The first lesson impressed upon the boy's mind was the 

 duty of devoting himself to the aggrandisement of the family. Tne 

 moral and religious tenets of the Huguenots were at the same time 

 sedulously instilled into him. These early impressions moulded a 

 strong, fearless, and enterprising character, and decided his career 

 in life. 



In 1572 Fran9ois de Bethune carried his son to the court of Henri, 

 the young king of Navarre, then in his twentieth year, having pre- 

 viously commanded the boy in a solemn and impressive manner to 

 live and die with the master he gave him. Young Rosny accompanied 

 the king of Navarre, who was at that time on his way to Paris to con- 

 clude his matrimonial engagement with the king's sister. In Paris he 

 paid his court daily to Henri, but resided at some distance, in the 

 quarter where most of the colleges were situated, with a governor, and 

 attended the classes of the College of Burgundy. By the assistance of 

 the principal of that institution he escaped the massacre of St. Bar- 

 tholomew, though the horrors of that night left a lasting impression 



on his mind. At the command of his father he continued to reside in 

 Paris, but his literary studies were abruptly closed. His governor 

 perished in the massacre ; and his preceptor was too terrified to remain 

 in Paris. The king of Navarre however supplied the place of the 

 tutor with one who gave Rosny instructions in history and mathe- 

 matics, and the rest of the boy's time was spent, according to his own 

 account, in learning to read and write well. He continued occupied 

 with these pursuits till the beginning of 1575, when he accompanied 

 Henri in his escape from the state of confinement in which he was 

 kept by the French court. 



The Protestants had by this time recovered from the dismay into 

 which the massacre of St. Bartholomew had thrown them, had made 

 common cause with their Roman Catholic fellow-subjects in remon- 

 strating against fiscal grievances, and had at last ventured to take up 

 arms again. The king of Navarre and the prince of Condd were in a 

 great measure identified with the Protestant cause ; and the Duke of 

 Anjou, who had at this time some cause of quarrel with the court, 

 formed an alliance with them. Immediately after the escape of Henri 

 these three princes found themselves at the head of a mixed army of 

 Roman Catholics and Protestants, amounting to 35,000 men. The 

 civil war which immediately broke out was continued with a few brief 

 intervals of hollow truce till 1594. The studies of Rosny, who accom- 

 panied Henri in his flight from Paris, were finally broken off by that 

 event. In his fifteenth year he was immersed in the toils and cares 

 of active life : the death of his father about the same time left him. 

 entirely his own master. It was in nineteen years of civil war that he 

 developed and cultivated without guide or master the character and 

 talents which he displayed as minister of France. 



At first Rosny accepted an ensigncy in the regiment of foot of 

 which his relation Lavardin was colonel. In the first skirmishes in 

 which he was engaged he evinced so much temerity, that Henri was 

 more than once obliged to rebuke him. It was only in battle however 

 that he showed any degree of boyish thoughtlessness : in the manage- 

 ment of his pecuniary affairs he displayed a prudence beyond his 

 years. The rents of his property and the booty he obtained in the 

 storming of several towns, enabled him to maintain a small company 

 of men-at-arms ; and with these, resigning his ensigncy, he attached 

 himself exclusively to the person of the king of Navarre. The courage 

 and enterprise of so young a lad, the enthusiasm with which he 

 sought to make himself master of the art of gunnery, and above all the 

 prudence which he manifested in his domestic arrangements, led 

 Henri to cherish so promising a servant. Rosny was made a coun- 

 cillor of Navarre in his twentieth year, with a salary of 2000 livres. 



It was soon after this promotion that he was induced to make one 

 in the retinue of the Duke of Anjou, who had been invited to assume 

 the sovereignty of the Low Countries. The bait which attracted 

 Rosny was the promise of having his claims to the inheritance of the 

 Viscount of Ghent supported by the new king, and the opportunity of 

 reconciling himself to his Flemish relations. He found himself dis- 

 appointed in both, and returned in 1583 to the king of Navarre, no 

 otherwise benefited by his excursion to the Netherlands than by the 

 acquisition of more knowledge of the world and greater experience in 

 war. He was almost immediately despatched to Paris to keep an eye 

 upon the intrigues there going forward. 



In December 1583, he married Anne de Courtney, and spent the 

 whole of 1584 with his young wife upon his estate at Rosuy. Though 

 retired from public life, he was not idle : he had been obliged on several 

 occasions to deal extensively in horses for the purpose of mounting his 

 troop ; and during the year he resided in the country he extended his 

 dealings, sending out agents, who purchased horses in Spain and 

 other countries at mere nominal prices, and sold them at a high rate 

 in the provinces which were the seat of hostilities. His husbandry 

 was so good, that when he rejoined Henri in 1585, he carried not only 

 himself and hia troop, but a good round sum of money to assist his 

 master in prosecuting the war. Rosny's devotion to the cause of 

 Henri was deep and unalterable. It was a mixture of personal 

 attachment, of a sense of duty, on account of the solemn injunction of 

 his father, and of a steady belief, resting partly upon the conclusions 

 of his own shrewd judgment and partly upon belief in the predictions 

 of astrologers, that his master was destined to be one day king of 

 France, and himself to rise to eminence in his service. Henri was at 

 the moment in need of such an able and devoted servant. As pre- 

 sumptive heir to the crown of France, he had an interest apart from 

 that of the Protestants ; and at the same time the leaders of the 

 Protestant party were anxious to make of France a federation of inde- 

 pendent principalities, while his policy was to consolidate the power of 

 the crown. His Roman Catholic retainers were even less to be 

 depended upon than the Protestants, for their aversion to his heresy 

 naturally rendered them lukewarm in his service. In the course of 

 some conferences of the Protestant leaders, Rosny zealously opposed the 

 specious pretexts by which they sought to cloak their efforts for per- 

 sonal aggrandisement, and maintained the necessity of concentrating 

 their forces under one leader. At the close of one of these discussioLS 

 the king of Navarre told him that now was the time for acting as well 

 as arguing boldly : asked whether he was willing to put all to the 

 hazard in his service, and pledged his honour that, should he succeed, 

 Rosny should share in his prosperity. Rosny promised that all his 

 means should be at Henri's disposal; and was from that moment one 



