Plutarch's Lives Volume II Part 17

Archelaus, who began the conference, urged Sulla to give up Asia and the Pontus, and to sail to Rome to prosecute the war against his enemies, and he offered him money, s.h.i.+ps, and troops on behalf of the king. Sulla in reply advised Archelaus not to trouble himself any further about Mithridates, but to a.s.sume the kingly t.i.tle himself and to become an ally of Rome, and to give up the s.h.i.+ps of Mithridates. As Archelaus professed his detestation of such treachery, Sulla said, "You then, Archelaus, who are a Cappadocian, and the slave of a barbarian king, or, if you please, his friend--you refuse to do a base deed for so splendid a reward, and yet venture to talk about treachery to me who am a Roman general, and am Sulla, as if you were not that Archelaus who fled from Chaeroneia with a few men out of your one hundred and twenty thousand, and were hid for two days in the marshes[253] of Orchomenus, and left Botia with all the roads made impa.s.sable by the heaps of dead?" Upon this Archelaus changed his tone, and humbling himself, entreated Sulla to give up the war and to come to terms with Mithridates. Sulla accepted the proposal, and peace was made on the following terms:--Mithridates was to give up Asia[254]

and Paphlagonia, and to surrender Bithynia to Nikomedes, and Cappadocia to Ariobarzanes, to pay down to the Romans two thousand talents, and to give them seventy s.h.i.+ps fitted with bra.s.s and completely equipped; Sulla was to confirm Mithridates in the rest of his possessions and to recognise him as an ally of the Romans.

XXIII. These terms being settled, Sulla retraced his steps and marched through Thessaly and Macedonia to the h.e.l.lespont in company with Archelaus, whom he treated with great respect. Archelaus fell dangerously ill at Larissa, on which Sulla stopped his march and paid as much attention to him as if he had been one of his own officers and fellow-generals. This gave rise to some suspicion that the battle of Chaeroneia was not fairly fought, which was strengthened by the fact that Sulla restored all the friends of Mithridates whom he had taken prisoners, except Aristion[255] the tyrant, who was an enemy of Archelaus, and whom he caused to be poisoned: but the most convincing proof of all was Sulla's giving the Cappadocian ten thousand plethra of land in Euba, and the t.i.tle of friend and ally of the Romans.

However, Sulla makes his apology about these matters in his Memoirs.

Amba.s.sadors from Mithridates now arrived, and were ready to accede to all the terms agreed on, except that the king would not consent to give up Paphlagonia, and as to the s.h.i.+ps he dissented altogether; on which Sulla in a pa.s.sion exclaimed, "What say ye? Mithridates claims to keep Paphlagonia, and refuses to abide by the agreement about the s.h.i.+ps; I thought he would have been thankful if I left him his right hand, which has destroyed so many Romans. However, he will soon speak another language when I have crossed over to Asia. At present let him stay in Pergamum and there direct the conduct of a campaign which he has not seen." The amba.s.sadors were so much alarmed that they said nothing, but Archelaus implored Sulla and tried to soften his anger, clinging to his hands with tears in his eyes. At last he prevailed on Sulla to let him go to Mithridates, and he promised to effect a peace on Sulla's own terms, or to kill himself. Sulla accordingly sent Archelaus to Mithridates, and in the mean time he invaded Maedike,[256]

and having ravaged the greater part of it, returned to Macedonia and found Archelaus at Philippi,[257] who reported that all was favourable, but that Mithridates much wished to have an interview with him. Mithridates was minly induced to this by the circ.u.mstance that Fimbria, after murdering the consul Flaccus, who belonged to the opposite faction, and defeating the generals of Mithridates, was advancing against the king himself. It was fear of Fimbria that made Mithridates more inclined to make a friend of Sulla.

XXIV. Accordingly they met at Darda.n.u.s[258] in the Troad: Mithridates had there two hundred rowing-s.h.i.+ps, twenty thousand heavy-armed soldiers, six thousand hors.e.m.e.n, and many of his scythe-bearing chariots: Sulla had four cohorts and two hundred hors.e.m.e.n. Mithridates advanced to meet Sulla and held out his hand, on which Sulla asked him if he would put an end to the war on the terms agreed to by Archelaus.

As the king made no reply, Sulla said, "Well, those who sue must speak first; conquerors may remain silent." Mithridates began an apology, in which he partly imputed the origin of the war to the deities, and partly threw the blame on the Romans; but Sulla cut him short by saying, that he had long ago been told, and now he knew by his own experience, that Mithridates was a most skilful speaker, inasmuch as he had no difficulty in finding words to justify acts which were so base and so contrary to all right. Sulla went on to recapitulate all that Mithridates had done, reproaching him in bitter terms, and he then asked him again, if he would abide by the agreement of Archelaus.

Mithridates said that he would; on which Sulla embraced him, threw his arms round him and kissed him; he then brought forward the kings Ariobarzanes and Nikomedes, and reconciled Mithridates to them. After surrendering to Sulla seventy s.h.i.+ps and five hundred bowmen, Mithridates sailed off to the Pontus. Sulla perceived that his soldiers were dissatisfied at the settlement of the war: they thought it a shame that the greatest enemy of the Romans, who had contrived the ma.s.sacre of one hundred and fifty thousand Romans in Asia in one day, should be seen sailing off with the wealth and the spoils of Asia, which he had been plundering and levying contributions on for four years; Sulla apologised to the soldiers by saying that he should not be able to oppose both Fimbria and Mithridates, if they were united against him.

XXV. From Darda.n.u.s Sulla marched against Fimbria, who was encamped near Thyateira,[259] and halting there, began to throw up his intrenchments. Fimbria's men coming out of their camp in their jackets embraced the soldiers of Sulla, and began to a.s.sist them zealously in their works. Fimbria seeing that his soldiers had deserted him, and fearing Sulla's unforgiving temper, committed suicide in the camp.

Sulla now levied a contribution on Asia to the amount of twenty thousand talents: and he reduced individuals to beggary by the violence and exactions which he permitted to the soldiers who were quartered in their houses. He issued an order that the master of a house should daily supply the soldier who was quartered on him with four tetradrachmae, and with dinner for himself and as many of his friends as he chose to invite; a centurion was to receive fifty drachmae daily, and to be supplied with two garments, one to wear in the house and the other when he went abroad.

XXVI. Sulla set sail from Ephesus with all his s.h.i.+ps, and on the third day anch.o.r.ed in the Peiraeus. After being initiated into the Eleusinian[260] mysteries, he appropriated to himself the library of Apellikon[261] of Teos, which contained most of the writings of Aristotle and Theophrastus. The works of these two philosophers were not then well known to people in general. It is said that when the library was brought to Rome, Tyrannio the grammarian arranged most of the books, and that Andronikus of Rhodes having procured copies from Tyrannio, published them, and made the tables which are now in use. It appears that the older Peripatetics were indeed well-instructed men, and devoted to letters, but they did not possess many of the writings of Aristotle and Theophrastus, nor yet correct copies, owing to the circ.u.mstances that the books came into the hands of the heirs of Neleus of Skepsis, to whom Theophrastus bequeathed them, and that they were ignorant persons, who never troubled themselves about such matters. While Sulla was staying at Athens, he was seized with a numbness in his feet, accompanied with a feeling of heaviness, which Strabo[262] calls "a stammering of gout." Accordingly he crossed the sea to aedepsus[263]; where he used the warm springs, at the same time indulging in relaxation and spending all his time in the company of actors. As he was walking about on the seash.o.r.e, some fishermen presented him with some very fine fish; Sulla was much pleased with the present, but on hearing that the men belonged to Halaeae,[264] he said, What, is there an Halaean still alive? For it happened, that while pursuing his enemies after the victory at Orchomenus, he destroyed at once three Botian cities, Anthedon, Larymna, and Halaeae.

The men were struck speechless with fear, but Sulla with a smile bade them go away in good heart, for the intercessors they had brought were no mean ones, and not to be despised. Upon this the Halaeans say they took courage and again occupied their city.

XXVlI. Sulla went through Thessaly and Macedonia to the sea-coast, where he made preparations to cross from Dyrrachium[265] to Brundisium with twelve hundred s.h.i.+ps. Near to Dyrrachium is Apollonia, and near to Apollonia is the Nymphaeum,[266] a sacred spot, where perpetual streams of fire rise in various places out of a green gra.s.sy valley.

It is said that a sleeping satyr was caught there, such a one as sculptors and painters represent, and was brought to Sulla and questioned by many interpreters as to who he was; but he spoke with difficulty, and what he did utter was unintelligible, and something like a compound of the neighing of a horse and the bleating of a goat; upon which Sulla, who was startled at the monster, ordered him to be removed. Sulla was now about to take his soldiers over the sea, but he feared that when they landed in Italy they would disperse to their several cities; however, the soldiers voluntarily took an oath to abide by him, and not to do any damage in Italy from set design; seeing also that he required much money, they all contributed something from what they had, each according to his means. However, Sulla would not receive the contribution, but after commending their zeal and encouraging them he proceeded to cross the sea, as he expresses it in his Memoirs, to oppose fifteen hostile commanders at the head of four hundred and fifty cohorts.[267] The deity gave him sure prognostics of success; for upon his sacrificing immediately on landing in Italy near Tarentum, the liver of the animal was found to have on it the figure of a crown[268] of bay with two ribands attached to it. A short time also before he crossed the sea, two large he-goats were seen in Campania near Mount Hephaeus, in the daytime, fighting, and in all respects acting like men engaged in a contest. But it was only a vision, and it gradually rose up from the ground and dispersed in the air in various directions like dark phantoms, and finally disappeared. No long time after, in this very spot, when the younger Marius and the consul Norba.n.u.s[269] came upon him at the head of a large force, Sulla, without having time to form his battle or to dispose his companies, but merely availing himself of the spirit that animated all his men, and their impetuous courage, put to flight his opponents, and shut Norba.n.u.s up in Capua with the loss of seven thousand of his soldiers. It was this success, as some say, which prevented his soldiers from dispersing to their several cities, and encouraged them to stay with Sulla and to despise their opponents, though many times more numerous than themselves. At Silvium,[270] as Sulla says, a slave of one Pontius, moved by a divine impulse, met him and declared that he brought from Bellona a.s.surance of superiority in war and victory, but that if he did not make haste the Capitol would be burnt; and this is said to have happened on the very day which the man foretold, being the day before the Nones of Quintilis, which we now call July. Further, Marcus Lucullus, one of Sulla's commanders, was opposed at Fidentia[271] with sixteen cohorts to fifty of the enemy, and though he had confidence in the spirit of his men, he was discouraged because a greater part of them were unarmed. While he was considering and hesitating what to do, a gentle breeze blowing from the adjoining plain, which was covered with gra.s.s, carried many of the flowers to the army of Lucullus, and spontaneously strewed them about, so that they rested and fell on the men's s.h.i.+elds and helmets, which seemed to their opponents to be crowned with chaplets. Thus encouraged, the soldiers of Lucullus engaged, and gained a victory, with the loss to the opposite party of eighteen thousand men and their camp. This Lucullus was the brother of the Lucullus who afterwards defeated Mithridates and Tigranes.

XXVIII. Sulla, perceiving that he was still surrounded by many hostile camps and large forces, treacherously invited Scipio[272] one of the consuls, to come to terms. Scipio accepted the proposal, which was followed by many meetings and conferences, but Sulla continually threw impediments and pretexts in the way of a final agreement, and in the mean time he corrupted Scipio's soldiers by means of his own men, who were as practised in all kinds of deceit and fraud as their commander.

Going within the intrenchments of Scipio and mingling with his soldiers, they gained over some by giving them, money, others by promises, and the rest by flattery and persuasion. At last Sulla with twenty cohorts approached the camp of Scipio, and his soldiers saluted those of Scipio, who returned the salute and came over to them.

Scipio, thus deserted, was taken prisoner in his tent, but set at liberty; and Sulla with the twenty cohorts, like so many tame birds, having entrapped forty of the enemy, led them all back to his camp. On this occasion, it is said, Carbo observed that he had to contend in Sulla both with a lion and a fox, but the fox gave him most trouble.

After this, in the neighbourhood of Signia,[273] Marius at the head of eighty-four cohorts challenged Sulla to battle; and Sulla was very ready for the contest on that day, for he happened to have had a vision in his sleep of this sort:--He dreamed that the elder Marius, who had long been dead, was advising his son to beware of the following day, as it would bring him heavy misfortune. This was the reason that Sulla was eager to fight, and he sent for Dolabella,[274]

who was encamped at some distance. But as the enemy occupied the roads and cut off the communications, the soldiers of Sulla were wearied with fighting and working at the roads at the same time; and it happened that much rain also fell, and added to the fatigue of their labour. Upon this, the centurions coming up to Sulla, begged him to defer the battle, and pointed out to him that the soldiers were exhausted by fatigue and were lying on the ground with their s.h.i.+elds under them. Sulla consented unwillingly, and gave orders for the army to halt there; but while they were beginning to throw up their rampart and dig their trenches, Marius advanced against them confidently at the head of his troops, expecting to disperse them in their state of disorder and confusion. Now the daemon made good the words that Sulla heard in his dream; for his soldiers, transported with indignation and stopping their work, fixed their spears in the ground close to the trenches, and drawing their swords with a loud shout, were forthwith at close quarters with the enemy. The soldiers of Marius did not stand their ground long, and there was a great slaughter of them in their flight. Marius, who fled to Praeneste,[275] found the gates closed, but a rope being let down from the walls, he fastened himself to it, and was drawn up into the city. Some historians say, and Fenestella[276]

among them, that Marius saw nothing of the battle, but that being exhausted by want of sleep and fatigue he lay down on the ground in the shade, and as soon as the signal was given for battle, fell asleep, and that he was roused with difficulty when the flight began.

Sulla says that he lost only twenty-three men in this battle, and that he killed of the enemy twenty thousand, and took eight thousand alive.

He was equally successful everywhere else through his generals Pompeius,[277] Cra.s.sus, Metellus, Servilius; for without sustaining any but the most trifling loss, they destroyed the great armies of their opponents, and at last Carbo,[278] who was the main support of the opposite party, stole away from his troops by night and sailed to Libya.

XXIX. In the last struggle, however, like a fresh combatant attacking an exhausted athlete, Telesinus the Samnite was very near tripping up Sulla and laying him prostrate at the gates of Rome. Telesinus was hastening with Lamponius the Lucanian and a strong force to Praeneste, in order to rescue Marius, who was besieged; but finding that Sulla in his front and Pompeius in his rear were coming against him, and that he could neither advance nor retreat, like a brave and experienced man he broke up his encampment by night and marched with all his force against Rome. And indeed he was very near surprising the city, which was unguarded; however, halting about ten stadia from the Colline gate, he pa.s.sed the night there, full of confidence and elated with hope, as he had got the advantage over so many great generals. At daybreak the most distinguished young men came out on horseback to oppose him, but many of them fell, and among them Claudius Appius,[279] a man of n.o.ble rank and good character. This naturally caused confusion in the city, and there were women shrieking and people hurrying in all directions, in expectation that the city was going to be stormed, when Balbus appeared first, coming at full speed from Sulla with seven hundred hors.e.m.e.n. Balbus just halted long enough to allow his men to dry the sweat from their horses: then bridling them again, they advanced quickly and engaged with the enemy. In the mean time Sulla also appeared, and ordering the advanced ranks to take some refreshment, he began to put them in order of battle. Dolabella and Torquatus earnestly entreated him to pause, and not to put all to the hazard with his exhausted soldiers; they said, the contest was not with Carbo and Marius, but with Samnites and Lucanians, the most deadly and warlike enemies of Rome: but Sulla, without paying any regard to them, ordered the trumpets to sound the charge, though it was now about the tenth hour. The battle began, and was fiercer than any that was fought in this campaign. The right wing, where Cra.s.sus commanded, was completely successful; but the left was hard pressed, and in a dangerous plight, when Sulla came to its support mounted on a very spirited and fleet white horse, by which he was easily distinguished from the rest, and two of the enemy's soldiers, fixing their javelins, prepared to aim at him, Sulla did not see them, but his groom whipped the horse, which just carried his rider so far out of the reach of the spears that they pa.s.sed close to the horse's tail, and stuck in the ground. It is said that Sulla always carried about with him in his bosom, in battle, a small golden figure of Apollo, which he got from Delphi, and that he then kissed it, and said, "O Pythian Apollo, after raising the fortunate Sulla Cornelius in so many contests to glory and renown, wilt thou throw him prostrate here, at the gates of his native city, and so bring him to perish most ign.o.bly with his fellow-citizens?" After this address to the G.o.d it is said that Sulla entreated some, and threatened and laid hold of others; but at last, the left wing being completely broken, he was mingled with the fugitives and made his escape to the camp with the loss of many of his friends and men of note. Not a few of the citizens also, who had come to see the fight, were killed and trampled down, so that it was thought all was over with the city, and the blockade of Marius was all but raised, for many of the fugitives made their way to Praeneste, and urged Ofella Lucretius,[280] who had been appointed to conduct the siege, to break up his quarters with speed, as Sulla was killed, and Rome in the possession of the enemy.

x.x.x. It was now far on in the night when men came to Sulla's camp from Cra.s.sus to get something to eat for him and his soldiers, for after putting the enemy to flight they had pursued them to Antemnae,[281] and there encamped. Upon this intelligence, and that most of the enemy were killed, Sulla came to Antemnae at daybreak. Here three thousand soldiers sent to him to propose to surrender, and Sulla promised them their lives if they would punish the rest of his enemies before they joined him. Trusting to his promise, these men attacked their comrades, and a great number on both sides were cut to pieces.

However, Sulla got together the soldiers who had offered to surrender and those who had survived the ma.s.sacre, to the number of six thousand, in the Circus,[282] and at the same time he summoned the Senate to the temple of Bellona. As soon as he began to speak, the men who were appointed to do the work began to cut down the six thousand men. A cry naturally arose from so many men being butchered in a narrow s.p.a.ce, and the Senators were startled; but Sulla preserving the same unmoved expression of countenance, bade them attend to what he was saying, and not trouble themselves about what was going on outside; it was only some villains who were being punished by his orders. This made even the dullest Roman see that there was merely an exchange of tyrants, not a total change. Now Marius was always cruel, and he grew more so, and the possession of power did not change his disposition. But Sulla at first used his fortune with moderation and like a citizen of a free state, and he got the reputation of being a leader who, though attached to the aristocratical party, still regarded the interests of the people; besides this, he was from his youth fond of mirth, and so soft to pity as to be easily moved to tears. It was not without reason, then, that his subsequent conduct fixed on the possession of great power the imputation that it does not let men's tempers abide by their original habits, but makes them violent, vain, and inhuman. Now whether fortune really produces an alteration and change in a man's natural disposition, or whether, when he gets to power, his bad qualities. .h.i.therto concealed are merely unveiled, is a matter that belongs to another subject than the present.

x.x.xI. Sulla now began to make blood flow, and he filled the city with deaths without number or limit; many persons were murdered on grounds of private enmity, who had never had anything to do with Sulla, but he consented to their death to please his adherents. At last a young man, Caius Metellus, had the boldness to ask Sulla in the Senate-house, when there would be an end to these miseries, and how far he would proceed before they could hope to see them stop. "We are not deprecating," he said, "your vengeance against those whom you have determined to put out of the way, but we entreat you to relieve from uncertainty those whom you have determined to spare." Sulla replied, that he had not yet determined whom he would spare. "Tell us then,"

said Metellus, "whom you intend to punish." Sulla said that he would.

Some say that it was not Metellus, but Afidius,[283] one of Sulla's flatterers, who made use of the last expression. Sulla immediately proscribed eighty persons without communicating with any magistrate.

As this caused a general murmur, he let one day pa.s.s, and then proscribed two hundred and twenty more, and again on the third day as many. In an harangue to the people, he said, with reference to these measures, that he had proscribed all he could think of, and as to those who now escaped his memory, he would proscribe them at some future time. It was part of the proscription[284] that every man who received and protected a proscribed person should be put to death for his humanity; and there was no exception for brothers, children, or parents. The reward for killing a proscribed person was two talents, whether it was a slave who killed his master or a son who killed his father. But what was considered most unjust of all, he affixed infamy on the sons and grandsons of the proscribed and confiscated their property. The proscriptions were not confined to Rome; they extended to every city of Italy: neither temple nor hospitable hearth nor father's house was free from murder, but husbands were butchered in the arms of their wives, and children in the embrace of their mothers.

The number of those who were ma.s.sacred through revenge and hatred was nothing compared with those who were murdered for their property. It occurred even to the a.s.sa.s.sins to observe that the ruin of such a one was due to his large house, another man owed his death to his orchard, and another again to his warm baths. Quintus Aurelius, a man who never meddled with public affairs, and though he was no further concerned about all these calamities except so far as he sympathised with the sufferings of others, happened to come to the Forum and there he read the names of the proscribed. Finding his own name among them, he exclaimed, Alas! wretch that I am; 'tis my farm at Alba that is my persecutor. He had not gone far before he was murdered by some one who was in search of him.

x.x.xII. In the mean time Marius killed himself to avoid being taken.

Sulla now went to Praeneste,[285] and he began by examining the case of each individual before he punished him; but having no time for this inquiry, he had all the people brought to one spot, to the number of twelve thousand, and ordered them to be ma.s.sacred, with the exception of one man, an old friend of his, whom he offered to pardon. But the man n.o.bly declared he would never owe his safety to the destroyer of his country, and mingling with the rest of the citizens he was cut down together with them. The affair of Lucius Catilina[286] was perhaps the most monstrous of all. Lucius had murdered his brother before the termination of the war, and he asked Sulla to proscribe him among the rest as if he were still alive; which was done. To show his grat.i.tude, Catilina killed one Marcus Marius,[287] who belonged to the opposite faction, and after bringing his head to Sulla, who was then sitting in the Forum, he went to the temple of Apollo, which was close by, and washed his hands in the sacred font.[288]

x.x.xIII. Besides the ma.s.sacres, there were other things to cause dissatisfaction. Sulla had himself proclaimed Dictator,[289] and thus revived this office after an interval of one hundred and twenty years.

An act of indemnity was also pa.s.sed for all that he had done; for the future it was enacted that he should have power of life and death, and should confiscate property, distribute lands, found colonies, destroy them, take away kingdoms and give them to whom he pleased. The sales of confiscated property were conducted by him from his tribunal in such an arrogant and tyrannical manner, that his mode of dealing with the produce of the sales was more intolerable than the seizure of the property: he gave away to handsome women, players on the lyre, mimi and worthless libertini, the lands of whole nations and the revenues of cities; to some men he gave wives, who were compelled to marry against their will. Wis.h.i.+ng to form an alliance with Pompeius Magnus, he made him put away his wife; and he took aemilia, who was the daughter of Scaurus and of his own wife Metella, from her husband Manius Glabrio.[290] though she was then with child, and married her to Pompeius. aemilia died in the house of Pompeius in childbirth.

Lucretius Ofella,[291] who had taken Praeneste, became a candidate for the consuls.h.i.+p, and canva.s.sed for it. Sulla at first attempted to stop him; but on Lucretius entering the Forum supported by a large party, Sulla sent one of his centurions to kill Lucretius, himself the while sitting on his tribunal in the temple of Castor and Pollux, and looking down upon the murder. The bystanders seized the centurion and brought him before the tribunal; but Sulla bidding them stop their noise, declared that he had ordered the centurion to kill Lucretius, and they must let him go.

x.x.xIV. The triumph[292] of Sulla was magnificent for the splendour and rarity of the regal spoils; but the exiles formed a greater ornament to it and a n.o.ble spectacle. The most ill.u.s.trious and wealthy of the citizens followed in the procession with chaplets on their heads, calling Sulla their saviour and father, inasmuch as through him they were restored to their country, their children, and their wives. When the triumph was over, Sulla before the a.s.sembled people gave an account of all the events of his life, mentioning with equal particularity his good fortune and his great deeds, and in conclusion he bade them salute him by the name of Eutyches,[293] for this is the nearest word to express the Latin Felix: and when he wrote to Greeks or had any business to transact with them, he called himself Epaphroditus. In our country also, on the trophies of Sulla, there is the inscription: Lucius Cornelius Sulla Epaphroditus. As Metella bore him twins, Sulla named the male Faustus, and the female Fausta: for the Romans apply the name Faustus to what is fortunate and gladsome.

Sulla indeed trusted so far to his good fortune rather than to his acts, that, though he had put many persons to death, and had made so many innovations and changes in the state, he laid down the dictators.h.i.+p,[294] and allowed the people to have the full control of the consular elections, without going near them, and all the while walking about in the Forum, and exposing himself to any one who might choose to call him to account, just like a private person. Contrary to Sulla's wish, a bold man, and an enemy of his, was likely to be elected consul, Marcus Lepidus,[295] not for his own merits, but because the people wished to please Pompeius, who was earnest in his support and canva.s.sed for him. Sulla seeing Pompeius going home well pleased with his victory, called him to him and said: "What a fine piece of policy is this of yours, young man, for Lepidus to be proclaimed consul before Catulus, the most violent in preference to the most honourable of men! It is, however, time for you not to be asleep, as you have strengthened your rival against yourself." Sulla said this in a kind of prophetic tone, for Lepidus soon broke out in great excesses, and was at war with Pompeius.

x.x.xV. Sulla made an offering of the tenth part of his substance to Hercules, and feasted the people magnificently: so much greater indeed was the preparation than what was required, that a great quant.i.ty of provisions was daily thrown into the river, and wine was drunk forty years old, and even older. In the midst of the entertainment, which lasted several days, Metella died. As the priests would not allow Sulla to go to her, or his house to be polluted by a dead body, Sulla sent Metella a writing of divorce, and ordered her, while still alive, to be removed from his house to another. So far he observed the custom strictly through superst.i.tion; but the law which limited the cost of funerals, though he had proposed it himself, he violated by sparing no expense. He also violated his own laws for diminis.h.i.+ng the cost of entertainments, endeavouring to forget his grief in extravagant drinking and feasting, and in the company of buffoons. A few months after his wife's death there was a show of gladiators. As there was yet no distinction of places,[296] but men and women sat promiscuously in the theatre, it chanced that a woman seated herself near Sulla who was very handsome and of good family; she was a daughter of Messala, and sister of the orator Hortensius: her name was Valeria,[297] and she had lately separated from her husband. This woman, going behind Sulla, placed her hand upon him, and pulling a thread out of his dress, returned to her place. As Sulla looked on her with some surprise, she said, No mischief, Imperator;[298] I also wish to have a bit of your good fortune. Sulla was not displeased at her words, and it was soon plain that he had conceived a pa.s.sion for the woman; for he privately sent to ask her name, and made himself acquainted with her family and her mode of life. After this there were interchanges of glances, and frequent side-looks, and giving and returning of smiles, and, finally, treaties and arrangements about marriage, all which on her part perhaps deserved no censure; but as to Sulla, however chaste and reputable the woman might be that he married, it was no reputable or decent matter that induced him to it, for he was caught like a young man by mere looks and wanton airs, the nature of which is to excite the most depraved and impure feelings.

x.x.xVI. Though Sulla married Valeria he still a.s.sociated with actresses and female lute-players and dancers, spending his time with them on beds, and drinking from an early hour of the day. These were the names of the persons who at this time enjoyed most of his favour:--Roscius[299] the comedian, Sorix the chief mimus, and Metrobius who played women's parts[300] in men's dress, and to whom, though Metrobius was now growing old, Sulla all along continued strongly attached, and never attempted to conceal it. By this mode of life he aggravated his disease, which was slight in its origin, and for some time he was not aware that all his viscera were full of diseased matter. The flesh, being corrupted by the disease, was changed into vermin,[301] and though many persons were engaged day and night in taking the vermin away, what was got rid of was nothing compared with what came, for all his clothes, and the bath and the water, and his food, were filled with the matter that flowed from him, and with the vermin; such was the violence of the disorder. Though he went into the water several times a day and drenched his body and cleansed it from filth, it was of no avail, for the disease went on too quickly, and the quant.i.ty of vermin defied all attempts to clear it away. Among those in very remote times who are said to have died of the lousy disease was Akastus the son of Pelias; and in more recent times, Alkman the lyric poet, Pherekydes the theologian, Kallisthenes of Olynthus, while he was in prison, and Mucius the lawyer. And if one may mention those who have got a name, not for any good that they did, but in other ways, Eunus the runaway slave, who began the Servile war in Sicily, is said to have died of this disease, after he was captured and carried to Rome.

x.x.xVII. Sulla foresaw his end, and even in a manner wrote about it, for he finished the twenty-second book of his Memoirs only two days before his death. He there says, that the Chaldaeans foretold him that it was his fate to die, after a happy life, at the very height of his prosperity; he says also that his son, who had died a short time before Metella, appeared to him in a dream, in a mean dress, and standing by him, entreated his father to rest from his troubles and to go with him to join his mother Metella, and live with her in ease and quiet. Yet he did not give up attending to public matters. Ten days before his death he restored tranquillity among the people of Dicaearchia,[302] who were in a state of civil commotion, and he drew up for them a const.i.tution; and only one day before his death, hearing that the chief magistrate Granius was a public defaulter and refused to pay the debt, waiting for Sulla's death, Sulla sent for the man to his chamber, and surrounding him with his slaves ordered him to be strangled; but with his shouting and efforts he burst an imposthume and vomited a quant.i.ty of blood. Upon this his strength failed him and he got through the night with difficulty. He left two infant children by Metella; Valeria, after his death, brought forth a daughter, whom they called Postuma,[303] for this is the name that the Romans give to children who are born after their father's death.

x.x.xVIII. Now many flocked to Lepidus and combined with him to prevent the body of Sulla from receiving the usual interment. But Pompeius, though he had ground of complaint against Sulla, for he was the only friend whom Sulla had pa.s.sed over in his will,[304] turning some from their purpose by his influence and entreaties, and others by threats, had the body conveyed to Rome, and secured it a safe and honourable interment. It is said that the women contributed so great a quant.i.ty of aromatics for Sulla's funeral,[305] that without including what was conveyed in two hundred and ten litters, there was enough to make a large figure of Sulla, and also to make a lictor out of costly frankincense and cinnamon. The day was cloudy in the morning, and as rain was expected they did not bring the body out till the ninth hour.

However, a strong wind came down on the funeral pile and raised a great flame, and they had just time to collect the ashes as the pile was sinking and the fire going out, when a heavy rain poured down and lasted till night; so Sulla's good fortune seemed to follow him to his funeral, and to stay with him to the last. His monument is in the Campus Martius. The inscription, which they say he wrote and left behind him, says in substance, that none of his friends ever did him a kindness, and none of his enemies ever did him a wrong, without being fully repaid.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 162: Many distinguished families belonged to the Cornelii, as the Scipiones, Lentuli, Dolabellae, and others. The Patricians were the old Roman n.o.ble families, whom Plutarch compares with the Athenian Eupatridae, or men of n.o.ble family, who formed in the older periods of Athenian history the first cla.s.s in the State.

The origin of the word Sulla is uncertain. This Sulla was not the first who bore it. P. Cornelius Rufinus, Praetor B.C. 212, the grandfather of this Sulla, also bore the name. The various conjectures on the origin of the name Sulla are given by Drumann, _Geschichte Roms_, ii. p. 426. The name should be written Sulla, not Sylla. The coins have always Sulla or Sula. (Rasche, _Lex Rei Numariae_; Eckhel, _Doctrina Num. Vet._ v. 189.) L. Cornelius Sulla was the son of L.

Cornelius Sulla, and born B.C. 138.]

[Footnote 163: P. Cornelius Rufinus was consul B.C. 290. He was also Dictator, but in what year is uncertain. He was ejected from the Senate by the Censor C. Fabricius B.C. 275 for violating one of the sumptuary laws of Rome, or those which limited expense. The story is mentioned by Gellius (iv. 8; xvii. 21). Plutarch has translated the Latin word Librae by the Greek Litrae.

The Romans made many enactments for limiting expense in dress, entertainments, funerals (Sulla, c. 35), amount of debt to be incurred, and so forth, all of which were unavailing. The notion of regulating private expenditure was not peculiar to the Romans among the states of antiquity; and our own legislation, which in its absurd as well as its best parts has generally some parallel in that of the Romans, contains many instances of sumptuary laws, which prescribed what kind of dress, and of what quality, should be worn by particular cla.s.ses, and so forth. The English Sumptuary Statutes relating to Apparel commenced with the 37th of Edward III. This statute, after declaring that the outrageous and excessive apparel of divers people against their estate and degree is the destruction and impoverishment of the land, prescribes the apparel of the various cla.s.ses into which it distributes the people; but it goes no higher than knights. The clothing of the women and children is also regulated. The next statute, 3rd of Edward IV., is very minute. This kind of statute-making went on at intervals to the 1st of Philip & Mary, when an Act was pa.s.sed for the Reformation of Excessive Apparel. These Apparel Statutes were repealed by the 1st of James I.]

[Footnote 164: This word does not convey the exact notion, but it is sufficient. The original is Gephyrists ([Greek: gephyristai]

?ef???sta?). There was, they say, a bridge (Gephyra) on the road between Athens and Eleusis, from which, during the sacred processions to Eleusis, the people (or, as some authorities say, the women) were allowed the liberty of joking and saying what they pleased; and hence the name of such free speakers, Bridgers, Bridge-folk. (See Casaubon's note on Strabo, p. 400.) Hence the word came to signify generally abusive people. Sulla did not forget these insults when he took Athens (c. 13). Plutarch alludes to this also in his Treatise on Garrulity, c. 7.]

[Footnote 165: Mimus is a name given by the Romans both to an actor and to a kind of dramatic performance, which probably resembled a coa.r.s.e farce, and was often represented in private houses. Its distinguis.h.i.+ng character was a want of decency. The word Mimus is of Greek origin, and probably derived its name from the amount of gestures and action used in these performances. The Greeks also had their Mimi.]

[Footnote 166: This pa.s.sage is apparently corrupt. But the general meaning is tolerably clear. (See Sulla, c. 36.)]

[Footnote 167: See Marius, c. 10.]

[Footnote 168: Tribunus Militum, a military tribune. Plutarch translates the term by Chiliarchus, a commander of a thousand. At this time there were six tribunes to a Roman legion.]

[Footnote 169: The Tectosages were a Celtic people who lived at the foot of the Pyrenees west of Narbo (Narbonne).]

[Footnote 170: Mannert (_Geographie der Griechen und Romer_, Pt. iii.

p. 216) wishes to establish that these Marsi were a German nation, who lived on both sides of the Lippe and extended to the Rhine, and not the warlike nation of the Marsi who inhabited the central Apennines south-east of Rome. This is the remark of Mannert as quoted by Kaltwa.s.ser; but I do not find it in the second edition of Mannert (Pt.

iii. 168), where he is treating of the German Marsi.]

[Footnote 171: The pa.s.sage is in the _Phnissae_ of Euripides, v. 531 &c.:

Why seek the most pernicious of all daemons, Ambition, O my son? Not so; unjust the G.o.ddess, And houses many, many prosperous states She enters and she quits, but ruins all.

[Footnote 172: The exhibition of wild animals in the Roman games was now become a fas.h.i.+on. In the latter part of the Republic it was carried to an enormous extent: the elephant, the rhinocerous, the lion, and other wild animals, were brought from Africa to Rome for these occasions. When Sulla was praetor B.C. 93, he exhibited one hundred lions in the Circus, which were let loose and shot with arrows by archers whom King Bocchus sent for the purpose. (Plinius, _N.H._ viii. 16, Seneca, _De Brevitate Vitae_, c. 13.) There was an old decree of the Senate which prohibited the importation of African wild beasts, but it was repealed by a measure proposed by the tribune Cn. Aufidius so far as to render the importation legal for the games of the Circus.

Plutarch speaks of Sulla as immediately canva.s.sing for the praetors.h.i.+p after his return to Rome. The dates show that at least several years elapsed before he succeeded.]

[Footnote 173: Probably s.e.xtus Julius Caesar, consul B.C. 91, and the uncle of the Dictator, C. Julius Caesar.]