Plutarch: Lives of the noble Grecians and Romans
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 loath to touch the
holy things, and with many tears, in the presence of the Amphyctyons,
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 honors, 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
labor 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
armor, 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
reveling 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 marketplace 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 honorable
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 mean time 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 time, 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 they were not above fifteen hundred horse, and less than
fifteen thousand foot. Therefore the rest of the commanders,
overpersuading Archelaus, and drawing up the army, covered the plain
with horses, chariots, bucklers, targets. The clamor 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 armor, embellished
magnificently with gold and silver, and the rich colors 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