Plutarch: Lives of the noble Grecians and Romans
coming over. Trusting to his word, they fell foul on the rest of
their companions, and made a great slaughter one of another.
Nevertheless, Sylla gathered together in the circus, as well these as
other survivors of the party, to the number of six thousand, and just
as he commenced speaking to the senate, in the temple of Bellona,
proceeded to cut them down, by men appointed for that service. The
cry of so vast a multitude put to the sword, in so narrow a space,
was naturally heard some distance, and startled the senators. He,
however, continuing his speech with a calm and unconcerned
countenance, bade them listen to what he had to say, and not busy
themselves with what was doing out of doors; he had given directions
for the chastisement of some offenders. This gave the most stupid of
the Romans to understand, that they had merely exchanged, not
escaped, tyranny. And Marius, being of a naturally harsh temper, had
not altered, but merely continued what he had been, in authority;
whereas Sylla, using his fortune moderately and unambitiously at
first, and giving good hopes of a true patriot, firm to the interests
both of the nobility and commonalty, being, moreover, of a gay and
cheerful temper from his youth, and so easily moved to pity as to
shed tears readily, has, perhaps deservedly, cast a blemish upon
offices of great authority, as if they deranged men's former habits
and character, and gave rise to violence, pride, and inhumanity.
Whether this be a real change and revolution in the mind, caused by
fortune, or rather a lurking viciousness of nature, discovering
itself in authority, it were matter of another sort of disquisition
to decide.
Sylla being thus wholly bent upon slaughter, and filling the city
with executions without number or limit, many wholly uninterested
persons falling a sacrifice to private enmity, through his permission
and indulgence to his friends, Caius Metellus, one of the younger
men, made bold in the senate to ask him what end there was of these
evils, and at what point he might be expected to stop? "We do not
ask you," said he, "to pardon any whom you have resolved to destroy,
but to free from doubt those whom you are pleased to save." Sylla
answering, that he knew not as yet whom to spare. "Why then," said
he, "tell us whom you will punish." This Sylla said he would do.
These last words, some authors say, were spoken not by Metellus, but
by Afidius, one of Sylla's fawning companions. Immediately upon
this, without communicating with any of the magistrates, Sylla
proscribed eighty persons, and notwithstanding the general
indignation, after one day's respite, he posted two hundred and
twenty more, and on the third again, as many. In an address to the
people on this occasion, he told them he had put up as many names as
he could think of; those which had escaped his memory, he would
publish at a future time. He issued an edict likewise, making death
the punishment of humanity, proscribing any who should dare to
receive and cherish a proscribed person, without exception to
brother, son, or parents. And to him who should slay any one
proscribed person, he ordained two talents reward, even were it a
slave who had killed his master, or a son his father. And what was
thought most unjust of all, he caused the attainder to pass upon
their sons, and son's sons, and made open sale of all their property.
Nor did the proscription prevail only at Rome, but throughout all the
cities of Italy the effusion of blood was such, that neither
sanctuary of the gods, nor hearth of hospitality, nor ancestral home
escaped. Men were butchered in the embraces of their wives, children
in the arms of their mothers. Those who perished through public
animosity, or private enmity, were nothing in comparison of the
numbers of those who suffered for their riches. Even the murderers
began to say, that "his fine house killed this man, a garden that, a
third, his hot baths." Quintus Aurelius, a quiet, peaceable man, and
one who thought all his part in the common calamity consisted in
condoling with the misfortunes of others, coming into the forum to
read the list, and finding himself among the proscribed, cried out,
"Woe is me, my Alban farm has informed against me." He had not gone
far, before he was dispatched by a ruffian, sent on that errand.
In the meantime, Marius, on the point of being taken, killed himself;
and Sylla, coming to Praeneste, at first proceeded judicially against
each particular person, till at last, finding it a work of too much
time, he cooped them up together in one place, to the number of
twelve thousand men, and gave order for the execution of them all,
his own host alone excepted. But he, brave man, telling him he
could not accept the obligation of life from the hands of one who had
been the ruin of his country, went in among the rest, and submitted
willingly to the stroke. What Lucius Catilina did was thought to
exceed all other acts. For having, before matters came to an issue,
made away with his brother, he besought Sylla to place him in the
list of proscription, as though he had been alive, which was done;
and Catiline, to return the kind office, assassinated a certain
Marcus Marius, one of the adverse party, and brought the head to
Sylla, as he was sitting in the forum, and then going to the holy
water of Apollo, which was nigh, washed his hands.
There were other things, besides this bloodshed, which gave offense.
For Sylla had declared himself dictator, an office which had then
been laid aside for the space of one hundred and twenty years. There
was, likewise, an act of grace passed on his behalf, granting
indemnity for what was passed, and for the future entrusting him with
the power of life and death, confiscation, division of lands,
erecting and demolishing of cities, taking away of kingdoms, and
bestowing them at pleasure. He conducted the sale of confiscated
property after such an arbitrary, imperious way, from the tribunal,
that his gifts excited greater odium even than his usurpations;
women, mimes, and musicians, and the lowest of the freed slaves had
presents made them of the territories of nations, and the revenues of
cities; and women of rank were married against their will to some of
them. Wishing to insure the fidelity of Pompey the Great, by a
nearer tie of blood, he bade him divorce his present wife, and
forcing Aemilia, the daughter of Scaurus and Metella, his own wife,
to leave her husband, Manius Glabrio, he bestowed her, though then
with child, on Pompey, and she died in childbirth at his house.
When Lucretius Ofella, the same who reduced Marius by siege, offered
himself for the consulship, he first forbade him; then, seeing he
could not restrain him, on his coming down into the forum with a
numerous train of followers, he sent one of the centurions who were
immediately about him, and slew him, himself sitting on the tribunal
in the temple of Castor, and beholding the murder from above. The
citizens apprehending the centurion, and dragging him to the
tribunal, he bade them cease their clamoring and let the centurion
go, for he had commanded it.
His triumph was, in itself, exceedingly splendid, and distinguished
by the rarity and magnificence of the royal spoils; but its yet
greatest glory was the noble spectacle of the exiles. For in the
rear followed the most eminent and most potent of the citizens,
crowned with garlands, and calling Sylla savior and father, by whose
means they were restored to their own country, and again enjoyed
their wives and children. When the solemnity was over, and the time
come to render an account of his actions, addressing the public
assembly, he was as profuse in enumerating the lucky chances of war,
as any of his own military merits. And, finally, from this felicity,
he requested to receive the surname of Felix. In writing and
transacting business with the Greeks, he styled himself
Epaphroditus, and on his trophies which are still extant with us,
the name is given Lucius Cornelius Sylla Epaphroditus. Moreover,
when his wife had brought him forth twins, he named the male Faustus,
and the female Fausta, the Roman words for what is auspicious and of
happy omen. The confidence which he reposed in his good genius,
rather than in any abilities of his own, emboldened him, though
deeply involved in bloodshed, and though he had been the author of
such great changes and revolutions of State, to lay down his
authority, and place the right of consular elections once more in the
hands of the people. And when they were held, he not only declined
to seek that office, but in the forum exposed his person publicly to
the people, walking up and down as a private man. And contrary to
his will, certain bold man and his enemy, Marcus Lepidus, was
expected to become consul, not so much by his own interest, as by the
power and solicitation of Pompey, whom the people were willing to
oblige. When the business was over, seeing Pompey going home
overjoyed with the success, he called him to him and said, "What a
politic act, young man, to pass by Catulus, the best of men, and
choose Lepidus, the worst! It will be well for you to be vigilant,
now that you have strengthened your opponent against yourself."
Sylla spoke this, it may seem, by a prophetic instinct, for, not long
after, Lepidus grew insolent, and broke into open hostility to Pompey
and his friends.
Sylla, consecrating the tenth of his whole substance to Hercules,
entertained the people with sumptuous feastings. The provision was
so much above what was necessary, that they were forced daily to
throw great quantities of meat into the river, and they drank wine
forty years old and upwards. In the midst of the banqueting, which
lasted many days, Metella died of disease. And because that the
priest forbade him to visit the sick, or suffer his house to be
polluted with mourning, he drew up an act of divorce, and caused her
to be removed into another house whilst alive. Thus far, out of
religious apprehension, he observed the strict rule to the very
letter, but in the funeral expenses he transgressed the law he
himself had made, limiting the amount, and spared no cost. He
transgressed, likewise, his own sumptuary laws respecting expenditure
in banquets, thinking to allay his grief by luxurious drinking
parties and revelings with common buffoons.
Some few months after, at a show of gladiators, when men and women
sat promiscuously in the theater, no distinct places being as yet
appointed, there sat down by Sylla a beautiful woman of high birth,
by name Valeria, daughter of Messala, and sister to Hortensius the
orator. Now it happened that she had been lately divorced from her
husband. Passing along behind Sylla, she leaned on him with her
hand, and plucking a bit of wool from his garment, so proceeded to
her seat. And on Sylla looking up and wondering what it meant, "What
harm, mighty Sir," said she, "if I also was desirous to partake a
little in your felicity?" It appeared at once that Sylla was not
displeased, but even tickled in his fancy, for he sent out to inquire
her name, her birth, and past life. From this time there passed
between them many side glances, each continually turning round to
look at the other, and frequently interchanging smiles. In the end,
overtures were made, and a marriage concluded on. All which was
innocent, perhaps, on the lady's side, but, though she had been never
so modest and virtuous, it was scarcely a temperate and worthy
occasion of marriage on the part of Sylla, to take fire, as a boy
might, at a face and a bold look, incentives not seldom to the most
disorderly and shameless passions.
Notwithstanding this marriage, he kept company with actresses,