The Historians' History of the World 05

“Zachariæ,k” says Ihne,e “in his book on L. Cornelius Sulla (i. 145), has hit the truth in saying: ‘We must not imagine that these horrors and cruelties were caused by the passions so powerfully excited by the civil war, nor that they are to be attributed to Sulla’s implacability and vindictiveness, nor that Sulla simply connived at them, or ordered deeds which he could not prevent, surrounded as he was by an army drunk with victory and greedy for plunder. It is true some dark passions were at work, and in several instances Sulla acted from momentary whims or was influenced by angry passions. It is true that Sulla was obliged to be indulgent and forgiving to his soldiers because he was himself in want of indulgence and forgiveness. Nevertheless we have good reason to believe that on the whole Sulla acted on a deep and coolly meditated plan.… He intended that out of the work of destruction a new and vigorous Italy was to come forth with a population from whose gratitude or satisfaction he could confidently expect security for peace, and for that constitution of the republic which he was about to establish.’” With this Freemanl agrees, when he says that Sulla “was not cruel in the sense of delighting in human suffering. Through the whole of Sulla’s tyranny there is nothing passionate; it is not so much cruelty as recklessness of human life; it is the cold, deliberating, exterminating policy of a man who has an object to fulfill, and who will let nothing stand in the way of that object.”a

FOOTNOTES

[89] [The Roman historian Florusd comments on and classifies the wars thus: “This only was wanting to complete the misfortunes of the Romans that they should raise up an unnatural war among themselves and that in the midst of the city and Forum, citizens should fight with citizens, like gladiators in an amphitheatre. I should bear the calamity, however, with greater patience if plebeian leaders or contemptible nobles had been at the head of such atrocity; but even Marius and Sulla (O indignity! such men, such generals!), the grace and glory of their age, lent their eminent characters to this worst of evils. It was carried on, if I may use the expression, under three constellations, the first movement being light and moderate, an affray rather than a war, for the violence prevailed only between the leaders themselves; in the next rising, the victory spread with greater cruelty and bloodshed, through the very bowels of the whole senate; the third conflict exceeded not merely animosity between citizens, but that between enemies, the fury of the war being supported by the strength of all Italy, and rancour raging till none remained to be killed.”

[90] [On this act of Octavius, Beeslyc cynically comments: “He was an obstinate, dull man; and if the burlesque of the conduct of the senators when the Gauls took Rome was really enacted, theatrical display must have been cold comfort for those of his party on whom his incapacity brought ruin.”]

[91] [Ihnee says “the story is absurd,” and credits it to a calumny of his enemies. Long, however, accepts it as possible.]

[92] [See Valerius Maximusf

and Cicero.g Mommsenh credits the story, and Dyeri calls it “one of those ferocious jokes which find their parallel only amidst the butcheries of the French Revolution.”]

[93] [“The battle of the Colline Gate was one of the few great and decisive battles which are recorded in the history of Rome,” says Ihne.e In spite of all this, he says, we know almost absolutely nothing of the position of the armies and the progress of the fight, “and this cannot be vouched for with any degree of confidence, as the two principal authorities cannot be satisfactorily made to harmonise.” Appian

m says that each side lost 50,000; Orosiusn sets the number at only 11,000.]

[94] [Mommsenh quotes the sale of an estate valued at £61,000 or $305,000 for about £20 or $100; and rates the total proceeds of confiscation at £3,050,000 or $15,250,000.]

[95] [Cicerog makes a grim pun which Guthrie Englished thus, “The same gentlemen who knocked down estates, knocked down men.” Later he says in the same oration that the slaughter was so great it reminded one of the battle of Lake Trasimene when Hannibal annihilated a Roman army.]

[96] [The connection with Marius was not by blood but by marriage; Julia, Cæsar’s aunt, was the wife of Marius.]

CHAPTER XIX. THE DICTATORSHIP OF SULLA

[81-79 B.C.]