WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.640 --> 00:00:04.559 Section eleven of the grochy Marius and Sulla by A. H. Beasley. 2 00:00:05.120 --> 00:00:10.160 This librovox recording is in the public domain. Read by Pamelinagami, 3 00:00:10.679 --> 00:00:17.879 Chapter nine Sulpicious, the terrible disintegration which the social war 4 00:00:17.920 --> 00:00:22.480 had brought on Italy was faithfully reproduced in Rome. There too, 5 00:00:22.800 --> 00:00:26.839 every man's hand was against his neighbor, creditor and debtor, 6 00:00:27.320 --> 00:00:32.640 tribune and consul, Senate and anti senate fiercely confronted each other. 7 00:00:33.640 --> 00:00:37.520 Personal interests had become so much more prominent, and old 8 00:00:37.520 --> 00:00:41.640 party divisions were so confused by the schemes of Italianizing 9 00:00:41.679 --> 00:00:46.719 politicians aristocratic in their connections, but cleaving to part at 10 00:00:46.799 --> 00:00:50.799 least of the traditional democratic program, that it is very 11 00:00:50.840 --> 00:00:53.759 hard to see where the views of one faction blended 12 00:00:53.799 --> 00:00:57.799 with those of another, and where they clashed. Still harder 13 00:00:57.880 --> 00:01:01.280 is it to dissect the character of individual rules. To decide, 14 00:01:01.320 --> 00:01:04.760 for instance, how far a man like Sulpicius was swayed 15 00:01:04.799 --> 00:01:08.359 by disinterested principles, and how far he fought for his 16 00:01:08.400 --> 00:01:11.760 own hand. We need not make too much of the 17 00:01:11.840 --> 00:01:15.200 fact that he appealed to force, because violence was the 18 00:01:15.319 --> 00:01:18.480 order of the day, and submission to the law simply 19 00:01:18.599 --> 00:01:22.359 meant submission to the law of force. But there are 20 00:01:22.439 --> 00:01:26.560 some parts of his career apparently so inconsistent as almost 21 00:01:26.640 --> 00:01:30.439 to defy explanation, which in any case can be little 22 00:01:30.480 --> 00:01:35.599 more than guess work. Publius Sulpicious Rufus was now in 23 00:01:35.680 --> 00:01:38.840 the prime of life, having been born in one twenty 24 00:01:38.840 --> 00:01:43.239 four b c. He was an aristocrat, an orator of 25 00:01:43.319 --> 00:01:46.799 great force and fire, and a friend of Drusus, whose 26 00:01:46.879 --> 00:01:51.079 views he shared and inherited. Cicero speaks of him in 27 00:01:51.159 --> 00:01:55.280 no grudging terms. Of all the speakers I have heard, 28 00:01:55.640 --> 00:01:59.599 Sulpicious was the grandest, and so to speak, most tragic. 29 00:02:00.599 --> 00:02:04.599 Besides being powerful, his voice was sweet and resonant. His 30 00:02:04.840 --> 00:02:09.000 gestures and movements, elegant though they were, had nothing theatrical 31 00:02:09.039 --> 00:02:12.599 about them, and his oratory, though quick and fluent, was 32 00:02:12.680 --> 00:02:17.599 neither redundant nor verbose. The year before his tribunet had 33 00:02:17.639 --> 00:02:21.120 been a turbulent one at Rome. The social war and 34 00:02:21.199 --> 00:02:27.439 Asiatic disturbances had brought about a financial crisis. Debtors, hard 35 00:02:27.479 --> 00:02:32.280 pressed by their creditors, invoked obsolete penalties against Jusury in 36 00:02:32.319 --> 00:02:37.000 their defense, and the creditors, because the praetor Islia attempted 37 00:02:37.039 --> 00:02:40.479 to submit the question to trial, murdered him in the 38 00:02:40.599 --> 00:02:45.759 open forum. The debtors responded by a cry for tabulaoi, 39 00:02:46.240 --> 00:02:50.120 or a sweeping remission of all debts. Of these debtors, 40 00:02:50.240 --> 00:02:53.800 many doubtless, would belong to the lower orders. But from 41 00:02:53.800 --> 00:02:57.439 a proposal of Sulpicious made the next year, it appears 42 00:02:57.560 --> 00:03:00.719 probable that some were found in the ranks of the Senate. 43 00:03:01.919 --> 00:03:05.120 War had made money tight, to use the phraseology of 44 00:03:05.159 --> 00:03:09.439 our modern stock exchange, and reckless extravagance could no longer 45 00:03:09.479 --> 00:03:15.080 be supported by borrowing. Sulpicious inherited the policy of Drusus, 46 00:03:15.400 --> 00:03:20.280 which was to reconstruct the senatorial government on an Italian basis. 47 00:03:21.319 --> 00:03:25.080 Like Drusus, he had to conciliate prejudices in order to 48 00:03:25.120 --> 00:03:29.000 carry out his design. Plutarch says that he went about 49 00:03:29.039 --> 00:03:31.599 with six hundred men of the Equestrian order, whom he 50 00:03:31.680 --> 00:03:35.439 called his anti Senate. No doubt it was to please 51 00:03:35.520 --> 00:03:39.159 these equitais, who would belong to the party of creditors, 52 00:03:39.680 --> 00:03:43.000 that he proposed that no one should be a senator 53 00:03:43.199 --> 00:03:47.360 who owed more than two thousand dinari e. No doubt, too, 54 00:03:47.759 --> 00:03:50.360 he would have filled the vacancies thus created by the 55 00:03:50.400 --> 00:03:54.280 expulsion of reckless anti Italian optimists from the ranks of 56 00:03:54.360 --> 00:03:59.800 these equities, just as Drusus had done. Just like Druces, too, 57 00:04:00.319 --> 00:04:03.479 he had to court the proletariat, and this he did 58 00:04:03.520 --> 00:04:08.599 by proposing to enroll freedmen in the tribes. This, as 59 00:04:08.639 --> 00:04:11.759 they were generally dependent on men of his own order, 60 00:04:12.360 --> 00:04:15.560 he could do without prejudice to the new modeled aristocracy 61 00:04:15.599 --> 00:04:19.480 which he was attempting to organize. He also proposed to 62 00:04:19.519 --> 00:04:22.720 grant an amnesty to those who had been exiled by 63 00:04:22.720 --> 00:04:26.160 the Lexvaria, hoping no doubt to gain more by the 64 00:04:26.199 --> 00:04:29.399 adherents who would return to Rome than he would lose 65 00:04:29.480 --> 00:04:33.560 by the return of men like Varius himself. He had 66 00:04:33.560 --> 00:04:37.399 opposed such an amnesty before, but on such a point 67 00:04:37.560 --> 00:04:40.839 he might have easily changed his views, especially if a 68 00:04:40.879 --> 00:04:44.120 strong cry was being raised by the friends of the exiles. 69 00:04:45.120 --> 00:04:48.720 He had a personal feud with the Julian family because 70 00:04:48.839 --> 00:04:53.600 he had opposed Caesar's illegal candidature for the consulship. That 71 00:04:53.759 --> 00:04:58.000 having fortified himself by such alliances, he proceeded to carry 72 00:04:58.000 --> 00:05:02.800 out the main design of Drusus, namely the complete enfranchisement 73 00:05:02.959 --> 00:05:07.160 of the Italians. This perhaps would be especially distasteful to 74 00:05:07.240 --> 00:05:11.319 the Julie as superseding the Lex Julia and the Lex 75 00:05:11.399 --> 00:05:15.560 Plotia Papiria, which to them no doubt seemed ample and 76 00:05:15.680 --> 00:05:19.839 more than ample concessions. Sulpicious, on the other hand, in 77 00:05:19.920 --> 00:05:23.199 the minority of the Senate which sided with him, saw 78 00:05:23.240 --> 00:05:26.639 that under the cover of clemency, a grievous wrong was 79 00:05:26.680 --> 00:05:30.480 being done. For not only were the Italians who had 80 00:05:30.519 --> 00:05:33.600 submitted since the terms of the Lex Plaudia took effect 81 00:05:33.959 --> 00:05:37.560 without the franchise, but from the fact of their rebellion 82 00:05:37.600 --> 00:05:42.079 they had lost their old privileges as allied states. Even 83 00:05:42.079 --> 00:05:45.639 those who had benefited by these concessions had benefited only 84 00:05:45.680 --> 00:05:49.879 in name. As they voted in new tribes, their votes 85 00:05:49.879 --> 00:05:53.360 were valueless and often would not be recorded at all, 86 00:05:54.040 --> 00:05:57.079 for a majority on most questions would be assured long 87 00:05:57.160 --> 00:06:01.240 before it came to their turn to vote. Two statesmen 88 00:06:01.279 --> 00:06:04.720 imbued with the views of Drusus, such a distribution of 89 00:06:04.759 --> 00:06:09.800 the franchise must have seemed impolitic trickery, and like Drusus, 90 00:06:09.839 --> 00:06:14.279 Sulpicious resorted to questionable means in order to gain the 91 00:06:14.519 --> 00:06:17.920 end on which he had set his heart. Rome was 92 00:06:17.959 --> 00:06:21.199 thus broken up into two camps, not as of yore, 93 00:06:21.279 --> 00:06:25.720 broadly marked off by palpable distinctions of rank, property, or privilege, 94 00:06:26.120 --> 00:06:30.439 but each containing adherents of all sorts and conditions. Though 95 00:06:30.439 --> 00:06:33.800 in the Senate the opponents of Sulpicius had the majority, 96 00:06:34.759 --> 00:06:38.560 when Sulpicius proposed to enroll the Italians in the Old Tribes, 97 00:06:39.120 --> 00:06:43.839 the consuls proclaimed astacium, or suspension of all public business 98 00:06:43.879 --> 00:06:48.600 for some religious observances. It is said by some modern 99 00:06:48.600 --> 00:06:52.639 writers that the object of Sulpicious in proposing to enroll 100 00:06:52.680 --> 00:06:55.879 the Italians in the Old Tribes was to secure the 101 00:06:55.959 --> 00:07:01.560 election of Marius to the command against Mithridatees. It is certain, indeed, 102 00:07:01.920 --> 00:07:05.800 that Marius longed for it. Daily he was seen in 103 00:07:05.879 --> 00:07:09.560 the campus Marcius exercising with the young men, and, though 104 00:07:09.639 --> 00:07:13.439 old and fat, showing himself nimble in arms and active 105 00:07:13.480 --> 00:07:18.439 on horseback, conduct which excited some men's good humored sympathy, 106 00:07:18.920 --> 00:07:21.920 but shocked others, who thought he had much better go 107 00:07:22.079 --> 00:07:25.319 to Bayi for the baths there, and that such an 108 00:07:25.319 --> 00:07:30.240 exhibition was contemptible. In one of his years, Sulpicius may 109 00:07:30.279 --> 00:07:33.160 have thought Marius quite fit for the command, and was 110 00:07:33.240 --> 00:07:36.240 warranted in thinking so by the events of the social war. 111 00:07:37.000 --> 00:07:39.639 But there is no more ground for supposing that the 112 00:07:39.680 --> 00:07:44.079 election of Marius was his primary object than for considering 113 00:07:44.160 --> 00:07:49.199 Plutarch's diatribe a fair estimate of his character. He was 114 00:07:49.240 --> 00:07:52.560 the friend and successor of Drusus, and his alliance with 115 00:07:52.680 --> 00:07:55.600 Marius was a means to the end, which, in common 116 00:07:55.639 --> 00:07:58.920 with Druces, he had in view, and not the end itself. 117 00:08:00.319 --> 00:08:03.759 This consideration is essential to a true understanding of the 118 00:08:03.800 --> 00:08:07.240 politics of the time, and just makes the difference whether 119 00:08:07.319 --> 00:08:11.759 Sulpicius was a petty minded adventurer or deliberately following in 120 00:08:11.800 --> 00:08:15.040 the lines laid down for him by a succession of statesmen. 121 00:08:16.480 --> 00:08:18.959 To the maneuver of the consul. He replied with a 122 00:08:19.079 --> 00:08:23.360 violent protest that it was illegal. Rome was being paraded 123 00:08:23.399 --> 00:08:27.399 by his partisans, three thousand armed men, and there was 124 00:08:27.439 --> 00:08:29.759 a tumult in which the lives of the consuls were 125 00:08:29.800 --> 00:08:35.200 in danger. One pompeious Rufus escaped, but his son was killed. 126 00:08:35.840 --> 00:08:40.240 The other Sullah annulled the g justicium, but is said 127 00:08:40.279 --> 00:08:43.720 to have got off with his life only because Marius 128 00:08:43.759 --> 00:08:48.399 generously gave him shelter in his own house. In these occurrences, 129 00:08:48.440 --> 00:08:51.039 it is impossible not to see that the consuls were 130 00:08:51.080 --> 00:08:55.080 the first to act unfairly. Sulpicius had been intending to 131 00:08:55.120 --> 00:08:58.840 bring forward his laws in the regular fashion. They thwarted 132 00:08:58.879 --> 00:09:02.399 him by a trick. Whether he, in anger gave the 133 00:09:02.480 --> 00:09:05.600 signal for violence, or whether, as is quite as likely, 134 00:09:05.639 --> 00:09:09.360 his Italian partisans did not wait for his bidding, the 135 00:09:09.399 --> 00:09:11.559 blame of the tumult lay at the door of the 136 00:09:11.639 --> 00:09:15.879 other side. In such cases, he is not guiltiest who 137 00:09:15.879 --> 00:09:20.200 strikes the first blow, but he who has made blows inevitable. 138 00:09:21.200 --> 00:09:25.200 The laws of Sulpicius were carried, Sulah fled to the army, 139 00:09:25.519 --> 00:09:28.399 And perhaps it was only now that Sulpicius, knowing or 140 00:09:28.480 --> 00:09:31.000 thinking that he knew that Sellah would march on Rome, 141 00:09:31.639 --> 00:09:35.720 carried a resolution in the popular Assembly for making Marius 142 00:09:35.759 --> 00:09:39.759 commander in the east. Two tribunes were accordingly sent to 143 00:09:39.799 --> 00:09:43.320 the camp at Nola to take the army from Sellah. 144 00:09:43.480 --> 00:09:48.039 His soldiers immediately slew them and burning for the booty 145 00:09:48.159 --> 00:09:53.000 of Asia, and attached to their fortunate leader. They, when, 146 00:09:53.120 --> 00:09:55.440 without venturing to hint at the means by which he 147 00:09:55.480 --> 00:09:59.840 could avenge it, he complained of the wrong done to him, 148 00:10:00.000 --> 00:10:04.639 glamorously called on him to lead them to Rome. All 149 00:10:04.720 --> 00:10:08.080 his officers except one choist door left him, but he 150 00:10:08.159 --> 00:10:11.399 set out with six legions and was joined by Pompeius. 151 00:10:11.399 --> 00:10:15.480 On the way, two priters met him and forbade his advance. 152 00:10:16.200 --> 00:10:19.600 They escaped with their lives, but the soldiers broke their 153 00:10:19.679 --> 00:10:24.559 foscuse and tore off their senatorial robes. A second and 154 00:10:24.639 --> 00:10:27.759 a third time the Senate sent to ask his intentions 155 00:10:28.600 --> 00:10:31.600 to release Rome from her tyrants was the grim reply. 156 00:10:32.840 --> 00:10:36.159 Then he vouchsafed an offer that the Senate, Marius and 157 00:10:36.240 --> 00:10:39.480 Sulpicious should meet him in the campus marshes to come 158 00:10:39.519 --> 00:10:42.840 to terms. If this meant that he would come with 159 00:10:42.919 --> 00:10:45.960 his army at his back, it was an absurd proposal. 160 00:10:46.919 --> 00:10:49.200 If it meant that he would come alone, it was 161 00:10:49.240 --> 00:10:52.559 a falsehood. In either case, it was a device to 162 00:10:52.679 --> 00:10:56.039 fritter away time. For all the while that he was 163 00:10:56.399 --> 00:11:02.480 bandying meaningless messages, he continued his onward marks he had sacrificed, 164 00:11:02.759 --> 00:11:06.399 and the soothsayer Posthumius, when he saw the entrails, had 165 00:11:06.440 --> 00:11:09.360 stretched out his hands to him and offered to be 166 00:11:09.440 --> 00:11:12.440 kept in chains for punishment after the battle if it 167 00:11:12.519 --> 00:11:15.960 was not a victory. He too, had himself seen a 168 00:11:16.039 --> 00:11:19.960 vision of good Omen Bologna or another goddess had he 169 00:11:20.039 --> 00:11:23.639 dreamed put a thunderbolt in his hands, and, naming his 170 00:11:23.759 --> 00:11:27.240 enemies one by one, bidden him strike them, and they 171 00:11:27.279 --> 00:11:31.919 were consumed to ashes. Again, envoys came from the Senate 172 00:11:32.279 --> 00:11:36.200 forbidding him to come within five miles of Rome. Perhaps 173 00:11:36.240 --> 00:11:39.200 they still felt as secure in the immemorial freedom of 174 00:11:39.240 --> 00:11:43.000 the city from military rule as the English parliament did 175 00:11:43.279 --> 00:11:48.799 before Cromwell's coupd'etat. Again he amused them, and no doubt himself, 176 00:11:48.879 --> 00:11:53.519 also with a falsehood and professing compliance, followed close upon 177 00:11:53.559 --> 00:11:57.879 their heels. With one Lesion he occupied the Chilian gate, 178 00:11:58.360 --> 00:12:02.639 with another under Pompeius, the Colleen Gate, with a third 179 00:12:02.679 --> 00:12:06.720 the pan Sublikius, while a fourth was posted outside as 180 00:12:06.720 --> 00:12:11.600 a reserve. Thus, for the first time a consul commanded 181 00:12:11.679 --> 00:12:15.720 an army in the city, and soldiers were masters of Rome. 182 00:12:16.919 --> 00:12:20.519 Marius and Sulpicius met them on the Escolne, and, pouring 183 00:12:20.600 --> 00:12:23.440 down tiles from the housetops, had first beat them back, 184 00:12:24.159 --> 00:12:26.960 but Sullah, waving a burning torch, bade his men shoot 185 00:12:27.000 --> 00:12:30.159 fiery arrows at the houses and drove the Marians from 186 00:12:30.200 --> 00:12:34.440 the Escoline Forum. Then he sent for the legion in reserve, 187 00:12:34.879 --> 00:12:37.879 and ordered a detachment to go round by the Siburah 188 00:12:38.080 --> 00:12:41.720 and take the enemy in the rear. In Vain, Marius 189 00:12:41.720 --> 00:12:45.000 made another stand at the temple of Tellus. In Vain, 190 00:12:45.080 --> 00:12:48.039 he offered liberty to any slaves that would join him. 191 00:12:48.799 --> 00:12:52.440 He was beaten and fled from the city. Thus Sullah, 192 00:12:52.519 --> 00:12:56.639 having by injustice provoked disorder, quelled it by the sword 193 00:12:56.679 --> 00:13:01.679 and began the civil war. So Ppecius, Marius, and ten 194 00:13:01.759 --> 00:13:05.039 others were proscribed, and Sullah is said to have still 195 00:13:05.120 --> 00:13:08.600 further stimulated the pursuit of Marius by setting a price 196 00:13:08.639 --> 00:13:13.559 on his head. Sulpicius was killed at Laurentum, and according 197 00:13:13.600 --> 00:13:18.320 to Wileus Petterculus, Sollah fixed up the eloquent orator's head 198 00:13:18.399 --> 00:13:21.600 at the Rostra, a thing not unlikely to have been 199 00:13:21.639 --> 00:13:25.200 done by a man to whose nature such grim irony 200 00:13:25.320 --> 00:13:29.399 was thoroughly congenial. He evinced it on this occasion in 201 00:13:29.440 --> 00:13:32.879 another way, which may have suggested to Victor Ugo his 202 00:13:33.080 --> 00:13:37.200 episode of Lantanac and the Gunner. He gave the slave 203 00:13:37.399 --> 00:13:41.519 who betrayed Sulpicius his freedom, and then had him hurled 204 00:13:41.519 --> 00:13:45.320 from the Tarpeian rock. After this he set to work 205 00:13:45.360 --> 00:13:48.240 to restore such order as would enable him to hasten 206 00:13:48.320 --> 00:13:53.159 to the east. Various explanations have been offered to account 207 00:13:53.159 --> 00:13:56.559 for his moderation at this conjuncture, and for his leaving 208 00:13:56.600 --> 00:14:00.759 Italy precisely when his enemies were again gathering for an attack, 209 00:14:01.840 --> 00:14:04.639 But the true one has never yet perhaps been suggested. 210 00:14:05.559 --> 00:14:08.240 Who was it that had made him supreme at Rome? 211 00:14:08.879 --> 00:14:11.960 The army? What had been the bribe which had won 212 00:14:12.000 --> 00:14:16.080 it over a campaign in Asia? Under the fortune at Sullah. 213 00:14:16.960 --> 00:14:19.679 Without that army he was powerless, may he was a 214 00:14:19.720 --> 00:14:24.960 dead man. Therefore, it was absolutely necessary to execute his 215 00:14:25.080 --> 00:14:28.159 pledge to the army, which would have no keen desire 216 00:14:28.240 --> 00:14:32.879 to encounter its countrymen in Italy. No doubt he coveted 217 00:14:32.879 --> 00:14:36.320 the glory and spoil of the Asiatic command, But it 218 00:14:36.360 --> 00:14:39.039 is absurd to suppose that he would have quitted Italy 219 00:14:39.120 --> 00:14:42.399 now of his own free will. He had no choice 220 00:14:42.399 --> 00:14:46.120 in the matter. He was bound hand and foot by 221 00:14:46.159 --> 00:14:49.440 his promises to the soldiers, and all that he could 222 00:14:49.519 --> 00:14:52.759 do was by plausible moderation to win as many friends, 223 00:14:53.240 --> 00:14:57.360 conciliate as many foes as possible, throw on Sinna, whom 224 00:14:57.399 --> 00:15:00.840 he could not hope to keep quiet the guilt of perjury, 225 00:15:01.159 --> 00:15:04.360 and trust to fortune for the rest. This is a 226 00:15:04.440 --> 00:15:07.720 probable and consistent view of what now took place at Rome, 227 00:15:08.240 --> 00:15:11.559 and every other account makes out Sulah to have been 228 00:15:11.559 --> 00:15:15.600 either inconsistent, which he never was, for he was always 229 00:15:15.919 --> 00:15:21.600 uniformly selfish or patriotic, which he never was. If patriotism 230 00:15:21.759 --> 00:15:27.639 consists in sacrificing private to public considerations, or indifferent, which 231 00:15:27.639 --> 00:15:30.639 he was in principle but never in practice, unless where 232 00:15:30.679 --> 00:15:34.720 his own interests were not threatened and only the sufferings 233 00:15:34.759 --> 00:15:38.600 of others involved. His first measure was to annul the 234 00:15:38.639 --> 00:15:43.080 Sulpician laws. Secondly, to relieve the debtors, some colonies were 235 00:15:43.159 --> 00:15:46.480 established and a law was passed about interest, the terms 236 00:15:46.480 --> 00:15:50.279 of which we do not know. Thirdly, the Senate, thinned 237 00:15:50.279 --> 00:15:53.519 by the social war in Navarian law was recruited by 238 00:15:53.559 --> 00:15:59.159 three hundred optimates. Fourthly, because Sulpicious had resisted the proclamation 239 00:15:59.240 --> 00:16:03.159 of a giustiqi, that device by which the Senate had virtually, 240 00:16:03.480 --> 00:16:06.440 though not legally, retained in its own hands the power 241 00:16:06.519 --> 00:16:11.519 of discussing any measure before it was submitted to the people. Therefore, 242 00:16:11.679 --> 00:16:14.960 for the future, no measure was to be submitted to 243 00:16:15.000 --> 00:16:18.679 the people till it had been previously discussed by the Senate. 244 00:16:19.559 --> 00:16:22.639 In other words, the Senate was now confirmed by law 245 00:16:22.679 --> 00:16:26.919 in a privilege which it had hitherto only exercised by 246 00:16:26.960 --> 00:16:30.639 the employment of a fiction. Fifthly, the votes were to 247 00:16:30.679 --> 00:16:33.720 be taken not in the Committee a Tributa, but in 248 00:16:33.759 --> 00:16:38.399 the Committee of Centuries. Sixthly, the five classes were no 249 00:16:38.440 --> 00:16:42.000 longer to have an equal voice, but the first class was, 250 00:16:42.080 --> 00:16:45.919 as in the Serbian constitution, to have nearly half the votes. 251 00:16:46.919 --> 00:16:49.480 As the first class consisted of those who had an 252 00:16:49.600 --> 00:16:54.360 estate of one hundred thousand sasterces. This ordinance changed the 253 00:16:54.440 --> 00:16:59.360 democracy into a democracy, transferring the power from the people 254 00:16:59.480 --> 00:17:03.679 generally to the wealthier classes. But considering how voting had 255 00:17:03.720 --> 00:17:07.039 been manipulated of late, it was perhaps a measure due 256 00:17:07.079 --> 00:17:10.599 to the Senate quite as much as to Sullah. On 257 00:17:10.640 --> 00:17:13.880 the whole, he legislated as little as he could and 258 00:17:13.960 --> 00:17:17.319 proscribed as few as he could, but he tried to 259 00:17:17.319 --> 00:17:20.960 get two of his partisans, Servius and Nonius, elected consuls 260 00:17:20.960 --> 00:17:25.680 for the year eighty seven. Instead of them, however, Lucius 261 00:17:25.759 --> 00:17:30.559 Cornelius Sinna, a determined leader of the Papulares, was elected, 262 00:17:30.920 --> 00:17:34.279 and though Nius Octavius, his colleague, was one of the optimates. 263 00:17:34.519 --> 00:17:38.839 He was not Sullah's creature. In another quarter, his arrangements 264 00:17:38.880 --> 00:17:42.680 were thwarted even more unpleasantly. He had got a decree 265 00:17:42.759 --> 00:17:45.240 framed by the people, giving the army of the North 266 00:17:45.279 --> 00:17:50.559 to his friend Quintus Pompeius Rufus, and recalling Nius Pompeius Strabo, 267 00:17:51.400 --> 00:17:55.519 but the latter procured the assassination of the former, and 268 00:17:55.599 --> 00:17:59.240 remained at the head of the army. Still Sullah showed 269 00:17:59.240 --> 00:18:04.240 no resentment. A tribune named Virguineus was threatening to prosecute him, 270 00:18:04.880 --> 00:18:08.160 but he contented himself with making Sinna ascend the capital 271 00:18:08.200 --> 00:18:11.000 with a stone in his hand and throwing it down 272 00:18:11.079 --> 00:18:14.920 before a number of spectators, solemnly swear to observe the 273 00:18:15.039 --> 00:18:21.240 new constitution. Then, leaving Metellusensamnium and Appius Claudius at Nola, 274 00:18:21.839 --> 00:18:26.119 he hurried on to Coppua, and, embarking at Brundusium, felt 275 00:18:26.119 --> 00:18:28.279 no doubt that if he must pay his debt to 276 00:18:28.319 --> 00:18:32.240 the army before the army would commit fresh treasons for him. 277 00:18:32.640 --> 00:18:35.400 It was not unpleasant now to be forced away from 278 00:18:35.440 --> 00:18:38.400 the wasp's nest, which he had stirred up round him 279 00:18:38.400 --> 00:18:42.920 at home, and so making a virtue of necessity, he 280 00:18:43.079 --> 00:18:46.240 sailed with a light heart from the chance of assassination 281 00:18:46.400 --> 00:18:50.720 at Rome to fame and fortune in the east end 282 00:18:51.279 --> 00:18:52.480 of Section eleven.