ers were
being cut to pieces. In this spirit he proceeded to stamp out what had
been the party of Marius. Marius had been mad with rage: Sulla was quite
calm, but not a whit more merciful. The tomb of Marius was broken open,
his ashes scattered in the road. Samnium, which had resisted the
conqueror, was laid desert. The land was broken into allotments for
Sulla's soldiers.

The proscriptions followed. Lists of public enemies were posted and a
reward paid to any one who killed the men whose names appeared. Their
property was confiscated. Men put the names of private enemies on the
list before or sometimes after they had killed them. Catiline, for
instance, did this to his own brother. Sulla did not care. The State
must be cleared of dangerous men and it must get revenues from
somewhere. On the 1st June 81 the lists were closed: the executions and
confiscations ended. Nearly five thousand persons had perished. Their
property and that of those who had fled or been banished fell to the
State, which got four million pounds in this way.

By murder and robbery the State treasury was filled. Sulla's hard mind
did not shrink from these ugly words. He did the things and made no
pretences. In the same way he never pretended to believe in the rights
of the people. He despised them, thought them stupid, ignorant, and
lazy. What they needed was police. The Government he built up was of
this kind. He made the Senate much larger and stronger, for men of birth
and wealth, though no better than the others, could at least, he
thought, be trusted to keep things orderly and as they were. No one was
to be consul till he had passed through the lower offices, and then
consul only once. As consul he was to stay in Italy without an army; at
the end of his year he might be sent abroad, with an army, as a
pro-consul. In Italy there were to be no troops: no soldiers were to
cross the Rubicon. The law courts were reformed, the juries again drawn
from the Senate.

[Illustration: A BOAR HUNT
from a sculpture in the Capitoline Museum]

When he had finished his work of reorganization and built up the power
of the Senate--i.e. of the older men of birth and property--as strongly
as he could, Sulla laid down all his extraordinary powers and retired to
private life. He had built himself a lovely villa, full of the art
treasures he had brought from Greece and from the East, in the midst of
exquisite gardens. There he lived, writing his memoirs, and