at Sacriportus. Rome fell
into his hands and Marius took refuge in Praeneste. Sulla then turned
against the second consul, Carbo, in Etruria, and, after several victories
forced him to flee to Africa. In a final effort the Marians, united with
the Samnites, tried to relieve Praeneste; failing to accomplish this they
made a dash upon Rome. But Sulla appeared in time to save the city and
utterly defeat his enemies in a bloody contest at the Colline Gate.
Praeneste fell soon after; Marius committed suicide, and except at a few
isolated points all resistance in Italy was over.

*Sulla's aims.* Sulla was absolute master of the situation and at once
proceeded to punish his enemies and reward his friends. In cold-blooded
cruelty, without any legal condemnation, his leading opponents were marked
out for vengeance; their names were posted in lists in the forum to
indicate that they might be slain with impunity and that their goods were
confiscated. Rewards were offered to informers who brought about the death
of such victims, and many were included in the lists to gratify the
personal enmities of Sulla's friends. The goods of the proscribed were
auctioned off publicly under Sulla's direction, and their children and
grandchildren declared ineligible for public office. From these
proscriptions the equestrians suffered particularly; 2600 of them are said
to have perished, together with ninety senators. The Italian
municipalities also felt Sulla's avenging hand. Widespread confiscations
of land, especially in Samnium and Etruria, enabled him to provide for
150,000 of his veterans, whose settlement did much to hasten the
latinization of these districts. Ten thousand slaves of the proscribed
were set free by Sulla and took the name of Cornelii from their patron.
These arrangements were given the sanction of legality by a decree of the
Senate and a law which confirmed all his acts as consul and proconsul and
gave him full power for the future.

*Sulla dictator: 82-79 B. C.* But Sulla's aims went further than the
destruction of the Marian party. He sought to recreate a stable government
in the state. For this he required more constitutional powers than the
right of might. Therefore, since both consuls were dead, he caused the
appointment of an _interrex_ who by virtue of a special law appointed him
a dictator for an unlimited term to enact legislation and reorganize the
commonwealth (_dictator legibus scri__bundis et rei publicae
const