y with it. The
troops of Fimbria deserted their general, who put an end to his own
life. Sulla now prepared to return to Italy. After exacting enormous
sums from the wealthy cities of Asia, he left his legate, L. Licinius
Murena, in command of that province, with two legions, and set sail with
his own army to Athens. While preparing for his deadly struggle in
Italy, he did not lose his interest in literature. He carried with him
from Athens to Rome the valuable library of Apellicon of Teos, which
contained most of the works of Aristotle and Theophrastus.

[Illustration: Coin of Nicomedes III., king of Bithynia.]

[Illustration: Brundisium.]

CHAPTER XXVIII.

SECOND CIVIL WAR.--SULLA'S DICTATORSHIP, LEGISLATION, AND DEATH, B.C.
83-78.

Sulla landed at Brundisium in the spring of B.C. 83, in the Consulship
of L. Scipio and C. Norbanus. During the preceding year he had written
to the Senate, recounting the services he had rendered to the
commonwealth, complaining of the ingratitude with which he had been
treated, announcing his speedy return to Italy, and threatening to take
vengeance upon his enemies and those of the Republic. The Senate, in
alarm, sent an embassy to Sulla to endeavor to bring about a
reconciliation between him and his enemies, and meantime ordered the
Consuls Cinna and Carbo to desist from levying troops and making farther
preparations for war. Cinna and Carbo gave no heed to this command; they
knew that a reconciliation was impossible, and resolved to carry over an
army to Dalmatia, in order to oppose Sulla in Greece; but, after one
detachment of their troops had embarked, the rest of the soldiers rose
in mutiny, and murdered Cinna. The Marian party had thus lost their
chief leader, but continued nevertheless to make every preparation to
resist Sulla, for they were well aware that he would never forgive them,
and that their only choice lay between victory and destruction. Besides
this the Italians were ready to support them, as these new citizens
feared that Sulla would deprive them of the rights which they had lately
obtained after so much bloodshed. The Marian party had every prospect of
victory, for their troops far exceeded those of their opponent. They had
200,000 men in arms, while Sulla landed at Brundusium with only 30,000,
or at the most 40,000 men. But, on the other hand, the popular party had
no one of sufficient influence and military reputation to take the
supreme command in t