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Sulla answered those who came to him from the Senate, saying that he would
never be on friendly terms with the men who had committed such crimes. Still
he would not prevent the city from extending clemency to them. As for
security he said that, as he had a devoted army, he could better furnish
lasting security to them, and to those who had fled to his camp, than they
to him; whereby it was made plain in a single sentence that he would not
disband his army, but was contemplating the exercise of supreme power. He
demanded of them his former dignity, his property, and the sacerdotal
office, and that they should restore to him in full measure whatever other
honors he had previously held. He sent some of his own men with the Senate's
messengers to confer about these matters. As soon as they learned from the
Brundusians that Cinna was dead and that Rome was in an unsettled state,
they went back to Sulla without transacting their business.
He started with
five legions of Italian troops and
6000 horse, to whom
he added some other forces from the Peloponnesus and Macedonia, in all about
40,000 men. He led them from the Piræus to Patræ, and
then sailed from Patræ to Brundusium in 1600 ships. The Brundusians received him without a fight, for
which favor he afterward gave them exemption from customs-duties, which they
enjoy to this day. Then he put his army in motion and went forward.
