CHAPTER IX
Sulla ends the Mithridatic War--Prepares to return to Rome--Death of
Cinna--Negotiations with Sulla--Sulla in Italy--Terror in the
City--Marshalling the Forces against Sulla--Omens and Prodigies--Battle
at Canusium
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Sulla now hastened his return to meet his enemies, having quickly finished
all his business with Mithridates, as I have already related. Within less
than three years he had killed 160,000 men, recovered Greece, Macedonia,
Ionia, Asia, and many other countries that Mithridates had previously
occupied, taken the king's fleet away from him, and from such vast
possessions restricted him to his paternal kingdom alone. He returned with a
large and well-disciplined army, devoted to him and elated by its exploits.
He had abundance of ships, money, and apparatus
suitable for all emergencies, and was an object of terror to his enemies.
Carbo and Cinna were in such fear of him that they despatched emissaries to
all parts of Italy to collect money, soldiers, and supplies. They took their
leading citizens into friendly intercourse and appealed especially to the
newly created citizens of the towns, pretending that it was on their account
that they were threatened with the present danger. They hastily repaired the
ships, and recalled those that were in Sicily, guarded the coast, and, with
fear and trembling, made rapid preparations in every way.
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Sulla wrote to the Senate in a tone of superiority concerning himself. He
recounted what he had done in Africa in the Jugurthine war while he was
still quæstor, what he had done as lieutenant in the Cimbric war,
as prætor in Cilicia and in the Social war, and as consul. Most of
all he dwelt upon his recent victories in the Mithridatic war, enumerating
to them the many nations that had been under Mithridates and that he had
recovered for the Romans. Of nothing did he make more account than that
those who had been banished from Rome by Cinna had fled to him, and that he
had received the helpless ones and supported them in their affliction. In
return for which he said that he had been declared a public enemy by his
foes, his house had been destroyed, his friends put to death, and his wife
and children had with difficulty made their escape to him. He would be there
presently to take vengeance, for them and for the entire city, upon the
guilty ones. He assured the other citizens, and the new citizens, that he
made no complaint against them. When the contents of the letters became
known fear fell upon all, and they began sending messengers to reconcile him
with his enemies and to tell him in advance that if he wanted any security
he should write to the Senate at once. They ordered Cinna and Carbo to cease
recruiting soldiers until Sulla's answer should be received. They promised
to do so, but as soon as the messengers had gone they proclaimed themselves
consuls for the ensuing year so that they need not come back to the city
directly to hold the election. They traversed Italy, collecting soldiers
whom they carried across by detachments on shipboard to Liburnia,
1 as they expected to meet Sulla there.
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The first detachment had a prosperous voyage. The
next one
encountered a storm and those who reached land went home immediately, as
they did not relish the prospect of fighting their fellow-citizens. When the
rest learned this they refused to cross to Liburnia. Cinna was angry and
called them to an assembly in order to coerce them. They, angry also and
ready to defend themselves, assembled. One of the lictors, who was clearing
the road for Cinna, struck somebody who was in the way and one of the
soldiers struck the lictor. Cinna ordered the arrest of the offender,
whereupon a clamor rose on all sides, stones were thrown at him, and those
who were near him drew their swords and stabbed him. So Cinna also perished
during his consulship. Carbo recalled those who had been sent over by ship
to Liburnia. As he was solicitous about the present state of things, he did
not go back to the city, although the tribunes summoned him with urgency to
hold an election for the choice of a colleague. When they threatened to
reduce him to the rank of a private citizen he came back and ordered the
holding of the consular election, but as the omens were unfavorable he
postponed it to another day. When that day came lightning struck the temples
of Luna and of Ceres; so the augurs prorogued the comitia beyond the summer
solstice, and Carbo remained the sole consul.
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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.
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He was met on the road by Cæcilius Metellus Pius, who had been
chosen some time before to finish up the Social War, but who did not return
to the. city for fear of Cinna and Marius. He had been awaiting the turn of
events in Liguria, and now offered himself as a volunteer ally with the
force under his command, as he was still a proconsul; for those who have
been chosen to this office retain it till they come back to Rome. After
Metellus, came Pompey, who not long afterward was surnamed the Great, son of
the Pompeius who was killed by lightning and who was supposed to be
unfriendly to Sulla. The son removed this suspicion by coming with a legion
which he had collected from the territory of Picenum on the reputation of
his father, who had been very influential there. A little later he recruited
two more legions and became Sulla's most useful right-hand man in these
affairs. So Sulla held him in honor, though still very young; and they say
he rose at the entrance of none other than this youth. After the war was
finished Sulla sent him to Africa to drive out the party of Carbo and to
restore Hiempsal (who had been expelled by the Numidians) to his kingdom.
For this service Sulla allowed him a triumph over the Numidians, although he
was under age, and was still in the equestrian order. He took his start to
greatness from this beginning, and was sent against Sertorius in Spain and
later against Mithridates in Pontus. Cethegus also joined Sulla, although
with Cinna and Marius he had been violently hostile to him and had been
driven out of the city with them. He was now a suppliant, and offered his
services to Sulla in any capacity he might desire.
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Sulla now had plenty of soldiers and a sufficient number of friends of the
higher orders, whom he used as lieutenants. He and Metellus, who were both
proconsuls, marched in advance, for it seems that Sulla, who had been
appointed proconsul against Mithridates, had at no time laid down his
command, although he had been voted a public enemy at the instance of Cinna.
Now Sulla moved against his enemies with a most intense yet concealed
hatred. The people in the city, who had formed a pretty fair judgment of the
character of the man, and who remembered his former attack and capture of
the city, and who took into account the decrees they had proclaimed against
him, and who had witnessed the destruction of his house, the confiscation of
his property, the killing of his friends, and the narrow escape of his
family, were in a state of terror. Conceiving that there was no middle
ground between victory and utter destruction, they united with the consuls
to resist Sulla, but with trepidation. They despatched messengers throughout
Italy to collect soldiers, provisions, and money, and, as in cases of
extreme peril, they omitted nothing that zeal and earnestness could suggest.
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Gaius Norbanus and Lucius Scipio, who were then the consuls, and with them
Carbo, who had been consul the previous year (all of them moved by equal
hatred of Sulla and more fearful than others because they knew that they
were more to blame for what had been done), levied the best possible army
from the city, obtained an additional one from Italy, and marched against
Sulla in detachments. They had 200 cohorts of 500 men each at first, and
their forces were considerably augmented afterward. The sympathies of the
people were much in favor of the consuls, because the action of Sulla, who
was marching against his country, seemed to be that of an enemy, while that
of the consuls, even if they were working for themselves, was ostensibly the
cause of the republic. Many persons, too, who knew that they had shared the
guilt of the consuls, and who were believed to share their fears,
coöperated with them. They knew very well that Sulla was not
meditating merely prevention, correction, and alarm for them, but
destruction, death, confiscation, and complete extermination. In this they
were not mistaken, for the war ruined everything. From 10,000 to 20,000 men
were slain in a single battle more than once. Fifty thousand on both sides
lost their lives around the city, and to the survivors Sulla was unsparing
in severity, both to individuals and to communities, until, finally, he made
himself the undisputed master of the whole Roman government, so far as he
wished or cared to be.
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It seems, too, that divine Providence foretold to them the results of this
war. Sights terrible and unexpected were observed by many, both in public
and in private, throughout all Italy. Ancient, awe-inspiring oracles were
remembered. Many monstrous things happened. A mule gave birth to a colt. A
pregnant woman was delivered of a viper instead of a baby. There was a
severe earthquake divinely sent and some of the temples in Rome were thrown
down (the Romans gave altogether too much attention to such things). The
Capitol, that had been built by the kings 400 years before, burned down, and
nobody could discover the cause of the fire. All things seemed to point to a
succession of slaughters, to the conquest of Italy and of the Romans
themselves, to the capture of the city, and a change in the form of
government.
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This war began as soon as Sulla arrived at Brundusium, which was in the 174th
Olympiad. Considering the magnitude of the work accomplished, its length was
not great, compared with such wars in general, since the combatants rushed
upon each other with the fury of private enemies. For this reason greater
and more distressing calamities than usual befell the eager participants in
a short space of time. Nevertheless the war lasted three years in Italy
alone, until Sulla had secured the supreme power, but in Spain it continued
even after Sulla's death. Battles, skirmishes, sieges, and fighting of all
kinds were numerous throughout Italy, both regular engagements under the
generals and by detachments, and all were noteworthy. The greatest and most
remarkable of them I shall mention in this book. First of all Sulla and
Metellus fought a battle against Norbanus at Canusium and killed 6000 of his
men, while Sulla's loss was seventy, but many of his men were wounded.
Norbanus retreated to Capua.
