To the student of history the story of such a funeral seems like the prostration of a nation of barbarians before the car of some demon-god.  If the strong personality of the man—­with all that dauntless bravery, that unerring sagacity, that trenchant tongue—­still after two thousand years fascinates attention, if we are forced to own that for sheer power of will and intellect he stands in the very foremost rank of men, yet we feel also that in the case of such superhuman wickedness tyrannicide would, if it ever could, cease to be a crime.

* * * * *

CHAPTER XV.

SULLA’S REACTIONARY MEASURES.

It is difficult to say about part of the legislation of this period whether it was directly due to Sulla or not, just as some of the changes in the army may or may not have been due to Marius, but were certainly made about his time.  The method of gathering together all the changes made within certain dates, attributing them to one man, and basing an estimate of his character on them, has a simplicity about it which enables the writer to be graphic and spares the reader trouble, but is an unsatisfactory way of presenting history.  Enough, however, is known of Sulla’s own measures to make their general tendency perfectly plain. [Sidenote:  Main object of Sulla’s laws.] His main object was to restore the authority of the Senate, and to do more than restore it, to give it such power as might, if it was true to itself, secure it from mob-rule on the one hand and tyranny on the other.  Though he foresaw that his efforts would be futile, he was none the less energetic in making them, and may reasonably have hoped that they would at all events last his time, and enable him to enjoy himself in Campania, undisturbed by another revolution.  Our acquaintance with his laws is only second-hand, for none of them survive in their original form.  They are known as Leges Corneliae, a term which, though applicable to some other laws, is usually applied to those of his making.

The Senate had originally been an advising council.  Then it had acquired superior authority, and issued commands to the magistrates.  It was placed by Sulla in a still higher position. [Sidenote:  He reconstitutes the Senate;] To fill up its exhausted ranks he admitted to it 300 of the equestrian order; and, though it is not certain what its numbers were to be, it is probable that they were fixed at about 500.  Then he provided for keeping the list full for the future. [Sidenote:  fills it up from the quaestors;] Hitherto a man had become a senator either at the censor’s summons (of which he was practically certain if he had been tribune or quaestor), or, if he had been consul, praetor or aedile. [Sidenote:  increases the number of the quaestors;] Sulla made the quaestorship instead of the aedileship the regular stepping-stone, and increased the number of the quaestors