a detachment to go round by the Subura and take the enemy in the rear.  In vain Marius made another stand at the temple of Tellus.  In vain he offered liberty to any slaves that would join him.  He was beaten and fled from the city.  Thus Sulla, having by injustice provoked disorder, quelled it by the sword, and began the civil war.  Sulpicius, Marius, and ten others were proscribed, and Sulla is said to have still further stimulated the pursuit of Marius by setting a price on his head. [Sidenote:  Sulpicius slain.] Sulpicius was killed at Laurentum, and, according to Velleius Paterculus, Sulla fixed up the eloquent orator’s head at the Rostra, a thing not unlikely to have been done by a man to whose nature such grim irony was thoroughly congenial. [Sidenote:  Stories of Sulla.] He evinced it on this occasion in another way, which may have suggested to Victor Hugo his episode of Lantenac and the gunner.  He gave the slave who betrayed Sulpicius his freedom, and then had him hurled from the Tarpeian Rock.  After this he set to work to restore such order as would enable him to hasten to the east.

[Sidenote:  Why Sulla left Italy.] Various explanations have been offered to account for his moderation at this conjuncture, and for his leaving Italy precisely when his enemies were again gathering for an attack.  But the true one has never yet, perhaps, been suggested.  Who was it that had made him supreme at Rome?  The army.  What had been the bribe which had won it over?  A campaign in Asia under the fortunate Sulla.  Without that army he was powerless, nay, he was a dead man.  Therefore it was absolutely necessary to execute his pledge to the army, which would have no keen desire to encounter its countrymen in Italy.  No doubt he coveted the glory and spoil of the Asiatic command; but it is absurd to suppose that he would have quitted Italy now of his own free will.  He had no choice in the matter.  He was bound hand and foot by his promises to the soldiers; and all that he could do was by plausible moderation to win as many friends, conciliate as many foes, as possible, throw on Cinna, whom he could not hope to keep quiet, the guilt of perjury, and trust to fortune for the rest.  This is a probable and consistent view of what now took place at Rome; and every other account makes out Sulla to have been either inconsistent, which he never was, for he was always uniformly selfish; or patriotic, which he never was, if patriotism consists in sacrificing private to public considerations; or indifferent, which he was in principle but never in practice, unless where his own interests were not threatened and only the suffering of others involved.