undertook to supply the want, which he did so effectually that the soldiers of Catulus had not only abundance for themselves, but were enabled to relieve the army of Marius.  This, as Sulla himself says, greatly annoyed Marius.  Now this enmity, so slight and childish in its foundation and origin, was continued through civil war and the inveterate animosity of faction, till it resulted in the establishment of a tyranny and the complete overthrow of the constitution; which shows that Euripides[171] was a wise man and well acquainted with the diseases incident to states, when he warned against ambition, as the most dangerous and the worst of daemons to those who are governed by her.

V. Sulla now thought that his military reputation entitled him to aspire to a political career, and accordingly as soon as the campaign was ended he began to seek the favour of the people, and became a candidate for the praetorship; but he was disappointed in his expectations.  He attributed his failure to the populace, for he says that they knew he was a friend of Bocchus, and if he filled the office of aedile before that of praetor, they expected to have brilliant hunting exhibitions and fights of Libyan[172] wild beasts, and that therefore they elected others to the praetorship, with the view of forcing him to serve as aedile.  But that Sulla does not state the real cause of his failure appears evident from what followed.  In the next year he obtained the praetorship, having gained the votes of the people, partly by solicitation and partly by bribery.  It was in allusion to this, and during his praetorship when he was threatening Caesar[173] to use his own authority against him, that Caesar replied with a laugh, You are right in considering your authority as your own, for you bought it.  After the expiration of his praetorship he was sent to Cappadocia, for the purpose, as it was given out, of restoring Ariobarzanes[174] to his power, but in reality to check Mithridates,[175] who was very active and was acquiring new territory and dominion as extensive as what he already had.  Sulla took with him no large force of his own, but meeting with zealous co-operation on the part of the allies, he slaughtered a great number of the Cappadocians, and on another occasion a still greater number of Armenians who had come to the relief of the Cappadocians, drove out Gordius, and declared Ariobarzanes king.  While he was staying near the Euphrates, the Parthian general Orobazus, a commander of King Arsaces,[176] had an interview with him, which was the first occasion on which the two nations met; and this also may be considered as one of the very fortunate events in Sulla’s successful career, that he was the first Roman to whom the Parthians addressed themselves in their request for an alliance and friendship with Rome.  Sulla is said to have had three chairs placed, one for Ariobarzanes, another for Orobazus, and a third for himself, on which he took his seat between the two, while the