and to invest them with somewhat of a sacred character, made all his exploits depend on Fortune; whether it was that he did this for the sake of display, or because he really had such opinions of the deity.  Indeed he has recorded in his memoirs, that the actions which he resolved upon without deliberation, and on the spur of the moment, turned out more successfully than those which appeared to have been best considered.  And again, from the passage in which he says that he was made more for fortune than for war, he appears to attribute more to fortune than to his merit, and to consider himself completely as the creature of the daemon;[181] nay, he cites as a proof of good fortune due to the favour of the gods his harmony with Metellus, a man of the same rank with himself, and his father-in-law, for he expected that Metellus would cause him a good deal of trouble, whereas he was a most accommodating colleague.[182] Further, in his memoirs which he dedicated to Lucullus, he advises him to think nothing so safe as what the daemon enjoins during the night.  When he was leaving the city with his troops for the Social War, as he tells us in his memoirs, a great chasm opened in the earth near Laverna,[183] from which a quantity of fire burst forth, and a bright flame rose like a column to the skies.  The diviners said that a brave man, of an appearance different from and superior to ordinary men, would obtain the command and relieve the city from its present troubles, Sulla says this man was himself, for the golden colour of his hair was a peculiarity in his personal appearance, and that he had no diffidence about bearing testimony to his own merits after so many illustrious exploits.  So much as to his religious opinions.  As to the other parts of his character, he was irregular and inconsistent:  he would take away much, and give more; he would confer honours without any good reason, and do a grievous wrong with just as little reason; he courted those whose assistance he wanted, and behaved with arrogance to those who wanted his aid; so that one could not tell whether he had naturally more haughtiness or subserviency.  For as to his inconsistency in punishing, sometimes inflicting death for the slightest matters, and at others quietly bearing the greatest wrongs, his ready reconciliations with his deadly enemies, and his prosecution of slight and trifling offences with death and confiscation of property—­all this may be explained on the supposition that he was naturally of a violent and vindictive temper, but sometimes moderated his passion upon calculations of interest.  During this Social War his soldiers killed with sticks and stones a man of Praetorian rank, who was his legatus, Albinus[184] by name, an outrage which Sulla overlooked, and made no inquiry about:  he went so far as to say, with apparent seriousness, that the soldiers would bestir themselves the more in the war and make amends for their fault by their courage.  As to any blame that was imputed