XII.  Now all the rest of the Grecian cities immediately sent deputations to Sulla and invited him to enter; but against Athens, which was compelled by the tyrant Aristion[209] to be on the king’s side, he directed all his energies; he also hemmed in and blockaded the Peiraeus,[210] employing every variety of engine and every mode of attack.  If he had waited a short time, he might have taken the Upper City without danger, for through want of provisions it was reduced by famine to extreme necessity; but anxious to return to Rome, and fearing a new revolution there, at great risk fighting many battles and at great cost he urged on the war, wherein, besides the rest of the expenditure, the labour about the military engines required ten thousand pair of mules to be daily employed on this service.  As wood began to fail, owing to many of the works being destroyed by their own weight, and burnt by the incessant fires thrown by the enemy, Sulla laid his hands on the several groves and levelled the trees in the Academia,[211] which was the best wooded of the suburbs, and those in the Lycaeum.  And as he wanted money also for the war, he violated the sacred depositaries of Greece, sending for the finest and most costly of the offerings dedicated in Epidaurus[212] and Olympia.  He wrote also to the Amphiktyons[213] to Delphi, saying that it would be better for the treasures of the god to be brought to him, for he would either have them in safer keeping, or, if he used them, he would replace them; and he sent one of his friends, Kaphis, a Phokian, to receive all the things after they were first weighed.  Kaphis went to Delphi, but he was afraid to touch the sacred things, and in the presence of the Amphiktyons he deeply lamented the task that was imposed on him.  Upon some of them saying that they heard the lute in the shrine send forth a sound, Kaphis either believing what they said or wishing to inspire Sulla with some religious fear, sent him this information.  But Sulla replied in a scoffing tone, he wondered Kaphis did not understand that such music was a sign of pleasure and not of anger, and he bade him take courage and seize the property, as the deity was quite willing, and in fact offered it.  Now all the things were secretly sent off unobserved by most of the Greeks; but the silver jar, one of the royal presents which still remained, could not be carried away by the beasts of burden owing to its weight and size, and the Amphiktyons were accordingly obliged to cut it in pieces; and this led them to reflect that Titus Flamininus,[214] and Manius Acilius, and also AEmilius Paulus—­Acilius, who drove Antiochus out of Greece; and the two others, who totally defeated the kings of Macedonia—­not only refrained from touching the Greek temples, but even gave them presents and showed them great honour and respect.  These generals, however, were legally appointed to command troops consisting of well-disciplined soldiers, who had been taught to obey their leaders