XXVlI.  Sulla went through Thessaly and Macedonia to the sea-coast, where he made preparations to cross from Dyrrachium[265] to Brundisium with twelve hundred ships.  Near to Dyrrachium is Apollonia, and near to Apollonia is the Nymphaeum,[266] a sacred spot, where perpetual streams of fire rise in various places out of a green grassy valley.  It is said that a sleeping satyr was caught there, such a one as sculptors and painters represent, and was brought to Sulla and questioned by many interpreters as to who he was; but he spoke with difficulty, and what he did utter was unintelligible, and something like a compound of the neighing of a horse and the bleating of a goat; upon which Sulla, who was startled at the monster, ordered him to be removed.  Sulla was now about to take his soldiers over the sea, but he feared that when they landed in Italy they would disperse to their several cities; however, the soldiers voluntarily took an oath to abide by him, and not to do any damage in Italy from set design; seeing also that he required much money, they all contributed something from what they had, each according to his means.  However, Sulla would not receive the contribution, but after commending their zeal and encouraging them he proceeded to cross the sea, as he expresses it in his Memoirs, to oppose fifteen hostile commanders at the head of four hundred and fifty cohorts.[267] The deity gave him sure prognostics of success; for upon his sacrificing immediately on landing in Italy near Tarentum, the liver of the animal was found to have on it the figure of a crown[268] of bay with two ribands attached to it.  A short time also before he crossed the sea, two large he-goats were seen in Campania near Mount Hephaeus, in the daytime, fighting, and in all respects acting like men engaged in a contest.  But it was only a vision, and it gradually rose up from the ground and dispersed in the air in various directions like dark phantoms, and finally disappeared.  No long time after, in this very spot, when the younger Marius and the consul Norbanus[269] came upon him at the head of a large force, Sulla, without having time to form his battle or to dispose his companies, but merely availing himself of the spirit that animated all his men, and their impetuous courage, put to flight his opponents, and shut Norbanus up in Capua with the loss of seven thousand of his soldiers.  It was this success, as some say, which prevented his soldiers from dispersing to their several cities, and encouraged them to stay with Sulla and to despise their opponents, though many times more numerous than themselves.  At Silvium,[270] as Sulla says, a slave of one Pontius, moved by a divine impulse, met him and declared that he brought from Bellona assurance of superiority in war and victory, but that if he did not make haste the Capitol would be burnt; and this is said to have happened on the very day which the man foretold, being the day before the Nones of Quintilis, which we now