[Footnote 289:  Plutarch’s expression is “he proclaimed himself Dictator,” but this expression is not to be taken literally, nor is it to be supposed that Plutarch meant it to be taken literally.  Sulla was appointed in proper form, though he did in fact usurp the power, and under the title of dictator was more than king. (Appian, Civil Wars, i. 98.) The terms of Sulla’s election were that he should hold the office as long as he pleased; the disgrace of this compulsory election was veiled under the declaration that Sulla was appointed to draw up legislative measures and to settle affairs.  Paterculus (ii. 28) mentions the 120 years as having elapsed since the time of a previous dictatorship, which was the year after Hannibal left Italy B.C. 202.  As Sulla was elected Dictator in B.C. 81, Plutarch’s statement is correct. (On the functions of the Dictator see Life of Caesar, c. 37.)]

[Footnote 290:  Manius Acilius Glabrio, who was praetor B.C. 70 during the proceedings against Verres.  He was the son of the M. Acilius Glabrio who got a law passed on mal-administration in offices (repetundae), and the grandson of the Glabrio who defeated King Antiochus near Thermopylae. (See c. 12.)]

[Footnote 291:  This murder is told more circumstantially by Appian (Civil Wars, i. 101), who has added something that Plutarch should not have omitted.  After saying to the people that Lucretius had been put to death by his order, Sulla told them a tale:  “The lice were very troublesome to a clown, as he was ploughing.  Twice he stopped his ploughing and purged his jacket.  But he was still bitten, and in order that he might not be hindered in his work, he burnt the jacket; and I advise those who have been twice humbled not to make fire necessary the third time.”]

[Footnote 292:  Plinius (H.N. 33, c. 5) speaks of this triumph:  it lasted two days.  In the first day Sulla exhibited in the procession 15,000 pounds weight of gold and 115,000 pounds of silver, the produce of his foreign victories:  on the second, 13,000 pounds weight of gold and 6000 pounds of silver which the younger Marius had carried off to Praeneste after the conflagration of the Capitol and from the robbery of the other Roman temples.]

[Footnote 293:  The term Felix appears on the coins of Sulla.  Epaphroditus signifies a favourite of Aphrodite or Venus. (Eckhel, Doctrina Num.  Vet. v. 190.) Eckhel infers from the guttus and lituus on one of Sulla’s coins that he was an Augur.]

[Footnote 294:  Sulla abdicated the dictatorship B.C. 79 in the consulship of P. Servilius Vatia Isauricus and Appius Claudius Pulcher.  Appian (Civil Wars, i. 103, &c.) speaks of the abdication.  He made no attempt to secure to his family the power that he had acquired.  It may be that he had no desire to perpetuate the power in his family; and it is certain that this could not have been accomplished.  Sulla had only one son, and he was now a child.