But it is certainly a striking trait in this man’s character that he descended to a private station from the possession of unlimited power, and after, as Appian observes, having caused the death of more than one hundred thousand men in his Italian wars, besides ninety senators, fifteen consuls, and two thousand six hundred equites, not to mention those who were banished and whose property was confiscated, and the many Italian cities whose fortifications he had destroyed and whose lands and privileges he had taken away.  Sulla’s character was a compound of arrogance, self-confidence, and contempt of all mankind, which have seldom been united.  But his ruling character was love of sensual pleasures.  He was weary of his life of turmoil, and he returned to his property in the neighbourhood of Cumae on the pleasant shore of Campania, where he spent his time on the sea, in fishing, and in sensual enjoyments.  But he had nothing to fear; there were in Italy one hundred and twenty thousand men who had served under him, to whom he had given money and land; there was a great number of persons at Rome who had shared in his cruelties and the profits of them, and whose safely consisted in maintaining the safety of their leader.  Besides this, he had manumitted above ten thousand vigorous men, once the slaves of masters who had been murdered by his orders, and made them Roman citizens under the name of Cornelii.  These men were always in readiness to execute his orders.  With these precautions, this blood-stained man retired to enjoy the sensual gratifications that he had indulged in from his youth upwards, glorying in his happy fortune and despising all mankind.  No attempt to assassinate him is recorded, nor any apprehension of his on that score.  He lived and died Sulla the Fortunate.]

[Footnote 295:  M. AEmilius Lepidus and Q. Lutatius Catulus were consuls B.C. 78, the year of Sulla’s death.  Lepidus attempted to overthrow Sulla’s constitution after Sulla’s death.  He was driven from Rome by Q. Catulus and Cn.  Pompeius Magnus, and died B.C. 77 in Sardinia.  This Lepidus was the father of M. Lepidus the associate of Caesar Octavianus and M. Antonius in the triumvirate. (See the Life of M. Antonius.)

Catulus was the son of Lutatius Catulus who was once the colleague of C. Marius in the consulship.  He has received great praise from Cicero.  Sallustius calls him a defender of the aristocratical party, and C. Licinius Macer, as quoted by Sallustius in his History, says that he was more cruel than Sulla.  We cannot trust Cicero’s unqualified praise of this aristocrat nor the censure of Sallustius.  What would Cicero’s character be, if we had it from some one who belonged to the party of Catiline? and what is it as we know it from his own writings?  Insincere, changing with the times, timid, revengeful, and, when he was under the influence of fear, cruel.]

[Footnote 296:  The Greek word ([Greek:  theatron]) from which came the Roman Theatrum and our word Theatre, means a place for an exhibition or spectacle.  The Roman word for dramatic representations is properly Scena.  I do not know when the men and women had separate seats assigned to them in the theatres.  A law of the tribune L. Roscius Otho B.C. 68 fixed the places in the theatres for the different classes, and it may have assigned separate seats to the women.]