continued still longer, and Sulla did not live to see its completion. The armies of the Marian party in Sicily and Africa were subdued by Pompey in the course of the same year; but Sertorius in Spain continued to defy all the attempts of the Senate till B.C. 72. Sulla was now master of Rome. He had not commenced the Civil war, but had been driven to it by the mad ambition of Marius. His enemies had attempted to deprive him of the command in the Mithridatic war, which had been legally conferred upon him by the Senate; and while he was righting the battles of the Republic they had declared him a public enemy, confiscated his property, and murdered the most distinguished of his friends and adherents. For all these wrongs Sulla had threatened to take the most ample vengeance; and he more than redeemed his word. He resolved to extirpate the popular party root and branch. One of his first acts was to draw up a list of his enemies who were to be put to death, which list was exhibited in the forum to public inspection, and called a _Proscriptio_. It was the first instance of the kind in Roman history. All persons in this list were outlaws who might be killed by any one with impunity; their property was confiscated to the state; their children and grandchildren lost their votes in the comitia, and were excluded from all public offices. Farther, all who killed a proscribed person, or indicated the place of his concealment, received two talents as a reward, and whoever sheltered such a person was punished with death. Terror now reigned not only at Rome, but throughout Italy. Fresh lists of the proscribed constantly appeared. No one was safe; for Sulla gratified his friends by placing in the fatal lists their personal enemies, or persons whose property was coveted by his adherents. An estate, a house, or even a piece of plate, was to many a man, who belonged to no political party, his death-warrant; for, although the confiscated property belonged to the state, and had to be sold by public auction, the friends and dependents of Sulla purchased it at a nominal price, as no one dared to bid against them. Oftentimes Sulla did not require the purchase-money to be paid at all, and in many cases he gave such property to his favorites without even the formality of a sale. The number of persons who perished by the proscriptions amounted to many thousands. At the commencement of these horrors Sulla had been appointed Dictator. As both the Consuls had perished, he caused the Senate to elect Valerius Flaccus interrex, and the latter brought before the people a rogatio, conferring the Dictatorship upon Sulla, for the purpose of restoring order to the Republic, and for as long a time as he judged to be necessary. Thus the Dictatorship was revived after being in abeyance for more than 120 years, and Sulla obtained absolute power over the lives and fortunes of all the citizens. This was toward the close of B.C. 81. Sulla's great object in being invested with the