Historic Tales: The Romance of Reality. Vol. 11 (of 15), RomanMorris, Charles
History
Historic Tales: The Romance of Reality. Vol. 11 (of 15), Roman
Morris, Charles
Rome -- History
The cruel work which Sulla had promised immediately began. Adherents of
the popular party were slaughtered daily and hourly at Rome. Some who
had taken no part in the late war were slain. No man knew if he was
safe. Some of the senators asked that the names of the guilty should be
made known, that the innocent might be relieved from uncertainty. The
proposition hit with Sulla's humor. He ordered that a list of those
doomed to death should be made out and published. This was called a
Proscription.
But the uncertainty continued as great as ever. The list contained but
eighty names. It was quickly followed by another containing one hundred
and twenty. Day after day new lists of the doomed were issued. To make
death sure, a reward of two talents was promised any one who should kill
a proscribed man,--even if the killer were his son or his slave. Those
who in any way aided the proscribed became themselves doomed to death.
Men who envied others their property managed to have their names put on
the list. A partisan of Sulla was exulting over the doomed, when his
eye fell on his own name in the list. He hastily fled, and the
bystanders, judging the cause, followed and cut him down. Catiline, who
afterwards became notorious in Roman history, murdered his own brother,
and to legalize the murder had the name of his victim placed on the
list.
How many were murdered we do not know. Probably little less than three
thousand in Rome. The stream of murder flowed to other cities. Several
of these defied the conqueror, but were taken one by one and their
defenders slain. To all cities which had taken part with the Marians the
proscription made its way. Of the total number slain during this reign
of terror no record exists, but the deliberate butchery of Sulla went
far beyond the ferocious but temporary slaughter of Marius.
Murder was followed by confiscation. Sulla ordered that the property of
the slain should be sold at auction and the proceeds put in the
treasury. But the favorites of the dictator were the chief bidders, the
property was sold at a tithe of its value, and the unworthy and
dissolute obtained the lion's share of the spoil.
During this period of murder and confiscation we first hear the names of
a number of afterwards famous Romans. Catiline we have named. Pompey
took part in the war on Sulla's side, was victorious in Sicily and
Africa, and on his return was hailed by his chief with the title of
Pompey the Great. Another still more famous personage was Julius Caesar.
Sulla had ordered that all persons connected by marriage with the
Marian party should divorce their wives. Pompey obeyed. Caesar, who was a
nephew of Marius and had married the daughter of Cinna, boldly refused.
He was then a youth of nineteen. His boldness would have brought him
death had not powerful friends asked for his life.
"You know not what you ask," said Sulla; "that profligate boy will be
more dangerous than many Mariuses."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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