[704] “In conferring upon the peoples of Italy the right of Roman city, they had been distributed into eight tribes, in order that the strength and number of these new citizens might not encroach upon the dignity of the old ones, and that men admitted to this favour might not become more powerful than those who had given it to them. But Cinna, following in the steps of Marius and Sulpicius, announced that he should distribute them in all the tribes; and, on this promise, they arrived in crowds from all parts of Italy.” (Velleius Paterculus, II. 20.) [705] Velleius Paterculus, II. 20. [706] Plutarch, _Pompeius_, 3. [707] Plutarch, _Sertorius_, 5. [708] “Cinna counted on that great multitude of new Romans, who furnished him with more than three hundred cohorts, divided into thirty legions. To give the necessary credit and authority to his faction, he recalled the two Marii and the other exiles.” (Velleius Paterculus, II. 20.) [709] _Quod parcius telum recepisset._ This expression appears to be borrowed from the combats of gladiators, which derived their origin from similar human sacrifices performed at the funerals. (See Cicero, _Speech for Roscius Amerinus_, 12.--Valerius Maximus, IX. xi. 2.) [710] Plutarch, _Sylla_, 6. [711] Appian, _Civil Wars_, I. 77. [712] Appian, _Civil Wars_, I. 79. [713] Appian, _Civil Wars_, I. 95. [714] Velleius Paterculus, II. 27. The Samnites thus designated the Romans, in allusion to the wolf, the nurse of the founder of Rome. A Samnite medal represents the bull, the symbol of Italy, throwing the wolf to the ground. It bears the name of C. Papius Mutilus, with the title _Embratur_, [Illustration: symbols], an Oscan word corresponding to the Latin _imperator_. [715] “Thus terminated two most disastrous wars: the _Italic_, called also the _Social War_, and the _Civil War_; they had lasted together ten years; they had mown down more than a hundred and fifty thousand men, of whom twenty-four had been consuls, seven prætors, sixty ediles, and nearly two hundred senators.” (Eutropius, V. 6.) [716] “Sylla fomented these disorders by loading his troops with largesses and profusions without bounds, in order to corrupt and draw to him the soldiers of the opposite parties.” (Plutarch, _Sylla_, 16.) [717] Dio Cassius (XXXIV. cxxxvi. § 1) gives the number as 8,000; Appian as 3,000. Valerius Maximus speaks of three legions (IX. 2, § 1). [718] “A great number of allies and Latins were deprived by one man of the right of city, which had been given to them for their numerous and honourable services.” (_Speech of Lepidus_, Sallust, _Fragm._, I. 5.)--“We have seen the Roman people, at the proposal of the dictator Sylla, take, in the comitia of centuries, the right of city from several municipal towns; we have seen it also depriving them of the lands they possessed.... As to the right of city, the interdiction did not last even so long as the military despotism of the dictator.” (Cicero, _Speech for his House_, 30.)