RETURN OF SULLA.--_Sulla_ refused to do any thing against his adversaries at home, or for the help of the fugitive nobles who appealed to him, until the cause of the country was secure abroad. He captured _Athens_ in 86, defeated _Archelaus_, the general of _Mithridates_, in a great battle at _Chaeronea_; and, by this and subsequent victories, he forced _Mithridates_ to conclude peace, who agreed to evacuate the Roman province of Asia, to restore all his conquests, surrender eighty ships of war, and pay three thousand talents (84). _Sulla's_ hands were now free. In 83 he landed at _Brundisium_. He was joined by _Cneius Pompeius_, then twenty-three years old, with a troop of volunteers. _Sulla_ did not wish to fight the Italians. He issued a proclamation, therefore, giving them the assurance that their rights would not be impaired. This pledge had the desired effect. The army of the _Consuls_ largely outnumbered his own. _Sulla_ lingered in South Italy to make good his position there. The _Samnites_ joined the _Marians_, and moved upon Rome with the intent to destroy it. They were defeated before they could enter the city. The _Marians_ in Spain were defeated afterwards, as were the same party in _Sicily_ and _Africa_ by _Pompeius_. CRUELTY OF SULLA.--The cruelty of Sulla, after his victory, was more direful than Rome had ever witnessed. It appeared to spring from no heat of passion, but was cold and shameless. After a few days, there was a massacre of four thousand prisoners in the _Circus_. Their shrieks and groans were heard in the neighboring Temple of _Bellona_, where Sulla was in consultation with the Senate. Many thousands--not far from three thousand in Rome alone--were proscribed and murdered, and the property of all on these lists of the condemned was confiscated. THE LAWS OF SULLA.--In his character as _Dictator_, _Sulla_ remade the constitution, striking out the popular elements to a great extent, and concentrating authority in the _Senate_. The _Tribunes_ were stripped of most of their power. The _Senate_ alone could propose laws. In the Senate, the places in the juries were given back (p. 154). Besides these and other like changes, the right of suffrage was bestowed on ten thousand emancipated slaves; while _Italians_ and others, who had been on the Marian side, were deprived of it. In the year 80 B.C., _Sulla_ caused himself to be elected _Consul_. The next year he retired from office to his country estate, and gave himself up to amusements and sensual pleasure. A part of his time--for he was not without a taste for literature--he devoted to the writing of his memoirs, which, however, have not come down to us. He died in 78. CHAPTER II. POMPEIUS AND THE EAST: TO THE DEATH OF CRASSUS (78-53 B.C.).