[Footnote 116: Publius Sulpicius Rufus was tribune B.C. 88 in the first consulship of Sulla. Cicero had heard many of the speeches of Sulpicius. "He was," says Cicero, "of all the orators that ever I heard, the most dignified, and if one may use the expression, the most tragic: his voice was powerful, sweet, and clear; his gesture and every movement graceful; and yet he seemed as if he were trained for the Forum and not for the stage; his language was rapid and flowery, and yet not redundant or diffuse." (Brutus, c. 55.) Yet this great orator was no writer, and Cicero had heard him say that he was not accustomed to write and could not write. The fact of his inability to write is sufficiently explained by the fact that he did not try. Cicero has made Sulpicius one of the speakers in his Book on the Orator, where (iii. 3) he admits that he was a rash man. (See _Penny Cyclopædia_, "P. Sulpicius Rufus," by the author of this note; and as to his end, see Sulla, c. 10.)] [Footnote 117: Baiæ on the north side of the Bay of Naples, and near Puteoli (Pozzuoli), was a favourite residence of the wealthy Romans, who came for pleasure and to use the warm baths. The promontory of Misenum is near Baiæ.] [Footnote 118: Plutarch means drachmæ. (See Tiberius Gracchus, c. 2.)] [Footnote 119: The history of this affair is given somewhat more clearly by Appian (_Civil Wars_, i. 55). Marius gave the Italians who had lately obtained the franchise, hopes that they would be distributed among the other tribes, and thus they would have a preponderance, for they were more numerous than the old citizens. Sulpicius accordingly proposed a law to this effect, which was followed by a great disturbance, upon which the consuls Pompeius and Sulla proclaimed a Justitium such as was usual on festivals. A Justitium signifies a stopping of all legal proceedings: during a Justitium nothing could be done; and the consuls adopted this measure to prevent the proposed law of Sulpicius from being carried. Appian says that Sulpicius carried this law, and the tribes in which the new citizens now had the majority appointed Marius to the command in the war against Mithridates. But Sulla and Pompeius afterwards got all the laws of Sulpicius repealed on the ground of being earned by unconstitutional means. (Appian, _Civil Wars_, i. 59).]