At first the Romans began to give way before the fierce attack of the king’s troops. But Sulla saw the danger, and leaping from his horse he seized a standard and rushed into the thick of the fight, shouting: ‘To me, O Romans, it will be glorious to fall here. As for you, when they ask you where you betrayed your general, remember to say at Orchomenus.’
Stung by their general’s words his men rallied, and after a desperate struggle the battle was won, and the power of Mithridates broken.
In 84 B.C. the king was forced to make terms with the Romans, while those cities which had fought by his side had to pay enormous sums of money to Sulla.
The victorious general was now anxious to go back to Rome, to punish those who had declared him a public enemy. So, in the spring of 83 B.C., he set out for Italy with his army.
CHAPTER XCVIII
SULLA SAVES ROME FROM THE SAMNITES
Sulla returned to Italy three years after the death of Marius. During that time the popular party had been in power. But now it feared that its reign was nearly at an end, for Sulla was in Italy, and was coming to Rome, and coming not alone, but with his army.
Carbo was the leader of Sulla’s enemies. He had gathered together a large army, but it was scattered over Italy, under his lieutenants. Pompey, who was soon to be known as Pompey the Great, was fighting for Sulla, and he, with three legions, kept Carbo’s forces from uniting. This made Sulla’s victory the easier.
But while Romans fought with Romans, a new danger threatened the city. An army of Samnites, under a leader named Pontius, slipped past both the army of Sulla and the scattered troops of Carbo, and marched straight toward Rome.
The citizens were in despair. They remembered the Samnites who long ago had entrapped their army at the pass of the Caudine Forks, and their leader Pontius, who had made Roman officers and soldiers pass beneath the yoke, and they trembled. What if the enemy proved as powerful as of old?
Private quarrels were forgotten, while all those of military age in the city armed for her defence.
In their walls the people had no confidence, for here and there they were broken down and unfit to stand a siege.
So out of the city to meet the terrible foe marched the valiant band of Romans, only to find the enemy too strong for it.
When it was known in the city that the army so hastily enrolled had been defeated, the despair was profound. Women ran about the streets crying aloud to their gods and shrieking in terror. At any moment, they believed, the Samnites might enter their city.
Then, just when hope of relief was faintest, a large company of cavalry was seen approaching the gates. It was the vanguard of Sulla’s army, and he himself was close behind with the main body of his troops.
For the time a feeling of immense relief was felt in the city. At least the Samnites would not enter Rome now unopposed.
Sulla’s officers begged him to allow his troops to rest before attacking the enemy. But he refused, ordering the trumpets at once to sound for battle.
Crassus commanded Sulla’s right wing, and, unknown to the general, beat the enemy. The left wing of the Romans was all but repulsed, when Sulla rode to its help, mounted on a swift white steed.
He was recognised by the Samnites, and two of them prepared to fling their darts at the great Roman general. They thought that if he were slain the battle would soon be at an end.
But Sulla’s servant saw his master’s danger, and gave his steed a touch that made him start suddenly forward. The darts fell harmless to the ground close to the horse’s tail, so that the servant had just succeeded in saving his master’s life.
Darkness fell, and the battle was still undecided. But during the night messengers from Crassus stole into Sulla’s camp for provisions, and the general heard that the enemy had been driven to Antemnæ, three miles away, and that Pontius, the Samnite leader, had been slain. He at once resolved to join Crassus. In the morning the Samnites were surprised to find a large army ready to attack them. But their leader was dead, so they were afraid to fight, and three thousand offered to submit to Sulla.
The general promised these their lives on one condition—that they should attack their own comrades. This the Samnites actually agreed to do, and a large number were killed in the unnatural struggle.
Six thousand who survived were taken to Rome, and by Sulla’s orders cut to pieces. The cruelty of the Roman commander seemed to increase the nearer he drew to Rome.
CHAPTER XCIX
THE PROSCRIPTIONS OF SULLA
After his victory over the Samnites, Sulla met the Senate in the temple of Bellona, without the walls of the city.
Ominous thoughts stole into the minds of the senators and distracted them, as the general’s speech was suddenly interrupted by terrible shrieks as of those in agony.
Sulla alone remained undisturbed. But seeing that the senators were not listening to his speech, he sternly bade them ‘not to busy themselves with what was doing out of doors.’
The cries were those of the six thousand Samnite prisoners, who were being ruthlessly slain by Sulla’s orders.
At this time, too, young Marius, who had fought against Sulla, killed himself rather than fall into the hands of his father’s enemy.
His head was brought to Sulla at Rome. ‘One should be rower before one takes the helm,’ said the tyrant, looking with unconcern at the hideous trophy. For he was angry that young Marius had been chosen Consul when he was only twenty-seven years of age.
The forebodings of many were now justified, for Rome became as a city of the dead. Sulla had determined to kill all who had been his enemies while he was absent in Greece.
Day after day the cruel slaughter went on. Forty senators and sixteen hundred of the citizens were condemned, and to add to the consternation among those who had escaped, there were others yet to be punished. Sulla said that he could not remember their names. The suspense in the city was terrible.
One senator, bolder than the others, said to Sulla: ‘We do not ask you to pardon any whom you have resolved to destroy, but to free from doubt those whom you are pleased to spare.’
‘I know not as yet whom I will spare,’ grimly answered the general.
‘Why, then,’ persisted the senator, ‘tell us whom you will punish.’
Sulla promised to do this, and henceforth lists of those who were doomed were hung up in the Forum. These lists were called the ‘Proscriptions of Sulla.’
In the first list eighty persons were proscribed, and for a moment Rome dreamed that there would be no more dread uncertainty, that the end of the death sentences had at least come in sight.
But the horror in the city was but heightened by the proscriptions, when the first list was followed by another, and yet another.
Moreover, an edict was published, saying that if any one dared to give shelter or food to a proscribed person he would be punished with death. While, if any one killed a person whose name was on the list of the condemned, he would be rewarded. The property of those who perished was forfeited, and in this way Sulla and his friends soon grew rich. These cruel proscriptions remain for ever a blot on Sulla’s fame.
For one hundred and twenty years there had been no Dictator. But now Sulla determined to become the ruler of Rome under that name.
In other times a Dictator was elected only for six months, but Sulla had no intention of abdicating in so short a time. He meant to remain Dictator as long as he wished.
The tyrant was of course elected, for no one dared to resist his will. He took the title toward the end of 82 B.C., and held it for about three years.
But there was one man in Rome whose influence was fast increasing, and he was not afraid of Sulla. This was Pompey.