rmous sums (more than one
hundred million dollars in our money) from the rich cities of the East.
Then, after giving his soldiers a winter's rest in Asia, he turned his
face towards Rome, writing to the senate that he was coming, and that he
intended to take revenge on his enemies.

It was now the year 83 B.C. Three years had passed since the death of
Marius. During the interval the party of the plebeians had been at the
head of affairs. Now Sulla, the aristocrat, was coming to call them to a
stern account, and they trembled in anticipation. They remembered
vividly the Marian carnival of blood. What retribution would his
merciless rival exact?

Cinna, who had most to fear, proposed to meet the conqueror in the
field. But his soldiers were not in the mood to fight, and settled the
question by murdering their commander. When spring was well advanced,
Sulla left Asia, and in sixteen hundred ships transported his men to
Italy, landing at the port of Brundusium.

On the 6th of July, shortly after his landing, an event occurred that
threw all Rome into consternation. The venerable buildings of the
Capitol took fire and were burned to the ground, the cherished Sibylline
books perishing in the flames. Such a disaster seemed to many Romans a
fatal prognostic. The gods were surely against them, and all things were
at risk.

Onward marched Sulla, opposed by a much greater army collected by his
opponents. But he led the veterans of the Mithridatic War, and in the
ranks of his opponents no man of equal ability appeared. Battle after
battle was fought, Sulla steadily advancing. At length an army of
Samnites, raised to defend the Marian cause, marched on Rome. Caius
Pontius, their commander, was bent on terribly avenging the sufferings
of his people on that great city.

"Rome's last day," he said to his soldiers, "is come. The city must be
annihilated. The wolves that have so long preyed upon Italy will never
cease from troubling till their lair is utterly destroyed."

Rome was in despair, for all seemed at an end. The Samnites had not
forgotten a former Pontius, who had sent a Roman army under the Caudine
Forks, and had been cruelly murdered in the Capitol They thundered on
the Colline Gate. But at that critical moment a large body of cavalry
appeared and charged the foe. It was the vanguard of Sulla's army,
marching in haste to the relief of Rome.

A fierce battle ensued. Sulla fought gallantly. He rode a white horse,
and w