to try the springs of
Aedepsus. [Sidenote: Story of Sulla and some fishermen.] One day,
says Plutarch, while he was walking on the shore there some fishermen
brought him some fine fish. He was much pleased, but when they told
him that they were citizens of Halae, a town which he had destroyed
after the battle of Orchomenos, he said in his grim way, 'What! is
there a man of Halae still alive?' But then he told the men to take
heart, for the fish had pleaded eloquently for them. From Euboea he
crossed to the mainland to rejoin his troops. They were about 40,000
in number, and more than 200,000 men were, he said, in arms against
him in Italy. [Sidenote: Devotion of Sulla's troops to him.] But
Sulla, who had connived at their mutinies, their vices, and their
breaches of discipline, who had always led them to victory, and
had never yet thrown aside that mask of moderation which veiled an
inflexible determination to be revenged--Sulla who had been so long
the sole representative of authority, and to whom they had learned to
look for their ultimate reward, was their hero and hope. They offered
him their money, and of their own accord swore not to disperse or to
ravage the country. Sulla refused their money. Indeed he must have had
plenty of his own. But now, when slowly and still very cautiously he
was unfolding his designs, such devotion must have been very welcome.

[Sidenote: Sulla lands at Brundisium, B.C. 83.] Early in 83 he sailed
from Dyrrhachium to Brundisium, and was at once received by the town.
He was particularly anxious not to rouse against himself the Italians,
with whom his name was anything but popular, and he solemnly swore to
respect their lately-acquired rights. Adherents soon flocked to him.
[Sidenote: He is joined by Crassus;] Marcus Licinius Crassus came from
Africa, and was sent to raise troops among the Marsi. He asked for an
escort, for he had to go through territory occupied by the enemy. 'I
give thee,' said Sulla hotly, 'thy father, thy brother, thy friends
and thy kinsmen, who were cut off by violence and lawlessness, and
whose murderers I am now hunting down.' [Sidenote: by Metellus Pius;]
Quintus Metellus Pius came from Liguria, whither he had escaped from
Africa, after holding out there against the Marians as long as he
could. [Sidenote: by Ofella;] Quintus Lucretius Ofella also came, soon
to find to his cost that he had chosen a master who could as readily
forget as accept timely service. [Siden