t
there is no such disease. Others say that he broke a blood-vessel when
in a rage. He is described as having blue eyes, and a pale face so
blotched over that it was likened to a mulberry sprinkled with meal.

[Sidenote: Rivalry of Lepidus and Pompeius.] His death, 78 B.C., was
the signal for that break-up of his political institutions to which
he had wilfully shut his eyes. The great men at Rome began to wrangle
over his very body before it was cold. Lepidus, whom Pompeius, against
Sulla's wishes, had helped to the consulship, opposed a public
funeral. The other consul supported it. Sulla had with his usual
shrewdness divined the character of Lepidus, and told Pompeius that he
was only making a rival powerful. Pompeius opposed Lepidus now, for he
knew that the partisans of Sulla would insist on doing honour to his
memory. [Sidenote: Funeral of Sulla.] Appian describes the funeral at
length. 'The body was borne on a litter, adorned with gold and other
royal array, amid the flourish of trumpets, and with an escort of
cavalry. After them followed a concourse of armed men, his old
soldiers, who had thronged from all parts and fell in with the
procession as each came up. Besides these there was as vast a crowd of
other men as was ever seen at any funeral. In front were carried the
axes and the other symbols of office which had belonged to him as
dictator. But it was not till the procession reached Rome that the
full splendour of the ceremonial was seen. More than 2,000 crowns of
gold were borne in front, gifts from towns, from his old comrades in
arms, and his personal friends. In every other respect, too, the pomp
and circumstance of the funeral was past description. In awe of the
veterans all the priests of all the sacred fraternities were there in
full robes, with the Vestal Virgins, and all the senators, and all
the magistrates, each in his garb of office. Next, in array that
contrasted with theirs, came the knights of Rome in column; then all
the men whom Sulla had commanded in his wars, and who had vied
with each other in hastening there, carrying gilded standards
and silver-plated shields. There was also a countless host of
flute-players, making now most tender, now most wailing music. A cry
of benediction, raised by the senators, was taken up by the knights
and the soldiers, and re-echoed by the people, for some mourned his
loss in reality, and others feared the soldiers and dreaded him
in death as much as in life,