the present scene recalling dreadful
memories. That he had been a friend to his friends they could not but
admit; but to the rest, even when dead, he was still terrible. The
body was exhibited before the rostra, and the greatest orator of the
time spoke the funeral oration; for Faustus, Sulla's son, was too
young to do so. Then some strong senators took up the litter on their
shoulders and bore it to the Campus Martius, where kings only were
wont to be buried. There it was placed on the funeral pyre; and the
knights and all the army circled round it in solemn procession. And
that was Sulla's ending.'

To the student of history the story of such a funeral seems like
the prostration of a nation of barbarians before the car of some
demon-god. If the strong personality of the man--with all that
dauntless bravery, that unerring sagacity, that trenchant
tongue--still after two thousand years fascinates attention, if we are
forced to own that for sheer power of will and intellect he stands in
the very foremost rank of men, yet we feel also that in the case of
such superhuman wickedness tyrannicide would, if it ever could, cease
to be a crime.

* * * * *

CHAPTER XV.

SULLA'S REACTIONARY MEASURES.

It is difficult to say about part of the legislation of this period
whether it was directly due to Sulla or not, just as some of the
changes in the army may or may not have been due to Marius, but were
certainly made about his time. The method of gathering together all
the changes made within certain dates, attributing them to one man,
and basing an estimate of his character on them, has a simplicity
about it which enables the writer to be graphic and spares the reader
trouble, but is an unsatisfactory way of presenting history. Enough,
however, is known of Sulla's own measures to make their general
tendency perfectly plain. [Sidenote: Main object of Sulla's laws.] His
main object was to restore the authority of the Senate, and to do more
than restore it, to give it such power as might, if it was true to
itself, secure it from mob-rule on the one hand and tyranny on the
other. Though he foresaw that his efforts would be futile, he was none
the less energetic in making them, and may reasonably have hoped that
they would at all events last his time, and enable him to enjoy
himself in Campania, undisturbed by another revolution. Our
acquaintance with his laws is only second-hand, for none