t is related that a citizen who was unaccustomed
to politics glanced in passing at the list of proscriptions and saw
his own name inscribed at the top of the list. "Alas!" he cried, "my
Alban house has been the death of me!" Sulla is said to have
proscribed 1800[142] knights.

After having removed his enemies, he endeavored to organize a
government in which all power should be in the hands of the Senate. He
had himself named Dictator, an old title once given to generals in
moments of danger and which conferred absolute power. Sulla used the
office to make laws which changed the entire constitution. From that
time all the judges were to be taken from the Senate, no law could be
discussed before it had been accepted by the Senate, the right of
proposing laws was taken from the tribunes of the plebs.

After these reforms Sulla abdicated his functions and retired to
private life (79). He knew he had nothing to fear, for he had
established 100,000 of his soldiers in Italy.

=Pompey and Caesar.=--The Senate had recovered its power because Sulla
saw fit to give it this, but it had not the strength to retain it if a
general wished again to seize it. The government of the Senate
endured, however, in appearance for more than thirty years; this was
because there were several generals and each prevented a rival from
gaining all power.

At the death of Sulla four armies took the field: two obeyed the
generals who were partisans of the Senate, Crassus and Pompey; two
followed generals who were adversaries of the Senate, Lepidus in
Italy, and Sertorius in Spain. It is very remarkable that no one of
these armies was regular, no one of the generals was a magistrate and
therefore had the right to command troops; down to this time the
generals had been consuls, but now they were individuals--private
persons; their soldiers came to them not to serve the interests of the
state, but to profit at the expense of the inhabitants.

The armies of the enemies of the Senate were destroyed, and Crassus
and Pompey, left alone, joined issues to control affairs. They had
themselves elected consuls and Pompey received the conduct of two
wars. He went to Asia with a devoted army and was for several years
the master of Rome; but as he was more the possessor of offices than
of power, he changed nothing in the government. It was during this
time that Caesar, a young noble, made himself popular. Pompey,
Crassus, and Caesar united to divide the power be