here they became citizens; but it happened that by flying
from misfortune at home they came in for a share of the misfortunes of
others. Lucullus, however, clothed all of them who survived the
capture of the city, and, after giving each two hundred drachmae
besides, he sent them back to their home. On this occasion,
Tyrannio[380] the grammarian was taken prisoner. Murena asked him for
himself, and on getting Tyrannio set him free, wherein he made an
illiberal use of the favour that he had received; for Lucullus did not
think it fitting that a man who was esteemed for his learning should
be made a slave first and then a freedman; for the giving him an
apparent freedom was equivalent to the depriving him of his real
freedom. But it was not in this instance only that Murena showed
himself far inferior to his general in honourable feeling and conduct.

XX. Lucullus now turned to the cities of Asia, in order that while he
had leisure from military operations he might pay some attention to
justice and the law, which the province had now felt the want of for a
long time, and the people had endured unspeakable and incredible
calamities, being plundered and reduced to slavery by the Publicani
and the money-lenders, so that individuals were compelled to sell
their handsome sons and virgin daughters, and the cities to sell their
sacred offerings, pictures and statues. The lot of the citizens was at
last to be condemned to slavery themselves, but the sufferings which
preceded were still worse--the fixing of ropes and barriers,[381] and
horses, and standing under the open sky, during the heat in the sun,
and during the cold when they were forced into the mud or the ice; so
that slavery was considered a relief from the burden of debt, and a
blessing. Such evils as these Lucullus discovered in the cities, and
in a short time he relieved the sufferers from all of them. In the
first place, he declared that the rate of interest should be reckoned
at the hundredth part,[382] and no more; in the second, he cut off all
the interest which exceeded the capital; thirdly, what was most
important of all, he declared that the lender should receive the
fourth part of the income of the debtor; but any lender who had tacked
the interest to the principal was deprived of the whole: thus, in less
than four years all the debts were paid, and their property was given
back to them free from all encumbrance. Now the common debt originated
in the twenty tho