pecting the signs,
stretched out his hands to Sulla and urged him to put him in chains
and keep him a prisoner till the battle took place, declaring that if
everything did not speedily turn out well, he was ready to be put to
death. It is said also that Sulla in his sleep had a vision of the
goddess, whose worship the Romans had learned from the Cappadocians,
whatever her name may be, Selene,[196] Athena, or Enyo. Sulla dreamed
that the goddess stood by him and put a thunderbolt into his hand, and
as she named each of his enemies bade him dart the bolt at them, which
he did, and his enemies were struck to the ground and destroyed. Being
encouraged by the dream, which he communicated to his colleague, at
daybreak Sulla led his forces against Rome. When he was near
Picinae[197] he was met by a deputation which entreated him not to
march forthwith against the city, for all justice would be done
pursuant to a resolution of the Senate. Sulla consented to encamp
there, and ordered the officers to measure out the ground for the
encampment, according to the usual practice, and the deputation went
away trusting to his promise. But as soon as they were gone, Sulla
sent Lucius Bacillus and Caius Mummius, who seized the gate and that
part of the walls which surrounds the Esquiline hill, and Sulla set
out to join them with all speed. Bacillus and his soldiers broke into
the city and attempted to gain possession of it, but the people in
large numbers, being unarmed, mounted the house-tops, and by pelting
the soldiers with tiles and stones stopped their further progress, and
drove them back to the wall. In the mean time Sulla had come up, and
seeing how matters stood, he called out that the houses must be fired,
and taking a flaming torch, he was the first to advance: he also
ordered the bowmen to shoot firebrands, and to aim at the roofs; in
which he acted without any rational consideration, giving way to
passion, and surrendering the direction of his enterprize to revenge,
for he saw before him only his enemies, and without thought or pity
for his friends and kinsmen, would force his way into Rome with the
help of flames, which know no distinction between the guilty and the
innocent. While this was going on, Marius, who had been driven as far
as the temple of Earth,[198] invited the slaves to join him by
offering them their freedom, but being overpowered by his enemies who
pressed on him, he left the city.

X. Sulla assembled the S