enate, who condemned[199] to death Marius and
a few others, among whom was the tribune Sulpicius. Sulpicius was put
to death, being betrayed by a slave, to whom Sulla gave his freedom,
and then ordered him to be thrown down the Tarpeian rock: he set a
price on the head of Marius, which was neither a generous nor a
politic measure, as Marius had shortly before let Sulla off safe when
Sulla put himself into his power by going to the house of Marius. Now
if Marius had not let Sulla go, but had given him up to Sulpicius to
be put to death, he might have secured the supreme power; but he
spared Sulla; and yet a few days after, when Sulla had the same
opportunity, Marius did not obtain from him a like return. The conduct
of Sulla offended the Senate, though they durst not show it; but the
dislike of the people and their dissatisfaction were made apparent to
him by their acts. They contemptuously rejected Nonius, the son of
Sulla's sister, and Servius, who were candidates for offices, and
elected those whose elevation they thought would be most disagreeable
to Sulla. But Sulla pretended to be pleased at this, and to view it as
a proof that the people, by doing what they liked, were really
indebted to him for their liberty; and for the purpose of diminishing
his general unpopularity he managed the election of Lucius
Cinna,[200] who was of the opposite faction, to the consulship, having
first bound him by solemn imprecations and oaths to favour his
measures. Cinna ascended the Capitol with a stone in his hand and took
the oath; then pronouncing an imprecation on himself, that, if he did
not keep faithful to Sulla, he might be cast out of the city as the
stone from his hand, he hurled it to the ground in the presence of a
large number of persons. But as soon as Cinna had received the
consulship, he attempted to disturb the present settlement of affairs,
and prepared to institute a process against Sulla, and induced
Virginius, one of the tribunes, to be the accuser; but Sulla,[201]
without caring for him or the court, set out with his army against
Mithridates.

XI. It is said that about the time when Sulla was conducting his
armament from Italy, many omens occurred to Mithridates, who was
staying in Pergamum, and that a Victory, bearing a crown, which the
people of Pergamum were letting down upon him by some machinery from
above, was broken in pieces just as it was touching his head, and the
crown falling upon the theatre, came t