enditure, the labour about the military engines required ten
thousand pair of mules to be daily employed on this service. As wood
began to fail, owing to many of the works being destroyed by their own
weight, and burnt by the incessant fires thrown by the enemy, Sulla
laid his hands on the several groves and levelled the trees in the
Academia,[211] which was the best wooded of the suburbs, and those in
the Lycaeum. And as he wanted money also for the war, he violated the
sacred depositaries of Greece, sending for the finest and most costly
of the offerings dedicated in Epidaurus[212] and Olympia. He wrote
also to the Amphiktyons[213] to Delphi, saying that it would be better
for the treasures of the god to be brought to him, for he would either
have them in safer keeping, or, if he used them, he would replace
them; and he sent one of his friends, Kaphis, a Phokian, to receive
all the things after they were first weighed. Kaphis went to Delphi,
but he was afraid to touch the sacred things, and in the presence of
the Amphiktyons he deeply lamented the task that was imposed on him.
Upon some of them saying that they heard the lute in the shrine send
forth a sound, Kaphis either believing what they said or wishing to
inspire Sulla with some religious fear, sent him this information. But
Sulla replied in a scoffing tone, he wondered Kaphis did not
understand that such music was a sign of pleasure and not of anger,
and he bade him take courage and seize the property, as the deity was
quite willing, and in fact offered it. Now all the things were
secretly sent off unobserved by most of the Greeks; but the silver
jar, one of the royal presents which still remained, could not be
carried away by the beasts of burden owing to its weight and size, and
the Amphiktyons were accordingly obliged to cut it in pieces; and this
led them to reflect that Titus Flamininus,[214] and Manius Acilius,
and also AEmilius Paulus--Acilius, who drove Antiochus out of Greece;
and the two others, who totally defeated the kings of Macedonia--not
only refrained from touching the Greek temples, but even gave them
presents and showed them great honour and respect. These generals,
however, were legally appointed to command troops consisting of
well-disciplined soldiers, who had been taught to obey their leaders
without a murmur: and the commanders themselves were men of kingly
souls, and moderate in their living and satisfied with a small fixed
expenditure,