la, he dispersed them by ordering the archers to fire on them. At
last being persuaded with great difficulty, he sent two or three of
his boon companions to treat of peace; but instead of making any
reasonable proposals, the men began to make a pompous harangue about
Theseus and Eumolpus, and the Persian wars, on which Sulla said, "Be
gone, my good fellows, with your fine talk. I was not sent to Athens
by the Romans to learn a lesson, but to compel rebels to submit."

XIV. In the mean time, as the story goes, some soldiers in the
Keramicus[219] overheard certain old men talking to one another, and
abusing the tyrant for not guarding the approach to the wall about the
Heptachalkum, which was the only part, they said, where it was
practicable and easy for the enemy to get over; and the soldiers
reported to Sulla what they heard. Sulla did not neglect the
intelligence, but he went to the spot by night, and seeing that it was
practicable, he set about the thing forthwith. He says in his Memoirs
that the first man who mounted the wall was Marcus Teius,[220] who,
finding a soldier in his way, struck him a violent blow on the helmet,
which broke his sword; still Marcus did not retreat, but kept his
ground. The city then was taken from this quarter, as the old
Athenians said it might be. Sulla having destroyed and levelled that
part of the wall which lies between the Peiraeic and the Sacred[221]
Gate, about midnight entered the city, striking terror with the sound
of trumpets and horns, and the shouts and cries of the soldiers, who
had his full licence to plunder and kill, and made their way through
the streets with naked swords. The slain were not counted, but the
number is even now measured by the space over which the blood flowed.
For besides those who were slaughtered in the other parts of the city,
the blood of those who fell about the Agora[222] covered all the
Keramicus within Dipylum: many say that it even flowed through the
gates and deluged the suburbs. But though the number of those who
perished by the sword was so great, as many killed themselves for
sorrow and regret at the overthrow of their native city. For all the
most honest citizens were driven to despair, expecting in Sulla
neither humanity nor moderation. But, however, when Meidias and
Kalliphon, who were exiles, fell down at his knees with entreaties,
and the Senators who were in his army urged him to save the city,
being now sated with vengeance and passin