The deity gave him
sure prognostics of success; for upon his sacrificing immediately on
landing in Italy near Tarentum, the liver of the animal was found to
have on it the figure of a crown[268] of bay with two ribands attached
to it. A short time also before he crossed the sea, two large he-goats
were seen in Campania near Mount Hephaeus, in the daytime, fighting,
and in all respects acting like men engaged in a contest. But it was
only a vision, and it gradually rose up from the ground and dispersed
in the air in various directions like dark phantoms, and finally
disappeared. No long time after, in this very spot, when the younger
Marius and the consul Norbanus[269] came upon him at the head of a
large force, Sulla, without having time to form his battle or to
dispose his companies, but merely availing himself of the spirit that
animated all his men, and their impetuous courage, put to flight his
opponents, and shut Norbanus up in Capua with the loss of seven
thousand of his soldiers. It was this success, as some say, which
prevented his soldiers from dispersing to their several cities, and
encouraged them to stay with Sulla and to despise their opponents,
though many times more numerous than themselves. At Silvium,[270] as
Sulla says, a slave of one Pontius, moved by a divine impulse, met him
and declared that he brought from Bellona assurance of superiority in
war and victory, but that if he did not make haste the Capitol would
be burnt; and this is said to have happened on the very day which the
man foretold, being the day before the Nones of Quintilis, which we
now call July. Further, Marcus Lucullus, one of Sulla's commanders,
was opposed at Fidentia[271] with sixteen cohorts to fifty of the
enemy, and though he had confidence in the spirit of his men, he was
discouraged because a greater part of them were unarmed. While he was
considering and hesitating what to do, a gentle breeze blowing from
the adjoining plain, which was covered with grass, carried many of the
flowers to the army of Lucullus, and spontaneously strewed them about,
so that they rested and fell on the men's shields and helmets, which
seemed to their opponents to be crowned with chaplets. Thus
encouraged, the soldiers of Lucullus engaged, and gained a victory,
with the loss to the opposite party of eighteen thousand men and their
camp. This Lucullus was the brother of the Lucullus who afterwards
defeated Mithridates and Tigranes.

XXVIII. Sulla,