d
with the sufferings of others, happened to come to the Forum and there
he read the names of the proscribed. Finding his own name among them,
he exclaimed, Alas! wretch that I am; 'tis my farm at Alba that is my
persecutor. He had not gone far before he was murdered by some one who
was in search of him.

XXXII. In the mean time Marius killed himself to avoid being taken.
Sulla now went to Praeneste,[285] and he began by examining the case of
each individual before he punished him; but having no time for this
inquiry, he had all the people brought to one spot, to the number of
twelve thousand, and ordered them to be massacred, with the exception
of one man, an old friend of his, whom he offered to pardon. But the
man nobly declared he would never owe his safety to the destroyer of
his country, and mingling with the rest of the citizens he was cut
down together with them. The affair of Lucius Catilina[286] was
perhaps the most monstrous of all. Lucius had murdered his brother
before the termination of the war, and he asked Sulla to proscribe him
among the rest as if he were still alive; which was done. To show his
gratitude, Catilina killed one Marcus Marius,[287] who belonged to the
opposite faction, and after bringing his head to Sulla, who was then
sitting in the Forum, he went to the temple of Apollo, which was close
by, and washed his hands in the sacred font.[288]

XXXIII. Besides the massacres, there were other things to cause
dissatisfaction. Sulla had himself proclaimed Dictator,[289] and thus
revived this office after an interval of one hundred and twenty years.
An act of indemnity was also passed for all that he had done; for the
future it was enacted that he should have power of life and death, and
should confiscate property, distribute lands, found colonies, destroy
them, take away kingdoms and give them to whom he pleased. The sales
of confiscated property were conducted by him from his tribunal in
such an arrogant and tyrannical manner, that his mode of dealing with
the produce of the sales was more intolerable than the seizure of the
property: he gave away to handsome women, players on the lyre, mimi
and worthless libertini, the lands of whole nations and the revenues
of cities; to some men he gave wives, who were compelled to marry
against their will. Wishing to form an alliance with Pompeius Magnus,
he made him put away his wife; and he took AEmilia, who was the
daughter of Scaurus and of his own wife