g of smiles,
and, finally, treaties and arrangements about marriage, all which on
her part perhaps deserved no censure; but as to Sulla, however chaste
and reputable the woman might be that he married, it was no reputable
or decent matter that induced him to it, for he was caught like a
young man by mere looks and wanton airs, the nature of which is to
excite the most depraved and impure feelings.

XXXVI. Though Sulla married Valeria he still associated with actresses
and female lute-players and dancers, spending his time with them on
beds, and drinking from an early hour of the day. These were the names
of the persons who at this time enjoyed most of his
favour:--Roscius[299] the comedian, Sorix the chief mimus, and
Metrobius who played women's parts[300] in men's dress, and to whom,
though Metrobius was now growing old, Sulla all along continued
strongly attached, and never attempted to conceal it. By this mode of
life he aggravated his disease, which was slight in its origin, and
for some time he was not aware that all his viscera were full of
diseased matter. The flesh, being corrupted by the disease, was
changed into vermin,[301] and though many persons were engaged day
and night in taking the vermin away, what was got rid of was nothing
compared with what came, for all his clothes, and the bath and the
water, and his food, were filled with the matter that flowed from him,
and with the vermin; such was the violence of the disorder. Though he
went into the water several times a day and drenched his body and
cleansed it from filth, it was of no avail, for the disease went on
too quickly, and the quantity of vermin defied all attempts to clear
it away. Among those in very remote times who are said to have died of
the lousy disease was Akastus the son of Pelias; and in more recent
times, Alkman the lyric poet, Pherekydes the theologian, Kallisthenes
of Olynthus, while he was in prison, and Mucius the lawyer. And if one
may mention those who have got a name, not for any good that they did,
but in other ways, Eunus the runaway slave, who began the Servile war
in Sicily, is said to have died of this disease, after he was captured
and carried to Rome.

XXXVII. Sulla foresaw his end, and even in a manner wrote about it,
for he finished the twenty-second book of his Memoirs only two days
before his death. He there says, that the Chaldaeans foretold him that
it was his fate to die, after a happy life, at the very height of