power,
and after, as Appian observes, having caused the death of more than
one hundred thousand men in his Italian wars, besides ninety senators,
fifteen consuls, and two thousand six hundred equites, not to mention
those who were banished and whose property was confiscated, and the
many Italian cities whose fortifications he had destroyed and whose
lands and privileges he had taken away. Sulla's character was a
compound of arrogance, self-confidence, and contempt of all mankind,
which have seldom been united. But his ruling character was love of
sensual pleasures. He was weary of his life of turmoil, and he
returned to his property in the neighbourhood of Cumae on the pleasant
shore of Campania, where he spent his time on the sea, in fishing, and
in sensual enjoyments. But he had nothing to fear; there were in Italy
one hundred and twenty thousand men who had served under him, to whom
he had given money and land; there was a great number of persons at
Rome who had shared in his cruelties and the profits of them, and
whose safely consisted in maintaining the safety of their leader.
Besides this, he had manumitted above ten thousand vigorous men, once
the slaves of masters who had been murdered by his orders, and made
them Roman citizens under the name of Cornelii. These men were always
in readiness to execute his orders. With these precautions, this
blood-stained man retired to enjoy the sensual gratifications that he
had indulged in from his youth upwards, glorying in his happy fortune
and despising all mankind. No attempt to assassinate him is recorded,
nor any apprehension of his on that score. He lived and died Sulla the
Fortunate.]

[Footnote 295: M. AEmilius Lepidus and Q. Lutatius Catulus were consuls
B.C. 78, the year of Sulla's death. Lepidus attempted to overthrow
Sulla's constitution after Sulla's death. He was driven from Rome by
Q. Catulus and Cn. Pompeius Magnus, and died B.C. 77 in Sardinia. This
Lepidus was the father of M. Lepidus the associate of Caesar Octavianus
and M. Antonius in the triumvirate. (See the Life of M. Antonius.)

Catulus was the son of Lutatius Catulus who was once the colleague of
C. Marius in the consulship. He has received great praise from Cicero.
Sallustius calls him a defender of the aristocratical party, and C.
Licinius Macer, as quoted by Sallustius in his History, says that he
was more cruel than Sulla. We cannot trust Cicero's unqualified praise
of this aristocrat nor the