ns. The ten thousand Cornelii at
Rome and his veterans stationed throughout Italy, as well as the whole
strength of the aristocratical party, secured him against all danger.
Even in his retirement his will was law, and shortly before his death he
ordered his slaves to strangle a magistrate of one of the towns in Italy
because he was a public defaulter.

After resigning his Dictatorship, Sulla retired to his estate at
Puteoli, and there, surrounded by the beauties of nature and art, he
passed the remainder of his life in those literary and sensual
enjoyments in which he had always taken so much pleasure. He died in
B.C. 78, in the sixtieth year of his age. The immediate cause of his
death was the rupture of a blood-vessel, but some time before he had
been suffering from the disgusting disease which is known in modern
times by the name of Morbus Pediculosus. The Senate, faithful to the
last, resolved to give him the honor of a public funeral. This was,
however, opposed by the Consul Lepidus, who had resolved to attempt the
repeal of Sulla's laws; but the Dictator's power continued unshaken
even after his death. The veterans were summoned from their colonies,
and Q. Catulus, L. Lucullus, and Cn. Pompey placed themselves at their
head. Lepidus was obliged to give way, and allowed the funeral to take
place without interruption. It was a gorgeous pageant. The Magistrates,
the Senate, the Equites, the Priests, and the Vestal virgins, as well as
the veterans, accompanied the funeral procession to the Campus Martius,
where the corpse was burnt according to the wish of Sulla himself, who
feared that his enemies might insult his remains, as he had done those
of Marius, which had been taken out of the grave and thrown into the
Anio at his command. It had been previously the custom of the Cornelia
gens to bury and not burn their dead. A monument was erected to Sulla in
the Campus Martius, the inscription on which he is said to have composed
himself. It stated that none of his friends ever did him a kindness, and
none of his enemies a wrong, without being fully repaid.

* * * * *

All the reforms of Sulla were effected by means of _Leges_, which were
proposed by him in the Comitia Centuriata, and bore the general name of
_Leges Corneliae_. They may be divided into four classes: laws relating
to the constitution, to the ecclesiastical corporations, to the
administration of justice, and to the improveme