FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   1355   1356   1357   1358   1359   1360   1361   1362   1363   1364   1365   1366   1367   1368   1369   1370   1371   1372   1373   1374   1375   1376   1377   1378   1379  
1380   1381   1382   1383   1384   1385   1386   1387   1388   1389   1390   1391   1392   1393   1394   1395   1396   1397   1398   1399   1400   1401   1402   1403   1404   >>   >|  
rs there survived only Gaius Norbanus, who laid hands on himself at Rhodes, while the -ecclesia- was deliberating on his surrender; Lucius Scipio, for whom his insignificance and probably also his noble birth procured indulgence and permission to end his days in peace at his retreat in Massilia; and Quintus Sertorius, who was wandering about as an exile on the coast of Mauretania. But yet the heads of slaughtered senators were piled up at the Servilian Basin, at the point where the -Vicus Jugarius- opened into the Forum, where the dictator had ordered them to be publicly exposed; and among men of the second and third rank in particular death reaped a fearful harvest. In addition to those who were placed on the list for their services in or on behalf of the revolutionary army with little discrimination, sometimes on account of money advanced to one of its officers or on account of relations of hospitality formed with such an one, the retaliation fell specially on those capitalists who had sat in judgment on the senators and had speculated in Marian confiscations--the "hoarders"; about 1600 of the equites, as they were called,(6) were inscribed on the proscription- list. In like manner the professional accusers, the worst scourge of the nobility, who made it their trade to bring men of the senatorial order before the equestrian courts, had now to suffer for it--"how comes it to pass," an advocate soon after asked, "that they have left to us the courts, when they were putting to death the accusers and judges?" The most savage and disgraceful passions raged without restraint for many months throughout Italy. In the capital a Celtic band was primarily charged with the executions, and Sullan soldiers and subaltern officers traversed for the same purpose the different districts of Italy; but every volunteer was also welcome, and the rabble high and low pressed forward not only to earn the rewards of murder, but also to gratify their own vindictive or covetous dispositions under the mantle of political prosecution. It sometimes happened that the assassination did not follow, but preceded, the placing of the name on the list of the proscribed. One example shows the way in which these executions took place. At Larinum, a town of new burgesses and favourable to Marian views, one Statius Albius Oppianicus, who had fled to Sulla's headquarters to avoid a charge of murder, made his appearance after the victory as commissioner o
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   1355   1356   1357   1358   1359   1360   1361   1362   1363   1364   1365   1366   1367   1368   1369   1370   1371   1372   1373   1374   1375   1376   1377   1378   1379  
1380   1381   1382   1383   1384   1385   1386   1387   1388   1389   1390   1391   1392   1393   1394   1395   1396   1397   1398   1399   1400   1401   1402   1403   1404   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

account

 

senators

 
murder
 

courts

 

executions

 

officers

 

Marian

 
accusers
 

subaltern

 

Sullan


soldiers

 

suffer

 

purpose

 

traversed

 
charged
 

putting

 

restraint

 

months

 

disgraceful

 

advocate


savage

 

judges

 
primarily
 
Celtic
 
capital
 

passions

 
rabble
 

Larinum

 
victory
 
proscribed

appearance
 

Oppianicus

 
Albius
 
headquarters
 

Statius

 

burgesses

 
charge
 
favourable
 

placing

 
preceded

equestrian

 

forward

 

rewards

 

gratify

 

pressed

 

volunteer

 
vindictive
 

covetous

 
assassination
 

happened