anced, every thing
favorable to the restoration of his own party to power. He destroyed the
armies which came out to oppose him. He shut up the young Marius in a
city not far from Rome, where he had endeavored to find shelter and
protection, and then advanced himself and took possession of the city.
There he caused to be enacted again the horrid scenes of massacre and
murder which Marius had perpetrated before, going, however, as much
beyond the example which he followed as men usually do in the commission
of crime. He gave out lists of the names of men whom he wished to have
destroyed, and these unhappy victims of his revenge were to be hunted
out by bands of reckless soldiers, in their dwellings, or in the places
of public resort in the city, and dispatched by the sword wherever they
could be found. The scenes which these deeds created in a vast and
populous city can scarcely be conceived of by those who have never
witnessed the horrors produced by the massacres of civil war. Sylla
himself went through with this work in the most cool and unconcerned
manner, as if he were performing the most ordinary duties of an officer
of state. He called the Senate together one day, and, while he was
addressing them, the attention of the Assembly was suddenly distracted
by the noise of outcries and screams in the neighboring streets from
those who were suffering military execution there. The senators started
with horror at the sound. Sylla, with an air of great composure and
unconcern, directed the members to listen to him, and to pay no
attention to what was passing elsewhere. The sounds that they heard
were, he said, only some correction which was bestowed by his orders on
certain disturbers of the public peace.

[Sidenote: Executions.]
[Sidenote: Extent of Sylla's proscriptions.]
[Sidenote: Man's nature.]

Sylla's orders for the execution of those who had taken an active part
against him were not confined to Rome. They went to the neighboring
cities and to distant provinces, carrying terror and distress every
where. Still, dreadful as these evils were, it is possible for us, in
the conceptions which we form, to overrate the extent of them. In
reading the history of the Roman empire during the civil wars of Marius
and Sylla, one might easily imagine that the whole population of the
country was organized into the two contending armies, and were employed
wholly in the work of fighting with and massacring each other. But
nothing l