Porta Collina

The old men stayed behind, and Livy describes elderly former magistrates dressing in the robes they'd worn in office, carrying their insignia, and seating themselves on ivory chairs.

The Gauls who came through the Colline Gate reportedly found them so still that they took them for statues, until one warrior reached out and stroked the beard of a man named Marcus Papirius.

Papirius struck him across the head with his ivory staff, and the Gaul cut him down where he sat, along with the rest of the old men.

These old men had stood up for Roman virtues and bravely faced death against the barbarian horde.

All her goods enjoyed.

And what of those who at the Sacra Porte and Colline Gate were slain? Then, when the rule of earth and all her nations almost left this city for another, and the chiefs who led the Samnite hoped that Rome might bleed more than at Claudium's forks she bled of old -- then came great Sulla to avenge the dead, and all the blood still left within her frame drew from the city, for the surgeon's knife which shore the cancerous limbs cut in too deep, and shed the life-stream from still healthy veins.

True that the guilty fell, but not before all else had perished.

Hatred had free course and anger reigned unbridled by the law.

And he came within a little of breaking into the city in its unguarded state.

Indeed, he was only nine furlongs from the Colline gate when he bivouacked against it, highly encouraged and elated with hopes at the thought of having out-generaled so many great commanders.

And when at daybreak the noblest youth of the city rode out against him, he overwhelmed many of them, including Appius Claudius, a man of high birth and character.

There was a tumult in the city, naturally, and shrieking of women and running hither and thither, as though the city were taken by storm.

But the attempt failed.

Nola however still held out in Campania, and now there occurred a revolution at Rome which postponed the final subjugation of the insurgents till after the battle of the Colline Gate.

For convenience and clearness the part taken by them in this revolution may be here summarized.

Sulla as consul was besieging Nola when he was recalled to Rome by the Sulpician revolution and his election to the command against Mithridates.

The Senate refused, and the Samnites at once joined Cinna and Marius, who were pledged not only to give the franchise, but also to enroll all the new voters in the new tribes, a measure which was ratified by the Senate in the year of Cinna's last consulship, 84 BC.

On Sulla's return to Italy, they with the Lucanians who had meanwhile been practically independent were the most eager supporters of Marius's son.

In 82, Pontius of Telesia, at the head of a Samnite force, with the desperate hardihood inspired by centuries of hatred, marched straight on Rome, and the city was saved only by Sulla's victory at the Colline Gate.

Three days after the battle, Sulla massacred all his prisoners.

That year to Marius brought the end of life, when he at Fortune's hands all ills had suffered, all her goods enjoyed.

And what of those who at the Sacra Porte and Colline Gate were slain? Then, when the rule of earth and all her nations almost left this city for another, and the chiefs who led the Samnite hoped that Rome might bleed more than at Claudium's forks she bled of old, then came great Sulla to revenge the dead, and all the blood still left within her frame drew from the city, for the surgeon's knife which shore the cancerous limbs cut in too deep, and shed the life-stream from still healthy veins.

True that the guilty fell, but not before all else had perished.

Hatred had free course and anger reigned unbridled by the law.