Sulla

He'd lost his family fortune and he was now head of the ruins of his family.

We can't be surprised after all of those events that Crassus decided to firmly align himself with Marius' enemy, Sulla.

This allegiance forced Crassus to flee Rome.

He was about 28 at this point, and he fled to Spain, which he knew because he'd lived there as a child, to save himself from his father's fate and keep his own head firmly fixed to his shoulders.

And this suggests that his name was probably on one of the other Marian kill lists.

He had to get out of there.

As soon as it was safe to do so, he raised his own army and marched back into Italy to join up forces with Sulla.

In 82 BC, he was commanding a section of Sulla's army at the Battle of the Colline Gate.

With Camillus, who saved Rome from the Gauls, he matched Themistocles, who saved Athens from the Persians.

Then followed, as nearly as the order can be determined, for the order of the lives in our collection is not the original one, the Cimon and Lucullus, the Lycurgus and Numa, the Demosthenes and Cicero, the Pelopidas and Marcellus, the Lysander and Sulla, the Philopæmen and Flamininus, the Pericles and Fabius Maximus, the Aristides and Cato Major, and thirteen other pairs.

Eighteen of the twenty-two pairs which have come down to us close with a formal comparison of the two careers and characters.

This is often fanciful and forced, abounds in contrasts rather than resemblances, and is seldom of any special historical value, although it often has great literary charm.

The other party then, on hearing this, shouted and clapped their hands in approval, and some of them actually turned back and accompanied them, out of goodwill and favour to Talatius, shouting his name as they went along.

Hence indeed, down to the present time, Talatius is the nuptial cry of the Romans, as Hymenaeus is of the Greeks, for they say that Talatius was fortunate in his wife.

But Sextius Sulla, the Carthaginian, a man who lacks neither learning nor charm, told me that Talatius was the word which Romulus gave as a watchword for the rape.

All those, therefore, who took the maidens away shouted Talatius, and on this account the custom now prevails at marriages.

Well, I too have slipped my hand from under the cane.

I too have counseled Sulla to retire from public life and sleep his fill.

It is a foolish clemency when you jostle against poets at every corner to spare paper that will be wasted anyhow.

But if you can give me time and will listen quietly to reason, I will tell you why I prefer to run in the same course over which the great nursling old Arunca drove his steeds.

They glory in taciturnity and cut their hair shorter than their eyebrows.

Heribomius himself is more open and more honest.

his face his walk betray his distemper and i charge destiny with his failings such men excite your pity by their frankness the very fury of their passions wins them pardon far worse are those who denounce evil ways in the language of the hercules and after discoursing upon virtue prepare to practise vice am i to respect you sextus quoth the ill-feigned beryllus when you do as i do how am i worse than yourself let the straight-legged man laugh at the club-footed the white man at the black but who could endure the gracchi railing at sedition who will not confound heaven with earth and sea with sky if vervus denounce thieves or milo cutthroats if claudius condemn adulterers or catiline abrade or if salas three disciples inveigh against proscriptions If Claudius condemn adulterers, or Catiline apparate catechists, or if Sulla's three disciples inveigh against proscriptions? Such a man was that adulterer who, after lately defiling himself by a union of the tragic style, revived the stern laws that were to be a terror to all men, aye, even to Mars and Venus.

at the moment when Julia was relieving her fertile womb and giving birth to abortions that displayed the similitude of her uncle.

These blatant displays of political violence and willingness to step beyond traditional political boundaries heralded a century of chaos in Rome, with the incredible expansion of the city's empire, and the riches, glory and prestige this brought to individual commanders was a major factor in destabilizing a political system that was designed to organize the affairs of a city-state, rather than an overseas empire of incredible scope and wealth.

Victorious generals led armies that were loyal to themselves rather than to the state and thus statesmen like Gaius Marius and Lucius Cornelius Sulla started using violence and the riches they had accumulated on campaign to purge political enemies and violate hallowed customs.

In the 80s BC, Sulla broke with centuries of tradition to march his army on Rome and declare himself dictator.

Another issue the Republic faced was the lack of a major enemy power that could unite Romans in opposition.

After the destruction of Carthage in 146 BC and the defeat of Mithridates of Pontus in the mid-first century BC, Rome did not face an existential threat, anything like that of Carthage in the Punic Wars.

And he's having debates with them exactly as he would have back in Florence, been in the gardens, the Ruccioli Gardens famously is where he did a lot of his discussions for his discourses on Livy.

And he and other scholars and statesmen, most of them are both scholars and statesmen, would discuss and he would present, you know, today's chapter is me thinking about this one thing that Sulla did.

And I think the conclusion is this.

And he would have those discussions.

However, the case stirred up great animosity, so that sundry persons were actually wounded and slain, and Servilius was acquitted.

Lucullus was trained to speak fluently both Latin and Greek, so that Sulla, in writing his own memoirs, dedicated them to him as a man who would set it in order and duly arrange the history of the times better than himself.

For the style of Lucullus was not only businesslike and ready, the same was true of many another man's in the forums.

There, like smitten tunny, through the billowy sea it dashed, although outside of the forum it was withered, inelegant, and dead.

Although namely, he was older than his brother, he was unwilling to hold office alone, but waited until his brother was of the proper age, and thus gained the favor of the people, to such an extent that, although in absence from the city, he was elected ideal along with his brother.

Though he was but a young man in the Marsic War, he gave many proofs of courage and understanding.

It was, however, more owing to his constancy and mildness that Sulla attached him to himself and employed him from first to last on business of the highest importance.

Such, for instance, was the management of the mint.

With Camillus, who saved Rome from the Gauls, he matched Themistocles, who saved Athens from the Persians.

Then followed, as nearly as the order can be determined, for the order of the lives in our collection is not the original one, the Cimon and Lucullus, the Lycurgus and Numa, the Demosthenes and Cicero, the Pelopidas and Marcellus, the Lysander and Sulla, the Philopoemen and Flamininus, the Pericles and Fabius Maximus, the Aristides and Cato Major, and thirteen other pairs.

Eighteen of the twenty-two pairs which have come down to us close with a formal comparison of the two careers and characters.

This is often fanciful and forced, abounds in contrasts rather than resemblances, and is seldom of any special historical value, although it often has great literary charm.

The other party then, on hearing this, shouted and clapped their hands in approval, and some of them actually turned back and accompanied them, out of goodwill and favour to Talatius, shouting his name as they went along.

Hence, indeed, down to the present time, Talatius is the nuptial cry of the Romans, as Hymenaeus is of the Greeks, for they say that Talatius was fortunate in his wife.

But Sextius Sulla, the Carthaginian, a man who lacks neither learning nor charm, told me that Talatius was the word which Romulus gave as a watchword for the rape.

All those, therefore, who took the maidens away shouted Talatius, and on this account the custom now prevails at marriages.