Page:A General Sketch of Political History from the Earlist Times.djvu/114

 io2 THE ROMAN DOMINION Rome at the head of legions who chose to follow their general rather than to obey the orders of the civil government. Marius in short had prepared the way for concentrating the power of the state in the hands of whatever captain the legions chose to follow. Sulla commanded the entire devotion of his soldiers. He returned to Italy at the head of an army with which he Sulla, Die- intended to restore order in accordance with his tator, 82 B.C. own views. A battle close to the walls of Rome ended in his complete victory, and made him absolute master. No mercy was shown to the opposite party. There was no official authority in existence. Sulla required that he should be named Dictator, with absolute power of life and death, of legislation, of the whole administration. When the business of massacre was over he proceeded with the business of confisca- tion. The property seized was for the most part distributed among Sulla's soldiery. He then went on to reconstruct a constitution. Under the new law the Senate recovered its powers. No bill could be submitted to the Assemblies without The Sulian first receiving its sanction. Its depleted numbers Constitution. W ere filled up from the ranks of Sulla's followers, including the richest of the Knights, and the judicial powers which had been bestowed on that body were restored to the Senate. The tribune's office was allowed to survive, but without the power of veto. Having finished what he considered his work, Sulla calmly resigned the Dictatorship, and retired into private life. A year afterwards he died. There was no possibility of permanence in the Sulian Con- stitution. Domestic questions really resolved themselves into intrigues for supreme power between individuals who associated themselves with the optimates or with the democratic party as might seem convenient for the time. At first the two most prominent figures are those of Gnaeus Pompeius, a young man who succeeded in acquiring a very high military reputation, and Crassus, who owed his power mainly to his wealth. The republic was engaged in three wars. The one really able member of what had been the Marian party, Sertorius, raised Spain, allied himself with a sort of pirate confederacy whose ships were sweeping the Mediter-