Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 22.djvu/658

 632 S U L S U L world, ending with the death of the emperor John Zimisces. Under "Constantinople" are mentioned the emperors Basil and Constantine, who succeeded John Zimisces in 975. It would thus appear that Suidas lived in the latter part of the 10th century. The passages in which Michael Psellus (who lived at the end of the llth century) are referred to are thought by Kiister to be later interpola- tions ; one of them is wanting in the Paris MSS. The lexicon of Suidas is arranged alphabetically, with some slight deviations from the strict alphabetical order. It partakes of the nature of a dictionary and encyclopaedia, containing not only definitions of words but also short articles on historical, biographical, geographical, and anti- quarian subjects. It includes numerous quotations from ancient writers ; the scholiast on Aristophanes in particu- lar is much used. Although the work is uncritical and the value of the articles very unequal, it contains a great deal of important information on ancient history and life. It deals with Scriptural as well as pagan subjects, from which we infer that the writer Avas a Christian. Prefixed to the work is a notice stating " the present book is by Suidas, but its arrangement is the work of twelve learned men," and then follow their names. The first edition of Suidas was that by Demetrius Chalcondylas (Milan, 1499), the next by Aldus (Venice, 1514). The chief later editions are those by L. Kiister (Cambridge, 1705), by T. Gaisford (Oxford, 1834), and by G. Bernhardy (Halle, 1834-1853). There is a cheap and convenient edition by Im. Bekker (Berlin, 1854). SULLA (138-78 B.C.). The life of Lucius Cornelius Sulla makes one of the most important chapters in Roman history. Both as a general and as a politician he stands in the foremost rank of the remarkable figures of all time. It was by his ability and his force of character that Sulla, who had neither great wealth nor noble ancestry l to back him up, pushed himself to the front in early manhood, distinguishing himself in the Jugurthine War in 107 and 106, and being able with a good show of reason to claim the credit of having terminated that troublesome war by capturing Jugurtha himself. In these African campaigns Sulla showed that he knew how to win the hearts and confidence of his soldiers, and through his whole subsequent career the secret of his brilliant successes seems to have been the enthusiastic devotion of his troops, whom he continued to hold well in hand, while he let them indulge themselves in plundering and in all manner of licence. "Rome's soldiers from Sulla's time," says Sallust (Cat., 11), "began to drink, to make love, to have a taste for works of art, to rob temples, and to confound things sacred and profane." From the year 104 to 101 he served again under Marius in the war with the Cimbri and Teutones and fought in the last great battle near Verona, which annihilated the barbarian host. Marius, it is said, was jealous of him, and any friendly feeling there may have hitherto been between the two now finally ceased. Sulla on his return to Rome lived quietly for some years and took no part in politics. What with his genuine love of letters and his love of gay company he was never at a loss for amusement, and he must always have been a particular favourite with fashionable society at Rome. In 93 he was elected praetor after a lavish squandering of money, and he delighted the populace with an exhibition of a hundred lions from Africa, from the realm of King Bocchus. Next year (92) he went to the East with special authority from the senate to put pressure on the famous Mithradates of Pontus, and make him give back Cappadocia to its petty prince Ariobarzanes, one of Rome's dependants in Asia, whom he had driven out. Sulla with a small army soon won a victory over the general of Mithradates, and Rome's client-king was- restored. An embassy from He belonged to quite a minor branch of the Cornelian gens. the Parthians now came to solicit the honour of alliance with Rome, and Sulla was the first Roman who held diplomatic intercourse with that remote people. In the year 91, which brought with it the imminent prospect of revolution and of sweeping political change, with the enfranchisement of the Italian peoples, Sulla returned to Rome, and it was generally felt that he was the man to head the conservative and aristocratic party. Who was to have the command in the Mithradatic War and be en- trusted with the settlement of the East was the question of the day, and the choice lay plainly between Marius and Sulla. The rivalry between the two men and their partisans was as bitter as it could possibly be. Marius was old, but he had by no means lost his prestige with the popular party. Meanwhile Mithradates and the East were forgotten in the crisis of the Social or Italic War, which broke out in 9 1 and threatened Rome's very existence. The services of both Marius and Sulla were needed, and were given ; but Sulla was the more successful, or, at any rate, the more for- tunate. Of the Italian peoples Rome's old foes the Sam nites were the most formidable ; these Sulla thoroughly vanquished, and took their chief town, Bovianum. But his victories were, after all, followed by the concession of the franchise to the Italian towns and communities generally, though an arrangement which made them vote in separate tribes greatly diminished their political power and became a further source of irritation. It was clear that Rome was on the eve of yet further troubles and revolutionary changes. Her armies, now recruited from the very scum of the population, had not the loyal and honourable spirit of former days, and cared only for licence and plunder. On every side it seemed that public life was demoralized and politics degraded. In 88 Sulla was consul ; the revolt of Italy was at an end ; and again the question came to the front who was to go to the East and encounter the warlike king of Pontus, against whom war had been declared. The tribune Publius Sulpicius Rufus moved that Marius should have the command ; there was fearful rioting and bloodshed at Rome at the prompting of the popular leaders, Sulla narrowly escaping to his legions in Campania, whence he marched on Rome, being the first Roman who entered the city at the head of a Roman army. Marius now had to fly ; and he and his party were crushed for the time. Sulla, leaving things quiet at Rome, quitted Italy in 87 for the East, taking Greece on his way, and for the next four years he was winning victory after victory against the armies of Mithradates and accumulating boundless plunder. Athens, the headquarters of the Mithradatic cause, was taken and sacked in 86, and Sulla possessed himself of a library which contained Aristotle's works. In the same year at Chseroneia, the scene of Philip of Macedon's memor- able victory more than two and a half centuries before, and in the year following, at the neighbouring Orchomenus, he scattered like chaff, with hardly any loss to himself, immense hosts of the enemy. Crossing the Hellespont in 84 into Asia, he was joined by the troops of Fimbria, who soon deserted their general, a man sent out by the Marian party, now again in the ascendant at Rome. The same year peace was concluded with Mithradates on condition that he should resign all his recent conquests, give up all claim to meddle with Rome's Asiatic dependencies, and pay a considerable indemnity. In fact the king was to be put back to the position he held before the war ; but, as he raised cavils and Sulla's soldiers wanted better terms and more spoil, he had in the end to content him- self with being on the same footing as the other princes of Asia, simply a vassal of Rome. Sulla returned to Italy in 83, landing at Brundusium,