Page:Roman Constitutional History, 753-44 B.C..djvu/213

Rh he determined to perform the work of restoration himself. According to his directions the senate elected the first senator, the elder L. Valerius Flaccus, interrex, as the two consuls were dead. Flaccus carried a special law under which he appointed Sulla dictator for the making of laws and the regulation of the state (legibus scribundis et rei publicae constituendae). Sulla was to have power to inflict the punishment of death, to confiscate property, to found colonies, to establish or abolish urban communities, and to grant or to take away kingdoms from foreign rulers. These plenary powers he was to possess until he had regulated the state. In addition, his acts as consul and proconsul were sanctioned. This new office had little in common with the old constitutional dictatorship, excepting the name. It resembled to some extent that of the decemvirs, and was practically a reëstablishment of the Tarquinian monarchy.

Proscriptions and Confiscations of Sulla. — Sulla, who after the battle at the Colline Gate had massacred several thousand prisoners of war, now began to display a cold-blooded and horrible cruelty toward his political opponents. He published the names of upward of four thousand seven hundred persons to be outlawed, including about forty senators and sixteen hundred knights. He offered a reward of about $2640 (12,000 denarii) for the execution of each outlaw, and threatened with severe punishment those who aided a proscribed person. Many innocent persons were murdered, because they were rich or were obnoxious to Sulla's favorites. The names of some victims were added to the proscription list after the assassins had done their work.

Sulla confiscated the property of those proscribed and of those who had fallen in the armies of the enemy, and sold it for the benefit of the public treasury. The children of such persons were to be incapable of holding office, partly,