Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XV.djvu/466

 450 SULLA SULLIVAN The family was originally called Rufinus and belonged to the great Cornelia gens. He .ac- quainted himself with Greek and Roman liter- ature, and was said to have all the accomplish- ments and all the vices of the day. Inheriting the property of his stepmother and of a cour- tesan, he aspired to the honors of state. In 107 B. C. he was elected quaestor, and was sent with cavalry to Africa to aid Marius in the Jugurthine war. Marius regarded him as a profligate patrician ignorant of war, but Sul- la's conduct soon won his esteem and the affec- tion of his soldiers. He took a leading part in the battle of Oirta and in the transactions which ended in the betrayal of Jugurtha. In 104 he was legate under Marius during the threatening invasion of the Cimbri and Teu- tons ; in 103 he was military tribune ; in 102 he left Marius, who had become jealous of him, to serve under Q. Catulus, who made him chief manager of affairs; and in 101 he was engaged in the great battle which com- pletely destroyed the Cimbri. In 93, by a lib- eral distribution of money among the people, he gained the praetorship. In 92 he was sent as proprietor to Cilicia to restore Ariobarzanes to his kingdom of Cappadocia, from which Mithridates had expelled him. His success at- tracted the attention of Arsaces, king of Par- thia, who sent an embassy to Sulla to solicit an alliance with the Romans. On his return to Rome both he and Marius, representatives of the aristocratic and popular parties respec- tively, desired the command of the army in the impending -war against Mithridates; but the breaking out of the social war checked their private feuds and united the two gener- als against the common foe. In this war Sul- la's successes far outshone those of Marius; but his most brilliant exploits were in 89, when as legate of the consul L. Cato he de- stroyed StabisB, subjugated the Hirpini, de- feated the Samnites, and captured their chief town, Bovianum. In 88 he became consul, and was appointed to the command against Mithridates. Marius conspired with the tri- bune P. Sulpicius Rufus and with the lately enfranchised Italians to wrest this command from Sulla, and succeeded in driving him out of the city. He hastened to the army then besieging Nola, persuaded six legions to march under him against Rome, entered the city, and drove out Marius. Early in 87 he joined his troops at Capua, embarked for Greece, and be- gan the war against Mithridates. In 86, after a long siege, ho took and plundered Athens, and from this time till his return to Rome in the spring of 83 he enjoyed almost uninter- rupted success. In the mean time Marius and L. Cinna returned to Rome and were elected consuls. Sulla was declared a public enemy, and against both him and Mithridates was sent an army, which in 85, under Fimbria, gained several victories over the armies of Mithrida- tes in Asia, while Sulla in the same year de- feated his army in Greece. In 84 Sulla made peace with Mithridates, and turning his atten- tion to Fimbria, then at Thyatira, he defeated him. Fimbria, deserted by his soldiers, com- mitted suicide. Sulla exacted enormous sums from Asiatic cities, and then set sail with his army for Athens, from which he carried to Rome the celebrated library of Apellicon. Al- though both Marius and Cinna were dead, the Marian party were still strong against Sulla ; but by victories, by intrigues, and by seducing their soldiers to join his own army, Sulla suc- ceeded in shutting up the younger Marius in Praeneste, and leaving a force to besiege the place, he hastened with the bulk of his army to Rome, which was threatened by the Sam- nites and Lucanians. Both armies arrived al- most simultaneously, and before the Colline gate was fought, Nov. 1, 82, the great battle in which 50,000 men on each side are said to have fallen. The victorious Sulla massacred all his Samnite prisoners. Praeneste soon sur- rendered ; the Praenestines and Samnites were slaughtered, and the younger Marius killed himself. This ended the Marian war. The next step of Sulla, now master of Rome, was to extirpate the popular party. At the close of 82 the dictatorship, which had been in abey- ance for about 130 years, was revived, and Sulla as dictator had absolute power over the lives and property of all citizens. A reign of terror followed. Sulla posted in the forum a list called a proscriptio of persons to be con- sidered as outlaws, who might be killed by any one, and their confiscated property was to be sold at auction. Fresh lists constantly ap- peared, till Sulla was rid of his enemies, while their property helped to enrich his friends. But he did not intend to abolish the republic, and in 80 he was elected consul, still holding the dictatorship. In 80-79 he introduced his reforms in the constitution and established military colonies throughout Italy. All his reforms were by leges, including the laws re- lating to the constitution, to the religious corporations, to the administration of justice, and to the improvement of public morals. Having effected these reforms, he voluntarily resigned the dictatorship in 70, and retired to his estate at Puteoli, where he devoted him- self to literary and sensual enjoyments. His excesses shortened his life ; the immediate cause of his death was the rupture of a blood vessel. He had just completed the 22d book of his memoirs, which have not come down to us, but were largely nsed by Plutarch. The senate gave him a public funeral, which was a gorgeous pageant. His monument in the Cam- pus Martius bore an inscription, said to have been composed by himself, to the effect that none of his friends ever did him a kindness, and none of his enemies a wrong, without be- ing fully repaid. His constitutional reforms endured but a few years, and only paved the way for the advent of the Caesars. SULLIVAN, the name of six counties in the United States. I. A W. county of New Hamp-