Page:The story of Rome, from the earliest times to the death of Augustus, told to boys and girls (IA storyofromefrome00macg).pdf/385

 One senator, bolder than the others, said to Sulla: 'We do not ask you to pardon any whom you have resolved to destroy, but to free from doubt those whom you are pleased to spare.'

'I know not as yet whom I will spare,' grimly answered the general.

'Why, then,' persisted the senator, 'tell us whom you will punish.'

Sulla promised to do this, and henceforth lists of those who were doomed were hung up in the Forum. These lists were called the 'Proscriptions of Sulla.'

In the first list eighty persons were proscribed, and for a moment Rome dreamed that there would be no more dread uncertainty, that the end of the death sentences had at least come in sight.

But the horror in the city was but heightened by the proscriptions, when the first list was followed by another, and yet another.

Moreover, an edict was published, saying that if any one dared to give shelter or food to a proscribed person he would be punished with death. While, if any one killed a person whose name was on the list of the condemned, he would be rewarded. The property of those who perished was forfeited, and in this way Sulla and his friends soon grew rich. These cruel proscriptions remain for ever a blot on Sulla's fame.

For one hundred and twenty years there had been no Dictator. But now Sulla determined to become the ruler of Rome under that name.

In other times a Dictator was elected only for six months, but Sulla had no intention of abdicating in so short a time. He meant to remain Dictator as long as he wished.

The tyrant was of course elected, for no one dared to resist his will. He took the title toward the end of 82 , and held it for about three years.

But there was one man in Rome whose influence was