Fidentia 45 an enemy with fifty; and, though he had the utmost confidence in the valour of his troops, yet as many of them were without complete armour, he besitated with respect to the onset. While he was deliberating about the matter, a gentle breeze bore from a neighbouring field a quantity of flowers which covered the shields and helmets of the soldiers in such a manner, that they seemed crowned with garlands. This circumstance had such an effect upon them +7, that they charged the enemy with double vigour and courage, killed eighteen thousand, and became complete masters of the field and of the camp. This Marcus Lucullus was the brother of that Lucullus, who afterward conquered Mithridates and Tigranes.

Sylla still saw himself surrounded with armies and powerful enemies, to whom he was inferior in point of force, and he therefore had recourse to fraud. He made Scipio, one of the consuls, proposals for an accommodation, upon which many interviews and conferences ensued. But Sylla, always finding some pretence for gaining time, was all the while corrupting Scipio's soldiers by means of his own, who were as well practised as their general in every art of solicitation. They entered their adversaries' camp, and mixing among them soon gained them over; some by direct bribery, some by fair promises, and some by the most insinuating adulation. At last Sylla advancing to their entrenchments with twenty cohorts, Scipio's men saluted them as fellow-soldiers, and came out, and joined them; so that Scipio was left alone in his tent, where he was taken, but immediately afterward dismissed in safety. These twenty cohorts were Sylla's decoy-birds, by which he drew forty more into his net,

46 Hod. Borgo San Domino, between Parma and Placentia.

47 The use that the ancient Romans as well as Greeks made of enthusiasm and superstition, particularly in war, was so great and so frequent, that it appears to take off much from the idea of their native courage and valour. The slightest circumstance (as in the improbable instance referred to) of a preternatural kind, or bearing the least shadow of a religious ceremony, would animate them to those exploits which, though a rational valour was certainly capable of effecting them, without such influence they would never have undertaken.

and then brought them all together into his camp. Upon this occasion, Carbo is reported to have said that, "In Sylla he had to contend both with a fox and a lion, but the fox caused him the greatest trouble."

The year following at Signium 45 young Martus, with fourscore and five cohorts, gave Sylla the challenge. Sylla was very ready to accept it on that day in particular, from a dream which he had had the night before. He thought he saw old Marius, who had now been long dead, advising his son to beware of the ensuing day, as big with mischief to him. This made Sylla impatient for the combat. The first step which he took with this view was to send for Dolabella, then encamped at some distance. The enemy had blocked up the roads; and Sylla's troops were much harassed in endeavouring to open them. Beside, a violent rain happened to fall, and still more incommoded them in their work. Upon which, the officers went and entreated Sylla to defer the battle till another day, showing him his men quite exhausted with fatigue, and seated on the ground upon their shields. Sylla yielded to their arguments, though with great reluctance, and gave them orders to entrench themselves.

They had just begun to put these orders into execu tion, when Marius rode boldly up, in hopes of finding them dispersed and in disorder. Fortune seized this moment for accomplishing Sylla's dream. His soldiers fired with indignation left their work, stuck their pikes in the trench, and with drawn swords and loud shouts ran to the charge. The enemy made but a slight resistance they were routed, and vast numbers slain in the flight. Marius himself fled to Præneste, where he found the gates shut; but a rope was let down, to which he fastened himself, and was thus drawn up over the wall.

Some authors indeed (and, among the rest, Fenestella) write, that Marius saw nothing of the battle; but that being oppressed with watching and fatigue, he laid himself down in a shade, after the signal was given,

48 On the Via Latina, about thirty miles from Rome; Appian says, this action happened at Elium, a neighbouring city.*

and was not awaked without difficulty when all was lost. Sylla says, he lost only three and twenty men in this battle, though he killed ten thousand of the enemy, and took eight thousand prisoners. He was equally successful with respect to his lieutenants Pompey, Crassus, Metellus, and Servilius; who with no miscarriage at all, or with none of any consequence, defeated considerable bodies of the enemy; insomuch that Carbo, who was the chief support of the opposite party, stole out of his camp by night, and passed over into Africa.

Sylla's last conflict was with Telesinus the Samnite, who entered the lists like a fresh champion against one that was weary, and was near throwing him at the very gates of Rome. Telesinus, with the assistance of a Lucanian named Lamponius, had collected a large force; and was hastening to the relief of Marius, who was besieged in Præneste. But he received intelligence, that Sylla and Pompey were advancing against him by long marches, the one to take him in front and the other in rear, and that he was in the utmost danger of being hemmed in both before and behind. In this case, like a man of great abilities and experience of the most critical kind, he decamped by night and marched with his whole army directly toward Rome, which was in so unguarded a condition that he might have entered it without difficulty. But he stopped when he was only ten furlongs from the Colline gate, and contented himself with passing the night before the walls, highly encouraged and elevated at the thought of having outdone so many eminent commanders in point of generalship.

Early the next morning, the young nobility mounted their horses, and fell upon him. He defeated them, however, and killed a considerable number; among the rest Appius Claudius, a young man of spirit, and of one of the most illustrious families in Rome. The city was now full of terror and confusion; the women ran about the streets, bewailing themselves, as if it were just going to be taken by assault: when Balbus, who was sent before by Sylla, appeared advancing at full speed with seven hundred cavalry. He stopped just

long enough to give the horses time to cool, and then bridled them again, and proceeded to attack the enemy.

In the mean time, Sylla made his appearance; and, having caused his first ranks to take a speedy refreshment, began to marshal them in order of battle. Dolabella and Torquatus pressed him to wait some time, and not lead his men in that fatigued condition to an engagement that must prove decisive. For he had now to do not with Carbo and Marius, but with Samnites and Lucanians, the most inveterate enemies of the Roman name. He over-ruled their motion however, and ordered the trumpets to sound to the charge, though it was now so late as the tenth hour of the day49. There was no battle, during the whole war, fought with so much obstinacy. The right wing, commanded by Crassus, had greatly the advantage; but the left was much distressed, and began to give way. Sylla made up to its assistance. He rode a white horse of uncommon spirit and swiftness; and two of the enemy, knowing him by it, levelled their spears at him. He himself did not perceive it, but his groom did, and with a sudden lash made the horse spring forward, so that the spears only grazed his tail and fixed themselves in the ground. It is said, that in all his battles he wore in his bosom a small golden image of Apollo, which he had brought from Delphi. Upon this occasion he kissed it with particular devotion 50, and addressed it in these terms: "O Pythian Apollo, who hast conducted the fortunate Cornelius Sylla through so many engagements with honour, when thou hast brought him to the threshold of his country, wilt thou let him fall there ingloriously by the hands of his own citizens ?”

After this act of devotion, he endeavoured to rally his men: some he entreated, some he threatened, and some he forced back to the charge. But at length his whole left wing was routed, and he was obliged to mix with the fugitives to regain his camp, after having lost

49 That is, reckoning with the Romans from six o'clock in the morning, as the beginning of their day, four o'clock in the afternoon.* 50 By this it appears, that the Romans made the same use of the images of their gods, as the Romanists do of images and reliques.

many of his friends of the highest distinction. A grea number likewise of those, who had come out of the city to see the battle, were trodden under foot and perished. Nay, Rome itself was thought to be absolutely lost; and the siege of Præneste, where Marius had taken up his quarters, was near being raised. For, after the defeat, many of the fugitives repaired thither; and desired Lucretius Ofella, who had the direction of the siege, to quit it immediately, because (they said) Sylla was slain, and his enemies masters of Rome.

For

But the same evening, when it was quite dark, there came persons to Sylla's camp on the part of Crassus, to desire refreshments for him and his soldiers. he had defeated the enemy, and pursued them to Antemna", where he was then besieging them. Along with this intelligence Sylla learned, that the chief part of the enemy had been cut off in the action. As soon therefore as it was day, he repaired to Antemna. Three thousand of the opposite faction sent deputies to him, to intercede for mercy; and he promised them impunity, upon condition that they would come to him after some notable effort against the rest of his enemies. Confiding in his honour, they fell upon another corps, and thus many of them were slain by the hands of their fellow-soldiers. Sylla however collected these and what was left of the others, to the number of six thousand, into the Circus 52, and at the same time assembled the senate in the temple of Bellona. The moment he began his harangue, his soldiers (as they had been ordered) fell upon those six thousand poor wretches, and cut them in pieces. The cry of such a number of people, massacred in a place of no great extent, as may well be imagined, was most dreadful. The senators were struck with astonishment. But he, with a firm and unaltered countenance continuing his discourse, bade them "Attend to what he was saying, and not trouble themselves about what was doing with

51 A city in the country of the Sabines, which was one of the first enemies of infant Rome. Liv. i. 10, 11.*

52 Of these, there were several at Rome; but the one most celebrated was that constructed by Tarquinius Priscus.