some ready money. Our extant authorities give no information on such matters, and we must conjecture that Pompeius used his own means, which would not go far, even if he was rich, and that he made up the rest that was wanted by borrowing and levying contributions.

CHAPTER XXIV.

THE CIVIL WAR.

(B.C. 83-82.)

APPIAN has given a brief narrative of the civil war which followed Sulla's landing in Italy, and we learn something from Plutarch's Life of Sulla, and a few passages of Roman writers. But the events are very imperfectly related. Appian computes that the war lasted three years until Sulla obtained the mastery, but it was not three complete years.

Sulla led his troops from Calabria into Apulia without doing any damage to the lands or any injury to the people. This politic conduct gained him friends. According to Velleius he made fair proposals of peace to his opponents before there was a fight; and the Epitome of Livy also records the sending of commissioners about peace to Norbanus and the consul's rough treatment of them. Appian has omitted this fact. It is his fashion to make a brief and dry narrative of events, and he often omits minute particulars. Sulla's proposals for peace are only worth notice as evidence of the man's character, for we cannot believe that he wished to make peace, or that he would have trusted any promises made by men of the Marian party.

Sulla and Metellus found the consul Norbanus about Canusium (Canosa) in Apulia, where a battle was fought, in which Norbanus was defeated with the loss of six thousand men, while Sulla lost only seventy, but he had a large number wounded. Norbanus made his retreat across the mountains to Capua. Velleius has quite a different story.

He says that Sulla overpowered the consuls Scipio and Norbanus near Capua; that Norbanus was defeated in the field, and Scipio was betrayed by his army. But Velleius is not an historian. If the several facts which he relates are true, they are not always placed in chronological order nor in any connexion which explains them. Both the brevity of his work and the plan of it make Velleius a very difficult writer to use. Appian simply abridged his authorities, and certainly attempted, though he may not always have done it, to place his facts in chronological order. Though it is improbable that Sulla met with no resistance before he crossed the Apennines, the circumstance of Norbanus taking shelter in Capua after his defeat seems to imply that he was defeated not very far from that city, and Drumann has suggested that Canusium in Appian is a mistake for Casilinum, which is on the Vulturnus and near Capua. There is, indeed, decisive evidence that Norbanus, if he was defeated in Apulia, had also a defeat near Capua. The plain of Capua is bounded on the east by Tifata, a ridge which belongs to the Apennines, and in the plain between Capua and the hills Norbanus, according to Velleius, was beaten. Sulla to show his gratitude to Diana, the patron of all that region, gave to the goddess, that is, to her temple, certain springs famed for healing properties, and all the lands of the district. An inscription on the door-post of the temple, still extant in the time of Velleius, and a bronze tablet within the temple testified to Sulla's victory and his piety.

Plutarch reports that when Sulla was at Silvium (Garagnone) in Apulia, a slave met him and declared that he brought from Bellona assurance of victory, but he added that the Roman Capitol would be burnt, if Sulla did not make haste. The temple on the Capitol was in fact burnt this year, and the fire is said to have happened on the very day which the slave foretold, the day before the Noncs of Quintilis, which month, says Plutarch, we now call Julius. building had stood, it is said, four hundred years. Nobody knew how the fire happened, but various conjectures were made. The Sibylline books perished in the conflagra

This

tion. Obsequens, who records the wonders of this year, places the burning of this temple among them, from which we may perhaps conclude that the cause was unknown.

When Sulla and Metellus had crossed the Apennines into Campania, they were met by the consul Scipio about Teanum between the rivers Liris and Vulturnus. Scipio's army was not in high spirits at the prospect of a fight, and the men wished for peace. Sulla having ascertained their disposition. sent to Scipio to propose terms of agreement, not because he either expected or wished for a quiet settlement of affairs, but because he had hopes of corrupting Scipio's men. Scipio received hostages and was persuaded to have an interview with Sulla or Sulla's agents, though Sertorius warned Scipio of the danger. There were only three persons from each side present, and nobody else knew what was said. It was supposed that Scipio determined to consult his colleague Norbanus before finally coming to terms, for he sent Sertorius to him. In the mean time the two armies kept quiet. Sertorius in going to Norbanus passed by Suessa, which lies between Teanum and Minturnae on the river Liris. This town had declared for Sulla, but Sertorius seized the place. Sulla sent to Scipio to complain, and Scipio, either because he was privy to the act or did not know what answer to make, sent back Sulla's hostages. The army was much displeased with the seizure of Suessa during the truce and with Scipio sending back the hostages, when they had not been demanded in fact the men had no heart nor inclination to fight against Sulla, and only wanted an excuse for going over to him. Sulla was now informed that Scipio's men would desert their general, if he would approach the camp. As soon as he came, the whole army went over to him, and Sulla seized the consul and his son Lucius in their tent; on which Appian observes that it was an imputation on Scipio's generalship to have been so ignorant of the treachery of his own men. But Scipio may have known that he could not trust his men ; and as he could not run away from his army, he must wait for the event. Sulla thus carried off from the enemy forty cohorts, having entrapped them, as Plutarch says, like so

many tame birds. It was on this occasion that Carbo remarked, that in Sulla he had both a lion and a fox to contend against, but the fox gave him most trouble. Sulla attempted to persuade Scipio and his son to join him, but they refused, and were allowed to go away.

It might be concluded from the statement about Sertorius seizing Suessa on his way to Norbanus that Norbanus had left Capua, for Suessa is not on the road from Teanum to Capua, and Appian has apparently made some mistake, which it is impossible to explain. Norbanus, he says, was still in Capua, and we must conjecture that Sulla had left a force there to watch him, or otherwise he might have joined Scipio. Plutarch indeed, whose narrative we may occasionally use as a supplement to Appian, says that Sulla was surrounded by many hostile camps and large forces, when he invited Scipio to a conference. It is therefore possible that when Sulla crossed the Apennines and came down from Tifata into the plain, he defeated Norbanus, who fled to Capua, and then advanced against Scipio, who was on his way to join Norbanus. However this may be, Appian states that, after the capture of Scipio, Sulla sent persons to Capua to Norbanus to propose terms to him also, but as he got no answer, he moved on probably northwards, wasting the lands of all those who were not of his party. Norbanus also left Capua and advanced northward, as we must assume, but by a different road.

Carbo, who was probably in the north of Italy, hurried to Rome, and induced the Senate to declare Metellus and all the senators who had joined Sulla to be enemies to the State, for many men of rank had gone over to his side. Among them was P. Cethegus, a friend of Caius Marius, and once one of the most violent enemies of Sulla. He now came as a suppliant and offered his services. He was ready to do any thing, and Sulla had no objections to use any man as his tool. C. Verres also, afterwards known as the most notorious scoundrel that Rome ever produced, came over to Sulla. In B.C. 84 he was the quaestor of Carbo, and he embezzled a large sum of public money with which he was entrusted.