And so, for a considerable period, he walked to the forum as a private citizen in the sight of all and returned home unmolested, so great was the awe of his government still remaining in the minds of the onlookers, or their amazement at his laying it down. Nevertheless he became satiated with power and was the first man, so far as I know, holding supreme power, who had the courage to lay it down voluntarily and to declare that he would render an account of his stewardship to any who were dissatisfied with it. But Sulla, although nominally elected, became dictator for life by force and compulsion. Such officials were formerly called dictators - an office created in the most perilous emergencies for six months only, and long since fallen into disuse. Some were proscribed, others banished, property was confiscated, and prisoners were even subjected to excruciating tortures.ģ 1 No unseemly deed was left undone until, about fifty years after the death of Gracchus, Cornelius Sulla, one of these chiefs of factions, doctoring one evil with another, made himself sole master of the state for a very long time. They assailed it like an enemy's capital, and ruthless and indiscriminate massacres of citizens were perpetrated. Whenever either side first got possession of the city, the opposition party made war nominally against their own adversaries, but actually against their country. P7 forces against each other on their own account, without public authority. There arose chiefs of factions quite frequently, aspiring to supreme power, some of them refusing to disband the troops entrusted to them by the people, others even hiring As the evil gained in magnitude open insurrections against the government and large warlike expeditions against their country were undertaken by exiles, or criminals, or persons contending against each other for some office or military command.
Unseemly violence prevailed almost constantly, together with shameful contempt for law and justice.
Repeatedly the parties came into open conflict, often carrying daggers and from time to time in the temples, or the assemblies, or the forum, some tribune, or praetor, or consul, or candidate for these offices, or some person otherwise distinguished, would be slain. Sedition did not end with this abominable deed. The sword was never carried into the assembly, and there was no civil butchery until Tiberius Gracchus, while serving as a tribune and bringing forward new laws, was the first to fall a victim to internal commotion and with him many others, who were crowded together at the Capitol round the temple, were also slain. It was in the midst of contests of this kind that Marcius Coriolanus, having been banished contrary to justice, took refuge with the Volsci and levied war against his country.Ģ 1 This is the only case of armed strife that can be found in the ancient seditions, and this was caused by an exile. P5 greater bitterness, and the magistrates were arrayed in stronger animosity to each other from this time on, and the Senate and plebeians took sides with them, each believing that it would prevail over the other by augmenting the power of its own magistrates. Even then no violence was done, but they created a magistrate for their protection and called him the Tribune of the Plebs, to serve especially as a check upon the consuls, who were chosen by the Senate, 1 so that political power should not be exclusively in their hands. Once when the plebeians were entering on a campaign they fell into a controversy of the sort, but they did not use the weapons in their hands, but withdrew to the hill, which from that time on was called the Sacred Mount. Internal discord did not, however, bring them to blows there were dissensions merely and contests within the limits of the law, which they composed by making mutual concessions, and with much respect for each other. 1 1 The plebeians and Senate of Rome were often at strife with each other concerning the enactment of laws, the cancelling of debts, the division of lands, or the election of magistrates.