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The City of God

Chapter 28.--Of the Victory of Sylla, the Avenger of the Cruelties of Marius.

Then followed the victory of Sylla, the so-called avenger of the cruelties of Marius. But not only was his victory purchased with great bloodshed; but when hostilities were finished, hostility survived, and the subsequent peace was bloody as the war. To the former and still recent massacres of the elder Marius, the younger Marius and Carbo, who belonged to the same party, added greater atrocities. For when Sylla approached, and they despaired not only of victory, but of life itself, they made a promiscuous massacre of friends and foes. And, not satisfied with staining every corner of Rome with blood, they besieged the senate, and led forth the senators to death from the curia as from a prison. Mucius Scaevola the pontiff was slain at the altar of Vesta, which he had clung to because no spot in Rome was more sacred than her temple; and his blood well-nigh extinguished the fire which was kept alive by the constant care of the virgins. Then Sylla entered the city victorious, after having slaughtered in the Villa Publica, not by combat, but by an order, 7000 men who had surrendered, and were therefore unarmed; so fierce was the rage of peace itself, even after the rage of war was extinct. Moreover, throughout the whole city every partisan of Sylla slew whom he pleased, so that the number of deaths went beyond computation, till it was suggested to Sylla that he should allow some to survive, that the victors might not be destitute of subjects. Then this furious and promiscuous licence to murder was checked, and much relief was expressed at the publication of the proscription list, containing though it did the death-warrant of two thousand men of the highest ranks, the senatorial and equestrian. The large number was indeed saddening, but it was consolatory that a limit was fixed; nor was the grief at the numbers slain so great as the joy that the rest were secure. But this very security, hard-hearted as it was, could not but bemoan the exquisite torture applied to some of those who had been doomed to die. For one was torn to pieces by the unarmed hands of the executioners; men treating a living man more savagely than wild beasts are used to tear an abandoned corpse. Another had his eyes dug out, and his limbs cut away bit by bit, and was forced to live a long while, or rather to die a long while, in such torture. Some celebrated cities were put up to auction, like farms; and one was collectively condemned to slaughter, just as an individual criminal would be condemned to death. These things were done in peace when the war was over, not that victory might be more speedily obtained, but that, after being obtained, it might not be thought lightly of. Peace vied with war in cruelty, and surpassed it: for while war overthrew armed hosts, peace slew the defenceless. War gave liberty to him who was attacked, to strike if he could; peace granted to the survivors not life, but an unresisting death.

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De civitate Dei (CCSL)

Caput XXVIII: Qualis fuerit Sullana uictoria, uindex Marianae crudelitatis.

Sullana uero uictoria secuta, huius uidelicet uindex crudelitatis, post tantum sanguinem ciuium, quo fuso fuerat conparata, finito iam bello inimicitiis uiuentibus crudelius in pace grassata est. iam etiam post Marii maioris pristinas ac recentissimas caedes additae fuerant aliae grauiores a Mario iuuene atque Carbone earundem partium Marianarum, qui Sulla inminente non solum uictoriam, uerum etiam ipsam desperantes salutem cuncta suis aliis caedibus inpleuerunt. nam praeter stragem late per diuersa diffusam obsesso etiam senatu de ipsa curia, tamquam de carcere, producebantur ad gladium. Mucius Scaeuola pontifex, quoniam nihil apud Romanos templo Vestae sanctius habebatur, aram ipsam amplexus occisus est, ignemque illum, qui perpetua uirginum cura semper ardebat, suo paene sanguine extinxit. urbem deinde Sulla uictor intrauit, qui in uilla publica non iam bello, sed ipsa pace saeuiente septem milia deditorum - unde utique inermia - non pugnando, sed iubendo prostrauerat. in urbe autem tota quem uellet Sullanus quisque feriebat, unde tot funera numerari omnino non poterant, donec Sullae suggereretur sinendos esse aliquos uiuere, ut essent quibus possent imperare qui uicerant. tunc iam cohibita quae hac atque illac passim furibunda ferebatur licentia iugulandi, tabula illa cum magna gratulatione proposita est, quae hominum ex utroque ordine splendido, equestri scilicet atque senatorio, occidendorum ac proscribendorum duo milia continebat. contristabat numerus, sed consolabatur modus; nec quia tot cadebant tantum erat maeroris, quantum laetitiae quia ceteri non timebant. sed in quibusdam eorum, qui mori iussi erant, etiam ipsa licet crudelis ceterorum securitas genera mortium exquisita congemuit. quendam enim sine ferro laniantium manus diripuerunt, inmanius homines hominem uiuum, quam bestiae solent discerpere cadauer abiectum. alius oculis effossis et particulatim membris amputatis in tantis cruciatibus diu uiuere uel potius diu mori coactus est. subhastatae sunt etiam, tamquam uillae, quaedam nobiles ciuitates; una uero, uelut unus reus duci iuberetur, sic tota iussa est trucidari. haec facta sunt in pace post bellum, non ut acceleraretur obtinenda uictoria, sed ne contemneretur obtenta. pax cum bello de crudelitate certauit et uicit. illud enim prostrauit armatos, ista nudatos. bellum erat, ut qui feriebatur, si posset, feriret; pax autem, non ut qui euaserat uiueret, sed ut moriens non repugnaret.