As soon as Sulla entered the City as victor, he killed three thousand men who had surrendered through envoys, unarmed and unsuspecting, against what was right and against the pledge given. Very many were then killed besides — I will not say innocent men, but even men of Sulla’s own party — who are said to have numbered more than nine thousand. Thus unrestrained slaughters were carried on throughout the City, the assassins roaming everywhere as anger or plunder enticed each of them.
1 Sylla mox atque urbem uictor intrauit, tria milia hominum, qui se per legatos dediderant, contra fas contraque fidem datam inermes securosque interfecit. plurimi tunc quoque, ut non dicam innocentes, sed etiam ipsius Syllanae partis occisi sunt, quos fuisse plus quam nouem milia ferunt. ita liberae per urbem caedes, percussoribus passim uagantibus ut quemque uel ira uel praeda sollicitabat, agitabantur.
So, when all were now openly murmuring at what each one feared, Quintus Catulus said to Sulla’s face: “With whom, then, are we to live, if we kill men armed in war and unarmed in peace?”
2 igitur cunctis iam quod singuli timebant aperte frementibus Q. Catulus palam Syllae dixit: cum quibus tandem uicturi sumus, si in bello armatos, in pace inermes occidimus?
Then Sulla, at the suggestion of Lucius Fursidius, a chief centurion, was the first to introduce that infamous table of proscription. The first proscription was of eighty men, among whom were four of consular rank — Carbo, Marius, Norbanus, and Scipio — and among them Sertorius, then the most greatly to be feared.
3 tunc Sylla auctore L. Fursidio primipilari primus infamem illam tabulam proscriptionis induxit. prima proscriptio octoginta hominum fuit, in quibus quattuor consulares erant Carbo Marius Norbanus et Scipio et inter eos Sertorius tunc maxime pertimescendus.
Likewise another was posted with five hundred names; and while Lollius was reading it — unconcerned, of course, and conscious of no guilt — he suddenly came upon his own name, and as he was slipping away from the Forum in alarm with his head covered, he was killed.
4 item alia cum quingentis nominibus proposita est, quam cum Lollius, quippe securus nihilque sibi conscius, legeret, ubi suum repente nomen offendit, dum se trepidus adoperto capite foro subtrahit, interfectus est.
But not even in the tables themselves did there seem to be any good faith or any limit to the evils. For some whom they had proscribed they butchered, while others they proscribed after they had butchered them.
5 sed ne in ipsis quidem tabulis fides ac finis malorum uidebatur. namque alios quos proscripserant iugulabant, alios autem postquam iugulauerant proscribebant.
Nor was the way of death itself simple, nor its condition single, so that in the killing of citizens at least the law of enemies might be kept, who exact nothing from the vanquished but their life.
6 nec ipsius mortis erat uia simplex aut una condicio, ut in nece ciuium saltem ius hostium seruaretur, qui nihil a uictis praeter uitam exigunt.
For Sulla ordered Marcus Marius to be dragged out of a goat-shed and bound, led across the Tiber to the tomb of the Lutatii, and there butchered, his eyes gouged out and his limbs cut off piece by piece, or even broken.1
7 M. Marium siquidem de caprili casa extractum uinciri Sylla iussit ductumque trans Tiberim ad Lutatiorum sepulchrum effossis oculis membrisque minutatim desectis uel etiam fractis trucidari.
1Marcus Marius Gratidianus, nephew of Gaius Marius. He was killed at the tomb of the Lutatii in revenge for Quintus Lutatius Catulus, whom he had prosecuted and driven to suicide in 87 BC.
After him Publius Laetorius, a senator, and Venuleius, a triumvir, were killed. The head of Marcus Marius was sent to Praeneste; on seeing it, Gaius Marius, where he was being besieged by Lucretius, was seized by final despair, and so as not to fall into the hands of his enemies he ran at Telesinus so that each might die by the other.
8 post hunc P. Laetorius senator et Venuleius triumuir occisi. M. Marii caput Praeneste missum: quo uiso C. Marius ultima desperatione correptus, ubi a Lucretio obsidebatur, ne in manus incideret inimicorum, cum Telesino mutua morte concurrit.
And while he himself drove his hand more violently against his opponent, he weakened the stroke of his assailant as it fell upon himself. So, when Telesinus had been killed, he himself, only lightly wounded, offered his neck to his slave.
9 dumque uiolentius ipse in concurrentem manus adigit, circa suum uulnus manum percutientis hebetauit. ita eo interfecto, ipse leuiter uulneratus ceruices seruo suo praebuit.
Sulla had the praetor Carrinas butchered. Then, setting out for Praeneste, he ordered all the leading men of the Marian army — that is, the legates, quaestors, prefects, and tribunes — to be killed.
10 Carrinatem praetorem Sylla iugulauit. inde Praeneste profectus omnes Marianae militiae principes, hoc est legatos quaestores praefectos et tribunos iussit occidi.
Pompey killed Carbo, who was trying to flee from the island of Cossura into Egypt, after having him brought back to himself in Sicily, and very many of his associates with him.
11 Pompeius Carbonem a Cossura insula in Aegyptum fugere conantem, in Siciliam ad se retractum conpluresque cum eo socios eius occidit.
Sulla was made dictator, so that his lust for domination and cruelty might be both armed and veiled by the reverence due to an honourable and pre-eminent title.
12 Sylla dictator creatus est, ut dominationis et crudelitatis libido honesti praecipuique nominis reuerentia et armaretur et uelaretur.
Pompey crossed into Africa and, after a sally had been made near Utica, killed eighteen thousand men. In this war Domitius, the Marian general, was killed while fighting among the foremost.
13 Pompeius in Africam transgressus eruptione circa Uticam facta decem et octo milia hominum interfecit. quo bello Domitius dux Marianus dum inter primores pugnat, occisus est.
The same Pompey pursued Hiertas, king of Numidia, and caused him, as he fled, to be stripped of all his forces by Bogud, son of Bocchus, king of the Moors; and when Hiertas presently returned to Bulla, the town was handed over to Pompey, and he killed him.
14 idemque Pompeius Hiertam Numidiae regem persecutus, fugientemque a Bogude Bocchi Maurorum regis filio spoliari omnibus copiis fecit: quem continuo Bullam reuersum tradito sibi oppido interfecit.