138-78 B.C. page 20
Thus far, out of religious
apprehension, he observed the strict rule to the very letter, but in
the funeral expenses he transgressed the law he himself had made,
limiting the amount, and spared no cost. He transgressed, likewise,
his own sumptuary laws respecting expenditure in banquets, thinking to
allay his grief by luxurious drinking parties and revellings with
common buffoons.
Some few months after, at a show of gladiators, when men and women
sat promiscuously in the theatre, no distinct places being as yet
appointed, there sat down by Sylla a beautiful woman of high birth, by
name Valeria, daughter of Messala, and sister to Hortensius the
orator. Now it happened that she had been lately divorced from her
husband. Passing along behind Sylla, she leaned on him with her
hand, and plucking a bit of wool from his garment, so proceeded to her
seat.
And on Sylla looking up and wondering what it meant.
"What harm, mighty sir," said she, "if I also was desirous to partake a little
in your felicity?"
It appeared at once that Sylla was not
displeased, but even tickled in his fancy, for he sent out to
inquire her name, her birth, and past life. From this time there
passed between them many side glances, each continually turning
round to look at the other, and frequently interchanging smiles. In
the end, overtures were made, and a marriage concluded on. All which
was innocent, perhaps, on the lady's side, but, though she had been
never so modest and virtuous, it was scarcely a temperate and worthy
occasion of marriage on the part of Sylla, to take fire, as a boy
might, at a face and a bold look, incentives not seldom to the most
disorderly and shameless passions.
Notwithstanding this marriage, he kept company with actresses,
musicians, and dancers, drinking with them on couches night and day.
His chief favourites were Roscius the comedian, Sorex the arch mime,
and Metrobius the player, for whom, though past his prime, he still
professed a passionate fondness. By these courses he encouraged a
disease which had begun from unimportant cause; and for a long time he
failed to observe that his bowels were ulcerated, till at length the
corrupted flesh broke out into lice.
Many were employed day and
night in destroying them, but the work so multiplied under their
hands, that not only his clothes, baths, basins, but his very meat was
polluted with that flux and contagion, they came swarming out in
such numbers. He went frequently by day into the bath to scour and
cleanse his body, but all in vain; the evil generated too rapidly
and too abundantly for any ablutions to overcome it.
There died of
this disease, amongst those of the most ancient times, Acastus, the
son of Pelias; of later date, Alcman the poet, Pherecydes the
theologian, Callisthenes the Olynthian, in the time of his
imprisonment, as also Mucius the lawyer; and if we may mention
ignoble, but notorious names, Eunus the fugitive, who stirred up the
slaves of Sicily to rebel against their masters, after he was
brought captive to Rome, died of this creeping sickness.
Sylla not only foresaw his end, but may be also said to have written
of it. For in the two-and-twentieth book of his Memoirs, which he
finished two days before his death, he writes that the Chaldeans
foretold him, that after he had led a life of honour, he should
conclude it in fulness of prosperity. He declares, moreover, that in a
vision he had seen his son, who had died not long before Metella,
stand by in mourning attire, and beseech his father to cast off
further care, and come along with him to his mother Metella, there
to live at ease and quietness with her.
However, he could not
refrain from intermeddling in public affairs. For, ten days before his
decease, he composed the differences of the people of Dicaearchia, and
prescribed laws for their better government. And the very day before
his end, it being told him that the magistrate Granius deferred the
payment of a public debt, in expectation of his death, he sent for him
to his house, and placing his attendants about him, caused him to be
strangled; but through the straining of his voice and body, the
imposthume breaking, he lost a great quantity of blood. Upon this, his
strength failing him, after spending a troublesome night, he died,
leaving behind him two young children by Metella. Valeria was
afterwards delivered of a daughter, named Posthuma; for so the
Romans call those who are born after the father's death.
Many ran tumultuously together, and joined with Lepidus to deprive
the corpse of the accustomed solemnities; but Pompey, though
offended at Sylla (for he alone of all his friends was not mentioned
in his will), having kept off some by his interest and entreaty,
others by menaces, conveyed the body to Rome, and gave it a secure and
honourable burial. It is said that the Roman ladies contributed such
vast heaps of spices, that besides what was carried on two hundred and
ten litters, there was sufficient to form a large figure of Sylla
himself, and another representing a lictor, out of the costly
frankincense and cinnamon.
The day being cloudy in the morning, they
deferred carrying forth the corpse till about three in the
afternoon, expecting it would rain. But a strong wind blowing full
upon the funeral pile, and setting it all in a bright flame, the
body was consumed so exactly in good time, that the pyre had begun
to smoulder, and the fire was upon the point of expiring, when a
violent rain came down, which continued till night. So that his good
fortune was firm even to the last, and did as it were officiate at his
funeral. His monument stands in the Campus Martius, with an epitaph of
his own writing; the substance of it being, that he had not been
outdone by any of his friends in doing good turns, nor by any of his
foes in doing bad.
*****