[55] Florus tells us that there were 2000 Senators and Knights, but that any one was allowed to kill just whom he would. "Quis autem illos potest computare quos in urbe passim quisquis voluit occidit" (lib. iii., ca. 21).
[56] About £487 10_s._ In Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities the Attic talent is given as being worth £243 15_s._ Mommsen quotes the price as 12,000 denarii, which would amount to about the same sum.
[57] Suetonius speaks of his death. Florus mentions the proscriptions and abdication. Velleius Paterculus is eloquent in describing the horrors of the massacres and confiscation. Dio Cassius refers again and again to the Sullan cruelty. But none of them give a reason for the abdication of Sulla.
[58] Vol. iii., p. 386. I quote from Mr. Dickson's translation, as I do not read German.
[59] In defending Roscius Amerinus, while Sulla was still in power, he speaks of the Sullan massacres as "pugna Cannensis," a slaughter as foul, as disgraceful, as bloody as had been the defeat at Cannæ.
[61] Pro Sexto Roscio, ca. xxi.: "Quod antea causam publicam nullam dixerim." He says also in the Brutus, ca. xc., "Itaque prima causa publica, pro Sex. Roscio dicta." By "publica causa" he means a criminal accusation in distinction from a civil action.
[62] Pro Publio Quintio, ca. i.: "Quod mihi consuevit in ceteris causis esse adjumento, id quoque in hac causa deficit."
[63] Pro Publio Quintio, ca. xxi.: "Nolo eam rem commemorando renovare, cujus omnino rei memoriam omnem tolli funditus ac deleri arbitror oportere."
[64] Pro Roscio, ca. xlix. Cicero says of him that he would be sure to suppose that anything would have been done according to law of which he should be told that it was done by Sulla's order. "Putat homo imperitus morum, agricola et rusticus, ista omnia, quæ vos per Sullam gesta esse dicitis, more, lege, jure gentium facta."
[66] Pro Sexto Roscio, ca. xxix.: "Ejusmodi tempus erat, inquit, ut homines vulgo impune occiderentur."
[67] Pro T. A. Milone, ca. xxi.: "Cur igitur cos manumisit? Metuebat scilicit ne indicarent; ne dolorem perferre non possent."
[68] Pro T. A. Milone, ca. xxii.: "Heus tu, Ruscio, verbi gratia, cave sis mentiaris. Clodius insidias fecit Miloni? Fecit. Certa crux. Nullas fecit. Sperata libertas."