or save the life of a proscribed person the punishment of death for his
humanity. He made no exemption for mother, or son, or parent. The
murderers received a payment of two talents (about £470) for each
victim; it was paid to a slave who killed his master, to a son who
killed his father. The most monstrous thing of all, it was thought, was
that the sons and grandsons of the proscribed were declared to be
legally infamous and that their property was confiscated. Nor was it
only in Rome but in all the cities of Italy that the proscription was
carried out. There was not a single temple, not a house but was polluted
with blood. Husbands were slaughtered in the arms of their wives, and
sons in the arms of their mothers. And the number of those who fell
victims to anger and hatred was but small in comparison with the number
who were put out of the way for the sake of their property. The
murderers might well have said: 'His fine mansion has been the death of
this man; or his gardens, or his baths.' Quintus Aurelius, a peaceable
citizen, who had had only this share in the late civil troubles, that he
had felt for the misfortunes of others, coming into the forum, read the
list of the proscribed and found in it his own name. 'Unfortunate that I
am,' he said, 'it is my farm at Alba that has been my ruin;' and he had
not gone many steps before he was cut down by a man that was following
him. Lucius Catiline's conduct was especially wicked. He had murdered
his own brother. This was before the proscription began. He went to
Sulla and begged that the name might be put in the list as if the man
were still alive; and it was so put. His gratitude to Sulla was shown by
his killing one Marius, who belonged to the opposite faction, and
bringing his head to Sulla as he sat in the forum. (This Marius was a
kinsman of the great democratic leader, and was one of the most popular
men in Rome.) This done, he washed his hands in the holy water-basin of
the temple of Apollo."