disinterested attachment to five hundred elderly rich men who had bought
their way into pre-eminence.

Sylla did not live to see the significance of the Sertorian revolt. He
experienced, however, himself, in a milder form, an explosion of military
sauciness. Young Pompey had been sent, after the occupation of Rome, to
settle Sicily and Africa. He did his work well and rapidly, and when it
was over he received orders from the Senate to dismiss his troops. An
order from Sylla Pompey would have obeyed; but what was the Senate, that
an ambitious brilliant youth with arms in his hands should send away an
army devoted to him and step back into common life? Sylla himself had to
smooth the ruffled plumes of his aspiring follower. He liked Pompey, he
was under obligations to him, and Pompey had not acted after all in a
manner so very unlike his own. He summoned him home, but he gave him a
triumph for his African conquests, and allowed him to call himself by the
title of "_Magnus_," or "_The Great_." Pompey was a promising
soldier, without political ambition, and was worth an effort to secure. To
prevent the risk of a second act of insubordination, Sylla made personal
arrangements to attach Pompey directly to himself. He had a step-daughter,
named Aemilia. She was already married, and was pregnant. Pompey too was
married to Antistia, a lady of good family; but domestic ties were not
allowed to stand in the way of higher objects. Nor did it matter that
Antistia's father had been murdered by the Roman populace for taking
Sylla's side, or that her mother had gone mad and destroyed herself, on
her husband's horrible death. Late Republican Rome was not troubled with
sentiment. Sylla invited Pompey to divorce Antistia and marry Aemilia.
Pompey complied. Antistia was sent away. Aemilia was divorced from her
husband, and was brought into Pompey's house, where she immediately died.

In another young man of high rank, whom Sylla attempted to attach to