living as they did in an era of revolutions, they were surprised
occasionally in unpleasant situations. Crassus the rich, father of Marcus,
had committed himself against Marius, and had been allowed the privilege
of being his own executioner. Marcus himself, who was a little older than
Cicero, took refuge in Sylla's camp. He made himself useful to the
Dictator by his genius for finance, and in return he was enabled to amass
an enormous fortune for himself out of the proscriptions. His eye for
business reached over the whole Roman Empire. He was banker, speculator,
contractor, merchant. He lent money to the spendthrift young lords, but
with sound securities and at usurious interest. He had an army of slaves,
but these slaves were not ignorant field-hands; they were skilled workmen
in all arts and trades, whose labors he turned to profit in building
streets and palaces. Thus all that he touched turned to gold. He was the
wealthiest single individual in the whole Empire, the acknowledged head of
the business world of Rome.

The last person who need be noted was Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, the father
of the future colleague of Augustus and Antony. Lepidus, too, had been an
officer of Sylla's. He had been rewarded for his services by the
government of Sicily, and when Sylla died was the second consul with
Catulus. It was said against him that, like so many other governors, he
had enriched himself by tyrannizing over his Sicilian subjects. His
extortions had been notorious; he was threatened with prosecution as soon
as his consulship should expire; and the adventure to which he was about
to commit himself was undertaken, so the aristocrats afterward maintained,
in despair of an acquittal. Lepidus's side of the story was never told,
but another side it certainly had. Though one of Sylla's generals, he had
married the daughter of the tribune Saturninus. He had been elected consul
by a very large majority against the wishes of the Senate, and was
suspected of holding popular opinions. It may be that the prosecution was