other hand, had been born a patrician, and affected to preserve the
old traditions of oligarchic rule; and, indeed, though he took all the
power of the State into his own hands, he did restore, and for a time
preserve, these old traditions. It must be presumed that there was
at his heart something of love for old Rome. The proscriptions began
toward the end of the year 82 B.C., and were continued through eight
or nine fearful months--up to the beginning of June, 81 B.C. A day
was fixed at which there should be no more slaughtering--no more
slaughtering, that is, without special order in each case, and no more
confiscation--except such as might be judged necessary by those who
had not as yet collected their prey from past victims. Then Sulla, as
Dictator, set himself to work to reorganize the old laws. There should
still be Consuls and Praetors, but with restricted powers, lessened
almost down to nothing. It seems hard to gather what was exactly the
Dictator's scheme as the future depositary of power when he should
himself have left the scene. He did increase the privileges of the
Senate; but thinking of the Senate of Rome as he must have thought of
it, esteeming those old men as lowly as he must have esteemed them, he
could hardly have intended that imperial power should be maintained
by dividing it among them. He certainly contemplated no follower
to himself, no heir to his power, as Caesar did. When he had been
practically Dictator about three years--though he did not continue the
use of the objectionable name--he resigned his rule and walked down,
as it were, from his throne into private life. I know nothing in
history more remarkable than Sulla's resignation; and yet the writers
who have dealt with his name give no explanation of it. Plutarch,
his biographer, expresses wonder that he should have been willing to
descend to private life, and that he who made so many enemies should
have been able to do so with security. Cicero says nothing of it. He
had probably left Rome before it occurred, and did not return till