proscriptions on the head of the oligarchy, speaks of Sulla as being
either a sword or a pen in the service of the State, as a sword or
a pen would be required, and declares that, in regard to the total
"absence of political selfishness--although it is true in this respect
only--Sulla deserves to be named side by side with Washington."[58] To
us at present who are endeavoring to investigate the sources and the
nature of Cicero's character, the attributes of this man would be but
of little moment, were it not that Cicero was probably Cicero because
Sulla had been Sulla. Horrid as the proscriptions and confiscations
were to Cicero--and his opinion of them was expressed plainly enough
when it was dangerous to express them[59]--still it was apparent to
him that the cause of order (what we may call the best chance for the
Republic) lay with the Senate and with the old traditions and laws of
Rome, in the re-establishment of which Sulla had employed himself. Of
these institutions Mommsen speaks with a disdain which we now cannot
but feel to be justified. "On the Roman oligarchy of this period," he
says "no judgment can be passed save one of inexorable and remorseless
condemnation; and, like everything connected with it, the Sullan
constitution is involved in that condemnation."[60] We have to admit
that the salt had gone out from it, and that there was no longer left
any savor by which it could be preserved. But the German historian
seems to err somewhat in this, as have also some modern English
historians, that they have not sufficiently seen that the men of the
day had not the means of knowing all that they, the historians, know.
Sulla and his Senate thought that by massacring the Marian faction
they had restored everything to an equilibrium. Sulla himself seems to
have believed that when the thing was accomplished Rome would go on,
and grow in power and prosperity as she had grown, without other
reforms than those which he had initiated. There can be no doubt that
many of the best in Rome--the best in morals, the best in patriotism,