The
voting, notwithstanding, was got through as Sulpicius Rufus recommended,
and Sylla, so far as the assembly could do it, was superseded. But Sylla
was not so easily got rid of. It was no time for nice considerations. He
had formed an army in Campania out of the legions which had served against
the Italians. He had made his soldiers devoted to him. They were ready to
go anywhere and do anything which Sylla bade them. After so many murders
and so many commotions, the constitution had lost its sacred character; a
popular assembly was, of all conceivable bodies, the least fit to govern
an empire; and in Sylla's eyes the Senate, whatever its deficiencies, was
the only possible sovereign of Rome. The people were a rabble, and their
voices the clamor of fools, who must be taught to know their masters. His
reply to Sulpicius and to the vote for his recall was to march on the
city. He led his troops within the circle which no legionary in arms was
allowed to enter, and he lighted his watch-fires in the Forum itself. The
people resisted; Sulpicius was killed; Marius, the saviour of his country,
had to fly for his life, pursued by assassins, with a price set upon his
head. Twelve of the prominent popular leaders were immediately executed
without trial, and in hot haste swift decisive measures were taken which
permanently, as Sylla hoped, or if not permanently at least for the
moment, would lame the limbs of the democracy.
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