He knew that the aristocracy were detested by nine tenths of the
people; he knew that they deserved to be detested; but they were at least
gentlemen by birth and breeding. The democrats, on the other hand, were
insolent upstarts, who, instead of being grateful for being allowed to
live and work and pay taxes and serve in the army, had dared to claim a
share in the government, had turned against their masters, and had set
their feet upon their necks. The miserable multitude were least to blame.
They were ignorant, and without leaders could be controlled easily. The
guilt and the danger lay with the men of wealth and intellect, the country
gentlemen, the minority of knights and patricians like Cinna, who had
taken the popular side and had deserted their own order. Their motives
mattered not; some might have acted from foolish enthusiasm, some from
personal ambition; but such traitors, from the Gracchi onward, had caused
all the mischief which had happened to the State. They were determined,
they were persevering. No concessions had satisfied them, and one demand
had been a prelude to another. There was no hope for an end of agitation
till every one of these men had been rooted out, their estates taken from
them, and their families destroyed.
To this remarkable work Sylla addressed himself, unconscious that he was
attempting an impossibility, that opinion could not be controlled by the
sword, and that for every enemy to the oligarchy that he killed he would
create twenty by his cruelty.
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