A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

9. P.CorneliusSulla, a son of No. 8, and a nephew of the dictator. He was grown up in the lifetime of his uncle, from whom he received as presents several estates of those who had been proscribed. In the consular comitia of B. C. 66 he was elected consul along with P. Autronius Paetus, but neither he nor his colleague entered upon the office, as they were accused of bribery by L. Torquatus the younger, and were condemned. L. Cotta and L. Torquatus, the father of their accuser, received the consulship in their stead. It was currently believed that Sulla was privy to both of Catiline's conspiracies, and he was accordingly accused of this crime by his former accuser, L. Torquatus, and by C. Cornelius. He was defended by Hortensius and Cicero, and the speech of the latter on his behalf is still extant. He was acquitted; but, independent of the testimony of Sallust (Cat. 17), his guilt may almost be inferred from the embarrassment of his advocate. According to A. Gellius ( 12.12) Cicero had borrowed a sum of money from Sulla for the purchase of his house on the Palatine. Cicero afterwards quarrelled with Sulla, because the latter had taken part in the proceedings of Clodius against him during his banishment. (Cic. Att. 4.3.) In the civil war Sulla espoused Caesar's cause. He served under him as legate in Greece, and commanded along with Caesar himself the right wing at the battle of Pharsalia, B. C. 48. In the following year he was ordered by Caesar to carry over from Italy to Sicily the legions which were destined for the African war; but the soldiers of the twelfth legion rose in mutiny, and drove him away with a shower of stones, demanding to receive, before they quitted Italy, the rewards which they had been promised in Greece. At the conclusion of the civil war Sulla purchased at a small sum some of the confiscated estates of the Pompeian party, and appears in consequence to have incurred no small degree of obloquy. He died during a journey in B. C. 45; and, according to Cicero (Cic. Fam. 9.10, 15.17), people were too glad to hear of his death to trouble themselves about the inquiry whether he had perished by the hands of robbers, or had fallen a victim to excessive indulgence in the pleasures of the table. (Cic. pro Sulla, passim; Sall. Cat. 17, 18 ; D. C. 36.27; Cic. de Fin. 2.19; Caes. Civ. 3.51, 89 ; Appian, App. BC 2.76 ; Cic. Att. 11.21, 22, de Off. 2.8.) Sulla left behind him a son P. Sulla [No. 11], and also a step-son Memmius. (Cic. ad Q. Fr. 3.3.)