Sulla9. 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.)