Sulla

Some, however, say that it was not Metellus, but Fufidius, one of Sulla’s fawning creatures, who made this last speech to him. Be that as it may, Sulla at once proscribed[*](A list of the persons proscribed was posted in public, and those whose names were on the list might be killed by anyone who chose to do it.) eighty persons, without communicating with any magistrate; and in spite of the general indignation, after a single day’s interval, he proscribed two hundred and twenty others, and then on the third day, as many more.

Referring to these measures in a public harangue, he said that he was proscribing as many as he could remember, and those who now escaped his memory, he would proscribe at a future time. He also proscribed any one who harboured and saved a proscribed person, making death the punishment for such humanity, without exception of brother, son, or parents, but offering any one who slew a proscribed person two talents as a reward for his murderous deed, even though a slave should slay his master, or a son his father. And what seemed the greatest injustice of all, he took away all civil rights from the sons and grandsons of those who had been proscribed, and confiscated the property of all.