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What fury of foreign nations, what barbarian ferocity, can compare
with this victory of citizens over citizens? Which was more
disastrous, more hideous, more bitter to Rome: the recent Gothic
and the old Gallic invasion, or the cruelty displayed by Marius and
Sylla and their partisans against men who were members of the same body
as themselves? The Gauls, indeed, massacred all the senators they
found in any part of the city except the Capitol, which alone was
defended; but they at least sold life to those who were in the
Capitol, though they might have starved them out if they could not
have stormed it. The Goths, again, spared so many senators, that
it is the more surprising that they killed any. But Sylla, while
Marius was still living, established himself as conqueror in the
Capitol, which the Gauls had not violated, and thence issued his
death-warrants; and when Marius had escaped by flight, though
destined to return more fierce and bloodthirsty than ever, Sylla
issued from the Capitol even decrees of the senate for the slaughter
and confiscation of the property of many citizens. Then, when Sylla
left, what did the Marian faction hold sacred or spare, when they
gave no quarter even to Mucius, a citizen, a senator, a pontiff,
and though clasping in piteous embrace the very altar in which, they
say, reside the destinies of Rome? And that final proscription list
of Sylla's, not to mention countless other massacres, despatched
more senators than the Goths could even plunder.
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