hardly a secret. Demagogues with a 'popular' policy had a
prospect of support from the non-noble capitalists. For the
Equestrian Order speedily revived after the proscriptions, and
longed to recapture the control of the public courts; while the
senatorial juries, whether lax or severe, could not escape incurring
unpopularity. This situation naturally resulted in a confused
struggle, the two factions being at issue on the question of up-
holding or overthrowing the Sullan constitution. In the course
of some nine years one great truth was fully demonstrated, that
the real source of power in the Roman state was the sword. So
long as the leaders of armies worked in harmony with the Senate,
the Senate could hold its ground fairly well. Once they found
their interest in coalescing with the popular party, the Senate
could make no stand. The armies of the new model obeyed
their own leaders, not the Senate. The work of Marius could
not be undone, for it expressed the genuine tendencies of the
age. Sulla himself had carried the process a step further, by
teaching them that the soldier must look to his master, not to
the Senate, for the rewards of service. This was the vital fact
underlying Roman politics, the fact governing the course of the
revolution in all its later stages.

451. The troubles abroad, in Spain Macedonia and Asia
Minor, will be referred to below. It should however be noted
here that P. Servilius Vatia, consul in 79, had been sent out to
put down the pirates infesting the eastern seas. He gained suc-
cesses both by sea and land; for he marched up into the hill-
country of Isauria and earned the title Isauricus. But he did not
make an end of piracy, as we shall see. The most urgent danger
with which the government had to deal was at home in Italy.
The consuls of 78 were M. Aemilius Lepidus and Q. Lutatius
Catulus. The former, a restless vain man, was for some reason
hostile to Sulla's policy. He had been supported in his candi-
dature by Pompey, against the express warning of Sulla. Sulla
died: the two consuls quarrelled over the question of the public
funeral. After this Lepidus, relying on the general discontent,
began to assail parts of the Sullan arrangements. He proposed
to recall exiles, to restore the dispossessed holders to their lands,
and to renew the supply of cheap corn in Rome, which last pro-
posal he seems to have carried. His conduct only added to the
general unrest. He was not a thorough democrat, for he opposed

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