command. Such was the state of things Sulla was leaving behind
him. But he went through the farce of binding Cinna by solemn
oaths not to upset arrangements recently made, and set out for
the East early in 87.

413. The civil warfare and revolutionary doings in Rome
during the year 88 were only possible because the Italian rebellion
had ceased to be really dangerous. But Italy was still far from
being at rest. In the North there were uneasy movements among
the smaller peoples, and an army of observation had to be em-
ployed. In the South another force was at work recovering
Apulia. The Samnites and Lucanians were still in arms. Silo
the Marsian reorganized the Samnite forces and held his ground
till the Roman armies closed in upon him, and he fell in battle.
So the war died out, and we cease to hear of Italian armies as
such holding the field. But we do not hear of any formal sub-
mission and pacification of the stubborn remnant of the rebels.
It is said that in their latter days of depression they sent an
embassy to beg the aid of Mithradates. But the Great King
now had his hands full, and the ill-matched combination never
took effect. After the death of Silo, open resistance to Rome
was at an end, save for a few minor affairs such as the siege
of Nola. The general situation in several parts of Italy seems
to have been a sort of uneasy truce, with masses of discontented
people awaiting developments. Many districts had suffered from
the wasteful ravages of war. On the side of Rome, a change
had come over the spirit of her armies. The departure of Sulla
removed the pick of the Roman troops, doubtless nearly all of
them old citizens. In the forces left behind, the ranks were
largely filled with new citizens hastily enrolled, probably far more
interested in securing their own equal rights as Romans, than
willing to wait patiently for a suitable moment to assert their
claims. Rome, torn by faction, needed a little breathing-space
to settle down and face the difficult problems of the hour. But,
with things in the state in which Sulla had left them, such a
respite would have been a miracle.

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