A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

SULLA. SULLA. 9 3
the Greek text and a Latin version, was by Aemi- the dictator received the name of Sulla in conliuls Portus, Geneva, 1619, 2 vols. fol., and 1630, sequence of his face being spotted with rough red
with a new title. The Latin version is said to be blotches interspersed with the white. Macrobius
better than Wolf's. (Sat. i. 17) gives quite a different explanation, and
The edition of L. hiister appeared at Cambridge, derives the word from Sibylla, which he says was
1705, 3 vols. folio. The basis of this edition is given to P. Cornelius Rufinus, because he was the
not the Editio Princeps, but that of Portus. Kiister first to introduce the celebration of the Ludi Apolcorrected the text with the aid of the MSS., added linares in accordance with the commands of the
numerous good notes, and improved the version of Sibylline books, and that this surname Sibylla was
Portus. But he dealt with the Greek text rather afterwards shortened into Sylla. This explanation
in an arbitrary way, and rejected all that he con of the word is repeated by Charisius (Inst. Gramn.
sidered to be interpolated. J. Gronovius made an i. 20); but, independent of other objections, it
attack on Kiister's edition, to which Kiister re- must be rejected on the authority of Quintilian (i.
plied. The preface of Kiister contairs a disserta- 4. ~ 25), who classes Sulla with other cognomens,
tion on Suidas. which owed their origin to certain bodily pecuThe edition of Suidas by T. Gaisford, in three liarities. Some modern writers, such as Cortius
handsome volumes folio, appeared at Oxford in (ad Sall. Catil. 5), regard Sulla as a diminutive of
1834. The first two volumes contain the text Sura, which was a cognomen in several Roman
without a Latin version, and the notes, which are gentes [SIRA], and we are disposed to accept this as
chiefly selected from Kiister and others. The third the most probable explanation of the word. It would
volume contains " Index Kusterianus Rerum et be formed from Sura on the same analogy as puella
Nominum Propriorum quae extra seriem suam in from puera, and tenellus from tener (comp. SchneiSuidae Lexico occurrunt; " "Index Glossarum Per- der, Elemeetarlelhre der lateinisclhen Sprache, vol. i.
sonarum Verborumque notatu digniorum;" and p. 47, &c.). There is no authority for writing the
" Index Scriptorum a Suida citatorum." In his word Sylla, as is done by many modern writers.
preface Gaisford states, that he used nearly the Oin coins and inscriptions we always find Sula or
same MSS. as Kiister, but that Kiister was care- Sulla, never Sylla.
less in noting the readings of the MSS. Gaisford 1. P. CORNELIUS (RUFINUS) SULLA, the greathas given the various readings of the best MS., grandfather of the dictator SuIla, and the grandson
and those of the edition of Chalcondylas. Kiister of P. Cornelius Rufinus, who was twice consul in
adopted many of the emendations of Portus with- the Samnite wars. [RUFINUS, CORNELIUS, No. 2.]
out acknowledgment, and he is accused generally His father is not mentioned. He was, as has been
of borrowing without owning where he got his already mentioned, the first of the family who
matter from. bore the surname of Sulla. He was flamen dialis,
The edition of G. Bernhardy, 4to. Halle, 1834, and likewise praetor urbanus and peregrinus in
contains a Latin version. It is founded on the s. c. 212. The praetor of the preceding year, M.
edition of Gaisford, as appears from the title - Attilius, had handed over to hint certain sacred
" Gr. & Lat. ad fidem optimorum librorum exactum, verses of the seer Marcius, partly referring to the
post Th. Gaisford recens. et adnot. critic. instruxit past and partly to the future, and which comGdf. Bernhardy." manded the Romans, among other things, to instiThere are said to be two unpublished extracts tute an annual festival in honour of Apollo. Upon
from an epitome of Suidas, by Thomas of Crete, this the senate ordered the decemviri to Consult
and by Macarius Hieromonachus, the brother of the Sibylline books, and as these gave the same
Nicephorus Gregoras. As to the Latin translation command, Sulla presided over the first Ludi Apolof Suidas, said to have been made by Robert Gros- linares, which were celebrated this year in the
tete, bishop of Lincoln, who died in 1253, see circus maximus. (Liv. xxv. 2, 3, 12, 15, 32, 41.)
Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. vi. p. 402. [G. L.] 2. P. CORNELIUS SULLA, the son of No. 1, and
SUI'LLIUS CAESONI'NUS. [C.ESONINUS.] the grandfather of the dictator Suila, was praetor
SUI'LLIUS NERULI'NUS. [NERULINUS.] in B. C. 186, when he obtained Sicily as his proSUI'LLIUS RUFUS. [RUFUs.] vince. (Liv. xxxix. 6, 8.)
SULCA, Q. BAE'BIUS, one of the Roman 3. SER. CORNELIUS SULLA, the brother of No.
ambassadors, sent to Ptolemy in Egypt, in B. C. 2, was one of the ten commissioners, who was sent
173. (Liv. xlii. 6.) by the senate into Macedonia, in B. C. 167, after
SULLA, the name of a patrician family of the the conquest of Perseus, in order to arrange the
Cornelia gens. This family was originally called affairs of that country, in conjunction with L.
Rufinus [RUFINUS], and the first member of it Aemilius Paulus. (Liv. xlv. 17.)
who obtained the name of Sulla was P. Cornelius 4. L. CORNELIUS SULLA, the son of No. 2, and
Sulla, who was flamen dialis and praetor in the the father of the dictator Sulla, lived in obscurity,
second Punic war. [See below, No. 1.] This was and left his son only a slender fortune. (Plut.
stated by the dictator Sulla, in the second book of Sull. 1).
his Commentaries (Gell. i. 12), and is corroborated 5. L. CORNELIUS SULLA FELIX, the dictator,
by Livy and other authorities. Plutarch there- was born in B. C. 138. Like most other great
fore has made a mistake in saying that the dic- men, he was the architect of his owni fortunes.
tator Sulla had this name given to him from a He possessed neither of the two great advantages
personal peculiarity. (Plut. Sull. 2.) The origin of which secured for the Roman nobles easy access
the name is uncertain. Drumann, and most mo- to the honours of the commonwealth, an illustrious
dern writers, suppose that it is a word of the same ancestry and hereditary wealth. His father had
signification as Rufus or Rufinus, and refers simply left him so small a property that he paid for his
to the red colour of the hair or the complexion; lodgings very little more than a freedman who
and Plutarch appears to have understood the word lived in the same house with him. But still his
to have this meaning, since he relates (I. c.) that means were sufficient to secure for him a good
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