in their houses, many in the streets, and scattered about in the fora and near the temples:  the heads of such were once more attached to the rostra and their trunks flung out to be devoured by the dogs and birds or cast into the river.  Everything that had been done before in the days of Sulla found a counterpart at this time, except that only two white tablets were posted, one for the senators and one for the rest.  The reason for this I have not been able to learn from any one else nor to find out myself.  The cause which one might have imagined, that fewer were put to death, is least of all true:  for many more names were listed, because there were more leaders concerned.  In this respect, then, the case differed from the murders that had earlier taken place:  but that the names of those prominent were not posted with the rabble, but separately, appeared very nonsensical to the men who were to be murdered in the same way.  Besides this no few other very unpleasant conditions fell to their lot, although the former regime, one would have said, had left nothing to be surpassed. [-4-] But in Sulla’s time those guilty of such murderous measures had some excuse in their very hardihood:  they were trying the method for the first time, and not with set intentions; hence in most cases they behaved less maliciously, since they were acting not according to definite plans but as chance dictated.  And the victims, succumbing to sudden and unheard of catastrophes, found some alleviation in the unexpectedness of their experience.  At this time, on the other hand, they were executing in person or beholding or at least understanding thoroughly by fresh descriptions merely deeds that had been dared before; in the intervals, expecting a recurrence of similar acts, some were inventing various new methods to employ, and others were becoming afflicted by new fears that they too should suffer.  The perpetrators resorted to most unusual devices in their emulation of the outrages of yore and their consequent eagerness to add, through the resources of art, novel features to their attempts.  The others reflected on all that they might suffer and hence even before their bodies were harmed their spirits were thoroughly on the rack, as if they were already undergoing the trial. [-5-] Another reason for their faring worse on this occasion than before was that previously only Sulla’s own enemies and the foes of the leaders associated with him were destroyed:  among his friends and the people in general no one perished at his bidding; so that except the very wealthy,—­and these can never be at peace with the stronger element at such a time,—­the remainder took courage.  In this second series of assassinations, however, not only the men’s enemies or the rich were being killed, but also their best friends and quite without looking for it.  On the whole it may be said that almost nobody had incurred the enmity of those men from any private cause that should account for his being slain by them.  Politics and compromises