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5Another reason for their faring worse on this occasion than before was that previously only the enemies of Sulla and of the leaders associated with him were destroyed, whereas among the friends of Sulla or of the other men no one perished, at least not at Sulla’s bidding; 2so that, apart from the very wealthy, who can never be at peace on such occasions with the man more powerful than themselves, all the rest had no cause for fear. In this second series of murders, however, not only the men’s enemies or the rich were being killed, but also their best friends, incredible as it may seem. 3For in general almost nobody had incurred the enmity of those men for any mere private cause, to such an extent as to be murdered by them; but it was their public relations and their changing of their allegiance from one political leader to another that had created for the Romans not only their friendships, but also their violent enmities. 4For everyone who had made common cause or coöperated with his neighbour in anything was regarded by all the rest in the light of an enemy. And thus it came about that the same persons had become friends of some one of the leaders and enemies of them all as a body, so that while privately each leader was merely taking vengeance upon those who had plotted against him, as a group they were destroying even their dearest friends. 5For in consequence of the dealings they had had with one another they kept a sort of reckoning of the items of “friend” and “enemy,” and no one of their number could take vengeance on one of his own enemies, if he was a friend of one of the other two, without giving up some friend in return; and because of their resentment over what was past and their suspicion regarding the future they cared nothing about the saving of an associate as over against their vengeance upon an adversary, and therefore readily gave their friends in return.
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