Yes, Paullus, your point is well-taken: Marius' hands were bloody but Sulla's must have dripped. Sulla murder more Romans, though Marius murdered the more prominent.

'Tis odd in way to look back at Marius through Sulla's brief but significant ascendancy. Against the backdrop of Marius and Cinna, Sulla had an opportunity to look the hero, even to the common people and the equites. That he rather became the villain and Marius the folk-hero tells us all we may need to know of the Sullan terror.

Nevertheless, Sulla did more than most to restore the Republic and sustain Roman civic processes. Alas, he failed.