Note 162 — LIFE OF SULLA.

Many distinguished families belonged to the Cornelii, as the Scipiones, Lentuli, Dolabellæ, and others. The Patricians were the old Roman noble families, whom Plutarch compares with the Athenian Eupatridæ, or men of noble family, who formed in the older periods of Athenian history the first class in the State.

The origin of the word Sulla is uncertain. This Sulla was not the first who bore it. P. Cornelius Rufinus, Prætor B.C. 212, the grandfather of this Sulla, also bore the name. The various conjectures on the origin of the name Sulla are given by Drumann, Geschichte Roms, ii. p. 426. The name should be written Sulla, not Sylla. The coins have always Sulla or Sula. (Rasche, Lex Rei Numariæ; Eckhel, Doctrina Num. Vet. v. 189.) L. Cornelius Sulla was the son of L. Cornelius Sulla, and born B.C. 138.