Lucius Cornelius Sulla

Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix (c. 138 BC – 78 BC) was a Roman General and Dictator.

Quotes

 * How is this? Ought not the petitioner to speak first, and the conqueror to listen in silence?
 * To Mithridates VI of Pontus, at a peace conference, as quoted in "Sylla" by Plutarch in Plutarch's Lives as translated by John Dryden


 * I forgive the many for the sake of the few, the living for the dead.
 * On calling an end to the sacking of Athens, after a plea on its behalf by two Athenians loyal to Rome, as quoted in The Story of Rome : From the Earliest Times to the Death of Augustus (1900) by Mary Macgregor; also said to be in a translation of Plutarch's works.


 * No friend ever served me, and no enemy ever wronged me, whom I have not repaid in full.
 * His self-made epitaph, as quoted in Heroes of History : A Brief History of Civilization from Ancient Times to the Dawn of the Modern Age (2001) by Will Durant; variant translation: "...nor enemy harmed me"


 * He ought to have worked at the oar before steering the vessel.
 * Upon being handed the head of his enemy Gaius Marius the Younger (Also translated as: "First you must learn to pull an oar, only then can you take the helm")