The Fragments of the Histories

Plutarch differs from Appian, since he himself hands down that Sulla died while suffering from phthiriasis from a parasitic infestation causing skin ulceration due to extreme agitation of mind, while the latter narrates in b. c. I, 105 that Sulla died after being seized by a fever. In insisting upon phthiriasis, Plutarch agrees with Pliny hist. nat. XXXVI, § 138, Pausanias I 20, 7, and the author of de vir. ill. 75. I would hardly dare to decide to which author Pausanias returns; however, the agreement between Plutarch and Pseudo-Victor will be most easily explained if we think these were drawn from Cornelius Nepos, who is known to have been read by Plutarch; for it is not ridiculous to vindicate this story 1) Mommsen rightly denied that such a disease ever existed except in the minds of the credulous. to Sallust or Posidonius, those serious writers. Furthermore, Pliny does not exhibit the author in the index of this book from whom he could have found the story; but he also commemorated the same matter, albeit more briefly, in VIII, § 138, where Cornelius Nepos is named in the index. Now who would doubt that Pliny, Pseudo-Victor, and Plutarch took the matter from Nepos? 2) Kuyper l. l. p. 120 attributed it to Sallust, Arnold l. l. p. 109 to Fenestella, both however without any argument. Regarding the final cause of Sulla's death, namely the matter committed between him and Granius the duumvir, Plutarch agrees accurately with Valerius Maximus IX 3, 8; for instance, Valerius Maximus 'His chest convulsed by an immoderate outburst of voice' cf. with Plutarch 'with his shouting and straining' or Valerius Maximus 'He vomited out his breath mixed with blood' with Plutarch: 'he cast out a quantity of blood.' From this consensus, and no less from the hostile intent of the narrative, it may be concluded that this matter was drawn by both from Sallust. Finally, in the last chapter of Sulla's life, since the grace and persona of Pompeius are pressed quite hard, we can suspect that we have Livy, who was called the Pompeian. I have already mentioned above that those things which Licinianus narrates up to Sulla's death emanated from Livy: and indeed Plutarch agrees with the same: 'As the fire was departing, a great rain poured down and held until night,' cf. Gran. p. 42, A. 15: 'When fire had been brought to his pyre, a not insignificant rain followed.'

Then Plutarch in the life of Pompeius c. 1–16 concerning the affairs of