Lucius Cornelius Sulla
Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix (c. 138 BC - 78 BC) was a Roman General and Dictator
Sourced
- 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"
Misattributed
- No Better Friend, No Worse Enemy.
- Motto of the 1st Marine Division of the United States Marine Corps used by General James Mattis in a message to the troops before the 2003 invasion of Iraq, as quoted in War Stories: Operation Iraqi Freedom (2003) by Oliver North, p. 53; said to be derived from Sulla's famous self-made epitaph.