It seems hard to gather what was exactly the Dictator's scheme as the future depositary of power when he should himself have left the scene.

He did increase the privileges of the Senate; but thinking of the Senate of Rome as he must have thought of it, esteeming those old men as lowly as he must have esteemed them, he could hardly have intended that imperial power should be maintained by dividing it among them.

He certainly contemplated no follower to himself, no heir to his power, as Caesar did.

When he had been practically Dictator about three years--though he did not continue the use of the objectionable name--he resigned his rule and walked down, as it were, from his throne into private life.

I know nothing in history more remarkable than Sulla's resignation; and yet the writers who have dealt with his name give no explanation of it.