This half-ironical frivolity pervades his whole political action.

It is always as if the victor, just as it pleased him to call his merit in gaining victory good fortune, esteemed the victory itself of no value; as if he had a partial presentiment of the vanity and perishableness of his own work; as if after the manner of a steward he preferred making repairs to pulling down and rebuilding, and allowed himself in the end to be content with a sorry plastering to conceal the flaws.
Sulla after His Retirement But, such as he was, this Don Juan of politics was a man of one mould.

His whole life attests the internal equilibrium of his nature; in the most diverse situations Sulla remained unchangeably the same.

It was the same temper, which after the brilliant successes in Africa made him seek once more the idleness of the capital, and after the full possession of absolute power made him find rest and refreshment in his Cuman villa.

In his mouth the saying, that public affairs were a burden which he threw off so soon as he might and could, was no mere phrase.