The last story is probably as true as the other.
[Sidenote: Escape of Sylla's wife.] Marius continued his executions and massacres until the whole of Sylla's party had been slain or put to flight.

He made every effort to discover Sylla's wife and child, with a view to destroying them also, but they could not be found.

Some friends of Sylla, taking compassion on their innocence and helplessness, concealed them, and thus saved Marius from the commission of one intended crime.

Marius was disappointed, too, in some other cases, where men whom he had intended to kill destroyed themselves to baffle his vengeance.

One shut himself up in a room with burning charcoal, and was suffocated with the fumes.