The immense number of characters mentioned in a brief and compressed fashion has been the cause of peculiar difficulties. […] Sulla resigned power after a brief tenure. […] In the meantime, the Liberators, descending for a brief space from the citadel, had made vain appeal to the populace in the Forum. […] In form, the speech was brief and moderate:1 the audience was inflammable. […] Many deserted and returned to their homes, none the worse for a brief autumnal escapade.