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I enjoyed reading this post from more than a decade ago. Sulla's skin disease has been discussed frequently in past. From Plutarch's "Parallel Lives, Sulla:" http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Sulla*.html Although suggested by many (and certainly consistent with some features of Sulla's presentation), secondary and tertiary syphilis are unlikely since the virulent form of syphilis causing this eruption was unknown in Europe at the time. http://www.casa-kvsa.org.za/1961/AC04-06-Carney.pdf Perhaps Sulla suffered from a not-too-rare condition in the elderly known as bullous pemphigoid. Without treatment, patients with bullous pemphigoid suffer from intact blisters and erosions that frequently become secondarily infected with bacteria. Whatever the primary cause of the skin eruption, maggots can lay eggs on these or any other open wounds (myiasis). (Image of dog suffering from myiasis.) guy also known as gaius

Clearly McCullough did her research, as did novelists such as Robert Graves, but a novelists nature is always to take that research and insert their own interpretations of it. Are they wrong? Not necessarily, but there is often not enough actual historical to support some of the details. However, in this case, Plutarch provides some interesting information. He, unlike us unfortunately, would've also had access to Sulla's personal memoirs. Plutarch provides a decent summary of the 'blotchy' skin condition in Life of Sulla ch 2 Describing his death, Plutarch goes on to explain the condition with worms that Kosmo mentioned. Life of Sulla ch. 36

He had some sort of skin disease with open ulceration. I don't remeber where I've read that maggots crawled from one to the other.