Chapter XIV: Part 14

[Footnote 317: Pompeius was made Præfectus Annonæ for five years. There was a great scarcity at Rome, which was nothing unusual, and dangerous riots (see the article CORN TRADE, ROMAN, 'Political Dictionary,' by the author of this note). The appointment of Pompeius is mentioned by Dion Cassius (39. c. 9, and the notes of Reimarus). Cicero (_Ad Atticum_, iv. 1) speaks of the appointment of Pompeius.]

[Footnote 318: Ptolemæus Auletes had given large bribes to several Romans to purchase their influence and to get himself declared a friend and ally of the Romans; which was in fact to put himself under their protection. His subjects were dissatisfied with him for various reasons, and among others for the heavy taxes which he laid on them to raise the bribe money. He made his escape from Egypt and was now in Rome. The story is told at some length in Dion Cassius (39. c. 12, &c.), and the matter of the king's restoration is discussed by Cicero in several letters (_Ad Diversos_, i. 1-7) to this Spinther. The king for the present did not get the aid which he wanted, and he retired to Ephesus, where he lodged within the precincts of the temple of Artemis, which was an ASYLUM. (See 'Political Dictionary,' art. Asylum; and Strabo, p. 641.)]

[Footnote 319: A Greek historian of the time of Augustus. He was originally a captive slave, but he was manumitted and admitted to the intimacy of Augustus Cæsar. He was very free with his tongue, which at last caused him to be forbidden the house of Augustus. (Seneca, _De Ira_, iii. 23.) He burnt some of his historical writings, but not all of them, for Plutarch here refers to his authority. Horatius (1 _Ep_. 19. v. 15) alludes to Timagenes. (See Suidas, [Greek: Timagenês] Τιμαγένης.)]

[Footnote 320: See the Life of Cæsar, c. 15, and as to the conference at Luca, c. 21. The conference took place B.C. 56, when Marcellinus (c. 48, notes) was one of the consuls. Compare also the Life of Crassus (c. 14, 15), and Dion Cassius, 39. c. 30, as to the trouble at Rome at this time, and Appianus (_Civil Wars_, ii. 17).]

[Footnote 321: This is the meaning of the word [Greek: politikôteron] πολιτικώτερον, which is generally mistranslated here and in other parts of Plutarch. It is the translation of the Roman term 'civiliter.' (Tacitus, _Annal_. i 33, iii 76.)]

[Footnote 322: Life of Crassus, c. 15, notes.]

[Footnote 323: P. Vatinius, often mentioned by Cicero. (See Orelli, _Onomasticon_, Vatinius.) Cicero's extant oration In Vatinium was delivered B.C. 56.]

[Footnote 324: C. Trebonius, a friend of Cicero, several of whose letters to him are extant. (Cicero, _Ad Divers._ x. 28; xii. 16; xv. 20, 21.) He was one of the conspirators against Cæsar; and Cicero tells him (x. 28) that he was somewhat vexed with him that he saved Antonius from the same fate. Trebonius was treacherously put to death at Smyrna by Dolabella with circumstances of great cruelty B.C. 43. (Dion Cassius, 47. c. 29.) In the notes to the life of Crassus, c. 16, I have incorrectly called this Tribune Titus.]

[Footnote 325: Plutarch must mean that Crassus left Rome before the expiration of his consulship B.C. 55; but the words [Greek: apallageis tês hupateias] ἀπαλλαγεὶς τῆς ὑπατείας are in themselves doubtful. (Life of Crassus, c. 16.)]

[Footnote 326: Drumann (_Geschichte Roms_, Pompeii, p. 524) has diligently collected all the circumstances of this magnificent exhibition. (See also Dion Cassius, 39. c. 38, and the references in the notes of Reimarus.) The elephant-fight ([Greek: elphantomachia] ἐλφαντομαχία) was a fight between the elephants and armed Gætulians. There were eighteen elephants. The cries of the animals when they were wounded moved the pity of the spectators. The elephants would not enter the vessels when they were leaving Africa, till they received a promise from their leaders that they should not he injured; the treacherous treatment of them at the games was the cause of their loud lamentations, in which they appealed to the deity against the violation of the solemn promise. (Dion Cassius.) Cicero, who was not fond of exhibitions of the kind, speaks with disgust of the whole affair (_Ad Diversos_, vii. 1). The letter of Cicero, written at the time, is valuable contemporary evidence. Various facts on the exhibition of elephants at Rome are collected in the Library of Entertaining Knowledge, _Menageries_, Elephant.

A rhinoceros was also exhibited at the games of Pompeius; and an actress was brought on the stage, who had made her first appearance in the consulship of C. Marius the younger, and Cn. Carbo B.C. 82, but she made her appearance again in the time of Augustus, A.D. 9, in the consulship of Poppæus, when she was 103 years old, 91 years after her first appearance. (Plinius, _H.N_. vii. 49.) Drumann says, when speaking of the games of Pompeius, "a woman of unusually advanced age was brought forward;" but the words of Plinius "anus pro miraculo reducta," apply to her last appearance. A woman of one-and-forty was no uncommon thing then, nor is it now. The pointing in the common texts is simply the cause of the blunder.]

[Footnote 327: See the Life of Crassus, c. 16, notes, Julia died B.C. 54, in the consulship of L. Domitius Ahenobarbus and Ap. Claudius Pulcher (See the Life of Cæsar. c. 23.) Crassus lost his life B.C. 53.]

[Footnote 328: A quotation from the Iliad, xv. 189.]

[Footnote 329: Cn. Domitius Calvinus and M. Valerius Messala, the consuls of B.C. 53, were not elected till seven months after the proper time, so that there was during this time an anarchy [Greek: anarchia] ἀναρχία, which is Plutarch's word). This term 'anarchy' must be taken in its literal and primary sense of a time when there were no magistrates, which would be accompanied with anarchy in the modern sense of the term. Dion Cassius (40. c. 45) describes this period of confusion. The translation in the text may lead to a misunderstanding of Plutarch's meaning; it should be, "he allowed an anarchy to take place." Kaltwasser's translation: "so liess er es zu einer Anarchie kommen," is perfectly exact.]

[Footnote 330: In the year B.C. 52 in which year Clodius was killed.]

[Footnote 331: She was the daughter of Q. Cæcilius Metellus Pius Scipio, who was the son of P. Cornelius Scipio Nasica and of Licinia, the daughter of the orator L. Crassus. He was adopted (B.C. 64 or 63) by the testament of Q. Cæcilius Metellus Pius, who fought in Spain ngainst Sertorius; but his daughter must have been born before this, as she bore the name Cornelia. Drumann (_Geschichte Roms_, Cæcilii, p. 49) thinks that the story of her attempting to destroy herself when she heard of the death of her husband (Life of Pompeius, c. 74) is suspicious, because she married Pompeius the year after. If Cornelia were the only woman that was ever said to have done so, we might doubt the story; but as she is not, we need not suspect it on that account.]

[Footnote 332: Corruption is [Greek: dorodokia] δοροδοκία in Plutarch, 'gift receiving,' and it ought to correspond to the Roman Peculatus. But [Greek: dorodokia] δοροδοκία also means corruption by bribes. Bribery is [Greek: dekasmos] δεκασμός in Plutarch, which is expressed generally by the Roman Ambitus, and specially by the verb 'decuriare.' (See Cicero's Oration Pro Cn. Plancio, Ed. Wunder.) The offence of Scipio was Ambitus. (Dion Cassius, 40. c. 51, &c.; Appianus, _Civil Wars_, ii. 24.) As to Roman Bribery, see the article BRIBERY, 'Political Dictionary,' by the author of this note, whose contribution begins p. 416.]

[Footnote 333: These 360 Judices appear to have been chosen for the occasion of these trials. (Velleius Pater. ii. 76; Goettling, _Roemische Staatsverfassung_, p. 482.)]

[Footnote 334: T. Munatius Plancus Bursa, a tribune of the Plebs. In B.C. 52 Milo and Clodius with their followers had an encounter in which Clodius was killed. Tho people, with whom he was a favourite, burnt his body in the Curia Hostilia, and the Curia with it. (Dion Cassius, 40, c. 48.) Plancus was charged with encouraging this disorder, and he was brought to trial. Cicero was his accuser; he was condemned and exiled. (Cicero, _Ad Diversos_, vii. 2.)]

[Footnote 335: Plautius Hypsæus was not a consular. He had been the quæstor of Pompeius. He and Scipio had been candidates for the consulship this year, and were both charged with bribery. (Dion Cassius, 40, c. 53.) Hypsæus was convicted.]

[Footnote 336: See the Life of Cæsar, c. 29. Pompeius had lent Cæsar two legions (c. 52). Compare Dion Cassius, 40. c. 65, and Appianus, _Civil Wars_, ii. 29. The illness of Pompeius and the return of the legions from Gaul took place in the year B.C. 50. Appius Claudius (c. 57) was sent by the Senate to conduct the legions from Gaul. Dion Cassius (40. c. 65) says that Pompeius had lent Cæsar only one legion, but that Cæsar had to give up another also, inasmuch as Pompeius obtained an order of the Senate that both he and Cæsar should give a legion to Bibulus, who was in Syria, for the Parthian war. (Appianus, _Civil Wars_, ii. 29; _Bell. Gall._ viii. 54.) Thus Pompeius in effect gave up nothing, but Cæsar parted with two legions. The legions were not sent to Syria, but both wintered in Capua. The consul C. Claudius Marcellus (B.C. 50) gave both these legions to Pompeius.]

[Footnote 337: L. Æmilius Paulus was consul B.C. 50, with C. Claudius Marcellus a violent opponent of Cæsar. He built the Basilica Pauli (Appianus, _Civil Wars_, ii. 26). Basilica is a Greek word ([Greek: basilikê] βασιλική); a basilica was used as a court of law, and a place of business for merchants. The form of a Roman basilica is known from the description of Vitruvius (v. 1), the ground-plan of two Basilicæ at Rome, and that of Pompeii which is in better preservation. Some of the great Roman churches are called Basilicæ, and in their construction bear some resemblance to the antient Basilicæ. ('Penny Cyclopædia,' _Basilica_.)]

[Footnote 338: C. Scribonius Curio. Compare the Life of M. Antonius, c. 2. He was a man of ability, but extravagant in his habits (Dion Cassius, 40. c. 60):--

"Momentumque fuit mutatus Curio rerum,
Gallorum captus spoliis et Cæsaris auro."--

Lucanus, _Pharsalia_, iv. 819

As to the vote on the proposition of Curio, Appianus (_Civil Wars_, ii. 30) agrees with Plutarch. Dion Cassius (40. c. 64: and 41. c. 2) gives a different account of this transaction.]

[Footnote 339: C. Claudius Marcellus and L. Cornelius Lentulus Crus were consuls for the year B.C. 49, in which the war broke out, This Marcellus was the cousin of the consul Marcellus of the year B.C. 50, who (Appianus, _Civil Wars_, ii. 30) presented Pompeius with a sword when he commissioned him to fight against Cæsar. Plutarch appears (c. 58, 59) to mean the same Marcellus; but he has confounded them. The Marcellus of c. 58 is the consul of B.C. 49; and the Marcellus of c. 59 is the consul of B.C. 50, according to Dion Cassius (40. c. 66 41. c. 1, &c.) and Appianus.]

[Footnote 340: Cicero returned from his government of Cilicia B.C. 50.]

[Footnote 341: See the Life of Cæsar, c. 32.]

[Footnote 342: L. Volcatius Tullus who had been consul B.C. 66 ('Consule Tullo'), Horatius (_Od._ iii. 8).]

[Footnote 343: The reply of Pompeius is given by Appianus (_Civil Wars_, ii. 37). As to the confusion in Rome see Dion Cassius (42. c. 6-9); and the references in Clinton, _Fasti_, B.C. 49.]

[Footnote 344: Plutarch here omits the capture of Corfinium, which took place before Cæsar entered Rome. See Dion Cassius (41. c. 10), and the Life of Cæsar, c. 34.]

[Footnote 345: L. Metullus, of whom little is known. Kaltwasser makes Cæsar say to Metellus, "It was not harder for him to say it than to do it;" which has no sense in it. What Cæsar did say appears from the Life of Cæsar, c. 35. Cæsar did not mean to say that it was as easy for him to do it as to say it. He meant that it was hard for him to be reduced to say such a thing; as to doing it, when he had said it, that would be a light matter. Sintenis suspects that the text is not quite right here. See the various readings and his proposed alteration; also Cicero, _Ad Attic._ x. 4.]

[Footnote 346: Cæsar (_Civil War_, i. 25, &c.) describes the operations at Brundisium and the escape ot Pompeius. Compare also Dion Cassius (41. c. 12); Appianus (_Civil Wars_, ii. 39). The usual passage from Italy to Greece was from Brundisium to Dyrrachium (Durazzo), which in former times was called Epidamnus (Thucydides, i. 24; Appianus, _Civil Wars_, ii. 39).]

[Footnote 347: This does not appear in Cæsar's Civil War.]

[Footnote 348: This opinion of Cicero is contained in a letter to Atticus (vii. 11). When Xerxes invaded Attica (B.C. 480), Themistokles advised the Athenians to quit their city and trust to their ships. The naval victory of Salamis justified his advice. In the Peloponnesian War (B.C. 431) Perikles advised the Athenians to keep within their walls and wait for the Cæsar invaders to retire from Attica for want of supplies; in which also the result justified the advice of Perikles. Cicero in his letters often complains of the want of resolution which Pompeius displayed at this crisis.]

[Footnote 349: Plutarch means that Cæsar feared that Pompeius had everything to gain if the war was prolonged.

In his Civil War (i. 24) Numerius is called Cneius Magius, 'Præfectus fabrorum,' or head of the engineer department. Sintenis observes that Oudendorp might have used this passage for the purpose of restoring the true prænomen in Cæsar's text, 'Numerius' in place of 'Cneius.']

[Footnote 350: These vessels took their name from the Liburni, on the coast of Illyricum. They were generally biremes, and well adapted for sea manœuvres.]

[Footnote 351: A town in Macedonia west of the Thermaic Gulf or Bay of Saloniki. It appears from this that Pompeius led his troops from the coast of the Adriatic nearly to the opposite coast of Macedonia (Dion Cassius, 41. c. 43). His object apparently was to form a junction with the forces that Scipio and his son were sent to raise in the East (c. 62).]

[Footnote 352: The Romans were accustomed to such exercises as these in the Campus Martius.

------"cur apricum
Oderit campum patiens pulveris atque solis?

* * * * *

------sæpe disco
Sæpe trans finem jaculo nobilis expedito."--Horatius, _Od_. i. 8.

Compare the Life of Marius (34).

The Romans maintained their bodily vigour by athletic and military exercises to a late period of life. The bath, swimming, riding, and the throwing of the javelin were the means by which they maintained their health and strength. A Roman commander at the age of sixty was a more vigorous man than modern commanders at the like age generally are.]

[Footnote 353: Pompeius passed the winter at Thessalonica (Saloniki) on the Thermaic Gulf and on the Via Egnatia, which ran from Dyrrachium to Thessalonica, and thence eastward. He had with him two hundred senators. The consuls, prætors, and quæstors of the year B.C. 49 were continued by the Senate at Thessalonica for the year B.C. 48 under the names of Proconsuls, Proprætors, Proquæstors. Cæsar and P. Servillus Isauricus were elected consuls at Rome for the year B.C. 48 (Life of Cæsar, c. 37). The party of Pompeius could not appoint new magistrates for want of the ceremony of a Lex Curiata (Dion Cassius, 41. c. 43).]

[Footnote 354: His name is Titus Labienus (Life of Cæsar, c. 34). 'Labeo' is a mere blunder of the copyists. Dion Cassius (41. c. 4) gives the reasons for Labienus passing over to Pompeius. Labienus had served Cæsar well in Gaul, and he is often mentioned in Cæsar's Book on the Gallic War. He fell at the battle of Munda in Spain B.C. 45. (See the Life of Cæsar, c. 34, 56.)]

[Footnote 355: M. Junius Brutus. See the Life of Brutus.]

[Footnote 356: Cicero was not in the Senate at Thessalonica, though he had come over to Macedonia. (See the Life of Cicero, c. 38.)]

[Footnote 357: Tidius is not a Roman name. It should be Didius.]

[Footnote 358: The defeats of Afranius and Petreius in Iberia, in the summer of B.C. 49, are told by Cæsar in his Civil War, i. 41-81.

Cæsar reached Brundisium at the close of the year B.C. 49. See the remarks on the time in Clinton, _Fasti_, B.C. 49. Oricum or Oricus was a town on the coast of Epirus, south of Apollonia.]

[Footnote 359: L. Vibillius Rufus appears to be the person intended. He is often mentioned by Cæsar (_Civil War_, i. 15, 23, &c.); but as the readings in Cæsar's text are very uncertain (Jubellius, Jubilius, Jubulus) Sintenis has not thought it proper to alter the text of Plutarch here.

'On the third day.' Cæsar (_Civil War_, iii. 10) says 'triduo proximo," and the correction of Moses du Soul, [Greek: hêmera rhêtê] ἡμέρα ῥητῆ, is therefore unnecessary. Pompeius had moved westward from Thessalonica at the time when Rufus was sent to him, and was in Candavia on his road to Apollonia and Dyrrachium (Cæsar, _Civil War_, iii. 11).]

[Footnote 360: Pompeius returned to Dyrrachium, which it had been the object of Cæsar to seize. As he had not accomplished this, Cæsar posted himself on the River Apsus between Apollonia and Dyrrachium. The fights in the neighbourhood of Dyrrachium are described by Cæsar (_Civil War_, iii. 34, &c.).]

[Footnote 361: The Athamanes were on the borders of Epirus and Thessalia. In place of the Athamanes the MSS. of Cæsar (_Civil War_, iii. 78) have Acarnania, which, as Drumann says, must be a mistake in the text of Cæsar.]

[Footnote 362: Q. Metellus Scipio, the father-in-law of Pompeius, who had been appointed to the government of Syria by the Senate. Scipio had now come to Thesaalia (Cæsar, _Civil War_, iii. 33, and 80).]

[Footnote 363: Cato was left with fifteen cohorts in Dyrrachium. See the Life of Cato, c. 55; Dion Cassius (12. c. 10).]

[Footnote 364: Or Tusculanum, as Plutarch calls it, now Frascati, about 12 miles S.E. of Rome, where Cicero had a villa.]

[Footnote 365: Lentulus Spinther, consul of B.C. 57, and L. Domitius Ahenobarbus, consul B.C. 54. This affair is mentioned by Cæsar himself (_Civil War_, iii. 83, &c.). We have the best evidence of the bloody use that the party of Pompeius would have made of their victory is the letters of Cicero himself (_Ad Atticum_, xi. 6). There was to be a general proscription, and Rome was to see the times of Sulla revived. But the courage and wisdom of one man defeated the designs of these senseless nobles. Cæsar (c. 83) mentions their schemes with a contemptuous brevity.]

[Footnote 366: The town of Pharsalus was situated near the Enipeus, in one of the great plains of Thessalia, called Pharsalia. Cæsar (iii. 88) does not mention the place where the battle was fought. See Appianus, _Civil Wars_, ii. 75.]

[Footnote 367: Pompeius had dedicated a temple at Rome to Venus Victrix. The Julia (Iulia) Gens, to which Cæsar belonged, traced their deecent from Venus through Iulus, the son of Æneas. (See the Life of Cæsar, c. 42.)]

[Footnote 368: Cæsar does not mention this meteor in his Civil War. See Life of Cæsar, c. 43, and Dion Cassius, 41. c. 61.]

[Footnote 369: A place in Thessalia north of Pharsalus where Titus Quinctius Flaminius defeated King Philip of Macedonia, B.C. 197.]

[Footnote 370: [Greek: ton phoinikoun chitôna] τὸν φοινικοῦν χιτῶνα. Shakspere has employed this in his Julius Cæsar, Act V. Sc. 1:

"Their bloody sign of battle is hung out."

Plutarch means the Vexillum. He has expressed by his word ([Greek: protheinai] προθεῖναι) the 'propono' of Cæsar (_Bell. Gall._ ii. 20; _Bell. Hispan._ c. 28, _Bell. Alexandr._ c. 45). The 'hung out' is a better translation than 'unfurled.']

[Footnote 371: Plutarch in this as in some other instances places the Prænomen last, instead of first which he ought to do; but immediately after he writes Lucius Domitius correctly. The error may be owing to the copyists.

The order of the battle is described by Cæsar (_Civil War_, iii. 89). Plutarch here and in the Life of Cæsar (c. 44) says that Pompeius commanded the right, but Cæsar says that he was on the left. Domitius, that is, L. Domitius Ahenobarbus (Consul B.C. 54), may have commanded under him. Cn. Domitius Calvinus (Consul B.C. 53), whom Plutarch calls Calvinus Lucius, commanded Cæsar's centre. The account of Appianus (_Civil Wars_, ii. 76) does not agree with Cæsar's.]

[Footnote 372: See Cæsar B.C. (iii. 88), and Appianus (ii. 79), who quotes Cæsar's letters.]

[Footnote 373: The whole number of Italian troops on both sides was about 70,000, as Plutarch says in the next chapter. There were also other troops on both sides (Appianus, _Civil Wars_, ii. 70). The battle was fought on the ninth of August, B.C. 48, according to the uncorrected calendar.]

[Footnote 374: Dion Cassius has some like reflections (41. c. 53-58); and Appianus (ii. 77), who says that both the commanders-in-chief shed tears; which we need not believe.]

[Footnote 375: Lucan, i. 6.]

[Footnote 376: Crassinius, in the Life of Cæsar, c. 44. Cæsar (iii. 91, 99) names him Crastinus. Compare Appianus (_Civil Wars_, ii. 82). Crastinus received an honourable interment after the battle.]

[Footnote 377: The passage is from the Iliad, xi. 544.]

[Footnote 378: C. Asinius Pollio was a soldier, a poet, and an historical writer. His history of the Civil Wars was comprised in seventeen books. Appianus (_Civil Wars_, ii. 79) quotes this circumstance from Pollio. Horatius (_Od._ ii. 1) addresses this Pollio, and Virgilius in his fourth Eclogue. The first part of the ode of Horatius contains an allusion to Pollio's historical work.]

[Footnote 379: Cæsar (iii. 96) describes the appearance of the camp of Pompeius, and adds that his hungry soldiers found an entertainment which their enemies had prepared for themselves.]

[Footnote 380: Pompeius passed by Larissa, the chief town of Thessalia, on his road to the vale of Tempe, in which the river Peneius flows between the mountain range of Olympus and Ossa. In saying that Pompeius "let his horse go," I have used an expression that may be misunderstood. Cæsar(iii. 96) will explain it--"protinusque equo citato Larissam contendit," and he continued his flight at the same rate.]

[Footnote 381: These were L. Lentulus Spinther, Consul B.C. 57, and Lentulus Crus, Consul B.C. 49. Deiotarus was king or tetrarch of Galatia in Asia Minor, and had come to the assistance of Pompeius with a considerable force. Pompeius had given him Armenia the Less, and the title of King. Cæsar after the battle of Pharsalus took Armenia from him, but allowed him to retain the title of King.]

[Footnote 382: The verse is from Euripides. It is placed among the Fragmenta Incerta CXIX. ed. Matthiæ.]

[Footnote 383: This town was near the mouth of the Strymon, a river of Thrace, and out of the direct route to Lesbos. The reason of Pompeius going there is explained by Cæsar (_Civil War_, iii. 102). Cornelia was at Mitylene in Lesbos with Sextus, the younger son of Pompeius.]

[Footnote 384: Kratippus was a Peripatetic, and at this time the chief of that sect. Cicero's son Marcus afterwards heard his lectures at Athens (Cicero, _De Officiis_, i. 1), B.C. 44.

The last sentence of this chapter is somewhat obscure, and the opinions of the critics vary as to the reading. See the note of Sintenis.]

[Footnote 385: This city was on the coast of Pamphylia. It took its name from Attalus Philadelphus, the king of Pergamum of that name, who built it.

Lucanus (viii. 251) makes Pompeius first land at Phaselis in Lycia.]

[Footnote 386: Dion Cassius (43. c. 2) discusses this matter. He thinks that Pompeius could never have thought of going to Parthia. Compare Appianus (_Civil Wars_, ii. 83).]

[Footnote 387: This is the King Juba mentioned in the Life of Cæsar, c. 52.]

[Footnote 388: This is Ptolemæus Dionysius, the last of his race, and the son of the Ptolemæus Auletes mentioned in c. 49. Auletes had been restored to his kingdom through the influence of Pompeius by A. Gabinius B.C. 55.]

[Footnote 389: This Arsakes is called Hyrodes or Orodes in the Life of Crassus (c. 18). Arsakes seems to have been a name common to the Parthian kings, as the representatives of Arsakes, the founder of the dynasty. Orodes had already refused his aid to Pompeius in the beginning of the war, and put in chains Hirrus, who had been sent to him. The Parthian demanded the cession of Syria, which Pompeius would not consent to.]

[Footnote 390: Probably Seleukeia in Syria at the mouth of the Orontes.]

[Footnote 391: He was now thirteen years of age, and according to his father's testament, he and his sister Kleopatra were to be joint kings and to intermarry after the fashion of the Greek kings of Egypt. The advisers of Ptolemæus had driven Kleopatra out of Egypt, and on the news of her advancing against the eastern frontiers with an army, they went out to meet her. Pelusium, on the eastern branch of the Nile, had for many centuries been the strong point on this frontier. (Cæsar, _Civil War_, iii. 103; Dion Cassius, 42. c. 3, &c.) Pompeius approached the shore of Egypt with several vessels and about 2000 soldiers.

As to the circumstances in this chapter, compare Dion Cassius (42. c. 3), Appianus (_Civil Wars_, ii. 84), and Cæsar (_Civil War_, iii. 104). Cæsar simply mentions the assassination of Pompeius. He says no more about it.]

[Footnote 392: The death of Pompeius is mentioned by Cicero (_Ad Atticum_, xi. 6). As to his age, Drumann observes, "He was born B.C. 106, and was consequently 58 years old when he was killed, on the 29th of September, or on the day before his birthday, about the time of the autumnal equinox according to the unreformed calendar." (Lucanus, viii 467.)]

[Footnote 393: He is called Cordus by Lucanus (viii. 715), and had formerly been a quæstor of Pompeius.]

COMPARISON OF AGESILAUS AND POMPEIUS.

I. As both these men's lives are now before us, let us briefly recapitulate them, observing as we do so the points in which they differ from one another. These are as follows:--First, Pompeius obtained his power and renown by the most strictly legitimate means, chiefly by his own exertions when assisting Sulla in the liberation of Italy; while Agesilaus obtained the throne in defiance of both human and divine laws, for he declared Leotychides to be a bastard, although his brother had publicly recognised him as his own son, and he also by a quibble evaded the oracle about a lame reign.

Secondly, Pompeius both respected Sulla while he lived, gave his body an honourable burial, in spite of Lepidus, when he died, and married Sulla's daughter to his own son Faustus; while Agesilaus, on a trifling pretext, disgraced and ruined Lysander. Yet Sulla gave Pompeius nothing more than he possessed himself, whereas Lysander made Agesilaus king of Sparta, and leader of the united armies of Greece.

Thirdly, the political wrong-doings of Pompeius were chiefly committed to serve his relatives, Cæsar and Scipio; while Agesilaus saved Sphodrias from the death which he deserved for his outrage upon the Athenians merely to please his son, and vigorously supported Phœbidas when he committed a similar breach of the peace against the Thebans. And generally, we may say that while Pompeius only injured the Romans through inability to refuse the demands of friends, or through ignorance, Agesilaus ruined the Lacedæmonians by plunging them into war with Thebes, to gratify his own angry and quarrelsome temper.

II. If it be right to attribute the disasters which befel either of those men to some special ill-luck which attended them, the Romans had no reason whatever to suspect any such thing of Pompeius; but Agesilaus, although the Lacedæmonians well knew the words of the oracle, yet would not allow them to avoid "a lame reign." Even if Leotychides had been proved a thousand times to be a bastard, the family of Eurypon could have supplied Sparta with a legitimate and sound king, had not Lysander, for the sake of Agesilaus, deceived them as to the true meaning of the oracle. On the other hand, we have no specimen of the political ingenuity of Pompeius which can be compared with that admirable device of Agesilaus, when he readmitted the survivors of the battle of Leuktra to the privileges of Spartan citizens, by permitting the laws to sleep for one day. Pompeius did not even think it his duty to abide by the laws which he had himself enacted, but broke them to prove his great power to his friends. Agesilaus, when forced either to abolish the laws or to ruin his friends, discovered an expedient by which the laws did his friends no hurt, and yet had not to be abolished in order to save them. I also place to the credit of Agesilaus that unparalleled act of obedience, when on receiving a despatch from Sparta he abandoned the whole of his Asian enterprise. For Agesilaus did not, like Pompeius, enrich the state by his own exploits, but looking solely to the interests of his country, he gave up a position of greater glory and power than any Greek before or since ever held, with the single exception of Alexander.

III. Looking at them from another point of view, I suppose that even Xenophon himself would not think of comparing the number of the victories won by Pompeius, the size of the armies which he commanded, and that of those which he defeated, with any of the victories of Agesilaus; although Xenophon has written so admirably upon other subjects, that he seems to think himself privileged to say whatever he pleases about the life of his favourite hero. I think also that the two men differ much in their treatment of their enemies. The Greek wished to sell the Thebans for slaves, and to drive the Messenians from their country, although Thebes was the mother city of Sparta, and the Messenians sprang from the same stock as the Lacedæmonians. In his attempts to effect this, he all but lost Sparta herself, and did lose the Spartan empire; while Pompeius even gave cities to be inhabited by such of the Mediterranean pirates as abandoned that mode of life; and when Tigranes the king of Armenia was in his power, he did not lead him in his triumph, but chose rather to make him an ally of Rome; observing, that he preferred an advantage which would last for all time to the glory which only endured for a single day.

If, however, we place the chief glory of a general in feats of arms and strategy, the Laconian will be found greatly to excel the Roman. Agesilaus did not abandon Sparta even when it was attacked by seventy thousand men, when he had but few troops with which to defend it, and those too all disheartened by their recent defeat at Leuktra. Pompeius, on hearing that Cæsar, with only five thousand three hundred men, had taken a town in Italy, left Rome in terror, either yielding to this small force like a coward, or else falsely supposing it to be more numerous than it was. He carefully carried off his own wife and children, but left the families of his partizans unprotected in Rome, when he ought either to have fought for the city against Cæsar, or else to have acknowledged him as his superior and submitted to him, for Cæsar was both his fellow-countryman and his relative. Yet, after having violently objected to the prorogation of Cæsar's term of office as consul, he put it in his power to capture Rome itself, and to say to Metellus that he regarded him and all the rest of the citizens as prisoners of war.

IV. Agesilaus, when he was the stronger, always forced his enemy to fight, and when weaker, always avoided a battle. By always practising this, the highest art of a general, he passed through his life without a single defeat; whereas Pompeius was unable to make use of his superiority to Cæsar by sea, and was forced by him to hazard everything on the event of a land battle; for as soon as Cæsar had defeated him, he at once obtained possession of all Pompeius's treasure, supplies, and command of the sea, without gaining which he must inevitably have been defeated, even without a battle. Pompeius's excuse for his conduct is, in truth, his severest condemnation. It is very natural and pardonable for a young general to be influenced by clamours and accusations of remissness and cowardice, so as to abandon the course which he had previously decided upon as the safest; but that the great Pompeius, of whom the Romans used to say that the camp was his home, and that he only made an occasional campaign in the senate house, at a time when his followers called the consuls and generals of Rome traitors and rebels, and when they knew that he was in possession of absolute uncontrolled power, and had already conducted so many campaigns with such brilliant success as commander-in-chief--that he should be moved by the scoffs of a Favonius or a Domitius, and hazard his army and his life lest they should call him Agamemnon, is a most discreditable supposition. If he were so sensitive on the point of honour, he ought to have made a stand at the very beginning, and fought a battle in defence of Rome, not first to have retreated, giving out that he was acting with a subtlety worthy of Themistokles himself, and then to have regarded every day spent in Thessaly without fighting as a disgrace. The plain of Pharsalia was not specially appointed by heaven as the arena in which he was to contend with Cæsar for the empire of the world, nor was he summoned by the voice of a herald either to fight or to avow himself vanquished. There were many plains, and innumerable cities and countries which his command of the sea would have enabled him to reach, if he had wished to imitate Fabius Maximus, Marius, Lucullus, or Agesilaus himself, who resisted the same kind of clamour at Sparta, when his countrymen wished to fight the Thebans and protect their native land; while in Egypt he endured endless reproaches, abuse, and suspicion from Nektanebis because he forbade him to fight, and by consistently carrying out his own judicious policy saved the Egyptians against their will. He not only guided Sparta safely through that terrible crisis, but was enabled to win a victory over the Thebans in the city itself, which he never could have done had he yielded to the entreaties of the Lacedæmonians to fight when their country was first invaded. Thus it happened that Agesilaus was warmly praised by those whose opinions he had overruled, while Pompeius made mistakes to please his friends, and afterwards was reproached by them for what he had done. Some historians tell us, however, that he was deceived by his father-in-law, Scipio, who with the intention of embezzling and converting to his own use the greater part of the treasure which Pompeius brought from Asia, urged him to fight as soon as possible, as though there was likely to be a scarcity of money. In these respects, then, we have reviewed their respective characters.

V. Pompeius went to Egypt of necessity, fleeing for his life; but Agesilaus went there with the dishonourable purpose of acting as general for the barbarians, in order that he might employ the money which he earned by that means in making war upon the Greeks. We blame the Egyptians for their conduct to Pompeius; but the Egyptians have equal reason to complain of the conduct of Agesilaus towards themselves; for though Pompeius trusted them and was betrayed, yet Agesilaus deserted the man who trusted him, and joined the enemies of those whom he went out to assist.

LIFE OF ALEXANDER.

I. In writing the Lives of Alexander the Great and of Cæsar the conqueror of Pompeius, which are contained in this book, I have before me such an abundance of materials, that I shall make no other preface than to beg the reader, if he finds any of their famous exploits recorded imperfectly, and with large excisions, not to regard this as a fault. I am writing biography, not history; and often a man's most brilliant actions prove nothing as to his true character, while some trifling incident, some casual remark or jest, will throw more light upon what manner of man he was than the bloodiest battle, the greatest array of armies, or the most important siege. Therefore, just as portrait painters pay most attention to those peculiarities of the face and eyes, in which the likeness consists, and care but little for the rest of the figure, so it is my duty to dwell especially upon those actions which reveal the workings of my heroes' minds, and from these to construct the portraits of their respective lives, leaving their battles and their great deeds to be recorded by others.

II. All are agreed that Alexander was descended on his father's side from Herakles through Karanus, and on his mother's from Æakus through Neoptolemus.

We are told that Philip and Olympias first met during their initiation into the sacred mysteries at Samothrace, and that he, while yet a boy, fell in love with the orphan girl, and persuaded her brother Arymbas to consent to their marriage. The bride, before she consorted with her husband, dreamed that she had been struck by a thunderbolt, from which a sheet of flame sprang out in every direction, and then suddenly died away. Philip himself some time after his marriage dreamed that he set a seal upon his wife's body, on which was engraved the figure of a lion. When he consulted the soothsayers as to what this meant, most of them declared the meaning to be, that his wife required more careful watching; but Aristander of Telmessus declared that she must be pregnant, because men do not seal up what is empty, and that she would bear a son of a spirited and lion-like disposition. Once Philip found his wife asleep, with a large tame snake stretched beside her; and this, it is said, quite put an end to his passion for her, and made him avoid her society, either because he feared the magic arts of his wife, or else from a religious scruple, because his place was more worthily filled. Another version of this story is that the women of Macedonia have been from very ancient times subject to the Orphic and Bacchic frenzy (whence they were called Clodones and Mimallones), and perform the same rites as do the Edonians and the Thracian women about Mount Haemus, from which the word "threskeuein" has come to mean "to be over-superstitious." Olympias, it is said, celebrated these rites with exceeding fervour, and in imitation of the Orientals, and to introduce into the festal procession large tame serpents,[394] which struck terror into the men as they glided through the ivy wreaths and mystic baskets which the women carried on their heads.

III. We are told that Philip after this portent sent Chairon of Megalopolis to Delphi, to consult the god there, and that he delivered an oracular response bidding him sacrifice to Zeus Ammon, and to pay especial reverence to that god: warning him, moreover, that he would some day lose the sight of that eye with which, through the chink of the half-opened door, he had seen the god consorting with his wife in the form of a serpent. The historian Eratosthenes informs us that when Alexander was about to set out on his great expedition, Olympias told him the secret of his birth, and bade him act worthily of his divine parentage. Other writers say that she scrupled to mention the subject, and was heard to say "Why does Alexander make Hera jealous of me?"

Alexander was born on the sixth day of the month Hekatombæon,[395] which the Macedonians call Lous, the same day on which the temple of Artemis at Ephesus was burned. This coincidence inspired Hegesias of Magnesia to construct a ponderous joke, dull enough to have put out the fire, which was, that it was no wonder that the temple of Artemis was burned, since she was away from, it, attending to the birth of Alexander.[396] All the Persian magi who were in Ephesus at the time imagined that the destruction of the temple was but the forerunner of a greater disaster, and ran through the city beating their faces and shouting that on that day was born the destroyer of Asia. Philip, who had just captured the city of Potidæa, received at that time three messengers. The first announced that the Illyrians had been severely defeated by Parmenio; the second that his racehorse had won a victory at Olympia, and the third, that Alexander was born. As one may well believe, he was delighted at such good news and was yet more overjoyed when the soothsayers told him that his son, whose birth coincided with three victories, would surely prove invincible.

IV. His personal appearance is best shown by the statues of Lysippus, the only artist whom he allowed to represent him; in whose works we can clearly trace that slight droop of his head towards the left, and that keen glance of his eyes which formed his chief characteristics, and which were afterwards imitated by his friends and successors.

Apelles, in his celebrated picture of Alexander wielding a thunderbolt, has not exactly copied the fresh tint of his flesh, but has made it darker and swarthier than it was, for we are told that his skin was remarkably fair, inclining to red about the face and breast. We learn from the memoirs of Aristoxenes, that his body diffused a rich perfume, which scented his clothes, and that his breath was remarkably sweet. This was possibly caused by the hot and fiery constitution of his body; for sweet scents are produced, according to Theophrastus, by heat acting upon moisture. For this reason the hottest and driest regions of the earth produce the most aromatic perfumes, because the sun dries up that moisture which causes most substances to decay.

Alexander's warm temperament of body seems to have rendered him fond of drinking, and fiery in disposition. As a youth he showed great power of self-control, by abstaining from all sensual pleasures in spite of his vehement and passionate nature; while his intense desire for fame rendered him serious and high-minded beyond his years.

For many kinds of glory, however, Alexander cared little; unlike his father Philip, who prided himself on his oratorical powers, and used to record his victories in the chariot races at Olympia upon his coins. Indeed, when Alexander's friends, to try him, asked him whether he would contend in the foot race at Olympia, for he was a remarkably swift runner, he answered, "Yes, if I have kings to contend with." He seems to have been altogether indifferent to athletic exercises; for though he gave more prizes than any one else to be contended for by dramatists, flute players, harp players, and even by rhapsodists,[397] and though he delighted in all manner of hunting and cudgel playing, he never seems to have taken any interest in the contests of boxing or the pankratium.[398] When ambassadors from the King of Persia arrived in Macedonia, Philip was absent, and Alexander entertained them. His engaging manners greatly charmed them, and he became their intimate friend. He never put any childish questions to them, but made many enquiries about the length of the journey from the sea coast to the interior of Persia, about the roads which led thither, about the king, whether he was experienced in war or not, and about the resources and military strength of the Persian empire, so that the ambassadors were filled with admiration, and declared that the boasted subtlety of Philip was nothing in comparison with the intellectual vigour and enlarged views of his son. Whenever he heard of Philip's having taken some city or won some famous victory, he used to look unhappy at the news, and would say to his friends, "Boys, my father will forestall us in everything; he will leave no great exploits for you and me to achieve." Indeed, he cared nothing for pleasure or wealth, but only for honour and glory; and he imagined that the more territory he inherited from his father, the less would be left for him to conquer. He feared that his father's conquests would be so complete, as to leave him no more battles to fight, and he wished to succeed, not to a wealthy and luxurious, but to a military empire, at the head of which he might gratify his desire for war and adventure.

His education was superintended by many nurses, pedagogues, and teachers, the chief of whom was Leonidas, a harsh-tempered man, who was nearly related to Olympias. He did not object to the title of pedagogue,[399] thinking that his duties are most valuable and honourable, but, on account of his high character and relationship to Alexander, was generally given the title of tutor by the others. The name and office of pedagogue was claimed by one Lysimachus, an Akarnanian by birth, and a dull man, but who gained the favour of Alexander by addressing him as Achilles, calling himself Phœnix, and Philip, Peleus.

VI. When Philoneikus the Thessalian brought the horse Boukephalus[400] and offered it to Philip for the sum of thirteen talents, the king and his friends proceeded to some level ground to try the horse's paces. They found that he was very savage and unmanageable, for he allowed no one to mount him, and paid no attention to any man's voice, but refused to allow any one to approach him. On this Philip became angry, and bade them take the vicious intractable brute away. Alexander, who was present, said, "What a fine horse they are ruining because they are too ignorant and cowardly to manage him." Philip at first was silent, but when Alexander repeated this remark several times, and seemed greatly distressed, he said, "Do you blame your elders, as if you knew more than they, or were better able to manage a horse?" "This horse, at any rate," answered Alexander, "I could manage better than any one else." "And if you cannot manage him," retorted his father, "what penalty will you pay for your forwardness?" "I will pay," said Alexander, "the price of the horse."

While the others were laughing and settling the terms of the wager, Alexander ran straight up to the horse, took him by the bridle, and turned him to the sun; as it seems he had noticed that the horse's shadow dancing before his eyes alarmed him and made him restive. He then spoke gently to the horse, and patted him on the back with his hand, until he perceived that he no longer snorted so wildly, when, dropping his cloak, he lightly leaped upon his back. He now steadily reined him in, without violence or blows, and as he saw that the horse was no longer ill-tempered, but only eager to gallop, he let him go, boldly urging him to full speed with his voice and heel.

Philip and his friends were at first silent with terror; but when he wheeled the horse round, and rode up to them exulting in his success, they burst into a loud shout. It is said that his father wept for joy, and, when he dismounted, kissed him, saying, "My son, seek for a kingdom worthy of yourself: for Macedonia will not hold you."

VII. Philip, seeing that his son was easily led, but could not be made to do anything by force, used always to manage him by persuasion, and never gave him orders. As he did not altogether care to entrust his education to the teachers whom he had obtained, but thought that it would be too difficult a task for them, since Alexander required, as Sophokles says of a ship:

"Stout ropes to check him, and stout oars to guide."

he sent for Aristotle, the most renowned philosopher of the age, to be his son's tutor, and paid him a handsome reward for doing so. He had captured and destroyed Aristotle's native city of Stageira; but now he rebuilt it, and repeopled it, ransoming the citizens, who had been, sold for slaves, and bringing back those who were living in exile. For Alexander and Aristotle he appointed the temple and grove of the nymphs, near the city of Mieza, as a school-house and dwelling; and there to this day are shown the stone seat where Aristotle sat, and the shady avenues where he used to walk. It is thought that Alexander was taught by him not only his doctrines of Morals and Politics, but also those more abstruse mysteries which are only communicated orally and are kept concealed from the vulgar: for after he had invaded Asia, hearing that Aristotle had published some treatises on these subjects, he wrote him a letter in which he defended the practice of keeping these speculations secret in the following words:--

"Alexander to Aristotle wishes health. You have not done well in publishing abroad those sciences which should only be taught by word of mouth. For how shall we be distinguished from other men, if the knowledge which we have acquired be made the common property of all? I myself had rather excel others in excellency of learning than in greatness of power. Farewell."

To pacify him, Aristotle wrote in reply that these doctrines were published, and yet not published: meaning that his treatise on Metaphysics was only written for those who had been instructed in philosophy by himself, and would be quite useless in other hands.

VIII. I think also that Aristotle more than any one else implanted a love of medicine in Alexander, who was not only fond of discussing the theory, but used to prescribe for his friends when they were sick, and order them to follow special courses of treatment and diet, as we gather from his letters. He was likewise fond of literature and of reading, and we are told by Onesikritus that he was wont to call the Iliad a complete manual of the military art, and that he always carried with him Aristotle's recension of Homer's poems, which is called 'the casket copy,' and placed it under his pillow together with his dagger. Being without books when in the interior of Asia, he ordered Harpalus to send him some. Harpalus sent him the histories of Philistus, several plays of Euripides, Sophokles, and Æschylus, and the dithyrambic hymns of Telestus and Philoxenus.

Alexander when a youth used to love and admire Aristotle more even than his father, for he said that the latter had enabled him to live, but that the former had taught him to live well. He afterwards suspected him somewhat; yet he never did him any injury, but only was not so friendly with him as he had been, whereby it was observed that he no longer bore him the good-will he was wont to do. Notwithstanding this, he never lost that interest in philosophical speculation which he had acquired in his youth, as it proved by the honours which he paid to Anaxarchus, the fifty talents which he sent as a present to Xenokrates, and the protection and encouragement which he gave to Dandamris and Kalanus.

IX. When Philip was besieging Byzantium he left to Alexander, who was then only sixteen years old, the sole charge of the administration of the kingdom of Macedonia, confirming his authority by entrusting to him his own signet.[401] He defeated and subdued the Mædian[402] rebels, took their city, ejected its barbarian inhabitants, and reconstituted it as a Grecian colony, to which he gave the name of Alexandropolis.

He was present at the battle against the Greeks at Chæronea, and it is said to have been the first to charge the Sacred Band of the Thebans. Even in my own time, an old oak tree used to be pointed out, near the river Kephissus,[403] which was called Alexander's oak, because his tent was pitched beside it. It stands not far from the place where the Macedonian corpses were buried after the battle. Philip, as we may imagine, was overjoyed at these proofs of his son's courage and skill, and nothing pleased him more than to hear the Macedonians call Alexander their king, and himself their general. Soon, however, the domestic dissensions produced by Philip's amours and marriages caused an estrangement between them, and the breach was widened by Olympias, a jealous and revengeful woman, who incensed Alexander against his father. But what especially moved Alexander was the conduct of Attalus at the marriage feast of his niece Kleopatra. Philip, who was now too old for marriage, had become enamoured of this girl, and after the wedding, Attalus in his cups called upon the Macedonians to pray to the gods that from the union of Philip and Kleopatra might be born a legitimate heir to the throne.