Complete Works of Eutropius

by Eutropius

  2

  Fugatus Antonius amisso exercitu confugit ad Lepidum, qui Caesaris magister equitum fuerat et tum militum copias grandes habebat, a quo susceptus est. Mox Lepido operam dante Caesar pacem cum Antonio fecit et quasi vindicaturus patris sui mortem, a quo per testamentum fuerat adoptatus, Romam cum exercitu profectus extorsit, ut sibi vicesimo anno consulatus daretur. Senatum proscripsit, cum Antonio ac Lepido rem publicam armis tenere coepit. Per hos etiam Cicero orator occisus est multique alii nobiles.

  II

  Antony, being routed, and having lost his army, fled to Lepidus, who had been master of the horse to Caesar, and was at that time in possession of a strong body of forces, by whom he was well received. By the mediation of Lepidus, Caesar shortly after made peace with Antony, and, as if with intent to avenge the death of his father, by whom he had been adopted in his will, marched to Rome at the head of an army, and forcibly procured his appointment to the consulship in his twentieth year. In conjunction with Antony and Lepidus he proscribed the senate, and proceeded to make himself master of the state by arms. By their acts, Cicero the orator, and many others of the nobility, were put to death.

  3

  Interea Brutus et Cassius, interfectores Caesaris, ingens bellum moverunt. Erant enim per Macedoniam et Orientem multi exercitus, quos occupaverant. Profecti sunt igitur contra eos Caesar Octavianus Augustus et M. Antonius; remanserat enim ad defendendam Italiam Lepidus. Apud Philippos, Macedoniae urbem, contra eos pugnaverunt. Primo proelio victi sunt Antonius et Caesar, periit tamen dux nobilitatis Cassius, secundo Brutum et infinitam nobilitatem, quae cum illis bellum gesserat, victam interfecerunt. Ac sic inter eos divisa est res publica, ut Augustus Hispanias, Gallias et Italiam teneret, Antonius Asiam, Pontum, Orientem. Sed in Italia L. Antonius consul bellum civile commovit, frater eius, qui cum Caesare contra Brutum et Cassium dimicaverat. Is apud Perusium, Tusciae civitatem, victus et captus est, neque occisus.

  III

  In the meantime Brutus and Cassius, the assassins of Caesar, raised a great war; for there were several armies in Macedonia and the East, of which they took the command. Caesar Octavianus Augustus, therefore, and Mark Antony, proceeding against them (for Lepidus remained for the defence of Italy), came to an engagement at Philippi, a city of Macedonia. In the first battle Antony and Caesar were defeated, but Cassius, the leader of the nobility, fell; in the second they defeated and killed Brutus, and very many of the nobility who had joined them in the war; and the republic was divided among the conquerors, so that Augustus had Spain, the Gauls, and Italy; Antony, Asia, Pontus, and the East. But the consul Lucius Antonius, the brother of him who had fought with Caesar against Brutus and Cassius, kindled a civil war in Italy; and being defeated near Perusia, a city of Tuscany, was taken prisoner, but not put to death.

  4

  Interim a Sex. Pompeio, Cn. Pompeii Magni filio, ingens bellum in Sicilia commotum est his, qui superfuerant ex partibus Bruti Cassiique, ad eum confluentibus. Bellatum per Caesarem Augustum Octavianum et M. Antonium adversus Sex. Pompeium est. Pax postremo convenit.

  IV

  In the meantime a war of a serious nature was excited in Sicily by Sextus Pompey, the son of Cnaeus Pompey the Great, those that survived of the party of Brutus and Cassius flocking to join him from all parts. The war against Sextus Pompey was carried on by Gassar Augustus Octavianus and Mark Antony. A peace was at length concluded.

  5

  Eo tempore M. Agrippa in Acquitania rem prospere gessit et L. Ventidius Bassus inrumpentes in Syriam Persas tribus proeliis vicit. Pacorum, regis Orodis filium, interfecit eo ipso die, quo olim Orodes, Persarum rex, per ducem Surenam Crassum occiderat. Hic primus de Parthis iustissimum triumphum Romae egit.

  V

  About that time Marcus Agrippa met with great success in Aquitania; also Lucius Ventidius Bassus defeated the Persians, who were making incursions into Syria, in three engagements. He killed Pacorus, the son of king Orodes, on that very day on which Orodes, the king of the Persians, had before put Crassus to death by the hands of his general Surena. He was the first who celebrated a most legitimate triumph at Rome over the Parthians.

  6

  Interim Pompeius pacem rupit et navali proelio victus fugiens ad Asiam interfectus est. Antonius, qui Asiam et Orientem tenebat, repudiata sorore Caesaris Augusti Octaviani Cleopatram, reginam Aegypti, duxit uxorem. Contra Persas etiam ipse pugnavit. Primis eos proeliis vicit, regrediens tamen fame et pestilentia laboravit et, cum instarent Parthi fugienti, ipse pro victo recessit.

  VI

  In the meantime Sextus Pompey violated the peace, and, being defeated in a sea-fight, fled to Asia, and was there put to death.

  Antony, who was master of Asia and the East, having divorced the sister of Caesar Augustus Octavianus, married Cleopatra, queen of Egypt. He also fought in person against the Persians, and defeated them in the first encounters; but on his return suffered greatly from famine and pestilence; and as the Parthians pressed on him in his retreat, he retired from before them just as if he had been defeated.

  7

  Hic quoque ingens bellum civile commovit cogente uxore Cleopatra, regina Aegypti, dum cupiditate muliebri optat etiam in urbe regnare. Victus est ab Augusto navali pugna clara et inlustri apud Actium, qui locus in Epiro est, ex qua fugit in Aegyptum et desperatis rebus, cum omnes ad Augustum transirent, ipse se interemit. Cleopatra sibi aspidem admisit et veneno eius extincta est. Aegyptus per Octavianum Augustum imperio Romano adiecta est praepositusque ei C. Cornelius Gallus. Hunc primum Aegyptus Romanum iudicem habuit.

  VII

  He also excited a great civil war, at the instigation of his wife Cleopatra, the queen of Egypt, who aspired with a womanish ambition to reign at Rome. He was defeated by Augustus in the remarkable and celebrated sea-fight at Actium, a place in Epirus; whence he fled into Egypt, and there, as his circumstances grew desperate, since all went over to Augustus, committed suicide. Cleopatra applied to herself an asp, and perished by its venom. Egypt was added to, the Roman empire by Octavianus Augustus, and Cnaeus Cornelius Gallus appointed governor of it; he was the first Roman judge that Egypt had.

  8

  Ita bellis toto orbe confectis Octavianus Augustus Romam rediit, duodecimo anno, quam consul fuerat. Ex eo rem publicam per quadraginta et quattuor annos solus obtinuit. Ante enim duodecim annis cum Antonio et Lepido tenuerat. Ita ab initio principatus eius usque ad finem quinquaginta et sex anni fuerunt. Obiit autem septuagesimo sexto anno morte communi in oppido Campaniae Atella. Romae in campo Martio sepultus est, vir, qui non inmerito ex maxima parte deo similis est putatus. Neque enim facile ullus eo aut in bellis felicior fuit aut in pace moderatior. Quadraginta et quattuor annis, quibus solus gessit imperium, civilissime vixit, in cunctos liberalissimus, in amicos fidissimus, quos tantis evexit honoribus, ut paene aequaret fastigio suo.

  VIII

  Having thus brought wars to an end throughout the world, OCTAVIANUS AUGUSTUS returned to Rome in the twelfth year after he had been elected consul. From that period he held the government as sole ruler for forty-four years, for during the twelve previous years he had held it in conjunction with Antony and Lepidus. Thus from the beginning of his reign to the end were fifty-six years. He died a natural death in his eighty-sixth year, at the town of Atella in Campania. and his remains are interred at Rome in the Campus Martius. He was a man who was considered in most respects, and not without reason, to resemble a divinity, for scarcely ever was there any one more successful than he in war, or more prudent in peace. During the forty-four years that he held the government alone, he conducted himself with the greatest courtesy, being most liberal to all, and most faithful to his friends, whom he raised to such honours, that he placed them almost on a level with his own dignity.

  9

  Nullo tempore ante eum magis Romana res floruit. Nam exceptis civilibus bellis, in quibus invictus fuit, Romano adiecit imperio Aegyptum, Cantabriam, Dalmatiam saepe ante victam, sed penitus tunc subactam, Pannoniam, Aquitaniam, Illyricum, Raetiam, Vinde
licos et Salassos in Alpibus, omnes Ponti maritimas civitates, in his nobilissimas Bosphorum et Panticapaeum. Vicit autem multis proeliis Dacos. Germanorum ingentes copias cecidit, ipsos quoque trans Albim fluvium summovit, qui in Barbarico longe ultra Rhenum est. Hoc tamen bellum per Drusum, privignum suum, administravit, sicut per Tiberium, privignum alterum, Pannonicum, quo bello XL captivorum milia ex Germania transtulit et supra ripam Rheni in Gallia conlocavit. Armeniam a Parthis recepit. Obsides, quod nulli antea, Persae ei dederunt. Reddiderunt etiam signa Romana, quae Crasso victo ademerant.

  IX

  At no period was the Roman state more flourishing; for, to say nothing of the civil wars, in which he was unconquered, he added to the Roman empire Egypt, Cantabria, Dalmatia, often before conquered but only then entirely subdued, Pannonia, Aquitania, Illyricum, Rhaetia, the Vindelici and Salassi on the Alps, and all the maritime cities of Pontus, among which the two most noble were Bosporus and Panticapaeon. He also conquered the Dacians in battle; put to the sword numerous forces of the Germans; and drove them beyond the river Elbe, which is in the country of the barbarians far beyond the Rhine. This war however he carried on by the agency of his step-son Drusus, as he had conducted the Pannonian war by that of his other step-son Tiberius, in which he transplanted forty thousand prisoners from Germany, and settled them in Gaul on the bank of the Rhine. He recovered Armenia from the Parthians; the Persians gave him hostages, which they had given to no one before; and also restored the Roman standards, which they had taken from Crassus when he was defeated.

  10

  Scythae et Indi, quibus antea Romanorum nomen incognitum fuerat, munera et legatos ad eum miserunt. Galatia quoque sub hoc provincia facta est, cum antea regnum fuisset, primusque eam M. Lollius pro praetore administravit. Tanto autem amore etiam apud barbaros fuit, ut reges populi Romani amici in honorem eius conderent civitates, quas Caesareas nominarent, sicut in Mauritania a rege Iuba, et in Palaestina, quae nunc urbs est clarissima. Multi autem reges ex regnis suis venerunt, ut ei obsequerentur, et habitu Romano, togati scilicet, ad vehiculum vel equum ipsius cucurrerunt. Moriens Divus appellatus. Rem publicam beatissimam Tiberio successori reliquit, qui privignus ei, mox gener, postremo adoptione filius fuerat.

  X

  The Scythians and Indians, to whom the Roman name was before unknown, sent him presents and ambassadors. Galatia also was made a province under his reign, having before been an independent kingdom, and Marcus Lollius was the first that governed it, in quality of praetor. So much was he beloved even by the barbarians, that kings, allies of the Roman people, founded cities in his honour, to which they gave the name of Caesarea, as one in Mauritania, built by King Juba, and another in Palestine, which is now a very celebrated city. Many kings, moreover, left their own dominions, and, assuming the Roman dress, that is, the toga, ran by the side of his carriage or his horse. At his death he was styled a divinity. He left the state in a most prosperous condition to his successor Tiberius, who had been his step-son, afterwards his son-in-law, and lastly his son by adoption.

  11

  Tiberius ingenti socordia imperium gessit, gravi crudelitate, scelesta avaritia, turpi libidine. Nam nusquam ipse pugnavit, bella per legatos gessit suos. Quosdam reges ad se per blanditias evocatos numquam remisit, in quibus Archelaum Cappadocem, cuius etiam regnum in provinciae formam redegit et maximam civitatem appellari nomine suo iussit, quae nunc Caesarea dicitur, cum Mazaca antea vocaretur. Hic tertio et vicesimo imperii anno, aetatis septuagesimo octavo, ingenti omnium gaudio mortuus est in Campania.

  XI

  TIBERIUS distinguished his reign by great indolence, excessive cruelty, unprincipled avarice, and abandoned licentiousness. He fought on no occasion in person; the wars were carried on by his generals. Some kings, whom he induced to visit him by seducing allurements, he never sent back; among them was Archelaus of Cappadocia, whose kingdom also he reduced to the form of a province, and directed that its principal city should be called after his own name; and, having been before called Mazaca, it is now termed Caesarea. He died in Campania, in the three and twentieth year of his reign, and the eighty-third of his age, to the great joy of all men.

  12

  Successit ei C. Caesar, cognomento Caligula, Drusi, privigni Augusti, et ipsius Tiberii nepos, sceleratissimus ac funestissimus et qui etiam Tiberii dedecora purgaverit. Bellum contra Germanos suscepit et ingressus Sueviam nihil strenue fecit. Stupra sororibus intulit, ex una etiam filiam cognovit. Cum adversum cunctos ingenti avaritia, libidine, crudelitate saeviret, interfectus in Palatio est anno aetatis vicesimo nono, imperii tertio, mense decimo dieque octavo.

  XII

  To him succeeded CAIUS CAESAR, surnamed CALIGULA, the grandson of Drusus, the step-son of Augustus, and grand-nephew of Tiberius himself, a most wicked and cruel prince, who effaced even the memory of Tiberius’s enormities. He undertook a war against the Germans; but, after entering Suevia, made no effort to do anything. He committed incest with his sisters, and acknowledged a daughter that he had by one of them. While tyrannizing over all with the utmost avarice, licentiousness, and cruelty, he was assassinated in the palace, in the twenty-ninth year of his age, in the third year, tenth month, and eighth day of his reign.

  13

  Post hunc Claudius fuit, patruus Caligulae, Drusi, qui apud Mogontiacum monumentum habet, filius, cuius et Caligula nepos erat. Hic medie imperavit, multa gerens tranquille atque moderate, quaedam crudeliter et insulse. Britanniae intulit bellum, quam nullus Romanorum post C. Caesarem attigerat, eaque devicta per Cn. Sentium et A. Plautium, inlustres ac nobiles viros, triumphum celebrem egit. Quasdam insulas etiam ultra Britannias in Oceano positas imperio Romano addidit, quae appellantur Orchades, filio autem suo Britannici nomen inposuit. Tam civilis autem circa quosdam amicos extitit, ut etiam Plautium, nobilem virum, qui expeditione Britannica multa egregie fecerat, triumphantem ipse prosequeretur et conscendenti Capitolium laevus incederet. Is vixit annos IV et LX, imperavit XIV. Post mortem consecratus est Divusque appellatus.

  XIII

  After him reigned CLAUDIUS, the uncle of Caligula, and son of that Drusus who has a monument at Moguntiacum, whose grandson Caligula also was. His reign was of no striking character; he acted, in many respects, with gentleness and moderation, in some with cruelty and folly. He made war upon Britain, which no Roman since Julius Caesar had visited; and, having reduced it through the agency of Cnaeus Sentius and Aulus Plautius, illustrious and noble men, he celebrated a magnificent triumph. Certain islands also, called the Orcades, situated in the ocean, beyond Britain, he added to the Roman empire, and gave his son the name of Britannicus. So condescending, too, was he towards some of his friends, that he even attended Plautius, a man of noble birth, who had obtained many signal successes in the expedition to Britain, in his triumph, and walked at his left hand when he went up to the Capitol. He lived to the age of sixty-four, and reigned fourteen years; and after his death was consecrated and deified.

  14

  Successit huic Nero, Caligulae, avunculo suo, simillimus, qui Romanum imperium et deformavit et diminuit, inusitatae luxuriae sumptuumque, ut qui exemplo C. Caligulae in calidis et frigidis lavaret unguentis, retibus aureis piscaretur, quae blattinis funibus extrahebat. Infinitam senatus partem interfecit, bonis omnibus hostis fuit. Ad postremum se tanto dedecore prostituit, ut et saltaret et cantaret in scaena citharoedico habitu vel tragico. Parricidia multa commisit, fratre, uxore, sorore, matre interfectis. Urbem Romam incendit, ut spectaculi eius imaginem cerneret, quali olim Troia capta arserat. In re militari nihil omnino ausus Britanniam paene amisit. Nam duo sub eo nobilissima oppida capta illic atque eversa sunt. Armeniam Parthi sustulerunt legionesque Romanas sub iugum miserunt. Duae tamen sub eo provinciae factae sunt, Pontus Polemoniacus concedente rege Polemone et Alpes Cottiae Cottio rege defuncto.

  XIV

  To him succeeded NERO, who greatly resembled his uncle Caligula, and both disgraced and weakened the Roman empire; he indulged in such extraordinary luxury and extravagance, that, after the example
of Caius Caligula, he even bathed in hot and cold perfumes, and fished with golden nets, which he drew up with cords of purple silk. He put to death a very great number of the senate. To all good men he was an enemy. At last he exposed himself in so disgraceful a manner, that he danced and sung upon the stage in the dress of a harp-player and tragedian. He was guilty of many murders, his brother, wife, and mother, being put to death by him. He set on fire the city of Rome, that he might enjoy the sight of a spectacle such as Troy formerly presented when taken and burned.