Delphi Complete Works of Quintus Curtius Rufus

by Quintus Curtius Rufus

  VII. The rest were struck dumb, but Hermolaus said: “We verily, since you ask as if you did not know, made a plot to kill you because you have begun, not to rule us as free men, but to lord it over us as if [2] we were slaves.” First of all his own father Sopolis, crying out that he was also the murderer of his parent, arose and putting his hand over his son’s mouth, declared that one who was crazed by his crime and his misfortunes ought not to have a further hearing.

  [3] But the king, silencing the father, ordered Hermolaiis to tell what he had learned from his master Callisthenes, and Hermolaiis said: “I take advantage of your favour and tell you what I have learned from [4] our own calamities. How small a part of the Macedonians survive your cruelty; how few too of the noblest blood? Attalus and Philotas and Parmenion and Lyncestes Alexander and Clitus, so far as our enemies are concerned still live, they stand firm in battle and protect you with their bucklers, and for your glory, for your victory they suffer wounds.

  [5] These you have magnificently requited; one stained your table with his blood, another died not even a simple death. The leaders of your armies, stretched upon the rack, furnished entertainment to the Persians, whom they had conquered. Parmenion was butchered without a trial, the man through whom you [6] had slain Attalus. For in turn you use the hands of the wretched to inflict death, and those who shortly before served as the tools of your murders you suddenly order to be butchered by others.”

  [7] Thereupon all cried out at Hermolaiis, his father had drawn his sword against him and beyond doubt would have slain him if he had not been prevented by the king; for indeed he ordered Hermolaüs to continue, and asked that they should hear with patience one who was adding to the reasons for his punishment.

  [8] Therefore, when they had been with difficulty restrained, Hermolaiis went on: “How generously,” said he, “do you permit boys inexperienced in speaking to plead! But the voice of Callisthenes is shut up [9] in a dungeon, because he alone is able to speak. For why is not he brought before you, when even those who have confessed are heard? No doubt because you fear to hear the free words of an innocent man, [10] and cannot even endure his look. And yet I insist that he is guilty of nothing. They are here who with me planned a glorious deed; there is none who says that Callisthenes was implicated with us, although he has been marked out for death by the most just Hand long-suffering of kings. These, then, are the rewards of the Macedonians, whose blood you use up as if it were superabundant and mean. But for you 30,000 mules carry captured gold, while your soldiers will bring home nothing save scars got without reward.

  “Yet we could have endured all these things until you delivered us to the barbarians and by a novel fashion made the victors pass under the yoke. It is the Persians’ garb and habits that delight you; you have come to loathe the customs of your native land. Therefore it was the king of the Persians, not of the Macedonians, that we wished to kill, and by the law [13] of war we justly pursue you as a deserter. You wished the Macedonians to bow the knee to you and to venerate you as a god, you reject Philip as a father, and if any of the gods were regarded as greater [14] than Jupiter, you would disdain even Jupiter. Do you wonder if we, who are free men, cannot endure your haughtiness? What do we hope for from you, since we must either die when innocent, or, what is more [15] dismal than death, must live in slavery? — You truly, if you can have a change of heart, owe much to me. For from me you have begun to know what honourable men cannot endure. For the rest, do not load with punishment the bereaved old age of our near of kin. Order us to be led to execution, so that we may accomplish by our death what we had sought from yours.” Thus spoke Hermolaus.

  At rex: ‘Quam falsa sint,’ inquit, ‘quae iste tradita a magistro suo dixit, [2] patientia mea ostendit. Confessum enim ultimum facinus tamen non solum ipse audivi, sed ut vos audiretis, expressi, non inprudens, cum permisissem latroni huic dicere, usurum eum rabie, qua conpulsus est, ut me, quem parentis loco colere deberet, vellet occidere. [3] Nuper cum procacius se in venatione gessisset, more patrio et ab antiquissimis Macedoniae regum usurpato castigari eum iussi. Hoc et oportet fieri et ferunt a tutoribus pupilli, a maritis uxores: servis quoque pueros huius aetatis verberare concedimus. [4] Haec est saevitia in ipsum mea, quam inpia caede voluit ulcisci. Nam in ceteros, qui mihi permittunt uti ingenio meo, quam mitis sim, non ignaris commemorare supervacuum est. [5] Hermolao parricidarum supplicia non probari, cum eadem ipse meruerit, minime, hercule, admiror. Nam cum Parmenionem et Philotan laudat, suae servit causae. [6] Lyncestem vero Alexandrum quamvis insidiatum capiti meo a duobus indicibus litterisque suis convictum per triennium tamen distuli, donec vos postularetis, ut tandem debito supplicio scelus lueret. [7] Attalum, antequam rex essem, hostem meo capiti fuisse meministis. Clitus [p. 280] utinam non coegisset me sibi irasci! cuius temerariam linguam probra dicentis mihi et vobis diutius tuli, quam ille eadem me dicentem tulisset. [8] Regum ducumque clementia non in ipsorum modo, sed etiam in illorum, qui parent, ingeniis sita est. Obsequio mitigantur imperia: ubi vero reverentia excessit animis et summa imis confunduntur, vi opus est, ut vim repellamus. [9] Sed quid ego mirer istum crudelitatem mihi obiecisse, qui avaritiam exprobrare ausus sit? Nolo singulos vestrum excitare, ne invisam mihi liberalitatem meam faciam, si pudori vestro gravem fecero. Totum exercitum adspicite: qui paulo ante nihil praeter arma habebat, nunc argenteis cubat lectis, mensas auro onerant, servorum greges ducunt, spolia de hostibus sustinere non possunt. [10] At enim Persae, quos vicimus, in magno honore sunt apud me! Mihi quidem moderationis meae certissimum indicium est, quod ne victis quidem superbe impero. Veni enim in Asiam, non ut funditus everterem gentes nec ut dimidiam partem terrarum solitudinem facerem, [11] sed ut illos, quos bello subegissem, victoriae meae non paeniteret. Itaque militant vobiscum, pro imperio vestro sanguinem fundunt, qui superbe habiti rebellassent. Non est diuturna possessio, in quam gladio inducimur: beneficiorum gratia sempiterna est. [12] Si habere Asiam, non transire volumus, cum his communicanda est nostra clementia: horum fides [p. 281] stabile et aeternum faciet imperium. Et sane plus habemus, quam capimus. Insatiabilis autem avaritiae est adhuc inplere velle, quod iam circumfluit. [13] Morem tamen eorum in Macedonas transfundo! In multis enim gentibus esse video, quae non erubescamus imitari: nec aliter tantum imperium apte regi potest, quam ut quaedam et tradamus illis et ab isdem discamus. [14] Illud paene dignum risu fuit, quod Hermolaus postulabat a me, ut aversarer Iovem, cuius oraculo adgnoscor. [15] An etiam, quid di respondeant, in mea potestate est? Obtulit nomen filii mihi: recipere ipsis rebus, quas agimus, haud alienum fuit. Utinam Indi quoque deum esse me credant! Fama enim bella constant, et saepe etiam, quod falso creditum est, veri vicem obtinuit. [16] An me luxuriae indulgentem putatis arma vestra auro argentoque adornasse? Adsuetis nihil vilius hac videre materia volui ostendere, Macedonas invictos ceteris ne auro quidem vinci. [17] Oculos ergo primum eorum sordida omnia et humilia despectantium capiam et docebo nos non auri aut argenti cupidos, sed orbem terrarum subacturos venire. Quam gloriam tu, parricida, intercipere voluisti et Macedonas rege adempto devictis gentibus dedere. [18] At nunc mones me, ut vestris parentibus parcam! Non oportebat quidem vos scire, as quid de his statuissem, quo tristiores periretis, si qua vobis parentum memoria et cura est: sed olim istum morem occidendi cum scelestis insontes propinquos [p. 282] parentesque solvi et profiteor in eodem honore futuros omnes eos, in quo fuerunt. [19] Nam tuum Callisthenen, cui uni vir videris, quia latro es, scio, cur produci velis: ut coram his probra, quae in me modo iecisti, modo audisti, illius quoque ore referantur. Quem, si Macedo esset, tecum introduxissem, dignissimum te discipulo magistrum: [20] nunc Olynthio non idem iuris est.’ Post haec consilium dimisit tradique damnatos hominibus, qui ex eadem cohorte erant, iussit. Illi, [21] ut fidem suam saevitia regi adprobarent, excruciatos necaverunt. Callisthenes quoque tortus interiit, initi consilii in caput regis innoxius, sed haudquaquam aulae et adsentantium accommodatus ingenio. [22] Itaque nullius caedes maiorem apud Graecos Alexandro excitavit invidiam, quod praeditum optimis moribus artibusque, a quo revo
catus ad vitam erat, cum interfecto Clito mori perseveraret, non tantum occiderit, sed etiam torserit indicta quidem causa. [23] Quam crudelitatem sera paenitentia consecuta est.

  VIII. But the king replied: “My patience shows how false is what that wretch has said, taught by his master. For although he has pleaded guilty to the worst of crimes, I have not only heard him, but I have compelled you to hear him, knowing well that when I allowed this brigand to speak he would show the same madness by which he was driven to wish to kill me, [3] whom he ought to have honoured as a father. Lately when he conducted himself so insolently in the chase, I ordered him to be chastised according to the custom of our country, one which was practised by the most ancient of the kings of Macedonia. This both ought to be done, and pupils endure it from their teachers, wives from their husbands; we allow [4] even slaves to flog boys of his age. This is my cruelty towards him, for which he wished to avenge himself by an impious murder. For towards the rest, who permit me to follow my natural disposition, how mild I am it is superfluous to say to those who are not unaware of it.

  [5] “That Hermolaus does not approve the punishments of traitors, since he himself has deserved the same treatment, by Heaven! I am not at all surprised. For when he praises Philotas and Parmenion, [6] he is helping his own cause. As for Lyncestes Alexander, although he was convicted by two witnesses and by his own letter of having plotted against my life, I put off his punishment for three years, until you demanded that at last he should atone for his crime by the penalty which he had deserved.

  [7] Attalus, before I became king you remember to have been an enemy to my life. As for Clitus, would that he had not forced me to be angry with him! I endured his rash tongue, as he abused you and me, longer than he would have put up with me if I had [8] said the same things. The clemency of kings and leaders depends not only upon their own dispositions, but also upon those of their subjects. Commands are made mild by obedience, but when men’s minds have lost reverence and no distinction is observed between the highest and the lowest, force is needed to resist [9] force. But why should I wonder that that fellow has charged me with cruelty when he has dared to reproach me with avarice? I am unwilling to call you up one by one, for fear of making my generosity odious to me, if I make it offensive to your modesty. Just look at our whole army; those who before had nothing except their arms now sleep on silver couches, load their tables with gold, possess troupes of slaves, and cannot carry the weight of the spoils taken from the enemy!

  [10] “But, he says, the Persians, whom we have conquered, are in high honour with me! In my opinion at least, the surest indication of my moderation is that I do not rule even the vanquished tyrannically. For I came into Asia, not in order to overthrow nations and make a desert of a half part of the world, but in order that those whom I had subdued in war [11] might not regret my victory. Therefore those are serving in the army with you and are shedding blood in defence of your empire, who, if they had been treated tyrannically would have rebelled. That possession is not lasting of which we are made owners by the sword; the gratitude for acts of [12] kindness is everlasting. If we wish to hold Asia, not merely to pass through it, our clemency must be shared with its people; their faith in us will make a stable and lasting empire. And it is certainly true that we have more than we can carry. But it is the way of insatiable avarice to wish to fill still fuller a [13] vessel which is already overflowing. Yet I am accused of transferring the customs of the vanquished to the Macedonians! True, for I see in many nations things which we should not blush to imitate; and so great an empire cannot fitly be ruled without contributing some things to the vanquished and learning from them.

  “That was almost enough to make one laugh, when Hermolaus demanded of me that I should oppose Jupiter by whose oracle I am recognized as his son. Have I control even of the responses of the gods? He offered me the title of son; to accept it was not unfavourable to the very plans in which we are engaged. Would that the people of India may believe me to be a god. For wars depend upon reputation, and often even what has been falsely [16] believed has gained the place of truth. Do you think it was to gratify my luxury that I adorned your arms with gold and silver? I wished to show to those who are accustomed to nothing cheaper than those metals that the Macedonians, who are invincible in other things, cannot be outdone even in gold.

  [17] Therefore I will first of all captivate the eyes of those who despise everything that is usual and humble and will show them that we are coming, not because we are desirous of gold and silver, but to subdue the whole world. It is this glory, parricide that you are, that you wished to interrupt and to deliver the Macedonians to the conquered nations by killing their king! [18]

  “But now you urge me to spare your relatives! You all certainly ought not to have known what I had resolved to do about them, in order that you might die with greater grief, if you have any memory and regard for your near of kin; but I long ago abandoned that custom to which you refer, of killing the innocent kinsmen and relatives along with the guilty parties, and I guarantee that they will all hold the same rank that they had before. Now as [19] to your Callisthenes, to whom alone you seem to be a man because you are an assassin, I know why you wish him to be given audience; it is that in the presence of this company those reproaches which you have sometimes hurled at me and sometimes heard may be repeated from his lips. If he were a Macedonian, I should have presented him along with you, a master most worthy of such a pupil; as it is, being an Olynthian, he has not the same privilege.” [20] After these words he dismissed the assembly, and ordered those who had been condemned to be handed over to the men who belonged to the same cohort. They put them to death with torments, in order by [21] cruelty to show their loyalty to the king. Callisthenes also expired in torture, although he was guiltless of forming any design against the king’s life; but he was by no means suited to a court and to the character [22] of flatterers. Therefore there was no one whose death roused greater hatred of the king among the Greeks, because he had not only put to death a man endowed with noble character and accomplishments, one who had called him back to life when he had resolved to die after the death of Clitus, but had [23] even tortured him, and that without a trial. This act of cruelty, when it was too late, was followed by repentance.

  Sed ne otium serendis rumoribus natum aleret, in Indiam movit, semper bello quam post victoriam clarior. [2] India tota ferme spectat orientem, minus in latitudinem, [3] quam recta regione spatiosa. Quae austrum accipiunt, in altius terrae fastigium excedunt: plana [p. 283] sunt cetera multisque inclitis amnibus Caucaso monte ortis placidum per campos iter praebent. [4] Indus gelidior est quam ceteri: aquas vehit a colore maris haud multum abhorrentes. [5] Ganges, omnium ab Oriente fluvius maximus, ad meridianas regionem decurrit et magnorum montium iuga recto alveo stringit: inde eum obiectae rupes inclinant ad orientem. [6] Uterque Rubro mari accipitur. Indus ripas multasque arbores cum magna soli parte exorbet, saxis quoque inpeditus, quis crebro reverberatur: [7] ubi mollius solum repperit, stagnat insulasque molitur. [8] Acesines eum auget. Ganges decursurum Iomanen intercipit, magnoque motu amnis uterque colliditur: quippe Ganges asperum os influenti obicit, nec repercussae aquae cedunt. [9] Diardines minus celeber auditu est, quia per ultima Indiae currit: ceterum non crocodillos modo, uti Nilus, sed etiam delphinos ignotasque aliis gentibus beluas alit. [10] Ethymantus crebris flexibus subinde curvatus ab accolis rigantibus campos carpitur: ea causa est, cur tenues Reliquias iam sine nomine in mare emittat. [11] Multis [p. 284] praeter hos amnibus tota regio dividitur, sed ignobilibus, [12] quia non adita interfluunt. Ceterum quae propiora sunt mari, aquilone maxime deuruntur: is cohibitus iugis montium ad interiora non penetrat, ita alendis frugibus mitia. [13] Sed adeo in illa plaga mundus statas temporum vices mutat, ut, cum alia fervore solis exaestuant, Indiam nives obruant, rursusque, ubi cetera rigent, illic intolerandus aestus existat. [14] Nec, cur verterit se natura, causa. Mare certe, quo adluitur, ne colore quidem abhorret a ceteris. Ab Erythro rege inditum est nomen: propter quod ign
ari rubere aquas credunt. Terra lini ferax: [15] inde plerisque sunt vestes. Libri arborum teneri haud secus quam chartae litterarum notas capiunt. [16] Aves ad imitandum humanae vocis sonum dociles sunt. Animalia invisitata cеteris gentibus nisi invecta. Eadem terra rhinocerotas aliis ignotos generat. [17] Elephantorum maior est vis quam, quos in Africa domitant, et viribus magnitudo respondet. [18] Aurum flumina vehunt, quae leni modicoque lapsu segnes aquas ducunt. [19] Gemmas margaritasque mare litoribus infundit: neque alia illis maior opulentiae causa est, utique postquam vitiorum commercium vulgavere in exteras gentes. Quippe aestimantur purgamenta exaestuantis freti pretio, quod libido constituit. [20] Ingenia hominum, sicut ubique, apud [p. 285] illos locorum quoque situs format. [21] Corpora usque pedes carbaso velant, soleis pedes, capita linteis vinciunt, lapilli ex auribus pendent: brachia quoque et lacertos auro colunt, quibus inter populares aut nobilitas aut opes eminent. [22] Capillum pectunt saepius quam tondent: men tum semper intonsum est, reliquam oris cutem ad speciem levitatis exaequant. [23] Regum tamen luxuria, quam ipsi magnificentiam appellant, super omnium gentium vitia. Cum rex semet in publico conspici patitur, turibula argentea ministri ferunt totumque iter, per quod ferri destinavit, odoribus conplent. [24] Aurea lectica margaritis circumpendentibus recubat: distincta sunt auro et purpura carbasa, quae indutus est: lecticam sequuntur armati corporisque custodes, [25] inter quos ramis aves pendent, quas cantu seriis rebus obstrepere docuerunt. [26] Regia auratas cоlumnas habet: totas eas vitis auro caelata percurrit, aviumque, quarum visu maxime gaudent, argenteae effigies opera distinguant. [27] Regia adeuntibus patet, cum capillum pectit atque ornat: tunc responsa legationibus, tunc iura popularibus reddit. Demptis soleis odoribus inlinuntur pedes. [28] Venatus maximus labor est inclusa vivario animalia inter vota cantusque pelicum figere. Binum cubitorum sagittae sunt, quas emittunt maiore nisu quam effectu: quippe telum, cuius in levitate vis omnis est, inhabili pondere oneratur. [29] Bre- [p. 286] viora itinera equo conficit: longior ubi expeditio est, elephanti vehunt currum, et tantarum beluarum corpora tota contegunt auro. Ac, ne quid perditis moribus desit, lecticis aureis pelicum longus ordo sequitur: separatum a reginae ordine agmen est aequatque hixuriam. [30] Feminae epulas parant. Ab isdem vinum ministratur, cuius omnibus Indis largus est usus. Regem mero somnoque sopitum in cubiculum pelices referunt patrio carmine noctium invocantes deos. [31] Quis credat inter haec vitia curam esse sapientiae? Unum agreste et horridum genus est, quod sapientes vocant. Apud hos occupare fati diem pulchrum, et vivos se cremari iubent, [32] quibus aut segnis aetas aut incommoda valitudo est: expectatam mortem pro dedecore vitae habent, nec ullus corporibus, quae senectus solvit, honos redditur: inquinari putant ignem, nisi qui spirantes recipit. [33] Illi, qui in urbibus publicis muneribus degunt, siderum motus scite spectare dicuntur et futura praedicere. [34] Nec quem quam admovere leti diem credunt, cui expectare interrito liceat. Deos putant, quidquid colere coeperunt, arbores maxime, quas violare capital est. [35] Menses in quinos denos discripserunt dies, [36] anni plena spatia servantur. Lunae cursu notant tempora, non, ut plerique, cum orbem sidus inplevit, sed cum se curvare coepit in cornua, et idcirco breviores habent menses, quia spatium eorum ad hunc lunae [p. 287] modum dirigunt. [37] Multa et alia traduntur, quibus morari ordinem rerum haud sane operae videbatur.