XXVI
The next consuls were Carbo, a third time, and Caius Marius, son of him who had been seven times consul; the latter was then twenty-six years old, and was a man of his father’s spirit, though not of his father’s length of life26. He made many courageous efforts, nor did he, as consul, fall in any way below his name. But being defeated by Sylla in a pitched battle at Sacriportus, he retreated with his troops to Præneste, a place which was well defended by nature, and in which he had placed a strong garrison.
That nothing might be wanting to the public calamities, men rivalled each other in crimes, in a state where the rivalry had always been in virtues; and he thought himself the best man who proved himself the worst. Thus Damasippus, then prætor, during the contest at Sacriportus, murdered in the Curia Hostilia, as abettors of Sylla’s party, Domitius, Mucius Scævola, who was chief pontiff, and highly celebrated for his knowledge both of divine and human law, Caius Carbo, who had been prætor, and was brother of the consul, and Antistius, who had been ædile. Let not Calpurnia, daughter of Bestia, and wife of Antistius, lose the renown of a very glorious act. When her husband was put to death, as we have said, she stabbed herself with a sword. What an accession of glory and fame to her family27! * *
XXVII
At this time, Pontius Telesinus, a Samnite general, a man of great spirit and activity in the field, and a thorough enemy to all the Roman name, having assembled about forty thousand young men of the greatest bravery, and the most determined obstinacy in continuing the war, maintained, in the consulship of Carbo and Marius, on the first of November, a hundred and eleven years ago, such a struggle with Sylla at the Colline gate, as brought both him and the republic into the utmost peril; nor was the state in more imminent danger when it beheld the camp of Hannibal within three miles of the city, than on that day when Telesinus, hurrying through the ranks of his army, exclaimed that the last day of Rome was come, and exhorted them in a loud voice to pull down and destroy the city, adding, that those wolves, the devourers of Italian liberty, would never cease from ravaging, until the woods, in which they took refuge, were hewn down. At length, after the first hour of the night, the Roman troops took breath, and those of the enemy retired. Next day Telesinus was found mortally wounded, but wearing the look of a conqueror, rather than of a man at the point of death. Sylla ordered his head to be cut off, and carried and displayed around the walls of Præneste. Young Caius Marius, then at length seeing his cause desperate, endeavoured to make his way out through subterraneous passages28, which, constructed with wonderful labour, led to different parts of the adjacent country, but, as soon as he emerged from an opening, he was slain by persons stationed there for the purpose. Some say, that he died by his own hand; others, that as he was struggling with the younger brother of Telesinus, who was shut up with him, and attempting to escape at the same time, they fell by mutual wounds. In whatever manner he died, his memory, even at this day, is not obscured by the grand reputation of his father. What was Sylla’s opinion of the youth, is manifest; for it was not till after his death that he assumed the title of Felix, which he would have adopted with the greatest justice, had his victories and his life ended together. The commander of the forces that besieged Marius in Præneste was Lucretius Ofella, who, having been previously a leader on Marius’s side, had deserted to Sylla. The happy issue of that day, on which Telesinus and the Samnite army were repulsed, Sylla honoured with an annual celebration of games in the Circus, which are exhibited under the title of “Sylla’s Games.”
XXVIII
A short time before Sylla’s battle at Sacriportus, some officers of his party had defeated the enemy in engagements of great importance; the two Servilii at Clusium, Metellus Pius at Faventia, and Marcus Lucullus near Fidentia. The miseries of civil war seemed now to be at an end, when they were renewed with additional violence by the cruelty of Sylla; for, being made dictator, (an office which had been discontinued a hundred and twenty years, the last having been in the year subsequent to Hannibal’s departure from Italy; whence it is evident that the Roman people did not so much desire the authority of the dictatorship in times of danger, as they dreaded it in those of peace,) he used that power, which former dictators had employed to preserve the state from imminent dangers, with the unrestrained indulgence of wanton barbarity. He first adopted (would that he had been the last!) the plan of proscription; so that, in a state in which justice is granted to a hissed actor, if assailed with abusive language, a reward was publicly offered for the murder of a Roman citizen; he who procured most deaths, gained most money; the price for killing an enemy was not greater than that for killing a citizen; and each man’s property became a prize for depriving him of life29. He vented his barbarous rage, not only on those who had borne arms against him, but on many who could not be charged with any guilt. He directed, also, that the goods of the proscribed should be sold; and the children, after being excluded from the property of their fathers, were deprived of the right of suing for places of honour; thus, what was most unreasonable, the sons of senators were obliged to bear the burdens of their station, and at the same time lost their privileges.
XXIX
Not long before Lucius Sylla’s arrival in Italy, Cnæus Pompey, son of that Cnæus Pompey whose great exploits in his consulship, during the Marsian war, we have previously mentioned, being then twenty-three years of age, a hundred and thirteen years ago, began to form great projects, depending as well on his own private resources as on his own judgment, and boldly to put them in execution; and in order to support or restore the dignity of his country, assembled a strong army from the Picenian territory, which was wholly filled with his father’s clients. To do justice to this man’s greatness would require many volumes; but the limits of my work require that he should be characterised in a few words. His mother’s name was Lucilia, of a senatorial family; he was remarkable for beauty, not such as adorns the bloom of life, but of such dignity and serenity as was well adapted to his rank and station, and which accompanied him to the last day of his life. He was distinguished for temperance, was eminent for integrity, and had a moderate share of eloquence. He was excessively covetous of power, when conferred on him from regard to his merit, but had no desire to acquire it by irregular means. In war, he was the most skilful of generals; in peace, the most moderate of citizens, except when he was jealous of having an equal. He was constant in his friendships, placable when offended, most cordial in reconciliation, most ready to receive an apology. He never, or very rarely, stretched his power to excess, and was almost exempt from vice, unless it be counted among the greatest vices, that, in a free state, the mistress of the world, though, in every right, he saw every citizen his equal, he could not endure to behold any one on a level with him in dignity. From the time of his assuming the manly gown, he was trained to war in the camp of his father, a general of consummate judgment; and he improved a genius naturally good, and capable of attaining all useful knowledge, with such singular skill in military affairs, that while Metellus received higher praise from Sertorius, Pompey was much more dreaded by him.
XXX30
* * * * At this time Marcus Perperna, a man who had held the prætorship, one of the proscribed, and who was of high family, but of little honour, assassinated Sertorius at a feast at Osca; and by this execrable deed procured certain victory for the Romans, ruin for his own party, and a most shameful death for himself31. Metellus and Pompey triumphed for the conquest of Spain. At the time of this triumph, also, Pompey was still a Roman knight; yet on the day before he entered his consulship, he rode through the city in his chariot32. Must it not be matter of wonder, that this man, elevated to the summit of dignity through so many extraordinary gradation of preferment, should be displeased at the Roman senate and people for favouring Caius Cæsar in his application for a second consulship? So apt are men to think everything pardonable in themselves, and to show no indulgence to others; regulating their dislike of proceedings, not by the merits of the case, but by their own wi
shes and feelings for particular characters. In this consulate, Pompey re-established the tribunitial power, of which Sylla had left the shadow without the substance.
While the war with Sertorius continued in Spain, sixty-four fugitive slaves, headed by Spartacus, made their escape out of a gladiator’s school at Capua; and, forcibly supplying themselves with swords in that city, directed their course at first to Mount Vesuvius. Afterwards, increasing daily in numbers, they brought many and grievous disasters on the whole of Italy. At length they became so numerous, that in the last battle which they fought, they opposed forty thousand men to the Roman army. The honour of terminating this war fell to Marcus Crassus, who soon after became a leading man among the Roman people.
XXXI
The character of Cnæus Pompey had attracted the attention of the whole world, and he was regarded as something more than man. In his consulship he had very laudably taken an oath, that, on the expiration of his office, he would not take the government of any province; and this oath he had observed; when, two years after, Aulus Gabinius, a tribune of the people, got a law passed, that, whereas certain pirates kept the world in alarm with their fleets, engaging in regular warfare, and not in mere robberies or secret expeditions, and had even plundered several cities in Italy, Cnæus Pompey should be commissioned to suppress them; and should have authority in all the provinces, equal to that of the proconsuls, to the distance of fifty miles from the sea. By this decree the government of almost the whole world was vested in one man. However, a law of the like kind had been made two years before in the case of Marcus Antonius, when prætor; but as the character of the person concerned renders such a precedent more or less pernicious, so it augments or diminishes men’s disapprobation of the proceeding. With regard to Antonius, they acquiesced without displeasure, for people are rarely jealous of the honours of those whose influence they do not fear. On the contrary, they look with dead on extraordinary powers conferred on persons who seem able either to resign or retain them at their own choice, and who have no limit to their acts but their own will. The nobility opposed the measure, but prudence was overcome by party violence.
XXXII
It is proper to mention in this place, a testimony to the high character, and extraordinary modesty, of Quintus Catulus. Arguing against this decree in the assembly, and having observed that Pompey was undoubtedly a man of extraordinary merit, but that he was already too great for a member of a free state, and that all power ought not to be reposed in one individual, he added, “If anything shall happen to that man, whom will you substitute in his place?” To which the whole assembly answered aloud, “Yourself, Quintus Catulus.” On this, being overcome by the general concurrence of opinion, and by such an honourable proof of the public esteem, he withdrew from the assembly. Here it is pleasing to admire the modesty of the man and the justice of the people; his modesty in desisting from pressing his opinion further, and their justice in proving themselves unwilling to defraud him of a due testimony of esteem, though he was opposing and arguing against their inclinations. About the same time, Cotta divided equally between the two orders the privilege of being judges33, which Caius Gracchus had taken from the senate, and transferred to the knights, and which Sylla had again restored to the senators. Roscius Otho now restored34 to the knights their places in the theatre. Cnæus Pompey having engaged many officers of great abilities to assist him in the war, and having raised a navy sufficient to command every nook of the sea, very soon, with his invincible hand, freed the world from apprehension, defeated the pirates * * * in various places35, and, attacking them on the coast of Cilicia, gave them a final overthrow. And in order the sooner to conclude a war so widely spread, he collected the remains of these depredators together, and appointed them fixed residences in towns, and in parts remote from the sea. Some blame this proceeding; but the high character of the man sufficiently justifies it; though, indeed, its reasonableness would have justified it in a man of any character. Enabling them to live without plundering, he of course diverted them from a predatory life.
XXXIII
When the war with Mithridates was drawing to a close, and while Lucius Lucullus, who, on the expiration of his consulship, seven years before, having received Asia as his province, and been appointed to act against Mithridates, had achieved many memorable exploits, having often defeated that monarch in various places, having relieved Cyzicus by a glorious victory, having vanquished Tigranes, the greatest king of the age, in Armenia, and having forborne, rather than been unable, to put the finishing hand to the war, (for though in every other respect highly deserving of praise, and in the field almost invincible, he was a slave to the desire of increasing his wealth,) while Lucullus, I say, was still prosecuting the contest, Manilius, a tribune of the people, a man always venal, and the tool of men in power, proposed a law, “that the war with Mithridates should be conducted by Cnæus Pompey.” This law was passed; and a quarrel ensued between the two commanders, attended with violent altercations. Pompey reproached Lucullus with his scandalous love of money, and Lucullus railed at Pompey’s inordinate ambition; and neither could be convicted of falsehood in what he laid to the charge of the other. For Pompey, from his first engagement in public business, could never with patience endure an equal, and in cases where he was entitled to the first share of honour, he wished to engross the whole; no man, indeed, being less covetous of everything else, or more so of glory. In his pursuit of employments of honour, he was immoderate; in office, he displayed the utmost moderation. Though he accepted posts of distinction with pleasure, he quitted them without regret, resigning at the will of others what he had sought for his own gratification. Lucullus, in other particulars a very great man, was the first introducer of the luxury which now prevails in buildings, entertainments, and furniture; so that, in allusion to the structures which he raised in the sea, and his conducting the sea into the land by undermining mountains, Pompey the Great used facetiously to call him “Xerxes in a toga.”
XXXIV
About this time, the island of Crete was reduced under the dominion of the Roman people by Quintus Metellus. This island, under two leaders, named Panares and Lasthenes, at the head of twenty-four thousand young men, who were swift and active, patient of warfare and toil, and eminently skilled in archery, had wearied out the Roman armies during the previous three years. Even of the renown acquired here, Pompey did not refrain from seeking a share, but endeavoured to make it appear that a portion of the success was due to himself. However, their own singular merits, and the feeling against Pompey entertained by the most honourable men on the occasion, rendered the triumph of Lucullus and Metellus extremely popular.
Soon after, Marcus Cicero, who was indebted to himself for all his advancement, the noblest of new men36, honoured in his life and pre-eminent in ability, to whom we are obliged for not being excelled in genius by those37 whom we conquered in arms, detected, in his character of consul, and with extraordinary courage, firmness, vigilance, and activity, a conspiracy of Sergius Catiline, Lentulus, Cethegus, and other members of the senatorial and equestrian orders. Catiline was compelled, by dread of the extraordinary powers conferred on the consul, to flee from the city. Lentulus, Cethegus, and several others of great note, were, by the consul’s order, under the authority of the senate, put to death in prison.
XXXV
That day of the senate’s meeting, on which these transactions passed, displayed in the brightest colours the merit of Marcus Cato, which on many prior occasions had shone conspicuous, and with peculiar lustre. He was great-grandson of Marcus Cato, the founder of the Porcian family, and was a man who closely resembled virtue itself, and, in every particular of his conduct, seemed more like the gods than mankind; who never acted rightly, that he might appear to do so, but because he could not act otherwise; who never thought anything reasonable, that was not likewise just; and who, exempt from every vice, kept his own fortune always in his own power. After some had advised that Lentulus and the other conspirators should
be kept in custody in the municipal towns, he, being then tribune of the people elect, very young, and almost the last that was asked his opinion, inveighed against the conspiracy with such energy and ability, that, by the warmth of his discourse, he caused the language of all that recommended lenity to be regarded with suspicion, as if they were connected with the plot; and so forcibly did he represent the dangers impending from the destruction and burning of the city, and from the subversion of the established state of public affairs, so highly, too, did he extol the merits of the consul, that the whole senate went over to his opinion, and decreed that capital punishment should be inflicted on the conspirators; and the greater part of that body, after the conclusion of the debate, escorted him to his house. But Catiline was not less resolute in the prosecution of his schemes, than he had been in forming them; for, fighting with the greatest courage, he resigned in the field of battle the breath which he owed to the executioner.
XXXVI
The birth of the emperor Augustus, ninety-two years from the present time, who was afterwards, by his greatness, to cast a shade over all men of all nations, added no small lustre to the consulship of Cicero. To notice the times at which eminent geniuses flourished during this period, may seem almost superfluous; for who is ignorant that in this age arose, separated by short intervals, Cicero, Hortensius, and, a little before them, * * * Crassus38, Cotta, and Sulpicius, while, immediately after, appeared Brutus, Calidius, Cælius, Calvus, and Cæsar, who came next to Cicero, besides the disciples, as we may call them, of these, Corvinus, Asinius Pollio, Sallust, the rival of Thucydides, as well as the poets Varro and Lucretius, with Catullus, who was inferior to none in the style of writing which he adopted? To enumerate those that are before our eyes would seem to be but folly; amongst whom, however, the most eminent are Virgil, the prince of poets, Rabirius39, Livy, who follows hard upon Sallust, Tibullus, and Ovid, each excellent in his peculiar species of composition. But the difficulty of criticising our living authors is proportioned to the great admiration felt for them.
Complete Works of Velleius Paterculus Page 6