Complete Works of Velleius Paterculus

by Velleius Paterculus

  [21] (1) While Cinna was waging war against his country, the conduct of Gnaeus Pompeius, the father of Pompeius Magnus, was somewhat equivocal. As I have already told, the state had made use of his distinguished services in the Marsian war, particularly in the territory of Picenum; he had taken Asculum, in the vicinity of which, though armies were scattered in other regions also, seventy-five thousand Roman citizens and more than sixty thousand Italians had met in battle on a single day. (2) Foiled in his hope of a second term in the consulship, he maintained a doubtful and neutral attitude as between the two parties, so that he seemed to be acting entirely in his own interest and to be watching his chance, turning with his army now to one side and now to the other, according as each offered a greater promise for power for himself. (3) In the end, however, he fought against Cinna in a great and bloody battle. Words almost fail to express how disastrous to combatants and spectators alike was the issue of this battle, which began and ended beneath the walls and close to the very hearths of Rome. (4) Shortly after this battle, while pestilence was ravaging both armies, as though their strength had not been sapped enough by the war, Gnaeus Pompeius died. The joy felt at his death almost counterbalanced the feeling of loss for the citizens who had perished by sword or pestilence, and the Roman people vented upon his dead body the hatred it had owed him while he lived.

  (5) Whether there were two families of the Pompeii or three, the first of that name to be consul was Quintus Pompeius, who was colleague of Gnaeus Servilius, about one hundred and sixty-seven years ago.

  (6) Cinna and Marius both seized the city after conflicts which caused much shedding of blood on both sides, but Cinna was the first to enter it, whereupon he proposed a law authorizing the recall of Marius.

  [22] (1) Then Gaius Marius entered the city, and his return was fraught with calamity for the citizens. No victory would ever have exceeded his in cruelty had Sulla’s not followed soon afterwards. Nor did the licence of the sword play havoc among the obscure alone; the highest and most distinguished men in the state were made the victims of many kinds of vengeance. (2) Amongst these Octavius the consul, a man of the mildest temper, was slain by the command of Cinna. Merula, however, who had abdicated his consulship just before the arrival of Cinna, opened his veins and, as his blood drenched the altars, he implored the gods to whom, as priest of Jupiter, he had formerly prayed for safety of the state, to visit their wrath upon Cinna and his party. Thus did he yield up the life which had served the state so well. (3) Marcus Antonius, the foremost statesman and orator of Rome, was struck down, at the order of Marius and Cinna, by the swords of soldiers, though he caused even these to hesitate by the power of his eloquence. Then there was Quintus Catulus, renowned for his virtues in general and for the glory, (4) which he had shared with Marius, of having won the Cimbrian war; when he was being hunted down for death, he shut himself in a room that had lately been plastered with lime and sand; then he brought fire that it might cause a powerful vapour to issue from the plaster, and by breathing the poisonous air and then holding his breath he died a death according rather with his enemies’ wishes than with their judgement.

  (5) The whole state was now plunging headlong into ruin; and yet no one had so far appeared who either dared to offer for pillage the goods of a Roman citizen, or could bring himself to demand them. Later, however, even this extreme was reached, and avarice furnished a motive for ruthlessness; the magnitude of one’s crime was determined by the magnitude of his property; he who possessed riches became a malefactor and was in each case the prize set up for his own murder. In short nothing was regarded as dishonourable that brought profit.

  [23] (1) Cinna then entered upon his second consulship, and Marius upon his seventh, only to bring dishonour upon his former six. An illness which came upon Marius at the very beginning of his year of office ended the life of this man, who, impatient as he was of tranquillity, was as dangerous to his fellow-citizens in peace as he had been in war to Rome’s enemies. (2) In his place was chosen as consul suffectus Valerius Flaccus, the author of a most disgraceful law, by which he had ordained that one-fourth only of a debt should be paid to the creditors, an act for which a well-deserved punishment overtook him within two years. (3) During this time, while Cinna held the reins of power in Italy, a large proportion of the nobles took refuge with Sulla in Achaea, and afterwards in Asia.

  In the meantime Sulla fought with the generals of Mithridates at Athens, in Boeotia, and in Macedonia with such success that he recovered Athens, and, after surmounting many difficulties in overcoming the manifold fortifications of Piraeus, slew more than two hundred thousand of the enemy and made prisoners of as many more. (4) If anyone regards this period of rebellion, during which Athens suffered siege at the hands of Sulla, as a breach of good faith on the part of the Athenians, he shows a strange ignorance of the facts of history; for so constant was the loyalty of the Athenians towards the Romans that always and invariably, whenever the Romans referred to any act of unqualified loyalty, they called it an example of “Attic faith.” (5) But at this time, overwhelmed as they were by the arms of Mithridates, the Athenians were in a most unhappy plight. Held in subjection by their enemies and besieged by their friends, although in obedience to necessity they kept their bodies within the walls, their hearts were outside their fortifications. (6) After the capture of Athens Sulla crossed into Asia, where he found Mithridates submissive to all his demands and in the attitude of a suppliant. He compelled him, after paying a fine in money and giving up half his fleet, to evacuate Asia and all the other provinces which he had seized; he also secured the return of all prisoners, inflicted punishment upon deserters and others who had been in any way culpable, and obliged Mithridates to be satisfied with the boundaries of his inheritance, that is to say, with Pontus.

  [24] (1) Before the arrival of Sulla, Gaius Flavius Fimbria, prefect of horse, had put to death Valerius Flaccus, a man of consular rank, had taken command of his army, by which he was saluted as imperator, and had succeeded in defeating Mithridates in battle. Now, on the eve of Sulla’s arrival, he took his own life. He was a young man who, however reprehensible his bold designs might be, at any rate executed them with bravery. (2) In the same year Publius Laenas, tribune of the people, threw Sextus Lucilius, tribune of the previous year, from the Tarpeian rock. When his colleagues, whom he also indicted, fled in fear to Sulla, he had a decree of banishment passed against them.

  (3) Sulla had now settled affairs across the sea. There came to him ambassadors of the Parthians — he was the first of the Romans to be so honoured — and among them some wise men who, from the marks on his body, foretold that his life and his fame would be worthy of a god. Returning to Italy he landed at Brundisium, having not more than thirty thousand men to face more than two hundred thousand of the enemy. (4) Of all the exploits of Sulla there is nothing that I should consider more noteworthy than that, during the three years in which the party of Marius and Cinna were continuously masters of Italy, he never hid from them his intention to wage war on them, but at the same time he did not interrupt the war which he then had on his hands. He considered that his duty was to crush the enemy before taking vengeance upon citizens, and that after he had repelled the menace of the foreigner and won a victory in this way abroad, he should then prove himself the master in a war at home. (5) Before Luciusº Sulla’s arrival Cinna was slain in a mutiny of his army. He was a man who deserved to die by the sentence of his victorious enemies rather than at the hands of his angry soldiers. Of him one can truly say that he formed daring plans, such as no good citizen would have conceived, and that he accomplished what none but a most resolute man could have accomplished, and that he was foolhardy enough in the formulation of his plans, but in their execution a man. Carbo remained sole consul throughout the year without electing a colleague in the place of Cinna.

  [25] (1) One would think that Sulla had come to Italy, not as the champion of war but as the establisher of peace, so quietly did he lead his army through Calabr
ia and Apulia into Campania, taking unusual care not to inflict damage on crops, fields, men, or cities, and such efforts did he make to end the war on just terms and fair conditions. But peace could not be to the liking of men whose cause was wicked and whose cupidity was unbounded. (2) In the meantime Sulla’s army was daily growing, for all the better and saner citizens flocked to his side. By a fortunate issue of events he overcame the consuls Scipio and Norbanus near Capua. Norbanus was defeated in battle, while Scipio, deserted and betrayed by his army, was allowed by Sulla to go unharmed. (4) So different was Sulla the warrior from Sulla the victor that, while his victory was in progress he was mild and more lenient than was reasonable, but after it was won his cruelty was unprecedented. For instance, as we have already said, he disarmed the consul and let him go, and after gaining possession of many leaders including Quintus Sertorius, so soon to become the firebrand of a great war, he dismissed them unharmed. The reason, I suppose, was that we might have a notable example of a double and utterly contradictory personality in one and the same man.

  It was while Sulla was ascending Mount Tifata that he had encountered Gaius Norbanus. After his victory over him he paid a vow of gratitude to Diana, to whom that region is sacred, and consecrated to the goddess the waters renowned for their salubrity and water to heal, as well as all the lands in the vicinity. The record of this pleasing act of piety is witnessed to this day by an inscription on the door of the temple, and a bronze tablet within the edifice.

  [26] (1) Carbo now became consul for the third time, in conjunction with Gaius Marius, now aged twenty-six, the son of a father who had been seven times consul. He was a man who showed his father’s spirit, though not destined to reach his years, who displayed great fortitude in the many enterprises he undertook, and never belied the name. Defeated by Sulla at Sacriportus he retired with his army to Praeneste, which town, though already strong by nature, he had strengthened by a garrison.

  (2) In order that nothing should be lacking to the calamities of the state, in Rome, a city in which there had already been rivalry in virtues, there was now a rivalry in crimes, and that man now regarded himself as the best citizen who had formerly been the worst. While the battle was being fought at Sacriportus, within the city the praetor Damasippus murdered in the Curia Hostilia, as supposed partisans of Sulla, Domitius, a man of consular rank; Scaevola Mucius, pontifex maximus and famous author of works on religious and civil law; Gaius Carbo, a former praetor, and brother of the consul, and Antistius, a former aedile. (3) May Calpurnia, the daughter of Bestia and wife of Antistius, never lose the glory of a noble deed; for, when her husband was put to death, as I have just said, she pierced her own breast with the sword. What increment has his glory and fame received through this brave act of a woman! and yet his own name is by no means obscure.

  [27] (1) While Carbo and Marius were still consuls, one hundred and nine years ago, on the Kalends of November, Pontius Telesinus, a Samnite chief, brave in spirit and in action and hating to the core the very name of Rome, having collected about him forty thousand of the bravest and most steadfast youth who still persisted in retaining arms, fought with Sulla, near the Colline gate, a battle so critical as to bring both Sulla and the city into the gravest peril. (2) Rome had not faced a greater danger when she saw the camp of Hannibal within the third milestone, than on this day when Telesinus went about from rank to rank exclaiming: “The last day is at hand for the Romans,” and in a loud voice exhorted his men to overthrow and destroy their city, adding: “These wolves that made such ravages upon Italian liberty will never vanish until we have cut down the forest that harbours them.” (3) It was only after the first hour of the night that the Roman army was able to recover its breath, and the enemy retired. The next day Telesinus was found in a half-dying condition, but with the expression of a conqueror upon his face rather than that of a dying man. Sulla ordered his severed head to be fixed upon a spear point and carried around the walls of Praeneste.

  (4) The young Marius, now at last despairing of his cause, endeavoured to make his way out of Praeneste through the tunnels, wrought with great engineering skill, which led into the fields in different directions; but, on emerging from the exit, he was cut off by men who had been stationed there for that purpose. (5) Some authorities have asserted that he died by his own hand, some that he died in company with the younger brother of Telesinus, who was also besieged and was endeavouring to escape with him, and that each ran upon the other’s sword. Whatever the manner of his death, his memory is not obscured even to‑day by the great figure of his father. Sulla’s estimate of the young man is manifest; for it was only after he was slain that he took the name of Felix, a name which he would have been completely justified in assuming had his life ended with his victory.

  (6) The siege of Marius in Praeneste was directed by Ofella Lucretius, who had been a general on the Marian side but had deserted to Sulla. Sulla commemorated the great good fortune which fell to him on this day by instituting an annual festival of games held in the circus, which are still celebrated as the games of Sulla’s victory.

  [28] (1) Shortly before Sulla’s victory at Sacriportus, several leaders of his party had routed the enemy in successful engagements; the two Servilii at Clusium, Metellus Pius at Faventia, and Marcus Lucullus in the vicinity of Fidentia.

  (2) The terrors of the civil war seemed nearly at an end when they received fresh impetus from the cruelty of Sulla. Being made dictator (the office had been obsolete for one hundred and twenty years, and had been last employed in the year after Hannibal’s departure from Italy; it is therefore clear that the fear which caused the Roman people to feel the need of a dictator was outweighed by the fear of his excessive power) Sulla now wielded with unbridled cruelty the powers which former dictators had employed only to save their country in times of extreme danger. (3) He was the first to set the precedent for proscription — would that he had been the last! The result was that in the very state in which an actor who had been hissed from the stage has legal redress for wilful abuse, a premium for the murder of a citizen was now publicly announced; that the richest man was he who had slain the greatest number; that the bounty for slaying an enemy was no greater than that for slaying a citizen; and that each man became the prize set up for his own death. (4) Nor was vengeance wreaked upon those alone who had borne arms against him, but on many innocents as well. In addition the goods of the proscribed were sold, and their children were not only deprived of their fathers’ property but were also debarred from the right of seeking public office, and to cap the climax of injustice, the sons of senators were compelled to bear the burdens and yet lose the rights pertaining to their rank.

  [29] (1) Just before the arrival of Lucius Sulla in Italy, Gnaeus Pompeius, the son of the Gnaeus Pompeius who, as has already been mentioned, won such brilliant successes in the Marsian war during his consulship, though but twenty-three years of age — it was one hundred and thirteen years ago — on his own initiative and with his own private funds conceived and brilliantly executed a daring plan. To avenge his country and restore her dignity he raised a strong army from the district of Picenum which was filled with the retainers of his father. (2) To do justice to the greatness of this man would require many volumes, but the brief compass of my work compels me to limit my description to a few words.

  On the side of his mother Lucilia he was of senatorial stock. He was distinguished by a personal beauty, not of the sort which gives the bloom of youth its charm, but stately and unchanging, as befitted the distinction and good fortune of his career, and this beauty attended him to the last day of his life. He was a man of exceptional purity of life, of great uprightness of character, (3) of but moderate oratorical talent, ambitious of such power as might be conferred upon him as a mark of honour, but not that which had to be forcibly usurped. In war a resourceful general, in peace a citizen of temperate conduct except when he feared a rival, constant in his friendships, easily placated when offended, loyal in re-establishing terms of ami
ty, very ready to accept satisfaction, never or at least rarely abusing his power, (4) Pompey was free from almost every fault, unless it be considered one of the greatest of faults for a man to chafe at seeing anyone his equal in dignity in a free state, the mistress of the world, where he should justly regard all citizens as his equals. (5) From the day on which he had assumed the toga he had been trained to military service on the staff of that sagacious general, his father, and by a singular insight into military tactics had so developed his excellent native talent, which showed great capacity to learn what was best, that, while Sertorius bestowed the greater praise upon Metellus, it was Pompey he feared the more strongly.

  [30] (1) Shortly afterwards Marcus Perpenna, an ex-praetor, one of those who had been proscribed, a man more distinguished for his birth than for his character, assassinated Sertorius at Osca at a banquet. By this wicked deed he ensured success to the Romans, and destruction to his own faction, and for himself a death of extreme dishonour. Metellus and Pompey won triumphs for their victories in Spain. (2) Pompey, who even at the time of his triumph was still a Roman knight, entered the city in his triumphal car on the day before his entrance upon his consulate. (3) Who is there who does not feel surprise that this man, who owed his elevation to the highest position in the state to so many extraordinary commands, should have taken it ill that the senate and the Roman people were willing to consider Gaius Caesar as a candidate for the consulship a second time, though suing for it in absentia? So common a failing is it for mankind to overlook every irregularity in their own case, but to make no concessions to others, and to let their discontent with conditions be vented upon suspected motives and upon persons instead of the real cause. (4) In this consulship Pompey restored the power of the tribunes, of which Sulla had left the shadow without the substance.