(5) While war was being waged against Sertorius in Spain sixty-four runaway slaves, escaping from a gladiatorial school in Capua, seized swords in that city, and at first took refuge on Mount Vesuvius; then, as their number increased daily, they afflicted Italy with many serious disasters. (6) Their number grew to such an extent that in the last battle which they fought they confronted the Roman army with ninety thousand men. The glory of ending this war belongs to Marcus Crassus, who was soon by unanimous consent to be regarded as the first citizen in the state.
[31] (1) The personality of Pompey had now turned the eyes of the world upon itself, and in all things he was now regarded as more than a mere citizen. As consul he made the laudable promise, which he also kept, that he would not go from that office to any province. (2) But, two years afterwards, when the pirates were terrifying the world, not as heretofore by furtive marauding expeditions but with fleets of ships in the manner of regular warfare, and had already plundered several cities of Italy, Aulus Gabinius, a tribune, proposed an enactment to the effect that Gnaeus Pompeius should be sent to crush them, and that in all the provinces he should have a power equal to that of the proconsular governors to a distance of •fifty miles from the sea. By this decree the command of almost the entire world was being entrusted to one man. (3) Seven years before, it is true, like power had been decreed to Marcus Antonius as praetor. (4) But sometimes the personality of the recipient of such power, just as it renders the precedent more or less dangerous, increases or diminishes its invidiousness. In the case of Antonius people had looked upon his position with no concern. For it is not often that we begrudge honours to those whose power we do not fear. On the other hand men shrink from conferring extraordinary powers upon those who seem likely to retain them or lay them aside only as they themselves choose, and whose inclinations are their only check. The optimates advised against the grant to Pompey, but sane advice succumbed to impulse.
[32] (1) The sterling character of Quintus Catulus and his modesty on this occasion are worthy of record. Opposing the law before the assembled people he had said that Pompey was without question a great man, but that he was now becoming too great for a free republic, and that all powers ought not to be reposed in one man. “If anything happens to Pompey,” he added, “whom will you put in his place?” The people shouted with one accord, “You, Catulus.” Then, yielding to the unanimous desire of the people for the proposed law and to this honourable tribute of his fellow-citizens, he left the assembly. (2) At this point one would fain express admiration for the modesty of the man and the fairness of the people; in the case of Catulus, because he ceased his opposition, and, in the case of the people, because it was unwilling to withhold from one who was speaking against the measure in opposition to them this real evidence of their esteem.
(3) About the same time Cotta divided service upon the juries equally between the senatorial and equestrian orders. Gaius Gracchus had taken this privilege from the senate and given it to the knights, while Sulla had again transferred it from the knights to the senate. Otho Roscius by his law restored to the knights their places in the theatre.
(4) Meanwhile Gnaeus Pompey enlisted the services of many illustrious men, distributed detachments of the fleet to all the recesses of the sea, and in a short time with an invincible force he freed the world from the menace of piracy. Near the Cilician coast he delivered his final attack upon the pirates, who had already met with frequent defeats in many other places, and completely routed them. Then, in order that he might the more quickly put an end to a war that spread over so wide an area, (5) he collected the remnants of the pirates and established them in fixed abodes in cities far from the sea. (6) Some criticize him for this; but although the plan is sufficiently recommended by its author, it would have made its author great whoever he might have been; for, by giving the pirates the opportunity to live without brigandage, he restrained them from brigandage.
[33] (1) When the war with the pirates was drawing to a close, Pompey was assigned to the command against Mithridates in place of Lucius Lucullus. Seven years before this, Lucullus, at the conclusion of his consulship, had obtained the proconsulship of Asia, and had been placed in command against Mithridates. In this post he had performed some great and notable exploits, having defeated Mithridates several times in different regions, freed Cyzicus by a brilliant victory, and conquered Tigranes, the greatest of kings, in Armenia. That he had not put an end to the war was due, one might say, to lack of inclination rather than of ability; for although in all other respects he was a man of laudable character and in war had scarcely ever been defeated, he was a victim to the love of money. He was still engaged in carrying on the same struggle when Manilius, tribune of the people, a man of venal character always, and ready to abet the ambitions of others, proposed a law that Pompey should be given the chief command in the Mithridatic war. (2) The law was passed, and the two commanders began to vie with each other in recriminations, Pompey charging Lucullus with his unsavoury greed for money, and Lucullus taunting Pompey with his unbounded ambition for military power. Neither could be convicted of falsehood in his charge against the other. (3) In fact Pompey, from the time when he first took part in public life, could not brook an equal at all. In undertakings in which he should have been merely the first he wished to be the only one. No one was ever more indifferent to other things or possessed a greater craving for glory; he knew no restraint in his quest for office, though he was moderate to a degree in the exercise of his powers. Entering upon each new office with the utmost eagerness, he would lay them aside with unconcern, and, although he consulted his own wishes in attaining what he desired, he yielded to the wishes of others in resigning it. (4) As for Lucullus, who was otherwise a great man, he was the first to set the example for our present lavish extravagance in building, in banquets, and in furnishings. Because of the massive piles which he built in the sea, and of his letting the sea in upon the land by digging through mountains, Pompey used to call him, and not without point, the Roman Xerxes.
[34] (1) During the same period the island of Crete was brought under the sovereignty of the Roman people by Quintus Metellus. For three years this island, under the leadership of Panares and Lasthenes who had collected a force of twenty-four thousand men, swift in their movements, hardened to the toils of war, and famous in their use of the bow, had worn out the Roman armies. (2) Gnaeus Pompeius could not refrain from coveting some of this glory also, and sought to claim a share in his victory. But the triumphs, both of Lucullus and of Metellus, were rendered popular in the eyes of all good citizens not only by the distinguished merits of the two generals themselves but also by the general unpopularity of Pompey.
(3) At this time the conspiracy of Sergius Catiline, Lentulus, Cethegus, and other men of both the equestrian and senatorial orders was detected by the extraordinary courage, firmness, and careful vigilance of the consul Marcus Cicero, a man who owed his elevation wholly to himself, who had ennobled his lowly birth, who was as distinguished in his life as he was great in genius, and who saved us from being vanquished in intellectual accomplishments by those whom we had vanquished in arms. (4) Catiline was driven from the city by fear of the authority of the consul; Lentulus, a man of consular rank and twice a praetor, Cethegus, and other men of illustrious family were put to death in prison on the order of the consul, supported by the authority of the senate.
[35] (1) The meeting of the senate at which this action had been taken raised the character of Marcus Cato, (2) which had already shone forth conspicuously in other matters, to a lofty pinnacle. Descended from Marcus Cato, the first of the Porcian house, who was his great-grandfather, he resembled Virtue herself, and in all his acts he revealed a character nearer to that of gods than of men. He never did a right action solely for the sake of seeming to do the right, but because he could not do otherwise. To him that alone seemed reasonable which was likewise just. Free from all the failings of mankind he always kept fortune subject to his control. (3) At this time, thoug
h he was only tribune elect and still quite a young man, while others were urging that Lentulus and the other conspirators should be placed in custody in the Italian towns, Cato, though among the very last to be asked for his opinion, inveighed against the conspiracy with such vigour of spirit and intellect and such earnestness of expression that he caused those who in their speeches had urged leniency to be suspected of complicity in the plot. (4) Such a picture did he present of the dangers which threatened Rome, by the burning and destruction of the city and the subversion of the constitution, and such a eulogy did he give of the consul’s firm stand, that the senate as a body changed to the support of his motion and voted the imposition of the death penalty upon the conspirators, and a large number of the senators escorted Cicero to his home.
(5) As for Catiline, he proceeded to carry out his criminal undertaking with as much energy as he had shown in planning it. Fighting with desperate courage, he gave up in battle the life which he had forfeited to the executioner.
[36] (1) No slight prestige is added to the consulship of Cicero by the birth in that year — ninety-two years ago — of the emperor Augustus, who was destined by his greatness to overshadow all men of all races.
(2) It may now seem an almost superfluous task to indicate the period at which men of eminent talent flourished. For who does not know that at this epoch, separated only by differences in their ages, there flourished Cicero and Hortensius; a little earlier Crassus, Cotta, and Sulpicius; a little later Brutus, Calidius, Caelius, Calvus, and Caesar, who ranks next to Cicero; next to them, and, as it were, their pupils, come Corvinus and Pollio Asinius, Sallust, the rival of Thucydides, the poets Varro and Lucretius, and Catullus, who ranks second to none in the branch of literature which he undertook. (3) It is almost folly to proceed to enumerate men of talent who are almost beneath our eyes, among whom the most important in our age are Virgil, the prince of poets, Rabirius, Livy, who follows close upon Sallust, Tibullus, and Naso, each of whom achieved perfection in his own branch of literature. As for living writers, while we admire them greatly, a critical list is difficult to make.
[37] (1) While these occurrences were taking place in the city and in Italy, Gnaeus Pompeius carried on a notable campaign against Mithridates, who after the departure of Lucullus had again prepared a new army of great strength. (2) The king was defeated and routed, and after losing all his forces sought refuge in Armenia with his son-in‑law Tigranes, the most powerful king of his day, though his power had been somewhat broken by Lucullus. (3) Pompey accordingly entered Armenia in pursuit of both kings at once. First a son of Tigranes, who was at variance with his father, came to Pompey. (4) Then the king in person, and, in the guise of a suppliant, placed himself and his kingdom under the jurisdiction of Pompey, prefacing this act with the statement that he would not have submitted himself to the alliance of any man but Gnaeus Pompeius, whether Roman or of any other nationality; that he would be ready to bear any condition, favourable or otherwise, upon which Pompey might decide; that there was no disgrace in being beaten by one whom it would be a sin against the gods to defeat, and that there was no dishonour in submitting to one whom fortune had elevated above all others. (5) The king was permitted to retain the honours of royalty, be was compelled to pay a large sum of money, all of which, as was Pompey’s practice, was remitted to the quaestor and listed in the public accounts. Syria and the other provinces which Mithridates had seized were wrested from him. Some were restored to the Roman people, and others were then for the first time brought under its sway — Syria, for instance — which first became a tributary province at this time. The sovereignty of the king was now limited to Armenia.
[38] (1) It does not seem out of keeping with the plan which I have set before me in my work to give a brief synopsis of the races and nations which were reduced to provinces and made tributary to Rome, and by what generals. Thus it will be easier to see at a glance when grouped together, the facts already given in detail.
(2) Claudius the consul was the first to cross into Sicily with an army, but it was only after the capture of Syracuse, fifty years later, that it was converted into a province by Marcellus Claudius. Regulus was the first to invade Africa, in the ninth year of the First Punic war. It was one hundred and nine years later, one hundred and seventy-three years ago, that Publius Scipio Aemilianus destroyed Carthage and reduced Africa to the form of a province. Sardinia finally became subject to the yoke in the interval between the First and Second Punic War, through the agency of Titus Manlius the consul. (3) It is a strong proof of the warlike character of our state that only three times did the closing of the temple of the double-faced Janus give proof of unbroken peace: once under the kings, a second time in the consulship of the Titus Manlius just mentioned, and a third time in the reign of Augustus. (4) The two Scipios, Gnaeus and Publius, were the first to lead armies into Spain, at the beginning of the Second Punic War, two hundred and fifty years ago; from that time on we alternately acquired and lost portions of it until under Augustus the whole of it became tributary. (5) Paulus conquered Macedonia, Mummius Achaea, Fulvius Nobilior Aetolia, Lucius Scipio, the brother of Africanus, wrested Asia from Antiochus, but, by the gift of the senate and the Roman people, it soon afterwards passed to the ownership of the Attalids. It was made a tributary province by Marcus Perpenna after the capture of Aristonicus. (6) No credit for the conquest of Cyprus can be assigned to any general, since it was by a decree of the Senate, carried out by Cato, that it became a province on the death of its king, self-inflicted in consciousness of guilt. Crete was punished by Metellus by the termination of the liberty which she had long enjoyed. Syria and Pontus are monuments to the valour of Gnaeus Pompeius.
[39] (1) Domitius and Fabius, son of Paulus, who was surnamed Allobrogicus, first entered the Gauls with an army; later these provinces cost us much blood in our attempts at conquest alternating with our loss of them. In all these operations the work of Caesar is the most brilliant and most conspicuous. Reduced under his auspices and generalship, they pay almost as much tribute into the treasury as the rest of the world. (2) Caesar also made Numidia a province, from which Metellus had long before won by his valour the cognomen of Numidicus.
Isauricus conquered Cilicia, and Vulso Manlius Gallograecia after the war with Antiochus. Bithynia, as has been already said, was bequeathed to the Romans by the will of Nicomedes. Besides Spain and other countries whose names adorn his Forum, Augustus made Egypt tributary, thereby contributing nearly as much revenue to the treasury as his father had brought to it from the Gauls. (3) Tiberius Caesar extorted from the Illyrians and Dalmatians a definite confession of submission such as that which Augustus had wrested from Spain. He also added to our empire as new provinces Raetia, Vindelicia, Noricum, Pannonia, and the Scordisci. These he conquered by arms. Cappadocia he made tributary to the Roman people through the mere prestige of his name. But let us now return to the order of events.
[40] (1) Then followed the military exploits of Gnaeus Pompeius, in regard to which it would be difficult to say whether the glory they earned or labour they cost was the greater. Media, Albania, and Iberia were invaded with victorious arms. Then he changed the direction of his month to the regions of the interior, to the right of the Black Sea — the Colchians, the Heniochi, and the Achaei. Mithridates was crushed, the last of the independent kings except the rulers of the Parthians, through the treachery of his son Pharnaces, it is true, but during the period of Pompey’s command. (2) Then, after conquering all the races in his path, Pompey returned to Italy, having achieved a greatness which exceeded both his own hopes and those of his fellow-citizens, and having, in all his campaigns, surpassed the fortune of a mere mortal. It was owing to this impression that his return created such favourable comment; for the majority of his countrymen had insisted that he would not enter the city without his army, and that he would set a limit upon public liberty according to his own caprice. (3) The return of so great a general as an ordinary citizen was all the more welcome because of th
e apprehensions which had been entertained. For, dismissing his whole army at Brundisium, and retaining none of his former power except the title of imperator, he returned to the city with only the retinue which regularly attended him. There he celebrated, for a period of two days, a most magnificent triumph over the many kings whom he had conquered, and from the spoils he contributed to the treasury a far larger sum of money than any other general had ever done except Paulus.
(4) In Pompey’s absence the tribunes of the people, Titus Ampius and Titus Labienus, proposed a law that at the games of the circus Pompey should be permitted to wear a golden crown and the full dress of the triumphator, and at the theatre the purple-bordered toga and the golden crown. But he forbore to use this honour more than once, and indeed that was itself too often. This man was raised by fortune to the pinnacle of his career by great leaps, first triumphing over Africa, then over Europe, then over Asia, and the three divisions of the world thus became so many monuments of his victory. Greatness is never without envy. (5) Pompey met with opposition from Lucullus and from Metellus Creticus, who did not forget the slight he had received (indeed he had just cause for complaint in that Pompey had robbed him of the captive generals who were to have adorned his triumph), and from a section of the optimates who sought to prevent the fulfilment of Pompey’s promises to the various cities and the payment of rewards in accordance with his wishes to those who had been of service to him.
[41] (1) Then followed the consulship of Gaius Caesar, who now lays hold upon my pen and compels, whatever my haste, to linger a while upon him. Sprung from the noble family of the Julii, and tracing his descent from Venus and Anchises, a claim conceded by all investigators of antiquity, he surpassed all his fellow-citizens in beauty of person. He was exceedingly keen and vigorous of mind, lavish in his generosity, and possessed a courage exceeding the nature, and even the credence, of man. In the magnitude of his ambitions, in the rapidity of his military operations, and in his endurance of danger, he closely resembled Alexander the Great, but only when Alexander was free from the influence of wine and master of his passions (2) for Caesar, in a word, never indulged in food or in sleep except as they ministered, not to pleasure, but to life. To Gaius Marius he was closely related by blood; he was also the son-in‑law of Cinna, whose daughter no consideration of fear would induce him to divorce, whereas Marcus Piso, a man of consular rank, had divorced Annia, who had been the wife of Cinna, in order to win Sulla’s favour. Caesar was only about eighteen years of age at the time of Sulla’s dictatorship; and when a search was made for him with a view to putting him to death, not, it is true, by Sulla himself, but by his minions and partisans, he escaped from the city at night by assuming a disguise which effectually concealed his rank. (3) Later, but when still quite a young man, he was captured by pirates and so conducted himself during the entire period of his detention as to inspire in them to an equal degree both fear and respect. Neither by day nor by night did he remove his shoes or loosen his girdle — for why should a detail of the greatest significance be omitted merely because it cannot be adorned in imposing language? — lest the slightest change in his usual garb might cause him to be suspected by his captors, who guarded him only with their eyes.
Complete Works of Velleius Paterculus Page 21