Complete Works of Velleius Paterculus

by Velleius Paterculus

  (4) In this period, sixty-five years before the founding of Rome, Carthage was established by the Tyrian Elissa, by some authors called Dido. (5) About this time also Caranus, a man of royal race, eleventh in descent from Hercules, set out from Argos and seized the kingship of Macedonia. From him Alexander the Great was descended in the seventeenth generation, and could boast that, on his mother’s side, he was descended from Achilles, and, on his father’s side, from Hercules. (6) Aemilius Sura says in his book on the chronology of Rome: “The Assyrians were the first of all races to hold world power, then the Medes, and after them the Persians, and then the Macedonians. Then through the defeat of Kings Philip and Antiochus, of Macedonian origin, following closely upon the overthrow of Carthage, the world power passed to the Roman people. Between this time and the beginning of the reign of Ninus king of the Assyrians, who was the first to hold world power, lies an interval of nineteen hundred and ninety-five years.”

  VII

  Huius temporis aequalis Hesiodus fuit, circa centum et viginti annos distinctus ab Homeri aetate, vir perelegantis ingenii et mollissima dulcedine carminum memorabilis, otii quietisque cupidissimus, ut tempore tanto viro, ita operis auctoritate proximus. Qui vitavit, ne in id quod Homerus incideret, patriamque et parentes testatus est, sed patriam, quia multatus ab ea erat, contumeliosissime. Dum in externis moror, incidi in rem domesticam maximique erroris et multum discrepantem auctorum opinionibus: nam quidam huius temporis tractu aiunt a Tuscis Capuam Nolamque conditam ante annos fere octingentos et triginta. Quibus equidem adsenserim: sed M. Cato quantum differt! Qui dicat Capuam ab eisdem Tuscis conditam ac subinde Nolam; stetisse autem Capuam, antequam a Romanis caperetur, annis circiter ducentis et sexaginta. Quod si ita est, cum sint a Capua capta anni ducenti et quadraginta, ut condita est, anni sunt fere quingenti. Ego, pace diligentiae Catonis dixerim, vix crediderim tam mature tantam urbem crevisse, floruisse, concidisse, resurrexisse.

  [7] (1) To this period belonged Hesiod, separated from the age of Homer by about one hundred and twenty years. A man of an exquisite taste, famous for the soft charm of his poems, and an ardent lover of peace and quiet, he ranks next to Homer, not only in point of time, but also in the reverence in which his work is held. Avoiding the mistake which Homer made, he has indeed told us of his country and parents, but of his country, at whose hands he had suffered punishment, he speaks in the most disparaging terms.

  (2) While dwelling on the history of foreign countries, I now come to an event pertaining to our own, one in which there has been much error, and in which the views of the authorities show great discrepancy. For some maintain that about this time, eight hundred and thirty years ago, Capua and Nola were founded by the Etruscans. With these I myself am inclined to agree, but the opinion of Marcus Cato is vastly different. (3) He admits that Capua, and afterwards Nola, were founded by the Etruscans, but maintains that Capua had been in existence for only about two hundred and sixty years before its capture by the Romans. (4) If this is so, as it is but two hundred and forty years since Capua was taken, it is but five hundred years since it was founded. For my own part, with all due regard for Cato’s accuracy, I can scarcely believe that the city could have had such growth, such prosperity, or could have fallen and risen again, in so short a space of time.

  VIII

  Clarissimum deinde omnium ludicrum certamen et ad excitandam corporis animique virtutem efficacissimum Olympiorum initium habuit, auctorem Iphitum Elium. Is eos ludos mercatumque instituit ante annos, quam tu, M. Vinici, consulatum inires, DCCCXXIII. Hoc sacrum eodem loco instituisse fertur abhinc annos ferme mille ducentos quinquaginta Atreus, cum Pelopi patri funebres ludos faceret, quo quidem in ludicro omnisque generis certaminum Hercules victor extitit. Tum Athenis perpetui archontes esse desierunt, cum fuisset ultimus Alcmaeon, coeperuntque in denos annos creari. Quae consuetudo in annos septuaginta mansit ac deinde annuis commissa est magistratibus res publica. Ex iis, qui denis annis praefuerunt, primus fuit Charops, ultimus Eryxias, ex annuis primus Creon. Sexta olympiade post duo et viginti annos quam prima constituta fuerat, Romulus, Martis filius, ultus iniurias avi, Romam urbem Parilibus in Palatio condidit. A quo tempore ad vos consules anni sunt septingenti octoginta unus; id actum post Troiam captam annis quadringentis triginta septem. Id gessit Romulus adiutus legionibus Latini avi sui: libenter enim iis, qui ita prodiderunt, accesserim, cum aliter firmare urbem novam tam vicinis Veientibus aliisque Etruscis ac Sabinis cum imbelli et pastorali manu vix potuerit, quamquam eam asylo facto inter duos lucos auxit. Hic centum homines electos appellatosque patres instar habuit consilii publici. Hanc originem nomen patriciorum habet. Raptus virginum Sabinarum [...]

  magna pars libri perdita est

  [8] (1) Soon afterwards the Olympic games, the most celebrated of all contests in sports, and one which was most effective in developing the qualities both of body and mind, had their beginning under the auspices of Iphitus, king of Elis. He instituted the games and the concourse eight hundred and twenty-three years before your consulship, Marcus Vinicius. (2) There is a tradition that Atreus began this sacred observance in the same place about twelve hundred and fifty years ago, when he held the funeral games in honour of his father Pelops and that at this celebration Hercules was the victor in every class of contest.

  (3) It was about this time that the archons at Athens ceased to hold their office for life. Alcmaeon was the last of the life archons. The archons now began to be elected for terms of ten years. This custom continued for seventy years, then the government was entrusted to magistrates elected annually. Charops was the first and Eryxias the last of those who held the office for ten years, and Creon was the first of the annual archons.

  (4) In the sixth Olympiad, two and twenty years after the first establishment of the Olympic games, Romulus the son of Mars, after avenging the wrongs of his grandfather, founded the city of Rome on the Palatine on the day of the festival of the •Parilia. From this time to your consulship seven hundred and eighty-one years have elapsed. This event took place four hundred and thirty-seven years after the capture of Troy. (5) In the founding of Rome Romulus was assisted by the troops of his grandfather Latinus. I am glad to range myself with those who have expressed this view, since with the Veientines and other Etruscans, as well as the Sabines, in such close proximity, he could scarcely have established his new city with an unwarlike band of shepherds, even though he increased their numbers by opening an •asylum between the two hills. (6) As a council to assist him in administering affairs of state he had one hundred chosen men called patres. This is the origin of the name patricians. The rape of the Sabine maidens . . .

  Nor at this time was Cimon, the son of Miltiades, less famous.

  IX

  [...] quam timuerat hostis, expetit. Nam biennio adeo varia fortuna cum consulibus conflixerat, ut plerumque superior fuerit magnamque partem Graeciae in societatem suam perduceret. Quin Rhodii quoque, fidelissimi antea Romanis, tum dubia fide speculati fortunam proniores regis partibus fuisse visi sunt; et rex Eumenes in eo bello medius fuit animo, neque fratris initiis neque suae respondit consuetudini. Tum senatus populusque Romanus L. Aemilium Paulum, qui et praetor et consul triumphaverat, virum in tantum laudandum, in quantum intellegi virtus potest, consulem creavit, filium eius Pauli, qui ad Cannas quam tergiversanter perniciosam rei publicae pugnam inierat, tam fortiter in ea mortem obierat. Is Persam ingenti proelio apud urbem nomine Pydnam in Macedonia fusum fugatumque castris exuit deletisque eius copiis destitutum omni spe coegit e Macedonia profugere, quam ille linquens in insulam Samothraciam perfugit templique se religioni supplicem credidit. Ad eum Cn. Octavius praetor, qui classi praeerat, pervenit et ratione magis quam vi persuasit, ut se Romanorum fidei committeret. Ita Paulus maximum nobilissimumque regem in triumpho duxit. Quo anno et Octavii praetoris navalis et Anicii regem Illyriorum Gentium ante currum agentis triumphi fuere celebres. Quam sit adsidua eminentis fortunae comes invidia altissimisque adhaereat, etiam hoc colligi potest, quod cum Anicii Octaviique triumphum nemo interpellar
et, fuere, qui Pauli impedire obniterentur. Cuius tantum priores excessit vel magnitudine regis Persei vel specie simulacrorum vel modo pecuniae, ut bis miliens centiens sestertium aerario intulerit is, et omnium ante actorum comparationem amplitudine vicerit.

  [9] (1) . . . than the enemy had feared. For two years Perses had kept up the struggle with the consuls with such varying fortune that he generally had the advantage in these conflicts, and succeeded in winning over a large part of Greece to ally itself with his cause. (2) Even the Rhodians, who in the past had been most loyal to the Romans, were now wavering in their fidelity, and, watching his success, seemed inclined to join the king’s side. In this war King Eumenes maintained a neutral attitude, neither following the initiative of his brother nor his own established custom. (3) Then the senate and the Roman people chose as consul Lucius Aemilius Paulus, who had previously triumphed, both in his praetorship and in his consulship, a man worthy of the highest praise that can be associated with valour. He was a son of the Paulus who had met death at Cannae with a fortitude only equalled by his reluctance to begin a battle so disastrous to the republic. (4) Paulus defeated Perses in a great battle at a city in Macedonia named Pydna, put him to rout, despoiled his camp, destroyed his forces, and compelled him in his desperate plight to flee from Macedonia. Abandoning his country, Perses took refuge in the island of Samothrace, as a suppliant entrusting himself to the inviolability of the temple. (5) There Gnaeus Octavius, the praetor in command of the fleet, reached him and persuaded him by argument rather than force to give himself up to the good faith of the Romans. Thus Paulus led in triumph the greatest and the most illustrious of kings.

  In this year two other triumphs were celebrated: that of Octavius, the praetor in charge of the fleet, and that of Anicius, who drove before his triumphal chariot Gentius, King of the Illyrians. (6) How inseparable a companion of great success is jealousy, and how she attaches herself to the most eminent, may be gathered from this fact: although no one raised objections to the triumphs of Octavius and Anicius, there were those who tried to place obstacles in the way of that of Paulus. His triumph so far exceeded all former ones, whether in the greatness of King Perses himself, or in the display of statues and the amount of money borne in the procession, that Paulus contributed to the treasury two hundred million sesterces, and by reason of this vast sum eclipsed all previous triumphs by comparison.

  X

  Per idem tempus, cum Antiochus Epiphanes, qui Athenis Olympieum inchoavit, tum rex Syriae, Ptolemaeum puerum Alexandriae obsideret, missus est ad eum legatus M. Popilius Laenas, qui iuberet incepto desistere. Mandataque exposuit et regem deliberaturum se dicentem, circumcripsit virgula iussitque prius responsum reddere, quam egrederetur finito harenae circulo. Sic cogitationem regiam Romana disiecit constantia oboeditumque imperio. Lucio autem Paulo Macedonicae victoriae compoti quattuor filii fuere; ex iis duos natu maiores, unum P. Scipioni P. Africani filio, nihil ex paterna maiestate praeter speciem nominis vigoremque eloquentiae retinenti, in adoptionem dederat, alterum Fabio Maximo. Duos minores natu praetextatos. quo tempore victoriam adeptus est, habuit. Is cum in contione extra urbem more maiorum ante triumphi diem ordinem actorum suorum commemoraret, deos immortalis precatus est, ut, si quis eorum invideret operibus ac fortunae suae, in ipsum potius saevirent quam in rem publicam. Quae vox veluti oraculo emissa magna parte eum spoliavit sanguinis sui; nam alterum ex suis, quos in familia retinuerat, liberis ante paucos triumphi, alterum post pauciores amisit dies. Aspera circa haec tempora censura Fulvii Flacci et Postumii Albini fuit: quippe Fulvii censoris frater, et quidem consors, Cn. Fulvius senatu motus est ab iis censoribus.

  [10] (1) About this time Antiochus Epiphanes, king of Syria — the Antiochus who began the Olympieum at Athens — was besieging Ptolemaeus, the boy king, at Alexandria. Marcus Popilius Laenas was dispatched on an embassy to order him to desist. (2) He delivered his message, and when the king replied that he would think the matter over, Popilius drew a circle around the king with his staff and told him that he must give his answer before he stepped out of the circle in the sand. In this way the firmness of the Roman cut short the king’s deliberations, and the order was obeyed.

  (3) Now Lucius Paulus, who won the victory in Macedonia, had four sons. The two oldest he had given by adoption, the one to Publius Scipio, the son of Africanus, who resembled his great father in nothing except in name and in his vigorous eloquence; the other to Fabius Maximus. The two younger at the time of his victory had not yesterday assumed the toga of manhood. (4) On the day before his triumph, when, in accordance with the ancient custom, he was rendering an account of his acts before an assembly of the people outside the city walls, he prayed to the gods that if any of them envied his achievements or his fortune they should vent their wrath upon himself rather than upon the state. (5) This utterance, as though prophetic, deprived him of a great part of his family, for a few days before his triumph he lost one of the two sons whom he had kept in his household, and the other a still shorter time after it.

  (6) About this time occurred the censorship of Fulvius Flaccus and Postumius Albinus famed for its severity. Even Gnaeus Fulvius, who was the brother of the censor and co-heir with him in his estate, was expelled from the senate by these censors.

  XI

  Post victum captumque Persen, qui quadriennio post in libera custodia Albae decessit, Pseudophilippus a mendacio simulatae originis appellatus, qui se Philippum regiaeque stirpis ferebat, cum esset ultimae, armis occupata Macedonia, adsumptis regni insignibus brevi temeritatis poenas dedit; quippe Q. Metellus praetor, cui ex virtute Macedonici nomen inditum erat, praeclara victoria ipsum gentemque superavit, et immani etiam Achaeos rebellare incipientis fudit acie. Hic est Metellus Macedonicus, qui porticus, quae fuerunt circumdatae duabus aedibus sine inscriptione positis, quae nunc Octaviae porticibus ambiuntur, fecerat, quique hanc turmam statuarum equestrium, quae frontem aedium spectant, hodieque maximum ornamenturn eius loci, ex Macedonia detulit. Cuius turmae hanc causam referunt, Magnum Alexandrum impetrasse a Lysippo, singulari talium auctore operum, ut eorum equitum, qui ex ipsius turma apud Granicum flumen ceciderant, expressa similitudine figurarum faceret statuas et ipsius quoque iis interponeret. 5 Metellus idem primus omnium Romae aedem ex marmore in iis ipsis monumentis molitus huius vel magnificentiae vel luxuriae princeps fuit. Vix ullius gentis aetatis ordinis hominem inveneris, cuius felicitatem fortunae Metelli compares. 6 Nam praeter excellentis triumphos honoresque amplissimos et principale in re publica fastigium extentumque vitae spatium et acris innocentisque pro re publica cum inimicis contentiones quattuor filios sustulit, omnis adultae aetatis vidit, omnis reliquit superstites et honoratissimos. Mortui eius lectum pro rostris sustulerunt quattuor filii, unus consularis et censorius, alter consularis, tertius consul, quartus candidatus consulatus, quem honorem adeptus est. Hoc est nimirum magis feliciter de vita migrare quam mori.

  [11] (1) After the defeat and capture of Perses, who four years later died at Alba as a prisoner on parole, a pseudo-Philippus, so called by reason of his false claim that he was a Philip and of royal race, though he was actually of the lowest birth, took armed possession of Macedonia, assumed the insignia of royalty, but soon paid the penalty for his temerity. (2) For Quintus Metellus the praetor, who received the cognomen of Macedonicus by virtue of his valour in this war, defeated him and the Macedonians in a celebrated victory. He also defeated in a great battle the Achaeans who had begun an uprising against Rome.

  (3) This is the Metellus Macedonicus who had previously built the portico about the two temples without inscriptions which are now surrounded by the portico of Octavia, and who brought from Macedonia the group of equestrian statues which stand facing the temples, and, even at the present time, are the chief ornament of the place. (4) Tradition hands down the following story of the origin of the group: that Alexander the Great prevailed upon Lysippus, a sculptor unexcelled in works of this sort, to make portrait-statues of the horsemen in his own squadron who had fallen at the river Granicus, and to plac
e his own statue among them.

  (5) This same Metellus was the first of all to build a temple of marble, which he erected in the midst of these very monuments, thereby becoming the pioneer in this form of munificence, or shall we call it luxury? One will scarcely find a man of any race, or any age, or any rank, whose happy fortune is comparable with that of Metellus. (6) For, not to mention his surpassing triumphs, the great honours which he held, his supreme position in the state, the length of his life, and the bitter struggles on behalf of the state which he waged with his enemies without damage to his reputation, he reared four sons, saw them all reach man’s estate, left them all surviving him and held in the highest honour. (7) These four sons bore the bier of their dead father to its place in front of the rostra; one was an ex-consul and ex-censor, the second an ex-consul, the third was actually consul, and the fourth was then a candidate for the consulship, an office which he duly held. This is assuredly not to die, but rather to pass happily out of life.

  XII

  Universa deinde instincta in bellum Achaia, cuius pars magna, ut praediximus, eiusdem Metelli Macedonici virtute armisque fracta erat, maxime Corinthiis in arma cum gravibus etiam in Romanos contumeliis instigantibus, destinatus ei bello gerendo consul L. Mummius. Et sub idem tempus, magis quia volebant Romani, quidquid de Carthaginiensibus diceretur credere quam quia credenda adferebantur, statuit senatus Carthaginem exscindere. Ita eodem tempore P. Scipio Aemilianus, vir avitis P. Africani paternisque L. Pauli virtutibus simillimus omnibus belli ac togae dotibus ingeniique ac studiorum eminentissimus saeculi sui, qui nihil in vita nisi laudandum aut fecit aut dixit ac sensit, quem Paulo genitum, adoptatum a Scipione Africani filio diximus, aedilitatem petens consul creatus est. Is bellum Carthagini iam ante biennium a prioribus consulibus inlatum maiore vi intulit (cum ante in Hispania murali corona, in Africa obsidionali donatus esset, in Hispania vero etiam ex provocatione, ipse modicus virium, inmanis magnitudinis hostem interemisset) eamque urbem magis invidia imperii quam ullius eius temporis noxiae invisam Romano nomini funditu sustulit fecit suae virtutis monimentum, quod fuerat avi eius clementiae. Carthago diruta est, cum stetisset anni sexcentis septuaginta duobus (DCLXXII), abhinc annos centum septuaginta tris (CLXXIII) Cn. Cornelio Lentulo L. Mummio consulibus. Hunc finem habuit Romani imperii Carthago aemula, cum qua bellare maiores nostri coepere Claudio et Fulvio consulibus ante annos ducentos nonaginta duos (CCXCII), quam tu, M. Vinici, consulatum inires. Ita per annos centum et viginti aut bellum inter eos populos aut belli praeparatio aut infida pax fuit. Neque se Roma iam terrarum orbi superato securam speravit fore, si nomen usquam stantis manere Carthagini; adeo odium certamibus ortum ultra metum durat et ne in victis quidem deponitur neque ante invisum esse desinit quam esse desiit.