Complete Works of Velleius Paterculus

by Velleius Paterculus

  XVIII

  Per ea tempora Mithridates, Ponticus rex, vir neque silendus neque dicendus sine cura, bello acerrimus, virtute eximius, aliquando fortuna, semper animo maximus, consiliis dux, miles manu, odio in Romanos Hannibal, occupata Asia necatisque in ea omnibus civibus Romanis, quos quidem eadem die atque hora redditis civitatibus litteris ingenti cum pollicitatione praemiorum interimi iusserat, quo tempore neque fortitudine adversus Mithridatem neque fide in Romanos quisquam Rhodiis par fuit (horum fidem Mytilenaeorum perfidia inluminavit, qui M.Aquilium aliosque Mithridati vinctos tradiderunt, quibus libertas in unius Theophanis gratiam postea a Pompeio restituta est), cum terribilis Italiae quoque videretur imminere, sorte obvenit Sullae Asia provincia. Is egressus urbe cum circa Nolam moraretur (quippe ea urbs pertinacissime arma retinebat exercituque Romano obsidebatur, velut paeniteret eius fidei, quam omnium sanctissimam bello praestiterat Punico), P.Sulpicius tribunus plebis, disertus, acer, opibus gratia amicitiis vigore ingenii atque animi celeberrimus, cum antea rectissima voluntate apud populum maxumam quaesisset dignitatem, quasi pigeret eum virtutum suarum et bene consulta ei male cederent, subito pravus et praeceps se C.Mario post septuagesimum annum omnia imperia et omnis provincias concupiscenti addixit legemque ad populum tulit, qua Sullae imperium abrogaretur, C.Mario bellum decerneretur Mithridaticum, aliasque leges perniciosas et exitiabiles neque tolerandas liberae civitati tulit. Quin etiam Q. Pompei consulis filium eundemque Sullae generum per emissarios factionis suae interfecit.

  [18] (1) It was about this time that Mithridates, king of Pontus, seized Asia and put to death all Roman citizens in it. He was a man about whom one cannot speak except with concern nor yet pass by in silence; he was ever eager for war, of exceptional bravery, always great in spirit and sometimes in achievement, in strategy a general, in bodily prowess a soldier, in hatred to the Romans a Hannibal. (2) He had sent messages to various cities of Asia in which he had held out great promises of reward, ordering that all Romans should be massacred on the same day and hour throughout the province. (3) In this crisis none equalled the Rhodians either in courageous opposition to Mithridates or in loyalty to the Romans. Their fidelity gained lustre from the perfidy of the people of Mytilene, who handed Manius Aquilius and other Romans over to Mithridates in chains. The Mytilenians subsequently had their liberty restored by Pompey solely in consideration of his friendship for Theophanes. When Mithridates was now regarded as a formidable menace to Italy herself, the province of Asia fell to the lot of Sulla, as proconsul.

  (4) Sulla departed from the city, but was still lingering in the vicinity of Nola, since that city, as though regretting its exceptional loyalty so sacredly maintained in the Punic war, still persisted in maintaining armed resistance to Rome and was being besieged by a Roman army. (5) While he was still there Publius Sulpicius, tribune of the people, a man of eloquence and energy, who had earned situation by his wealth, his influence, his friendships, and by the vigour of his native ability and his courage, and had previously won great influence with the people by honourable means, now, as if regretting his virtues, and discovering that an honourable course of conduct brought him only disappointment, (6) made a sudden plunge into evil ways, and attached himself to Marius, who, though he had passed his seventieth year, still coveted every position of power and every province. Along with other pieces of pernicious and baleful legislation intolerable in a free state, he proposed a bill to the assembly of the people abrogating Sulla’s command, and entrusting the Mithridatic war to Gaius Marius. He even went so far as to cause, through emissaries of his faction, the assassination of a man who was not only son of Quintus Pompeius the consul but also son-in‑law of Sulla.

  XIX

  Tum Sulla contracto exercitu ad urbem rediit eamque armis occupavit, duodecim auctores novarum pessimarumque rerum, inter quos Marium cum filio et P.Sulpicio, urbe exturbavit ac lege lata exules fecit. Sulpicium etiam adsecuti equites in Laurentinis paludibus iugulavere, caputque eius erectum et ostentatum pro rostris velut omen inminentis proscriptionis fuit. Marius post sextum consulatum annumque septuagesimum nudus ac limo obrutus, oculis tantummodo ac naribus eminentibus, extractus arundineto circa paludem Maricae, in quam se fugiens consectantis Sullae equites abdiderat, iniecto in collum loro in carcerem Minturnensium iussu duumviri perductus est. Ad quem interficiendum missus cum gladio servus publicus natione Germanus, qui forte ab imperatore eo bello Cimbrico captus erat, ut agnovit Marium, magno eiulatu expromens indignationem casus tanti viri abiecto gladio profugit e carcere. Tum cives, ab hoste misereri paulo ante principis viri docti, instructum eum viatico conlataque veste in navem imposuerunt. At ille adsecutus circa insulam Aenariam filium cursum in Africam direxit inopemque vitam in tugurio ruinarum Carthaginiensium toleravit, cum Marius aspiciens Carthaginem, illa intuens Marium, alter alteri possent esse solacio.

  [19] (1) Thereupon Sulla assembled his army, returned to the city, took armed possession of it, drove from the city the twelve persons responsible for these revolutionary and vicious measures — among them Marius, his son, and Publius Sulpicius — and caused them by formal decree to be declared exiles. Sulpicius was overtaken by horsemen and slain in the Laurentine marshes, and his head was raised aloft and exhibited on the front of the rostra as a presage of the impending proscription. (2) Marius, who had held six consulships and was now more than seventy years of age, was dragged, naked and covered with mud, his eyes and nostrils alone showing above the water, from a reed-bed near the marsh of Marica, where he had taken refuge when pursued by the cavalry of Sulla. A rope was cast about his neck and he was led to the prison of Minturnae on the order of its duumvir. (3) A public slave of German nationality was sent with a sword to put him to death. It happened that this man had been taken a prisoner by Marius when he was commander in the war against the Cimbri; when he recognized Marius, giving utterance with loud outcry to his indignation at the plight of this great man, he threw away his sword and fled from the prison. (4) Then the citizens, taught by a foreign enemy to pity one who had so short a time before been the first man in the state, furnished Marius with money, brought clothing to cover him, and put him on board a ship. Marius, overtaking his son near Aenaria, steered his course for Africa, where he endured a life of poverty in a hut amid the ruins of Carthage. There Marius, as he gazed upon Carthage, and Carthage as she beheld Marius, might well have offered consolation the one to the other.

  XX

  Hoc primum anno sanguine consulis Romani militis imbutae manus sunt; quippe Q.Pompeius, collega Sullae, ab exercitu Cn.Pompei proconsulis seditione, sed quam dux creaverat, interfectus est. Non erat Mario Sulpicioque Cinna temperatior. Itaque cum ita civitas Italiae data esset, ut in octo tribus contribuerentur novi cives, ne potentia eorum et multitudo veterum civium dignitatem frangeret plusque possent recepti in beneficium quam auctores beneficii, Cinna in omnibus tribubus eos se distributurum pollicitus est: quo nomine ingentem totius Italiae frequentiam in urbem acciverat. E qua pulsus collegae optimatiumque viribus cum in Campaniam tenderet, ex auctoritate senatus consulatus ei abrogatus est suffectusque in eius locum L.Cornelius Merula flamen dialis. Haec iniuria homine quam exemplo dignior fuit. Tum Cinna corruptis primo centurionibus ac tribunis, mox etiam spe largitionis militibus, ab eo exercitu, qui circa Nolam erat, receptus est. Is cum universus in verba eius iurasset, retinens insignia consulatus patriae bellum intulit, fretus ingenti numero novorum civium, e quorum delectu trecentas amplius cohortes conscripserat ac triginta legionum instar impleverat. Opus erat partibus auctoritate, cuius augendae gratia C.Marium cum filio de exilio revocavit quique cum iis pulsi erant.

  [20] (1) In this year the hands of Roman soldiers were first stained with the blood of a consul. Quintus Pompeius, the colleague of Sulla, was slain by the army of Gnaeus Pompeius the proconsul in a mutiny which their general himself had stirred up.

  (2) Cinna was a man as lacking in restraint as Marius and Sulpicius. Accordingly, although the citizenship had been given to Italy with the proviso that the new citizens should be enrolled
in but eight tribes, so that their power and numbers might not weaken the prestige of the older citizens, and that the beneficiaries might not have greater power than the benefactors, Cinna now promised to distribute them throughout all the tribes. With this object he had brought together into the city a great multitude from all parts of Italy. (3) But he was driven from the city by the united strength of his college and the optimates, and set out for Campania. His consulship was abrogated by the authority of the senate and Lucius Cornelius Merula, priest of Jupiter, was chosen consul in his place. This illegal act was more appropriate in the case of Cinna than it was a good precedent. (4) Cinna was then received by the army at Nola, after corrupting first the centurions and tribunes and then even the private soldiers with promises of largesse. When they all had sworn allegiance to him, while still retaining the insignia of the consulate he waged war upon his country, relying upon the enormous number of new citizens, from whom he had levied more than three hundred cohorts, thus raising the number of his troops to the equivalent of thirty legions. (5) But his party lacked the backing of strong men; to remedy this defect he recalled Gaius Marius and his son from exile, and also those who had been banished with them.

  XXI

  Dum bellum autem infert patriae Cinna, Cn.Pompeius, Magni pater, cuius praeclara opera bello Marsico praecipue circa Picenum agrum, ut praescripsimus, usa erat res publica quique Asculum ceperat, circa quam urbem, cum in multis aliis regionibus exercitus dispersi forent, quinque et septuaginta milia civium Romanorum, amplius sexaginta Italicorum una die conflixerant, frustratus spe continuandi consulatus ita se dubium mediumque partibus praestitit, ut omnia ex proprio usu ageret temporibusque insidiari videretur, et huc atque illuc, unde spes maior adfulsisset potentiae, sese exercitumque deflecteret. Sed ad ultimum magno atrocique proelio cum Cinna conflixit: cuius commissi patratique sub ipsis moenibus focisque urbis Romanae pugnantibus spectantibusque quam fuerit eventus exitiabilis, vix verbis exprimi potest. Post hoc cum utrumque exercitum velut parum bello exhaustum laceraret pestilentia, Cn.Pompeius decessit. Cuius interitus voluptas amissorum aut gladio aut morbo civium paene damno repensata est, populusque Romanus quam vivo iracundiam debuerat, in corpus mortui contulit. Seu duae seu tres Pompeiorum fuere familiae, primus eius nominis ante annos fere centum sexaginta septem Q.Pompeius cum Cn.Servilio consul fuit. Cinna et Marius haud incruentis utrimque certaminibus editis urbem occupaverunt, sed prior ingressus Cinna de recipiendo Mario legem tulit.

  [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.

  XXII

  Mox C.Marius pestifero civibus suis reditu intravit moenia. Nihil illa victoria fuisset crudelius, nisi mox Sullana esset secuta; neque licentia gladiorum in mediocris saevitum, sed excelsissimi quoque atque eminentissimi civitatis viri variis suppliciorum generibus adfecti. In iis consul Octavius, vir lenissimi animi, iussu Cinnae interfectus est. Merula autem, qui se sub adventum Cinnae consulatu abdicaverat, incisis venis superfusoque altaribus sanguine, quos saepe pro salute rei publicae flamen dialis precatus erat deos, eos in execrationem Cinnae partiumque eius tum precatus optime de re publica meritum spiritum reddidit. M.Antonius, princeps civitatis atque eloquentiae, gladiis militum, quos ipsos facundia sua moratus erat, iussu Marii Cinnaeque confossus est. Q.Catulus, et aliarum virtutum et belli Cimbrici gloria, quae illi cum Mario communis fuerat, celeberrimus, cum ad mortem conquireretur, conclusit se loco nuper calce harenaque perpolito inlatoque igni, qui vim odoris excitaret, simul exitiali hausto spiritu, simul incluso suo mortem magis voto quam arbitrio inimicorum obiit. Omnia erant praecipitia in re publica, nec tamen adhuc quisquam inveniebatur, qui bona civis Romani aut donare auderet aut petere sustineret. Postea id quoque accessit, ut saevitiae causam avaritia praeberet et modus culpae ex pecuniae modo constitueretur et qui fuisset locuples, fieret is nocens, suique quisque periculi merces foret, nec quidquam videretur turpe, quod esset quaestuosum.

  [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.

  XXIII

  Secundum deinde consulatum Cinna et septimum Marius in priorum dedecus iniit, cuius initio morbo oppressus decessit, vir in bello hostibus, in otio civibus infestissimus quietisque impatientissimus. In huius locum suffectus Valerius Flaccus, turpissimae legis auctor, qua creditoribus quadrantem solvi iusserat, cuius facti merita eum poena intra biennium consecuta est. Dominante in Italia Cinna maior pars nobilitatis ad Sullam in Achaiam ac deinde post in Asiam perfugit. Sulla interim cum Mithridatis praefectis circa Athenas Boeotiamque et Macedoniam ita dimicavit
, ut et Athenas reciperet et plurimo circa multiplicis Piraei portus munitiones labore expleto amplius ducenta milia hostium interficeret nec minus multa caperet. Si quis hoc rebellandi tempus, quo Athenae oppugnatae a Sulla sunt, imputat Atheniensibus, nimirum veri vetustatisque ignarus est: adeo enim certa Atheniensium in Romanos fides fuit, ut semper et in omni re, quidquid sincera fide gereretur, id Romani Attica fieri praedicarent. Ceterum tum oppressi Mithridatis armis homines miserrimae condicionis cum ab inimicis tenerentur, oppugnabantur ab amicis et animos extra moenia, corpora necessitati servientes intra muros habebant. Transgressus deinde in Asiam Sulla parentem ad omnia supplicemque Mithridatem invenit, quem multatum pecunia ac parte navium Asia omnibusque aliis provinciis, quas armis occupaverat, decedere coëgit, captivos recepit, in perfugas noxiosque animadvertit, paternis, id est Ponticis finibus contentum esse iussit.