[73] (1) Sextus was a young man without education, barbarous in his speech, vigorous in initiative, energetic and prompt in action as he was swift in expedients, in loyalty a marked contrast to his father, the freedman of his own freedmen and slave of his own slaves, envying those in high places only to obey those in the lowest. (2) The senate, which still consisted almost entirely of Pompeians, in the period which followed the flight of Antony from Mutina, and at the very time at which it had assigned to Brutus and Cassius the provinces across the sea, had recalled Sextus for Spain — where Pollio Asinius the praetorian had distinguished himself in his campaigns against him — restored him to his father’s property, and had entrusted to him the guarding of the coast. (3) Seizing Sicily, as we have said, and admitting into his army slaves and runaways, he had raised his legions to their full complement. He supported himself and his army on plunder, and through the agency of Menas and Menecrates, his father’s freedmen, who were in charge of his fleet, he infested the seas by predatory and piratical expeditions; nor was he ashamed thus to infest with piracy and its atrocities the sea which had been freed from it by his father’s arms and leadership.
LXXIV
Fractis Brutianis Cassianisque partibus Antonius transmarinas obiturus provincias substitit. Caesar in Italiam se recepit eamque longe quam speraverat tumultuosiorem repperit. Quippe L. Antonius consul, vitiorum fratris sui consors, sed virtutum, quae interdum in illo erant, expers, modo apud veteranos criminatus Caesarem, modo eos, qui iussa divisione praediorum nominatisque coloniis agros amiserant, ad arma conciens magnum exercitum conflaverat. Ex altera parte uxor Antonii Fulvia, nihil muliebre praeter corpus gerens, ornnia armis tumultuque miscebat. Haec belli sedem Praeneste ceperat; Antonius pulsus undique viribus Caesaris Perusiam se contulerat: Plancus, Antonianarum adiutor partium, spem magis ostenderat auxilii, quam opem ferebat Antonio. Usus Caesar virtute et fortuna sua Perusiam expugnavit. Antonium inviolatum dimisit, in Perusinos magis ira militum quam voluntate saevitum ducis: urbs incensa, cuius initium incendii princeps eius loci fecit Macedonicus, qui subiecto rebus ac penatibus suis igni transfixum se gladio flammae intulit.
[74] (1) After the defeat of the party of Brutus and Cassius, Antony remained behind with the intention of visiting the provinces beyond the sea. Caesar returned to Italy, which he found in a much more troubled condition than he had expected. (2) Lucius Antonius, the consul, who shared the faults of his brother but possessed none of the virtues which he occasionally showed, by making charges against Caesar before the veterans at one moment, and at the next inciting to arms those who had lost their farms when the division of lands was ordered and colonists assigned, had collected a large army. In another quarter Fulvia, the wife of Antony, who had nothing of the woman in her except her sex, was creating general confusion by armed violence. (3) She had taken Praeneste as her base of operations; Antonius, beaten on all sides by the forces of Caesar, had taken refuge in Perusia; Plancus, who abetted the faction of Antony, offered the hope of assistance, rather than gave actual hel Thanks to his own valour and his usual good fortune, Caesar succeeded in storming Perusia. He released Antonius unharmed; and the cruel treatment of the people of Perusia was due rather to the fury of the soldiery than to the wish of their commander. The city was burned. The fire was begun by Macedonicus, a leading man of the place who, after setting fire to his house and contents, ran himself through with his sword and threw himself into the flames.
LXXV
Per eadem tempora exarserat in Campania bellum, quod professus eorum, qui perdiderant agros, patrocinium ciebat Ti.Claudius Nero praetorius et pontiiex, Ti. Caesaris pater, magni vir animi doctissimique et ingenii. Id quoque adventu Caesaris sepultum atque discussum est. Quis fortunae mutationes, quis dubios rerum humanarum casus satis mirari queat? Quis non diversa praesentibus contrariaque expectaitis aut speret aut timeat? Livia, nobilissimi et fortissimi viri Drusi Claudiani filia, genere, probitate, forma Romanarum eminentissima, quam postea coniugem Augusti vidimus, quam transgressi ad deos sacerdotem ac filiam, tum fugiens mox futuri sui Caesaris arma ac manus bimum hunc Tiberium Caesarem, vindicem Romani imperii futurumque eiusdem Caesaris filium, gestans sinu, per avia itinerum vitatis militum gladiis uno comitante, quo facilius occultaretur fuga, pervenit ad mare et cum viro Nerone pervecta in Siciliam est.
[75] (1) At the same period war broke out in Campania at the instigation of the ex-praetor and pontiff, Tiberius Claudius Nero, father of Tiberius Caesar, and a man of noble character and high intellectual training, who now came forward as the protector of those who had lost their lands. This war also was quickly extinguished and its embers scattered by the arrival of Caesar.
(2) Who can adequately express his astonishment at the changes of fortune, and the mysterious vicissitudes in human affairs? Who can refrain from hoping for a lot different from that which he now has, or from dreading the one that is the opposite of what he expects? (3) Take for example Livia. She, the daughter of the brave and noble Drusus Claudianus, most eminent of Roman women in birth, in sincerity, and in beauty, she, whom we later saw as the wife of Augustus, and as his priestess and daughter after his deification, was then a fugitive before the arms and forces of the very Caesar who was soon to be her husband, carrying in her bosom her infant of two years, the present emperor Tiberius Caesar, destined to be the defender of the Roman empire and the son of this same Caesar. Pursuing by-paths that she might avoid the swords of the soldiers, and accompanied by but one attendant, so as the more readily to escape detection in her flight, she finally reached the sea, and with her husband Nero made her escape by ship to Sicily.
LXXVI
Quod alieno testimonium redderem, eo non fraudabo avum meum. Quippe C.Velleius, honoratissimo inter illos trecentos et sexaginta iudices loco a Cn.Pompeio lectus, eiusdem Marcique Bruti ac Ti. Neronis praefectus fabrum, vir nulli secundus, in Campania digressu Neronis a Neapoli, cuius ob singularem cum eo amicitiam partium adiutor fuerat, gravis iam aetate et corpore cum comes esse non posset, gladio se ipse transfixit. Inviolatam excedere Italia Caesar passus est Fulviam Plancumque, muliebris fugae comitem. Nam Pollio Asinius cum septem legionibus, diu retenta in potestate Antonii Venetia, magnis speciosisqoe rebus circa Altinum aliasque eius regionis urbes editis, Antonium petens, vagum adhuc Domitium, quem digressum e Brutianis castris post caedem eius praediximus et propriae classis factum ducem, consiliis suis inlectum ac fide data iunxit Antonio: quo facto, quisquis aequum se praestiterit, sciat non minus a Pollione in Antonium quam ab Antonio in Pollionem esse conlatum. Adventus deinde in Italiam Antonii apparatusque contra eum Caesaris habuit belli metum, sed pax circa Brundusium composita. Per quae tempora Rufi Salvidieni scelesta consilia patefacta sunt. Qui natus obscurissimis initiis parum habebat summa accepisse et proximus a Cn.Pompeio ipsoque Caesare equestris ordinis consul creatus esse, nisi in id ascendisset, e quo infra se et Caesarem videret et rem publicam.
[76] (1) I shall not deprive my own grandfather of the honourable mention which I should give to a stranger. Gaius Velleius, chosen to a most honourable position among the three hundred and sixty judges by Gnaeus Pompey, prefect of engineers under Pompey, Marcus Brutus, and Tiberius Nero, and a man second to none, on the departure from Naples of Nero, whose partisan he had been on account of his close friendship, finding himself unable to accompany him on account of his age and infirmities, (2) ran himself through with his sword in Campania.
Caesar allowed Fulvia to depart from Italy unharmed, and with her Plancus who accompanied the woman in her flight. As for Pollio Asinius, after he with his seven legions had long kept Venetia under the control of Antony, and after he had accomplished several brilliant exploits in the vicinity of Altinum and other cities of that region, when he was on his way to join Antony with these legions he won Domitius over to the cause of Antony by his counsel and by the pledge of immunity. Up to this time Domitius, who, as we have already said, had quitted the camp of Brutus after that leader’s death and had established himself in command of a fleet of his own, had rema
ined at large. (3) In view of this act of Pollio any fair judge will see that he rendered as great a service to Antony as Antony rendered to him. The return of Antony to Italy and Caesar’s preparations against him gave rise to fears of war, but a peace was arranged at Brundisium.
(4) It was at this time that the criminal designs of Rufus Salvidienus were revealed. This man, sprung from the most obscure origin, was not satisfied with having received the highest honours in the state, and to have been the first man of equestrian rank after Gnaeus Pompey and Caesar himself to be elected consul, but aspired to mount to a height where he might see both Caesar and the republic at his feet.
LXXVII
Tum expostulante consensu populi, quem gravis urebat infesto mari annona, cum Pompeio quoque circa Misenum pax inita, qui haud absurde, cum in navi Caesaremque et Antonium cena exciperet, dixit in carinis suis se cenam dare, referens hoc dictum ad loci nomen, in quo paterna domus ab Antonio possidebatur. In hoc pacis foedere placuit Siciliam Achaiamque Pompeio concedere, in quo tamen animus inquies manere non potuit. Id unum tantummodo salutare adventu suo patriae attulit, quod omnibus proscriptis aliisque, qui ad eum ex diversis causis fugerant, reditum salutemque pactus est: quae res et alios clarissimos viros et Neronem Claudium et M.Silanum Sentiumque Saturninum et Arruntium ac Titium restituit rei publicae. Statium autem Murcum, qui adventu suo classisque celeberrimae vires eius duplicaverat, insimulatum falsis criminationibus, quia talem virum collegam officii Mena et Menecrates fastidierant, Pompeius in Sicilia interfecerat.
[77] (1) Then in response to a unanimous demand on the part of the people, who were now pinched by the high price of grain because the sea was infested by pirates, a peace was arranged with Pompey also, in the neighbourhood of Misenum. Pompey entertained Caesar and Antony at dinner on board his ship, on which occasion he remarked, not without point, that he was giving the dinner on “his own keels,” thereby recalling the name of the quarter in which stood his father’s house, now in the possession of Antony. (2) By the terms of this treaty it was agreed that Sicily and Achaea should be conceded to Pompey, but his restless soul would not let him abide by the agreement. There was only one benefit which he rendered to his country by attending the conference, namely, the stipulation that all those who had been proscribed, or who for any other reason had taken refuge with him, should be granted a safe return. Among other illustrious men, Nero Claudius, Marcus Silanus, Sentius Saturninus, Arruntius and Titius were thereby restored to the state. As to Statius Murcus, however, who had doubled Pompey’s forces by joining him with his strong fleet, Pompey had already put him to death in Sicily as the result of false accusations which had been brought against him, Menas and Menecrates having expressed a dislike for such a man as their colleague.
LXXVIII
Hoc tractu temporum Octaviam, sororem Caesaris, M. Antonius duxit uxorem. Redierat Pompeius in Siciliam, Antonius in transmarinas provincias, quas magnis momentis Labienus, ex Brutianis castris profectus ad Parthos, perducto eorum exercitu in Syriam interfectoque legato Antonii concusserat; qui virtute et ductu Ventidii una cum Parthorum copiis celeberrimoque iuvenum Pacoro, regis filio, extinctus est. Caesar per haec tempora, ne res disciplinae inimicissima, otium, corrumperet militem, crebris in Illyrico Delmatiaque expeditionibus patientia periculorum bellique experientia durabat exercitum. Eadem tempestate Calvinus Domitius, cum ex consulatu obtineret Hispaniam, gravissimi comparandiaue antiquis exempli auctor fuit: quippe primi pili centurionem nomine Vibillium ob turpem ex acie fugam fusti percussit.
[78] (1) It was during this period that Marcus Antonius espoused Octavia, the sister of Caesar. Pompey had now returned to Sicily, and Antony to the provinces across the sea, which Labienus had thrown into a panic in consequence of the great movements he had set on foot; for he had gone from the camp of Brutus to the Parthians, had led a Parthian army into Syria, and had slain a lieutenant of Antony. Thanks to the courageous generalship of Ventidius, Labienus perished in the battle and with him the forces of the Parthians, including the most distinguished of their young men, Pacorus, son of the Parthian king.
(2) During this time Caesar, wishing to keep his soldiers from being spoiled by idleness, the great enemy of discipline, was making frequent expeditions in Illyricum and Dalmatia and thus hardening his army by endurance of danger and experience in warfare. (3) At this time also Calvinus Domitius, who, after filling the consulship, was now governor of Spain, executed a rigorous act of discipline comparable with the severity of the older days, in that he caused a chief centurion by the name of Vibillius to be beaten to death for cowardly flight from the line of battle.
LXXIX
Crescente in dies et classe et fama Pompei Caesar molem belli eius suscipere statuit. Aedificandis navibus contrahendoque militi ac remigi navalibusque adsuescendo certaminibus atque exercitationibus praefectus est M.Agrippa, virtutis nobilissimae, labore, vigilia, periculo invictus parendique, sed uni, scientissimus, aliis sane imperandi cupidus et per omnia extra dilationes positus consultisque facta coniungens. Hic in Averno ac Lucrino lacu speciosissima classe fabricata cotidianis exercitationibus militem remigemque ad summam et militaris et maritimae rei perduxit scientiam. Hac classi Caesar, cum prius despondente ei Nerone, cui ante nupta fuerat Liviam, auspicatis rei publicae ominibus duxisset eam uxorem, Pompeio Siciliaeque bellum intulit. Sed virum humana ope invictum graviter eo tempore fortuna concussit: quippe longe maiorem partem classis circa Veliam Palinurique promontorium adorta vis Africi laceravit ac distulit. Ea patrando bello mora fuit, quod postea dubia et interdum ancipiti fortuna gestum est. Nam et classis eodem loco vexata est tempestate, et ut navali primo proelio apud Mylas ductu Agrippae pugnatum prospere, ita inopinato Pompeianae classis adventu gravis sub ipsius Caesaris oculis circa Tauromenium accepta clades; neque ab ipso periculum abfuit. Legiones, quae cum Cornificio erant, legato Caesaris, expositae in terram paene a Pompeio oppressae sunt. Sed ancipitis fortuna temporis mature virtute correcta: explicatis quippe utriusque partis classibus paene omnibus exutus navibus Pompeius Asiam fuga petivit iussuque M. Antonii, cuius opem petierat, dum inter ducem et supplicem tumultuatur et nunc dignitatem retinet, nunc vitam precatur, a Titio iugulatus est. Cui in tantum duravit hoc facinore contractum odium, ut mox ludos in theatro Pompei faciens execratione populi spectaculo, quod praebebat, pelleretur.
[79] (1) As Pompey’s fleet was growing daily, and his reputation as well, Caesar resolved to take up the burden of this new war. Marcus Agrippa was charged with constructing the ships, collecting soldiers and rowers, and familiarizing them with naval contests and manoeuvres. He was a man of distinguished character, unconquerable by toil, loss of sleep or danger, well disciplined in obedience, but to one man alone, yet eager to command others; in whatever he did he knew no such thing as delay, but with him action went hand in hand with conception. (2) Building an imposing fleet in lakes Avernus and Lucrinus, by daily drills he brought the soldiers and the oarsmen to a thorough knowledge of fighting on land and at sea. With this fleet Caesar made war on Pompey in Sicily, after he had espoused Livia, who was given to him in marriage by her former husband under circumstances which augured well for the state. (3) But this man, unconquerable by human power, received at this time a heavy blow at the hands of fortune, since the greater part of his fleet was wrecked and scattered in the vicinity of Velia and Cape Palinurus by a violent scirocco. This delayed finishing the war, which, however, was subsequently carried on with shifting and sometimes doubtful fortune. (4) For Caesar’s fleet was again buffeted by a storm in the same locality, and although the issue was favourable in the first naval battle, at Mylae, under the leadership of Agrippa, a serious defeat was received near Tauromenium beneath the very eyes of Caesar, in consequence of the unexpected arrival of Pompey’s fleet, and Caesar’s own person was endangered. The legions which were with Cornificius, Caesar’s lieutenant, came near being crushed by Pompey as soon as they landed. (5) But fortune’s caprice at this critical period was soon amended by bravery in action; when the fleets on both sides had be
en drawn up for battle, Pompey lost almost all his ships, and fled to Asia, where, wavering between the rôle of general and suppliant, now endeavouring to retain his dignity and now pleading for his life, he was slain by Titius on the orders of Marcus Antonius, whose aid he had sought. (6) The hatred which Titius brought upon himself by this act lasted for a long time; indeed, afterwards, when he was celebrating games in Pompey’s theatre, he was driven amid the execrations of the people from the spectacle which he himself was giving.
LXXX
Acciverat gerens contra Pompeium bellum ex Africa Caesar Lepidum cum duodecim semiplenis legionibus. Hic vir omnium vanissimus neque ulla virtute tam longam fortunae indugentiarn meritus exercitum Pompei, quia propior fuerat, sequentem non ipsius, sed Caesaris auctoritatem ac fidem, sibi iunxerat inflatusque amplius viginti legionum numero in id furoris processerat, ut inutilis alienae victoriae comes, quam diu moratus erat, dissidendo in consiliis Caesari et semper diversa üs, quae aliis placebant, dicendo, totam victoriam ut suam interpretabatur audebatque denuntiare Caesari, excederet Sicilia. Non ab Scipionibus aliisque veteribus Romanorum ducum quidquam ausum patratumque fortius quam tunc a Caesare. Quippe cum inermis et lacernatus esset, praeter nomen nihil trahens, ingressus castra Lepidi, evitatis telis, quae iussu hominis pravissimi in eum iacta erant, cum lacerna eius perforata esset lancea, aquilam legionis rapere ausus est. Scires, quid interesset inter duces: armati inermem secuti sunt decimoque anno quam ad indignissimam vita sua potentiarn pervenerat, Lepidus et a militibus et a fortuna desertus pulloque velatus amiculo inter ultimam confluentium ad Caesarem turbam latens genibus eius advolutus est. Vita rerumque suarum dominium concessa ei sunt, spoliata, quam tueri non poterat, dignitas.
Complete Works of Velleius Paterculus Page 55